Marty Brenneis
P.O. Box 3299

San Rafael, CA 94912-3299 

Tel   415.485.4478

Fax  415.485.4480

Installation and Operation guide
for Matrox G450 with GL6 genlock board

You should have a Matrox G450 dual VGA card with GL6 genlock board attached, an I/O panel, a 6" flat cable jumper, a Sparkology floppy disk and the Matrox G450 installation CD.

You will need a computer running Windows 98 second edition, Windows 2000 or windows XP, there must be an AGP slot on the motherboard.

Step 1: Uninstall the previous video card drivers and set the computer to use Standard VGA as the display driver.

Step 2: Remove the old VGA card and install the Matrox G450 in the AGP slot.
Install the I/O panel in the space next to the G450.
Note: Check that the selector switch on the I/O panel is set to mode 0 or Off.
Check the cable between the I/O panel and the GL6, it should not have any twists in it.
Connect a monitor to the monitor 1 port on the G450, this is the upper port.
Do not connect anything to the BNC connectors on the I/O panel.

Step 3: Boot the computer and install the drivers from the G450 CD. As a recommended alternative, you should download the latest driver from: http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/

Step 4: Verify the operation of the VGA system. Please note, the "Plug & Play" monitor function has been disabled on both monitor ports on the G450 card.

Step 5: On the floppy disk is a folder called Sparkmon, copy it to the C: drive. This contains the ".MPR" files the Matrox utilities will need.
The .MPR files are also available from the Sparkology.com website: 48Hz.mpr  96Hz.mpr 120Hz.mpr

On the floppy there is also a compressed file called xtras.exe that has several useful programs in it.

Bonus step: At the top of the board is a two-pin header sticking up. A front panel LED connected to this header will match the rear panel LED. Placing the connector one way will show LOCKED and the other way it will show UNLOCKED. This is a good use for Turbo LEDs. A bicolor LED will show both states.

Bonus step 2: There is a 3 pin connector at the top of the GL6 board, this gets connected to a 3 position switch on the front of the computer. In the center position the VGA output will work normally. On one side it will activate RED FLASH mode, this will flash the red channel of the VGA output at a 180-degree rate to facilitate the phasing of the camera. On the other side it will shut off the GL6 system to stabilize the monitor when booting. We call this the Genlock Mute switch.

Now you are ready to try the genlock functions of the GL6.

To select 48Hz as a refresh rate for the monitor you go to the Advanced display properties panel from the Settings tab on the Display Properties control panel. Right clicking the desktop is an easy to get there.

When you click the Advanced tab you will get a panel labeled Matrox Millennium G450 Dualhead Properties. Select the Monitor Settings tab. From here you can select the Matrox customization file. Use the button labeled "Load a customization file." Then direct the system to the Sparkmon folder. You can select the 48Hz.mpr file to run the screen at 48Hz. Once you select this you will need to test the modes you want to use. Follow the prompts to test the different resolutions to verify if the monitor will work with them.

Now you are ready to start using the Genlock system.

The genlock board will only lock the Monitor 1 output if it is running at a rate that is within 1Hz of the desired speed. That means the software must be set to the right speed before you switch on the internal sync generator.

On the panel you will find:

A - The Sync Generator mode selector switch. The modes are:

B - The  Pulse Out BNC connector. This outputs a TTL pulse that goes from +5VDC to Ground. The pulse width is approx 250μS. This can be run to another computer's input or to the sync input of a Film Video Frame Synchronizer. You can also read this with a frequency counter.

The Pulse Output Modes:
When the Mode switch is in 0 or 7 and there is no external sync signal, the output is the vertical rate of the monitor.
When the Mode Switch is in 1-6 and there is no external sync signal, the output is from the internal sync generator.
When there is an external sync source the output is a pulse that matches the external signal.
When the computer power is off, the output connector is connected to the input connector by a relay.

C - The Sync Input switch for connector E:
Pulse mode will only lock to a TTL type pulse, like the one from another computer.
Video mode is for video type sources. (currently this switch position is not functional.)
75 Ohm is for composite video signals with a 75 Ohm terminator.

D - The Red/Green status LED. This can also be remoted to the front of the computer.
When the LED is off the VGA system is running free and not at a precision speed.
When the LED is Red there is a sync source but the system is not locked to it.
When the LED is Green the system is locked to the sync source.
If the LED is flickering at a steady fast rate, there is an external sync source connected.
If the LED is solid, the internal generator is the sync source.
If the LED is flashing Red sporadically, the system is trying to lock. This means the software is not set to a speed that matches the sync source.
If the LED is flashing Red/Green, the Genlock Mute switch is activated on the front panel.

The external sync signals for this system will always be in the range of 48 to 60 Hz. The computer can lock at that rate, or at double the rate. i.e. you can feed 48 Hz to a machine running 96Hz. This allows the mixing of 48Hz video and 96Hz monitors on the same set.