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Northstar 1200 Series Display
Owner’s Guide
(P/N GM1200UG, Revision A2)
Northstar Technologies
30 Sudbury Road
Acton, Massachusetts 01720
(978) 897-6600
P/N GM1200UG Rev. A2
Table of contents
Welcome - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1
Features - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1
Optional Features with the Northstar vBox - - - - - 2
What’s in this Manual - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3
Turning the Display On - - - - - - - - - - - - 3
Adjusting the Brightness - - - - - - - - - - - - 3
The DATA and VIDEO Buttons - - - - - - - - - - 3
Turning the Display Off - - - - - - - - - - - - 4
Using Picture-In-Picture on the 1202 - - - - - - - 4
Front Panel - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 5
The POWER Button - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6
The Brightness Control - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6
The DATA Button - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6
The VIDEO Button - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6
The RED Button - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6
The HI/LO Button - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7
The MENU Button - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7
Using the Setup Menu - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8
1201 Setup Menu - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10
1202 Setup Menu - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12
Connections - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18
The Power Connector - - - - - - - - - - - - 18
The vBox Connector - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19
The VGA Connector - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19
The Video (BNC) Connector - - - - - - - - - - 19
Configurations - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20
Without Optional vBox - - - - - - - - - - - - 20
With Optional vBox - - - - - - - - - - - - - 21
Installation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 22
About Video and VGA Cables - - - - - - - - - 23
Choosing a Mounting Location - - - - - - - - 25
Connecting the Power Cable - - - - - - - - - 27
Other Connections - - - - - - - - - - - - - 28
Optional vBox - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 29
Choosing a Mounting Location - - - - - - - - - 29
Installing the vBox - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 29
VBox Connections - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 30
PIP with the vBox - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 33
Maintenance - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 36
Troubleshooting - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 38
Symptoms and Possible Causes - - - - - - - - - 38
Restoring Factory Defaults - - - - - - - - - - - 39
Service - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 40
How To Get Service / Technical Support - - - - - 40
Limited Warranty Policy - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 42
Contacting Northstar - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 43
Appendix A — Installation Checklist - - - - - - - - 44
Appendix B — Specifications - - - - - - - - - - - - 46
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 Welcome — Page 1
Welcome
Overview
Congratulations on your purchase of the Northstar 1200 Series
Marine Display. Now you can enjoy clear, crisp, bright images
from sources such as “black box” marine electronics, onboard
computers, entertainment and security systems.
Your Northstar display has been designed for easy setup and
operation. To help you get the best results, please read through
the brief, easy-to-understand instructions in this manual.
Features
Your new display features an easy-to-use, sunlight-viewable,
clear, crisp 12.1” display. As shown in the table below, the 1201
supports VGA and SVGA inputs. The 1202 supports up to UXGA
including the popular SXGA used on black box radars and other
marine electronics.
The display provides front panel controls to switch between one
data input (VGA data such as black box electronics, computers
etc.) and one video (NTSC/PAL from sources such as cameras,
VCR’s, DVD’s, etc.) input.
Product
Compatible
Resolutions
Native
Resolution
Northstar 1202
12” Display
UXGA (1600 x 1200)
SXGA (1280 x 1024)
XGA (1024 x 768)
SVGA (800 x 600)
VGA (640 x 480)
SVGA (800 x 600)
Northstar 1201
12” Display
SVGA (800 x 600)
VGA (640 x 480)
SVGA (800 x 600)
Page 2 — Welcome 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
There are no PC boards to install, no software drivers to load. Just
plug your existing data and video source outputs into the
display. You can switch between them by pressing and
on the front panel.
Optional Features with the Northstar vBox
With the optional vBox, your input capacity will double to two
data inputs and two video inputs. The vBox also adds two useful
nighttime viewing features: Red mode and Hi/Lo mode.
Red Mode
The RED feature tints the VGA display (whatever’s plugged
into the Data port) to a reddish hue for enhanced nighttime
viewing. It’s like adding a night palette to all your marine
electronics automatically. This is particularly useful if your
navigator is connected to your display and you use it at
night.
Hi / Lo Mode
The HI/LO function allows both video and data displayed to
be at a lower intensity for better nighttime viewing.
How’s the Manual?
Your feedback is important to us. Please take a minute to drop us
an email and let us know what you think of the manual. Send
your comments and suggestions to us at:
docs@NorthstarNav.com
DATA
VIDEO
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 What’s in this Manual — Page 3
What’s in this Manual
This manual is in three basic parts. The first part consists of
information related to getting started as well as basic informa-
tion about the display.
