Pi-View HDMI VGA converter problem

Simon Reid wrote:

 

... I have bought the Pi-View HDMI-VGA converter and when I connect this to a 50/60HZ monitor I get the screen message;

"Attention signal frequency is out of range

H: 67.5kHz V: 60.5 kHz

Please change signal timing"

You probably need to set HDMI mode explicitly using config.txt.  There are some examples of settings that work with various HDMI to VGA converters at the RasPi Verified Peripherals wiki.

Simon Reid wrote:

 

The Pi is powered via USB (phone lead) through a second PC and I have a steady green LED.

If I power the Pi via a powered USB hub, then I see an intermittent messgae;

"Attention no signal

Please check input signal or connection"

I suspect that your HUB isn't providing reliable 5V power at the current needed by RasPi plus the HDMI to VGA converter.  If RasPi's 5V level (as measured from TP1 to TP2) falls too low, attached 5V peripherals such as your HDMI to VGA converter start to misbehave.  The actual voltage level varies from device to device.  My own RasPi works fine at 4.65V but below that I first see green specks on my monitor, followed by a lost signal.

Take a look at the RasPi Troubleshooting Wiki.  One possibility is that the barrel plug for your hub's wall wart isn't making good contact.  A high-current version of a barrel plug has good wiping contacts for the center pin.  The low-current version just has a center pin floating around a slightly-larger barrel with hope that it makes decent contact somewhere.

Hello John,

Do you ever have experienced that the display is going blank for a few seconds?

Victor

Victor Tagayun wrote:

 

Do you ever have experienced that the display is going blank for a few seconds?

That would happen sometimes when my original power supply wasn't giving me a high enough voltage.  With 4.65V at TP1-TP2 my DVI-D monitor worked fine, but below that I would first see little green dots similar to this example at the RasPi Troubleshooting Wiki, and if it dropped even further the screen would go black.  Nowadays I always use my RasPi with a Motorola Atrix Lapdock which provides a solid 5V over a short USB cable and I haven't seen any problems.

I am sorry to say that the Signal out of Range problem appears to be a linux built-in problem. It started when the monitor driver moved from using XF86 to Xorg some eight years ago. Despite very numerous complaints, the linux developers are divorced from real users, and do not see that there is a problem putting the monitor into a mode which is not the least common denominator for safety. The old default was low resolution, so you could always get into a system during build, and adjust it later. But somebody wanted Splash screens a la windows,  With Raspbian you can get into /boot/config.txt and set HDMI to 2 and 16, which will work for a lot of screens. If you are installing any other linux distro you are pretty well stuffed, because the error message sits right over the setup choice screens, and these are nailed to the center of the screen. If you have an old analogue monitor, this should work ok, but LCD screens really do not like it.

Hi Stephen

Could you enlarge on what element of the Config.txt file I adjust to 2 and 16.

Kind regards

Dave

My config.txt is all commented out except the included which has the two HDMI settings which work for me NOTE I use a HDMI to VGA converter to feed the flatscreen monitor

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output

hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)

hdmi_group=2

hdmi_mode=16

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in

# DMT (computer monitor) modes

#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or

# no display

#config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL

#sdtv_mode=2

#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.

#arm_freq=800

# for more options see http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt

start_x=1

gpu_mem=128

Ok, just a suggestion, I read somewhere in one of the Rpi or BBB forums that you need to use a "powered" HDMI to VGA adapter, if you use one that is from Element 14, it will draw power from the Rpi's power supply.  So from reading that msg I realized the problems I had when using that adapter.  I got a Dell Genesis monitor and hooked the HDMI directly to the HDMI to DVI adapter and the problems went away.  I have not found a "powered" HDMI to VGA adapter yet since I found this monitor.

Bill

I bought a really nice Cirago HDMI-VGA converter from Microcenter for about US$32.  http://www.microcenter.com/product/431089/HDMI_to_VGA_Adapter_with_Audio

It worked fine with the NOOBS environment.  When I booted up Raspbian, it worked with one of my monitors (an old Dell).  However, with my other used (AOpen f2705-12s) monitors I got the message "Out of range" and nothing else.  The specs for this monitor (which I found online) give a resolution of 1280x1024 at 60 Hz.  So, I looked that up on the list of EDID settings:

HDMI group to 2 (DMT)

and

HDMI mode to 35

Those settings match 1280x1024 at 60 Hz.

Also set HDMI drive = 2, although I have not yet tried any audio through this adapter.

When I rebooted Raspbian with those settings, I got a momentary flash of "Out of range" and then a black screen and then the monitor worked correctly, first scrolling out all the boot message and then booting and displaying Raspbian's desktop environment.

I recommend not giving up on the HDMI-VGA route, because (at least where I am) there are a lot of old cast-off VGA monitors around, and that makes for a more reasonable development rig than hooking up to a hi-def TV.  (I certainly agree with the Raspberry architects' selection of HDMI, of course.)