Hello, and what should I/Can I do with this Video Wall?

Hi all,

I think I'm in the correct place. This forum seems to be the only one that discussing this types of equipment with any regularity so I thought I'd ask here. I picked up a massive "video wall" made up of 9 big pioneer (model rm-v2400na) crt three gun cubes. Largely because the system was almost free and I thought they were interesting. I know very little about the system, but am interesting in finding out what the best usage for it is. e.g.... as designed, modified in some useful way, scrapped and any nice parts sold, or as boat anchors.



Good condition overall, plugged in with no input signal and everything seemed normal as far as nothing looking fried or dead.
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Distribution box looks like this... brand is Lanetco... Mirage


Inputs look like this...


Big set of fresnel lenses came with it and it looks like it goes in front of the cubes. I'd love to hear any thoughts on this system and what you would do with it if you had it. If its junk, I have some creative ideas form some of the components... but I'd hate to ruin something with any potential.

Thanks!

Adam

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to take a crack at getting it put together. First, I need to figure out how to get a signal a single projector to see what I'm dealing with. I've run into a problem in that I'm having to learn about older input connectors. It looks like I can either try to use the 9 pin vga input or the bnc side.

I have been reading up on the 9 pin and while you can obviously buy an adapter to make the connection from say a 15 pin vga, I've read that unless your monitor or in this case, your projector, is a multisync (which I don't know if these are)... then you are going to have problems. Do these same problems present themselves if using the bnc connectors? I've seen vga to 5 BNC adapters. e.g. http://www.allaboutadapters.com/15vgato5bncr.html Might this work?

Thanks for the link, I had downloaded that manual a couple of days ago and have been going through it. Here are some pictures of the control box, and the connections into a single projector (they are all the same). As you can see, the control box is exclusively 9 pin vga both input and output. From what I'm reading, I'm worried about a Khz match between whatever source I could use now, and the older lower or (arcade) 15Khz. Is this an issue? Or should it theoretically work with the right cable adapters?

Control Box

Wire Loom

Right Side, Projector Rear

Left Side, Projector Rear

Curt, that's definitely my first plan... Direct to a single cube, then through the processor to a single cube. I'm not worrying about the rest of the wall yet. I'm more concerned with the CGA signal. I've been reading the following about the Hz difference issue. Maybe these are multi sync projectors and it will all just be plug and play.

"VGA to CGA monitor CGA monitors have horizontal scanning frequency of 15,750 Hz and screen refresh rate of 60 Hz. CGA monitors use TTL level separate sync signals. . . . CGA monitors use 9 pin D-connector. Because VGA card typically use HSYNC rate of more than 30 kHz and CGA monitor wants exactly 15.750 kHz, there is need to use some special drivers or conversion programs to make the VGA card to match this picture rate. Changing the settings on the VGA card is the only realitic way to do the conversion, because it would be difficult and not safe to modify the CGA monitor for such a substantial change in horizontal scan rate. Therefore, I would not recommend even making the attempt to do such changes. If you happen to have an operating system where you can quie freely change the sync rates and screen resolutions (for example Linux) then you can make your VGA card to send picture at the rate that CGA monitor wants with the right sync signal polarities (both HSYNC and VSYNC positive). If you do not get the frequencies right, the picture on monitor will look quite much as a complete mess or quite similar as watching a scrambled cable TV channel without the cable TV."

Read more at: http://www.epanorama.net/documents/vga2rgb/interfacing.html#vga_5bnc