Cause found & solution for Pink / Magenta / Purple tinted video on MiSTer I/O Board analog VGA output
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:42 am
There were some previous threads about this topic and the symptoms described below on the older Atari forums, but they had been locked, so I am posting this solution here in a new thread.
I had purchased a MiSTer I/O board (v5.2) from a fellow forum member many months ago. The person selling it had assembled it themselves, but the board was incomplete, and missing many of the surface mount resistors and capacitors, as well as the DE-15 ("VGA") connector for the analog video output. After using it for many months mainly for the cooling fan and convenient buttons on top, I decided to order the missing parts and solder them in place to finish the board myself, so I could use the analog video output.
After soldering everything in place, I connected the I/O board back on the MiSTer, and connected a VGA-compatible monitor to the analog video connector. The video signal appeared on the analog monitor! Unfortunately, while sharp and stable and otherwise correct, it had a pinkish or purplish tint to it. The video displayed correctly and with normal colours on the HDMI connector, so the issue seemed to be isolated to the video output on the I/O board.
This pink or purple color stayed no matter what I tried. It was the same on every monitor I tried, every video cable, and with every setting I tried in the MiSTer's .INI file. I also tried re-flowing solder on the VGA connector, and on many of the surface mount components on the I/O board, in case there was a bad connection.
I found multiple reports of people experiencing the exact same symptom with their MiSTer I/O boards when I searched online, but there never seemed to be a very clear resolution as to how they made the pink tint go away, or if they ever fixed the problem they had. Most people seemed to have just replaced their MiSTer I/O board with a new one in order to make the issue go away. I figured I had nothing to lose by trying additional things and seeing if it made it better or worse.
Since the image being outputted on the video connector was recognized correctly by the monitor, and other colours were present in the image, my guess was that the pinkish tint on everything on the display was being caused by either too much of something signal-wise being sent to the monitor, or else too little of something.
When searching online for articles about what would make a VGA video image appear pink or red, I found a mention somewhere saying that a LACK OF THE GREEN VIDEO SIGNAL would make a VGA image on a monitor appear very pink or purple.
I started looking at the schematic for the MiSTer I/O board, and saw that the green video signal goes through the resistor array, and then heads down to a slider switch, where the user can switch between standard video, or sync-on-green video. If the switch is not installed on the I/O board, no green signal is passed along to the video output. The switch handles passing the green video in each of those two video styles, but it must be present or else no green signal of any kind gets sent through.
Sure enough, I looked at my MiSTer I/O board, and the switch was never installed. I never thought to order one when it didn't come already present on the board - I just figured it was optional, since I wouldn't be using sync-on-green. IT IS NOT OPTIONAL - YOU NEED SOMETHING IN PLACE HERE to make an signal connection. I quickly soldered in a jumper made from a wire between the two holes on the board enabling the standard-style video's path for the green signal. On my VGA monitor, the pink or purple tint was gone, and the analog video output now looks perfect!
I will be ordering a proper switch soon so that I can finish the board, but for now, this has solved the problem on my I/O board.
If you are experiencing a pink or purple tint on your I/O board's analog ("VGA") video output, I would encourage you to look at the schematics for your I/O board, follow the green signal's path while looking at your actual I/O board, and confirm that the sync-on-green DPDT slider switch (listed as SW4 on MiSTer I/O board v5.2) is installed and is working properly.
Hopefully this helps someone else who runs into the pink or magenta tint on their analog video and can't figure out where to start!
I had purchased a MiSTer I/O board (v5.2) from a fellow forum member many months ago. The person selling it had assembled it themselves, but the board was incomplete, and missing many of the surface mount resistors and capacitors, as well as the DE-15 ("VGA") connector for the analog video output. After using it for many months mainly for the cooling fan and convenient buttons on top, I decided to order the missing parts and solder them in place to finish the board myself, so I could use the analog video output.
After soldering everything in place, I connected the I/O board back on the MiSTer, and connected a VGA-compatible monitor to the analog video connector. The video signal appeared on the analog monitor! Unfortunately, while sharp and stable and otherwise correct, it had a pinkish or purplish tint to it. The video displayed correctly and with normal colours on the HDMI connector, so the issue seemed to be isolated to the video output on the I/O board.
This pink or purple color stayed no matter what I tried. It was the same on every monitor I tried, every video cable, and with every setting I tried in the MiSTer's .INI file. I also tried re-flowing solder on the VGA connector, and on many of the surface mount components on the I/O board, in case there was a bad connection.
I found multiple reports of people experiencing the exact same symptom with their MiSTer I/O boards when I searched online, but there never seemed to be a very clear resolution as to how they made the pink tint go away, or if they ever fixed the problem they had. Most people seemed to have just replaced their MiSTer I/O board with a new one in order to make the issue go away. I figured I had nothing to lose by trying additional things and seeing if it made it better or worse.
Since the image being outputted on the video connector was recognized correctly by the monitor, and other colours were present in the image, my guess was that the pinkish tint on everything on the display was being caused by either too much of something signal-wise being sent to the monitor, or else too little of something.
When searching online for articles about what would make a VGA video image appear pink or red, I found a mention somewhere saying that a LACK OF THE GREEN VIDEO SIGNAL would make a VGA image on a monitor appear very pink or purple.
I started looking at the schematic for the MiSTer I/O board, and saw that the green video signal goes through the resistor array, and then heads down to a slider switch, where the user can switch between standard video, or sync-on-green video. If the switch is not installed on the I/O board, no green signal is passed along to the video output. The switch handles passing the green video in each of those two video styles, but it must be present or else no green signal of any kind gets sent through.
Sure enough, I looked at my MiSTer I/O board, and the switch was never installed. I never thought to order one when it didn't come already present on the board - I just figured it was optional, since I wouldn't be using sync-on-green. IT IS NOT OPTIONAL - YOU NEED SOMETHING IN PLACE HERE to make an signal connection. I quickly soldered in a jumper made from a wire between the two holes on the board enabling the standard-style video's path for the green signal. On my VGA monitor, the pink or purple tint was gone, and the analog video output now looks perfect!
I will be ordering a proper switch soon so that I can finish the board, but for now, this has solved the problem on my I/O board.
If you are experiencing a pink or purple tint on your I/O board's analog ("VGA") video output, I would encourage you to look at the schematics for your I/O board, follow the green signal's path while looking at your actual I/O board, and confirm that the sync-on-green DPDT slider switch (listed as SW4 on MiSTer I/O board v5.2) is installed and is working properly.
Hopefully this helps someone else who runs into the pink or magenta tint on their analog video and can't figure out where to start!