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| Looking for information on this Macintosh Portable PDS card | |
| Posted by: 64k16bitmac on 2023-03-16 04:21:42 I think it’s a network card but not sure. Any info would be super helpful | |
| Posted by: cheesestraws on 2023-03-16 04:42:32 Looks like a display adapter of some kind. Memory Plus / Generation X are the names on a display card I have. | |
| Posted by: joshc on 2023-03-16 04:44:00 That's the "Portable Publisher", a video card allowing you to connect the Portable to an external display. Seems to have been made/distributed by Generation X Technologies. So there should be a cable that connects to the header on your board so that monitors can be plugged in, presumably with a DB15 port. The giveaway that it's a video card is the RAM on there, and the three different oscillators. Here's an ad for it from MacUser June 1990:  | |
| Posted by: Apfelklassik.de on 2023-03-16 05:01:48 Nice! | |
| Posted by: 64k16bitmac on 2023-03-16 05:03:16 That was quick thanks for the Info. It does have a DB15 connector on the back of the case. | |
| Posted by: joshc on 2023-03-16 05:03:38 Does your Portable work? Time to hook it up to a display and see what you get. 😀 | |
| Posted by: 64k16bitmac on 2023-03-16 05:05:45 Might need to make a VGA adapter and give it a try. Does it require drivers ? | |
| Posted by: 64k16bitmac on 2023-03-16 05:08:52 My portable is not happy at the moment I’ll need to fix it before testing | |
| Posted by: Paralel on 2023-03-16 10:01:35 Huh, never heard of one of these before. | |
| Posted by: SuperSVGA on 2023-03-17 21:28:46 Hope your hard drive works or there's a driver available, IIRC those cards required a control panel to load code to the FPGA. | |
| Posted by: stepleton on 2023-03-18 00:06:17 I have a competitor device in a Portable, called the "VideoMacPac". @apm cloned it several years ago. It definitely initialised the CPLD in the way @SuperSVGA describes: you need the control panel to download a binary blob into the device. This card looks very similar, although there's a chance that its chip could have been permanently programmed. Removing the sticker would tell us if it's a device that has that kind of capability. My bet is: probably not. | |
| Posted by: aplmak on 2023-03-22 21:29:50 I've got one of those too and I was going to say yes it's for an external monitor. I've never tried mine. I am not sure if I even have a driver for it. I might.. I will have to look. It's actually in a box that seems to contain the whole kit. I'm crossing my fingers there is a floppy in there. If someone does need it let me know and I'll take a peek and upload it if I have it. | |
| Posted by: 64k16bitmac on 2023-03-22 22:01:42 That would be great. Waiting on a VGA adapter to give it a try. couldn’t find any drivers on my drive | |
| Posted by: micheledipaola on 2023-06-03 01:10:15 I am reviving my Portable these days, and I am super intrigued by this thread. I guess these cards are kinda rare, aren't they? Also, what about the video-out plug on the back of the Portable? did anyone ever figure out how to use it? It seems quite strange to me that someone would build external-video cards and nobody ever found a way to take advantage of that onboard video out? | |
Posted by: SuperSVGA on 2023-06-03 01:12:05I am reviving my Portable these days, and I am super intrigued by this thread. I guess these cards are kinda rare, aren't they? Also, what about the video-out plug on the back of the Portable? did anyone ever figure out how to use it? It seems quite strange to me that someone would build external-video cards and nobody ever found a way to take advantage of that onboard video out?The protocol is already known, but I don't know if anyone has ever gotten around to doing anything with it. It's nothing complex, someone just needs to throw something together for it. | |
| Posted by: aplmak on 2023-08-15 17:35:09 Hey ok so I found my display kit. It looks exactly the same but mine says Envision on the floppy disk. It is the driver that goes with my card. Looks exactly the same. I can get you the image file 😊 | |
Posted by: joshc on 2023-08-16 03:14:14Hey ok so I found my display kit. It looks exactly the same but mine says Envision on the floppy disk. It is the driver that goes with my card. Looks exactly the same. I can get you the image file 😊Nice. Can you upload it to the Mac Garden too? | |
Posted by: aplmak on 2023-08-16 04:29:52Nice. Can you upload it to the Mac Garden too?You got it as soon as possible and I’ll let you know with the link 😊 | |
| Posted by: aplmak on 2023-08-16 17:24:59 Ok after a lot of work transferring the file around and having issues uploading it today on my work computer (PC) I have finally posted it on Macintosh Garden. Sorry I had to .rar the .image file made with Disk Copy 4.2... They wouldn't allow me to upload a .image file. Let me know if you have any issues, also let me know if it works ok 🙂 🙂 | |
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