The second part of the manual, beginning on page 22, addresses
the installation process. Typically only the installer will use this
section. However, it does provide ideas and pointers for locating
your display as well a list of installation tips.
Finally, the third section, beginning on page 38, describes how to
troubleshoot the display and how to get service should the need
arise.
Getting Started
Turning the Display On
To turn the display on, simply press until the display
lights up. Within a few seconds, you will see a picture if an
active source is plugged into either the Data or Video
connector on the back panel.
Adjusting the Brightness
The brightness control is located on the right hand side of
the display. Press the up arrow to make the screen brighter
and the down arrow to make the screen dimmer.
The DATA and VIDEO Buttons
These two buttons control what image is displayed on the
screen. Simply press the button corresponding to the image
you wish to view.
Press to see what you’ve connected to the VGA Data
connector on the back of the display. Press to display
PWR
DATA
VIDEO
Page 4 — What’s in this Manual 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
what’s connected to the BNC Video connector. Press both
buttons at once to view Picture-In-Picture (see below).
With the optional vBox, you can have up to four inputs: your
original Data and Video source, plus an Auxiliary Data and
Video source. Each time you press the display will
switch between the two Data sources you have connected.
The same is true for .
Using Picture-In-Picture on the 1202
The 1202 includes a feature called Picture-In-Picture (PIP)
which allows display of a full screen of data with a smaller
video image on top of it. This is useful if you want a view of
your engine room in the corner of your navigator display. PIP
is available only on the 1202. More complete information
about PIP settings can be found on page 14.
Turning the Display Off
To turn the display off, simply press and hold for a few
seconds until the display shuts off.
DATA
VIDEO
PWR
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 Front Panel — Page 5
Front Panel
The Northstar 1201 and 1202 displays have several buttons
along the bottom of the display that are used to select data
sources as well as Hi/Lo* and Red* modes.
There is also a control to adjust the brightness of the display.
The figure above shows the front panel and its controls. Each
control is described below.
* Note that Red mode and Hi/Lo mode require the optional vBox.
1202
N
ORTHST
AR
RED
HI/LO
DATA
V
IDE
O
MEN
U
PWR
HI/LO
MENU
RED
VIDEO
DATA
Brightness
Control
Page 6 — Front Panel 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
The POWER Button
This key turns the display (and vBox, if connected) on and
off. You must hold it for a few seconds to turn the display
off. This delay prevents accidental shutoffs.
The Brightness Control
Press the up arrow to make the screen brighter. Press the
down arrow to make the screen dimmer.
The DATA Button
Displays the VGA data source connected to the DATA
input. This key is also used in the Setup Menu to make
choices and adjust various values lower.
If the optional vBox is installed, repeated presses of this key will
alternate between the primary and auxiliary data input.
The VIDEO Button
Displays the NTSC/PAL video source connected to the
VIDEO input. This key is also used in the Setup Menu to
make choices and adjust various values higher.
If the optional vBox is installed, repeated presses of this key will
alternate between the primary and auxiliary video input.
The RED Button
The Red Mode feature is available only when the
optional vBox is connected and affects only Data. This
mode does not alter Video.
PWR
DATA
VIDEO
RED
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 Front Panel — Page 7
Red Mode turns data images to a reddish hue, both in Hi and Lo
mode. This is particularly useful for running at night when your
navigator is displayed on your 1201/1202. Press again to turn off.
The HI/LO Button
This feature is available only when the optional vBox is
connected. It selects a day (Hi) or night (Lo) range of the
displayed data or video image. Lower intensity images are more
useful at night.
The MENU Button
This button configures picture quality settings in your
display. Since changing these settings can degrade your
picture quality, Northstar recommends that you don’t adjust the
factory settings.
1201
Northstar ships your 1201 pre-adjusted for the
maximum video quality. Only in rare cases will
further adjustment be necessary. If you are experi-
encing problems with image quality, follow the guidelines in
the section on troubleshooting beginning on page 38.
1202
1202 users will use primarily to turn the
Picture-In-Picture (PIP) feature on and off as
described on page 4.
is also used for adjusting image quality. Only in rare
cases will adjustment be necessary. If you are experiencing
problems with image quality, follow the guidelines in the
section on troubleshooting beginning on page 38.
