I3 (before 2013) with Vista 3

I had to cut metal for the new power supply, the new motherboard, and to make the new graphics card fit. There probably are components that are exact replacements but mine were not.

We have the 2013 I3 that is not compatible with Vista 3. I love the upgrade option listed here, but need to clarifyā€¦ does the USB dongle license work the same after the upgrade?

Yes, the USB license will still work.

So out of curiosity how much does the proper pre 2013 I3 upgrade cost from AC

Also am I correct thatā€¦
If the I3 console has gray strips its a PRE 2013
If the I3 console does not has gray strips its a POST 2013

Jay,
That is pretty much the difference, the serial number will have ā€œ13ā€ in the number. Ex: A131234.

To get a quote on the upgrade you will want to contact your dealer.

I want to thank everyone on this post who provided information about how to turn an i3 into an S3. I was able to successfully do this myself, with a 2013 i3, which was a little different than a pre-2013 i3. I did find the S3|i3 stamp mentioned by Brent so I felt comfortable moving forward with the process.

Our i3ā€™s built-in computer was starting to show its age and after having the system freeze up during a service a couple weeks ago, and after pondering the process for quite a while, I decided to go the route of using an external computer, in my case a Blackview MP80 Mini PC that I reviewed for a gadget site a while back. Itā€™s still underpowered with an Intel N97, but itā€™s 11 years newer than the i3ā€™s PC so I figured it would suffice temporarily. This is my personal PC so Iā€™m going to get our church to purchase another mini PC with much better specs, but seeing how much better the system performs with a newer PC has given us a little time to work with before making the final decision.

One thing I did different than Brent with my system is that I bought a panel mount USB connector, which I was able to mount where the built-in ethernet jack was. This provided a clean install that looks original if you donā€™t know any better and I didnā€™t have to deal with taking out the old PC to put a blank panel in the old I/O plate slot and mount a USB connector there. I did as little as possible to modify the system so I can put it back if we end up selling this system.

I had hoped to still be able to use the power button on the top right of the console to turn it on and off, and purchased an ATX jumper with a switch just in case, but I couldnā€™t find a way to mount it in the time that I had and it was less of a priority than getting the system up and running again.

I ended up using the USB cable from an old Apple Mighty Mouse (after breaking one of the tiny wires off another cable I tried first). This was a fitting end to a mouse that should have been retired many years ago. In our case it was just a few months ago.

It probably took me about 3 hours to get the conversion done, and Iā€™ve spent the last couple weeks getting Vista set up, installing and configuring all the additional utilities I use, and other things set the way I want them on the new PC.

After all Iā€™m happy with the decision to go this way rather than trying to replace the internal PC. The new mini PC and a USB-C dock to get more connectors will come to about $550. Iā€™d like to purchase some touch screens as well, but that might have to wait a little bit.

Thanks again to everyone who provided advice here. I hope I can be of help to anyone who wants to do the same thing with a 2013 model in the future.



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Nice TVWonder!

FWIW, I just did a similar mod to a Vista L5 console last week. The components inside finally died so we gutted the PC parts, ran the USB cables for the track pad, keyboard, and touchscreen out the backā€¦ and I made the same custom cable to connect their Vista Wing boards to a USB cable as well. I ran all 4 (and an HDMI to DVI cable to the internal Wacom DTU-2251 touchscreen) out the back and into an Intel NUC to run the software. I had to install the Wacom drivers to calibrate the touch screen since Jands mounted them upside down and allā€¦ but it works flawlessly!

Doing this can give your console a new and much-extended lifespanā€¦ as you can replace the PC with newer/faster parts at any time. Weā€™ve essentially turned the console into a USB deviceā€¦ which is kinda wild.

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Yes! Our new PC is so much better than the old internal one and Iā€™m able to do so much more on it than I could have ever tried before. The ā€œconsoleā€ has no issues (except static electricity, which we never had a problem with before) so I wanted to continue using it with a modern PC. It would be great if it could have been an internal upgrade but I got the external mini PC for under $500 and itā€™s been great.

A little followup to this. Since I made the switch weā€™ve been having problems with static electricity taking the external USB device offline. I have to flip the power switch off and back on to reconnect it. When I do that the lights blackout for a split second. Iā€™ve tried many different things to eliminate the shock. Iā€™ve found a USB isolator which says itā€™s supposed to prevent such things from happening. Anyone have any experience with those or know of another way to solve this problem?

