gscartsw: automatic 8:1 SCART-RGB switch

Quality

 

You don't need this one, pick one down the road.

 

Awesome news... glad Assembler is back to be able to find it out!

 

Looking forward to getting the switch.

 

Update: amplifiers has been resoldered and are working fine. I still need to sort out one small issue before I can start shipping.
I mainly work on it on a weekend so probably I'll have more information next week.

 

Have you thought of integrating a step-up voltage regulator? Later CRTs use pin8 to determine the aspect ratio, with +5V being widescreen and +12V being fullscreen. Many consoles made before the invention of widescreen TVs like the Megadrive and the PSOne output 5V on pin8, resulting in an incorrect aspect ratio that needs to be manually changed every time the console is switched on. Having a step-up converter and limiter at the last output would alleviate this problem.

 

There is 12V charge pump exactly for this purpose. 4:3 is forced as well as RGB mode on pin 16. I don't know any single game console which properly drives SCART pin 8.

 

Awesome. I'll get one as soon as you open the preorders.

 

I bought something like that a while ago. It was one of the silver 5-way splitters that can commonly be found on Amazon and eBay with words like "PREMIUM" and "FIVE STAR QUALITY" in the listing title. I threw it out after about a day or two because the quality was piss poor. It added a terrible humming sound to the audio, and it made my whites look gray. I would not advise anyone to buy one of these cheap adapters that go for only a few bucks, because you are better off just manually changing your cables than going with some crap that was hammered out in a Chinese sweatshop and causes massive signal degredation.

$120 is very expensive, but for a niche product that has to be custom made, that's what it ends up costing. I'm not trying to white-knight or anything, but it's at least cheaper and smaller than some of the other options I've seen. To many people, $120 for something you can stash behind your TV is a much better deal than something used that costs $200 on eBay and is the size of an Xbox One, or something that only costs $10 but makes the games look and sound so bad that they're unplayable.

I just hope that if this switch ever becomes available again I will have $120 in my pocket to drop on one before the whole batch gets gobbled up. There's apparently more demand than production can keep up with.

 

If haven't read the full thread so sorry for any redundant question...

Do you receive bare boards from the factory or are they already populated with surface-mount components? If the latter I'd be interested in a DIY kit with the board and the components/sockets in a sack to solder myself. It would make the process much faster for you (and cheaper for us )

 

They are soldering SMD's for me, I solder plastic components myself. Later when I'll finish with the preorders I think they'll solder everything. DIY: Your assumptions are false, it will be neither cheaper nor faster for you. It has been discussed here in this topic and in switch development topic which is hopefully still available somewhere.
I'm not going to provide DIY in any way, end of story.

 

Superg thanks for all the updates. I follow the thread rabidly =)
Is there anything that "lurkers" like me can do to help out? Spread the word for when they become available?

 

Just dropping by, letting you know there are still people eagerly waiting for JP21 switches. Can't wait until these become available. Do your best and ignore the people hating.

 

So everything has been resolved. Today I'm testing each switch I have and I think I can start shipping.

 

Best news I've heard since last september when I started following this project!!

 

Super! I am waiting for a very, very, very looong time now...... I hope I am still on the list

 

Great news. Please don't forget my Japanese standard version

 

JP21 PCB is designed, need to look it over and send to the manufacturer.
Actually I have a question for you. JP21 version will have exactly the same 21-pin output connector as the SCART one (of course rewired). I used http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:japanese_rgb-21 [Full Version] as the reference and wiring looks perfectly valid and similar to SCART (CVBS and audio pins are swapped between input and output). Are those male-to-male JP21 cables freely available in Japan? For SCART they are so no worries there. The thing here is that I don't plan to source those and it will be a pain in the ass to solder them myself.

 

Wooo! Exciting news!

 

Great to hear that the PCBs are designed.
The male to female extention cables and male to male cables are impossible to find here. In fact I've never even seen a Japanese spec version.