HI/LO
MENU
1201
1202
MENU
MENU
Page 8 — Using the Setup Menu 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
Using the Setup Menu
The Setup Menu is used to configure the display. The 1201 and
1202 have different Setup Menus. Follow the steps below for
your specific model.
The Setup Menu will disappear by itself after a certain amount of
time. This time can be set in both the 1201 and the 1202.
The 1201 uses a line-based Setup Menu. When making
adjustments, simply press to activate the menu.
Use the up and down arrows on to select the param-
eter you wish to modify and press and to adjust the
value. When you have finished making changes, press and hold
once again to exit the Setup Menu.
The 1202 uses an icon-based Setup Menu. To activate
it, press once. The menu appears as two rows of
icons. One of these icons is highlighted. This high-
lighted icon represents the set of parameters to be modified. To
advance to the next icon, press .
Once at the desired icon, use the up and down arrows on to
select the parameter you wish to modify. Then use and
to change the value or setting of that item. To exit the
menu, press and hold until the menu disappears.
NOTE: Always make note of a setup value be-
fore changing it. Then if you don’t like
the change, you can restore the previous
setting.
Please read Setup Menu details carefully as it
is possible to misadjust the display and ad-
versely affect display quality.
!
1201
MENU
DATA
VIDEO
MENU
1202
MENU
MENU
DATA
VIDEO
MENU
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 Using the Setup Menu — Page 9
Page 10 — Using the Setup Menu 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
1201 Setup Menu
Brightness
Adjusts the brightness of the displayed image itself, not the
backlight. Brightness controls how dark the dark parts of the
image appear. If this is turned too high, the display will
become saturated and visual distortion will occur.
Contrast
Adjusts the contrast (strength of the white part of the image)
of the displayed image. If the contrast is too high, the image
may appear washed out.
Tuning (Only When Viewing Data Input)
Used to correct subtle timing differences between the display
and the input source. Misadjustment of this can cause jitter,
ghosting, or even light vertical lines in the image.
Auto Setup (Only When Viewing Data Input)
Pressing while this line is highlighted will cause the
display to adjust certain display parameters (position, size,
tuning, etc.) for their optimum settings.
Color (Only When Viewing Video Input)
Used to increase or decrease the color intensity in the
displayed image — similar to the control on your television.
Tint (Only When Viewing Video Input)
Used to adjust the color values in the displayed image —
similar to the control on your television set.
Input
Selects the input source. Use and instead.
VIDEO
DATA
VIDEO
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 Using the Setup Menu — Page 11
Image adjust
Used to adjust image-related parameters such as image posi-
tion, size, and color/tint levels manually.
Reset to RGB Default causes the display to re-calibrate its
colors automatically when displaying an image from the
data input. When displaying a new VGA data source for
the first time, this calibration helps set colors properly.
OSD Menu
This line provides adjustments to the Setup Menu screen
such as position, time-out, etc.
System Info
This line provides information such as input resolution, etc.
Extended Menu
These settings should not be changed.
Exit Menu
Press while on this line to exit the Setup Menu.
As a shortcut, you can also hold down until the Setup
Menu disappears.
VIDEO
MENU
Page 12 — Using the Setup Menu 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
1202 Setup Menu
Brightness and Contrast
These controls adjust the brightness and contrast
of the actual LCD panel. Brightness, in this case,
is different from the backlight adjustment. It
adjusts how dark the dark parts of the image appear. The
contrast adjusts the strength of the white part of the image.
These two settings are somewhat interactive. It is possible to
dramatically degrade the display quality using these two
settings. Always remember the previous value before you
change either one so you can return to the old setting.
Color Temperature
Adjusts the warmth of the image displayed. The
higher the color temperature, the brighter and
cooler the displayed image appears.
Video Adjustment (Only When Viewing Video Input)
This icon contains adjustments that are very
similar to the controls on your television; such as
Color, Tint and Sharpness.
The Picture Type adjustment allows selection between the
two settings: Motion and Still. In general, the Still setting will
provide a sharper picture, but may exhibit ghosting or jitter
when viewing rapidly changing images.
Similarly, Video Type provides subtle changes between its
DVD and VCR settings.
Frequency and Phase (Only When Viewing Data Input)
Frequency adjusts the horizontal size of the
image.
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 Using the Setup Menu — Page 13
Phase makes fine adjustments to the timing of the image
data. This is used to accommodate slight timing differences
between the display and the image source. These differences
can sometimes appear as noise in the video.
