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Finally got my ultimate retro KVM setup working!

Sunday 17 March 2024

It took almost a year of tinkering, buying parts, testing,
configuring, fixing, cursing, and shouting with excitement, but I now
have a KVM setup that finally works, across two decades of computer
history from a Commodore VC-20 to a Dell Dimension Pentium III!

We start with this assortment of parts to take signals and convert
them to VGA for my KVM, inspected for quality by one of Clara's
Prince Cats. Some of these ended up being replaced or not used.

Photo showing the parts listed below.

Clokwise from left to right we have:

 1. The RetroTINK-2X-Pro, with a Belkin HDMI to VGA adaptor. This box
    of wonders converts and upscales the S-Video from my 8-bit
    Commodore machines with zero configuration and fuss. The Belkin
    converts this to a crisp VGA signal for the KVM.

 2. A DB13W3 connector. This converts the Sun TurboXGX frame buffer
    card on my Sun SPARCStation 5 to VGA.

 3. The GGLabs CGAtoRGBv2. This converts the EGA signal from my Am386
    tower to 15 KHz VGA, which surprisingly my VGA LCD accepts. It
    might also work with my Commodore 128's 80-column mode
    eventually, if I get its VDC working.

 4. A cheap S-Video and Composite to VGA converter (retired). I used
    this with the Apple //e before I got the [?]2 Analog VGA card. It
    was fine.

 5. Luis Antoniosi's MCEtoVGA converter (retired). Worked fine for
    EGA, but the GGLabs card has no artefacting or fuzziness.

 6. The [?]2 Analog (not pictured). This card generates a VGA signal
    from any slot on an Apple ][, including my //e Platinum. 80
    column colour is not only feasible on this machine now, but it
    looks stunning!

The next piece was my handsome beige KVM, which I got on eBay for a
steal because it had no cables; something I later came to regret! But
I finally have cables now.

Photo showing the Master View KVM switch above the NEC APEX 486.

With these connectors, we now have the KVM ports set up like this:

 1. Am386 EGA - CGAtoRGBv2 - VGA
 2. NEC APEX 486 DX2 - VGA
 3. DIY childhood P1 - VGA
 4. Dell Dimension 4100 P3 - VGA
 5. Sun SPARCStation 5 - DV13W3 adaptor - VGA
 6. 8-bit Commodores - RetroTINK - HDMI - VGA
 7. Apple //e Platinum - [?]2 Analog - VGA
 8. Reserved for another upstream KVM? Gulp

And it works! I can press the button on the KVM, or invoke a key
command, and jump between DOS 3.3 on my Apple //e, to NetBSD on the
SPARCStation, then across to GEM on the 386, then check where my BNSF
GP38-2 is up to in Train Simulator on my Dell.

It's a hornet nest of cables, and I can't tell you how happy I am
now! Well, I guess I just did! Now it's time to update Sasara.moe
with all this stuff.

The Apple //e later in the evening booting into DOS 3.3 via the V2
Analog card and the KVM.

FAQs

  * Why did you do a lossy conversion from HDMI to VGA? Beacuse the
    RetroTINK outputs HDMI, and my KVM uses VGA.

  * Why use a VGA KVM, not DVI or HDMI? Because VGA is the highest
    common denominator across all these machines, and my beige NEC
    LCD uses VGA.

  * Surely your Dell has DVI? Yes, but see above.

  * Which 8-bit Commodore machines do you use with this setup? Right
    now it's a VC-20 [sic], 64C, C128 (40-column mode only, the
    80-column VDC circutry is currently borked), C16, and a Plus/4.
    Clara's and my shared retro server Sasara.moe has the full list.
    The 64C is my daily driver, with the others in a glass cabinet to
    the side where I can easily access them and swap them out (unlike
    the massive Apple //e)!

  * I can never get these converters! How did you? It can be tricky,
    they come in and out of stock constantly. The best thing to do is
    to subscribe to Tindie sellers so you get an update as soon as
    they're available, and keep some money budgeted to the side so
    you can pounce.

  * You should use $FOO or do $BAR instead. Where were you yesterday?

  * What did you use for the keyboard and mouse? I used AT to PS/2
    for the keyboards, and serial to PS/2 for the mouses where
    necessary. This did rule out having a more modern optical mouse
    unfortunately, but I have nostalgia for that Microsoft Dove soap
    bar mouse anyway.

  * Have you tried the RGBtoHDMI? I've heard great things, but this
    setup works for me.

  * Can you help me troubleshoot my own complicated video setup? In
    the words of a ship's rigger, I'm a frayed knot. This was all
    trial and error, mostly error, and I'm not in a hurry to repeat
    the experience.

  * What VGA cables did you use? I ended up finding some second-hand
    Belkin KVM cables, and a high-quality shielded cable to go to the
    monitor.

  * What about your other machines? I have some other late 1990s PCs,
    but their function mostly overlaps with the Dell that has the
    best specs. At some point I'll wire them into this spaghetti, but
    right now they're museum pieces until I get more space.

  * Was it worth it? If you're in a tiny apartment like me, its the
    difference between having retrocomputing as an accessible hobby,
    and not. If I had a decent-sized place with a hobby room, I'd
    much rather have dedicated setups for each machine, or at least
    each generation of machine.

  * Do any of Clara's Prince Cats help with configuring the machines
    too? As a matter of fact, yes.

More of Clara's Prince Cats inspecting the VC-20.

  * Published: 2024-03-17 18:23:24 +1100 AEDT
  * Tagged: hardware, am386, apple-ii, commodore, nec-apex,
    pentium-mmx, retrocomputing
  * Written in: Sydney

Me!

This was posted by Ruben Schade, a technical writer and IaaS engineer
in Sydney, Australia. Hi! You can shout me a coffee or send a comment
here.

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