Dreamcast RCA / VGA box to RGB scart

ok, I Fired up the dreamcast for the first time in a long time, i have a 3rd party (Game branded) VGA / RCA cable / box. not all games support VGA and Composite doesnt look very sharp at all.

i've had a look inside of it(the vga box) and im wondering if its possible to wire in a scart cable to it?

 

Why not just unplug the VGA box from the dreamcast and plug a scart cable into the video port on the dreamcast? It is a bit like cutting a hole in the roof of a car to keep cool when you could just wind down the window.

 

i dont have a scart cable for it, just the vga box and a RF cable, and im really really bored so tinkering helps keep me busy

edit: oh and this would give me RCA + VGA + scart all from the same box /cable which is handy

 

x

 

If you have a third party box then you would need to find pins 6 and 7, they will probably go to a switch to select between Video and VGA modes. If they are floating (or connected to +5V) then the DC will output video, if grounded then it will switch to VGA. To get 15Khz SCART RGB, you would need to have pin 6 floating and 7 grounded. The easiest way would be to put a DPDT switch on the wire of pin 6 so is it either connected or not.

Also you would would need to see if pin 10 has a cable running from it, as this is composite sync. If you do not have it then you will not be able to use the box to output a RGB signal.

The neatest way to do a SCART cable is to make a VGA to SCART cable. RGB and Grounds can be wired up as the VGA standard. There are a few unused pins on the VGA pinout and are likley to be not connected. Pin 9 is +5V on the current VGA standard so you could wire up +5V (pin 5 from the DC) to this, you need this for SCART switching. Composite video can be used on VGA Pin 4 as it is currently just reserved. I would use the other side of the DPDT switch you used on the pin 6 wire for composite sync as some older monitors might get confused. Sound can be got from the Audio out socket. This way you just need a small hole for you SCART select switch.

Wiring up to SCART had been done to death so you can find it online.

 

The VGA box has a switch for vga or av mode.
turn on your dreamcast in av mode and when it loads turn the switch to VGA mode,
with this trick you can play all Dreamcast Games in VGA resolution :smile-new:

 

tv i want to use the DC on doesnt have a vga port, and i heard that doesnt work for some games. thanks for the input, i've decided against doing this at the min, and im just going to get a scart cable for the DC and run it through a scart block i got off ebay, although may attempt this if i get bored, which is 90%+ likely to happen at some point