Picture Type offers two settings: Motion and Still. In general,
the Still setting will provide a sharper picture, but may
exhibit ghosting or jitter when viewing rapidly changing
images.
Video System (Only When Viewing Video Input)
Always leave this setting in Auto mode. Your
1202 will configure itself automatically.
Status (Only When Viewing Data Input)
This icon shows technical information about the
data input signal including resolution and
frequency. This can be helpful when problems
concerning scaling or image quality are encountered.
Position
Use this function if the image is not centered on
the screen. This situation can occur if the video
timing is slightly different between the display
and image source.
Rotation (Only When Viewing Video Input)
Northstar does not recommend changing this
setting. It rotates the image from landscape format
to portrait format. This setting is only available
when displaying video — it does not apply to the data input.
NTSC
PAL
NTSC
PAL
Page 14 — Using the Setup Menu 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
Picture-in-Picture (Only When Viewing Data Input)
Picture-In-Picture (PIP) displays a small video
window on top of the data display. Use this icon
to turn PIP on and off or move the video picture
around the screen. You can choose one of three sizes for the
video picture: 1 is the smallest and 3 is the largest. Choose
Off if you do not wish to see the video input.
PIP Source must always be set to Auto.
Horizontal Position and Vertical Position adjust the position
of the PIP window on the screen.
Advanced PIP Settings include Brightness, Contrast, Sharp-
ness, Tint, and Color all adjust the image of the PIP window.
For guidelines on PIP with an optional vBox connected, see
page 33.
Video Scaling (Only When Viewing Video Input)
This setting determines how images displayed
from the video input will be scaled. This is typi-
cally used when viewing DVD or other images not
in the typical 4:3 (i.e., television) aspect ratio. DVDs often
provide letterbox (16:9) aspect ratio images.
Graphic Scaling Modes (Only When Viewing Data Input)
This icon is used to determine how the internal
scaler will scale the image on the data input for
display. Typically, only SXGA sources (i.e., black
box radars) will gain any benefit from this setting.
Fill Screen scales the horizontal and vertical dimensions
independently to fill the screen. In the case of SXGA input,
there will be horizontal elongation of the image.
A
A
1200 Series Display, Rev. A2 Using the Setup Menu — Page 15
Fill to Aspect Ratio scales the image by the same amount
both vertically and horizontally — preserving the original
aspect ratio. In the case of SXGA, this will result in some
empty space right and left of the image. This is normal.
Nonlinear Scaling Modes is not recommended for the 1200
series display.
Language
This icon selects the language to use in the Setup
Menu. The three choices are English, Danish, and
Chinese.
Video source
Northstar strongly recommends leaving the Video
System setting on Auto so that the display will
automatically configure itself to the source.
Utilities
The Utilities icon encompasses numerous general
settings for the display. This icon also has some
items that contain submenus.
User Settings
User Time-out adjusts the time before the Setup Menu will
automatically disappear (in increments of five seconds.)
DPMS should always be enabled.
Display Input must be disabled for proper operation of
your display.
Auto Source Select must be set to High for your display to
work properly.
Gamma should always be set to the 1.0 setting.
Language
A
B
Page 16 — Using the Setup Menu 1200 Series Display, Rev. A2
OSD Settings
OSD Setting allows you to place the Setup Menu wherever
you’d like it on the screen.
OSD Background allows the Setup Menu to be either
Translucent or Opaque. Many users find it easier to read in
the Opaque setting.
OSD Rotate should always be set to Normal.
Freeze. Northstar recommends not freezing the image.
Zoom enables the zoom function on the image displayed. If
the image has been zoomed, then you can use the Hori-
zontal Pan and Vertical Pan to display the image.
Direct Access #1 should always be set to Brightness.
Direct Access #2 should always be set to Contrast.
Display Orientation should always be set to Normal.
Calibrate RGB Gain causes the display to re-calibrate its
colors automatically when displaying an image from the data
input. When displaying a new VGA data source for the first
time, this calibration helps set colors properly.
Load Factory Defaults restores the factory default settings.
This is particularly useful if the display has been adjusted to
an undesirable state.
Exit Menu
Use this icon to exit the Setup Menu. Once at the
Exit icon, press to exit the Setup Menu.
As a shortcut, you can also hold down until
the Setup Menu disappears.
EXIT
VIDEO
MENU
/
