PC-01 Lviv

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PostPosted: 17 Apr 2016, 17:24 
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Joined: 17 Apr 2016, 04:20
Posts: 13
Hello!

I'm a retrogamer from France, I'm 27, and been enjoying old machines for... years, more than 15 I think.

I recently acquired a Lvov PK-01, even if I never heard of it before. I'm looking for Eastern/Soviet made computers and machines, and I stumbled on it.
One of the few pages in English is on this very site, and the seller of the computer pointed me to this forum as well, so, here I am :D

The seller didn't managed to get it working, he just had a black flashing screen and the booting beeps. I took a bet, and when I received the conmputer, I found that the video had been modified. Now, I haven't yet identified the pinout, but it should be easy enough.

Image

Image

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All documents I found, in English or translated (I can't even read cyrillic :oops: ) mention a 5 pins video out, this one has 7 pins, and is rather worn out.

Image

And this is the addition that made me able to check the computer, as I managed to catch a poor crummy image on a black and white TV.
Given that the board I saw added in the computer had no chip to encode colors, I assume the RF out is in black and white only anyway.
And I don't simply mean that RF is bad, we all know it, but that the homemade board inside does a really poor job and send a very faint signal.
Anyway!
I'm glad to be there and to be able to chat about this computer. I might play some of those games you have online. They all look very fun and have this "old 8 bits" feel I like.


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 10:59 
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Joined: 27 Feb 2013, 19:57
Posts: 125
Location: Львівщина
Hi!

Welcome to the forum!
Glad You've made it, couse you're probably the first one ever from the outer space here :) Congratulations!

We've got a subject which covers problems similar to your's. Normally this computer shows everything in inverted colors, properly connected, which means you'd have to supply it with additional inverter board, homemade or something what is called RGB to PAL connector board. Hoverer, we did not tested any of them yet, as most of us here are crazy ukrainians or russians, which means we always tend to use rebars instead of showels, which makes it all fun and easy. Kind of.

Please give us a little time and we'll try to translate them proper pages for you, pin numbers and all. It definitely needs a basic archeology skills of me at the moment :)


Last edited by orest on 18 Apr 2016, 15:38, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 12:17 
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Joined: 24 Jul 2008, 12:05
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Quote:
Hello!
Hi, Lesarthois!

Glad to see you! I believe you'll have a lot of fun with "Lviv".

So, first of all, online emulator is not the best emulator for PC-01. I'd like to recommend you this one:
http://bashkiria-2m.narod.ru/files/emu.rar

Related to your real hardware. As, Orest has already mentioned. "Lviv" sends inverted RGB signal. The connector is called DIN7, and the simplest way is to use SCART from your TV.
The "direct" connection will show you inverted colors, but it quite simple and can be used for testing. Please, note, not all SCART supports RGB
So, PC-01 "Lviv" has next data on pins:
Image
2 - Sync
3 - Blue (inverted)
4 - Green (inverted)
5 - Red (inverted)
6- Ground

So, you need to connect, like this:
DIN -> SCART
2 -> 20
3 -> 7
4 -> 11
5 -> 15
6 -> 4 (optional also to 5, 9, 13)

There are also available several "upgrades". The first one to send signal to 8 and 16 pins on SCART to switch TV automatically. The second one is get sound from PC-01 to SCART.
And the most interesting upgrade is invert colors to their real values.

By the way. Does computer make sound from beeper when you press keys?


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 13:03 
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Joined: 27 Feb 2013, 19:57
Posts: 125
Location: Львівщина
Quote:
The "direct" connection will show you inverted colors, but it quite simple and can be used for testing. Please, note, not all SCART supports RGB
So, PC-01 "Lviv" has next data on pins:
Image
2 - Sync
3 - Blue (inverted)
4 - Green (inverted)
5 - Red (inverted)
6- Ground
By the way. Does computer make sound from beeper when you press keys?
Thanks, Zelya, that's exactly what i meant.
NOTICE: due to archive records i found, your picture describes a male view of DIN-7 connector. Which is a cable side, not a PC side. Which makes no difference, but anyway..


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 20:28 
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Joined: 17 Apr 2016, 04:20
Posts: 13
Thanks for your replies :)
I know enough how SCART works and know some basic soldering stuff so that should help.
I connected the computer to a TV via SCART and got a rather decent picture, although in black and white ;is that what you mean by reversed colours? The RGB was clearly working, as removing one cable corresponding to he color modified the display.
Anyway It's a crude trial with the bare wire shoved in the DIN so it doesn't prove much, aside from that it does works.

It helps greatly to have the proper wiring and knowing that the RGB out in non SCART standard.

And the computer make sound when I press most keys; why do you ask? is that specific to some models?


