Vista Medical/ Proview30/50/60 controller box

[noos]

Hello,

I own a Vista Medical HMD like attached to this post. It came with no controller box and unknown function. I know that the Vista sytems had two video (composite) cameras, and a big controller box that fed a signal (VGA/RGBHV converted?) to the HMD. My Vista HMD has a round connector at the end of it´s cable. It is the size of an ten cent coin with a lot of pins inside.


I would like to know what conector the original Proview boxes have? Pictures would also be great!

Or if anyone ever managed to use these HMDs - probably with a pinout of the cable to build an adapter to power them and feed them VGA/RGBHV.

Where to get a Proview controller box? I know they sometimes show up on Ebay with broken HMDs....hopefully soon.

If there no way to make them work, I should have good spares to make an defective Proview come alive - or at least I have good optics for a diy HMD project.

Best regards

noos

[PalmerTech]

Great to see another ProView owner! Looks like you have a Proview 30?

There are actually two control boxes for the Vista units. One is a camera control box, and the other is the HMD control box. Unfortunately, I only have the camera control box. Something to note, though: The control box for these Vista units is NOT the same as the one used for the other ProView units that have been popping up on eBay recently. Those ones are much nicer than the lowly ones that Vista used for their StereoSite program.

As for inputting directly to the HMD, no dice. It is a proprietary signal, more complex than just VGA. Myself and another member have both tried to get them working with no success.

[noos]

Thanks a lot for the details!

Well, a big problem is the correct energy to supply the HMD, but what analog signals are there beside composite/video, s-video, RGBS (with composite sync, alias scart RGB), RGsB, RGBS, RGBHV and Component with sperate sync or sync on green (SOG) - I can convert anything to anything in every resolution. But I have no experiance with feeding a LCD directly.

Best regards

Marc

[noos]

....how can I check what Proview I have? I expected it to ba a 50, because of the more oval side frame, the Proview30 PDF shows a more straight line/frame at the side, while the 50 shows the oval line. But these pictures are used very mixed, so I not sure this has anything to say.

[PalmerTech]

As far as I know, all of the Vista HMDs were the Proview 30.

Here is the site of the other member who tried this: http://www.wastedspace.co.uk/cms/2011/0 ... t-part-11/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I somewhat disagree with his assumption that there must be VGA input, I think the signal from the control box to the HMD is a proprietary digital signal. Hard to know, though.

[noos]

Well, I only think that it must be some kind of standard behing the signal, as they use industrial components. But probably they designed and or manufactured parts themself, but it would be very $$$ to do so. But we know HMD production has it´s own rules.
If it is digital, could it be SDI?

[PalmerTech]

If I had to guess, I would say that it is LVDS.

[noos]

Fascinating read about the LVDS!
I was given a hint here in Germany, for the case that it is an analog signal. The syncronsation might be sperate or on green or in Miami, but it is the polarity and the level that might do the magic. There are numereous Barco projectors from the same period as the Proview that will not make a picture, without a negative horizontal and (!) vertical sync. So when you check the cables for an RGBHV configuration, and you do not adapt the sync by an external device or with powerstrip in Windows, you will get a black screen or a fast jumping picture. And then there is also the level of the signal...
I will work on the HMD when my time allows it and post whatever I find. Could you Palmertech please PM the member who wrote the report on wastedspace. Probably he has a comment too, because even negative ones help to focus.....

Best regards and thanks for your input