We can still use the Vista software of course but if Iā€™m using timecode that will drop out since it goes through the LTC connector on the console surface. Thankfully that hasnā€™t happened yet but I want to avoid the possibility.

INTERESTINGā€¦ weā€™ve been seeing some odd behavior this past few weeks with the internal monitor or external monitor we run dropping out and not reconnecting. I tried different cables/dongles, etcā€¦ and no solid answers. I wonder if it is static related too. Our building is super dry in the winter and static is common. Running the PC on itā€™s own power source and running the console on itā€™s own power supply may play into that. Though Iā€™ve not seen an issue on our i3 consoles weā€™ve done this toā€¦ Tonight we had both the internal/external monitors go black mid-service. The sliders still worked and all, but no screens. Unplugging and re-plugging HDMI and USB-C didnā€™t help. We remoteā€™d into the PC and poof, both monitors woke up. WHAT??? So yeah, thatā€™s not reliable. I want to try a different PC and a different touch screen next to see if the old Wacom isnā€™t giving us fits since itā€™s a DVI connector (and I think maybe even that weird transition DVI phase of analog over DVI)ā€¦ and maybe thatā€™s bugging out the system. Does anyone know of a modern WACOM that fits in the L5 chassis and runs on HDMI?

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Updateā€¦ My previous post in Dec had the model wrong. The Wacom inside the L5 is the DTU-2231. I incorrectly said 2251ā€¦ The successor model is DTK-2451 / DTH-2452 which unfortunately are 23.8" diagonal vs the 22.5" size of the L5 screen.

From my measurements, the L5 opening is 57cm diagonal, 49.4cm width, and 28.5cm heightā€¦ and there is roughly 1.5cm margin from the edge of the opening to the left/right buttons and 1cm to the top buttonsā€¦ and 2.5cm to the bottom curve. So if we can find something to fit in or to drop on top of there that doesnā€™t interfere with the other buttons, thatā€™s a win. Iā€™ve seen a similar concept on a facebook group where a guy dropped a touchscreen on top of the chassis to use that margin area, but we arenā€™t wanting touchscreen. They are pretty set on pen/wacom level of control. Anyway, off to research. Iā€™ll report back if we have a final solution. Weā€™re looking to move this from PC to Mac as well with the death of Windows 10 coming in Octoberā€¦ so there are numerous things moving.

The Wacom tablet in the L5 also had a custom modification with an extra piece of glass to bring the surface flush with the surrounding console surface. You wonā€™t find anything that will match that since it was something Jands had done.

Thanks for that info. That makes sense. I think if we removed the screen and replaced that with a ā€œdrop on topā€ Cintiq Pro 22, it may work out niceā€¦ but the price of that is $3kā€¦ which is a bit much for what weā€™re doing here. Plus the buttons are on the back. Bah. Still kicking around thoughts. Is wacom the only game in town for pen displays?

Iā€™m picking up a Huion Kamvas 22 to try. Itā€™s USB-C control/display capable and 1/10th the price of the Cintiq Pro 22.

That is interesting. Thankfully our screens arenā€™t dropping out and Vista continues to run, although we lose the controls on the i3 until we power cycle it. Thatā€™s fine most of the time except when Iā€™m running timecode into the LTC input on the back of the console. Thereā€™s no way around that other than converting LTC to MTC, which seems dumb because I have the XLR on the back of the console. The biggest problem is the quick blackout that I canā€™t avoid when power cycling the i3. I just tried a USB ground isolator, hoping that would solve the problem but it hasnā€™t.

We do have both the computer and i3 on the same power strip along with the monitors and theyā€™re all even plugged in to a UPS. This issue happened before setting up the UPS so I know that didnā€™t cause the problem, but unfortunately it didnā€™t solve it either.

Partially due to this and some other things weā€™re doing in about a month weā€™re going to be moving away from Vista altogether. Iā€™m going to miss it but I need something more modern with a lot of universes (without paying Chroma-Q for as many 8,196 channel dongles as Iā€™d need). So look for a modified i3 to go up for sale pretty soonā€¦ :wink:

Kamvas 22 works great with external PCā€¦ and sits nicely on top of the existing screen. The rubber feet on the stand (with adjustable angle) keep it from sliding around. Weā€™re going to go mac mini and this screen eventually.


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