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 21:55 
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Joined: 27 Feb 2013, 19:57
Posts: 125
Location: Львівщина
Quote:
Thanks for your replies :)
I connected the computer to a TV via SCART and got a rather decent picture, although in black and white ;is that what you mean by reversed colours? The RGB was clearly working, as removing one cable corresponding to he color modified the display.
well, not exactly. "Inverted colors" means you'd have yellow, purple and blue colors instead of red, green, blue. B/w picture means one of two options. Whether you have no proper RGB connections in your SCART or you'd have to use pin 16 to switch on so called "RGB window" in your TV. Without that you might get b/w picture, even if your RGB are good and properly connected.


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 22:00 
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Joined: 24 Jul 2008, 12:05
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Quote:
And the computer make sound when I press most keys; why do you ask? is that specific to some models?
This is just quick test if computer works, even before you have connected PC to TV.


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 22:53 
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Joined: 17 Apr 2016, 04:20
Posts: 13
Thanks for the answers.
Black and white is good enough until I get my DIN plugs to solder. the RGB switch need a voltage source, I suppose it's possible to add one if it doesn't exist yet on the plug, since apparently pins 1 and 7 are unused.

Image

Most of my RGB TV doesn't allow to select RGB manually - in the pin 16 isn't fed 3Volts, it will stay on composite, and it's probably what's going on here.


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 23:11 
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Joined: 27 Feb 2013, 19:57
Posts: 125
Location: Львівщина
Quote:
Thanks for the answers.
Black and white is good enough until I get my DIN plugs to solder. the RGB switch need a voltage source, I suppose it's possible to add one if it doesn't exist yet on the plug, since apparently pins 1 and 7 are unused.

Most of my RGB TV doesn't allow to select RGB manually - in the pin 16 isn't fed 3Volts, it will stay on composite, and it's probably what's going on here.
yep, that's probably it. You can also use 5V source connected to pin 16 through 100-150 Ohm resistor, or 12V through 300-400 Ohms, something like that.


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PostPosted: 18 Apr 2016, 23:44 
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Joined: 17 Apr 2016, 04:20
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Yes. The previous owner pulled a 5V line for his RF mod. Since I don't wanna use that, I'll re-use that wire that is conveniently there :D


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PostPosted: 19 Apr 2016, 00:02 
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Joined: 27 Feb 2013, 19:57
Posts: 125
Location: Львівщина
Quote:
Yes. The previous owner pulled a 5V line for his RF mod. Since I don't wanna use that, I'll re-use that wire that is conveniently there :D
great, that makes it even easier than.
The next practical step will be connecting it to tape recorder.
Please be so kind to keep us here informed. Every story counts, as we're quite small community. There's probably only couple of dozens of us, active "Lviv-01" users in the world, you know :) Or even less. That's my private opinion, of course.


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PostPosted: 19 Apr 2016, 12:12 
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Quote:
Thanks for the answers.
Black and white is good enough until I get my DIN plugs to solder. the RGB switch need a voltage source, I suppose it's possible to add one if it doesn't exist yet on the plug, since apparently pins 1 and 7 are unused.

Image

Most of my RGB TV doesn't allow to select RGB manually - in the pin 16 isn't fed 3Volts, it will stay on composite, and it's probably what's going on here.
Hurray!!! "ПК-01 Львів" now in France!

Image


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PostPosted: 20 Apr 2016, 02:05 
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Joined: 17 Apr 2016, 04:20
Posts: 13
Excellent :D

I need to wait a bit as I'm all out of DIN plugs to solder.
But in the meantime I can look for the RGB problem.

I looked around and inverting video isn't a very common need, so there doesn't seems to be a lot of explanations for it. However, I found this :
Image
This circuit is designed for providing a way to switch between normal and negative video.
So, as the LT 1675 part of this schematics is a RGB mixer, I assume that the part with the three LT 1399 chips is the only part needed to reverse RGB video. Am I right? My knowledge in electronics are just enough that I think it's the case, but... I'm not 100% sure.

I'll look around for advices from friends that knows a bit more and come back.
http://www.linear.com/product/LT1399
If that's the case, then it migt be an easy mod; those chips works on 5V and draw 5mA. the 5V part is okay, what about drawing 15mA from the Lvov power supply?

On a side note, I had better luck with a Орель БК-08

Image
Well, there is a loading error, but that is probably because I streamed the audio data from my smartphone and I think that the file download crashed at the end, so that it lacked some seconds of the file to complete.
This or it's an incompatibility issue :D

Anyway, I'll check for that RGB inverter thing and I'll come back when I have more news.


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PostPosted: 20 Apr 2016, 11:33 
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Orest has published possible inverter solution here:
http://lvovpc.ho.ua/forum/viewtopic.php ... cab3#p4666

Pay attention to schema inside red border.
Also, as I know Orest is going to publish inverter schema in better quality soon. Orest are you?

Quote:
Anyway, I'll check for that RGB inverter thing and I'll come back when I have more news.
Looking forward!


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PostPosted: 20 Apr 2016, 11:39 
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Joined: 27 Feb 2013, 19:57
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Location: Львівщина
Quote:
Orest has published possible inverter solution here:
Orest are you?
Looking forward!
yea, sure. As soon as i could find it :)


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