VSG overview.
The VSG consists of a PC style card and accompanying software (drivers, libraries, calibration program etc.) . This card is used to produce a  video signal which is sent to a special video monitor. The VSG differs from a standard PC video card in it's ability to produce accurate gray scales. Our VSG has 15 bit digital to analog  convertors (DACs) - if theory this gives 128 times the gray scale resolution of the 8 bit DACs found in common SVGA cards. The VSG has triple DACs but we only  use one - the one normally used for red in a colour system is fed to a Joyce black and white monitor. Without going into details it's important to understand that while the VSG is a PC card it is NOT a standard PC VIDEO card nor is it supported by standard windows video drivers or software. The DB15 connector on the VSG is NOT a video connector - DO NOT plug a monitor into it. The video connector is a 13W3 type socket. 
Bundled software.
The vsg comes with some software, at the time of writing the latest version is 5.021, this is a 32 bit version for use on win95/nt machine. Be default the software is installed in a directory called VSG5 (see image). I've copied the html files from the readme directory  to the server for your convience, much of what I'm saying here is explained in greater detail in these help files. Software updates are availible from the  Cambridge Research Systems' Web Site. You may need the VSG serial number to download it, our serial number is 249. 
VSG config
The VSG configuration program (see Winconfg.exe in the image above) is required to set up the VSG for use with different monitors, test distances etc. By default it outputs a configuration file called Config.vsg (see above). Over-writing someone else's config file with your own could make you extremely unpopular so make sure you know what you're doing before running this program. There is a slight problem with this program at the moment and that is it draws a blue square during the calibration process which our black and white Joyce monitor does not display because it only uses the red video signal.
Gamma correction.
Before using the system the gamma correction table needs to be setup. If correction table don't exist for the monitor the VSG gamma correction program can be used to created it. This program can be run directly (wingamma.exe) or it can be called by the configuration program.

 

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