So, I had purchased a SNES RGB SCART cable off of eBay a while back and mistakenly was sent what appears to be a Sega Saturn SCART cable (10-pin Mini DIN connector). I cut off the Saturn end of the cable so that I could rewire it for a CMVS build I'm working on. When I started testing continuity with my dmm, I found that pins 7 (blue) and 11 (green) reflected continuity. So I popped open the SCART end and found this inside: Anyone know what the hell this chip is doing there? I can't read the label on the chip, as it's mostly covered. Not sure whether I should just leave it as-is, or remove the thing and wire up Green and Blue directly. The chip is also connected to pin 9. Cheers.
Are you sure it's not wired for Japanese scart? http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/668/jap21torgbscart.jpg
Why would you cut the Saturn connector off? They're a bit scarcer now. Get a SCART lead from a £1 shop! There's no 'label' on a chip usually, the model number should be printed directly on the top.
That is a possibility to be honest. But why would the chip also be connected to pin 11 (av control)? Doesn't seem like that would have anything to do with the sync lines. If you're right, and I think you probably are, then the chip is probably acting as a sync booster.
It's cheaper for me to repurpose a cable I got for free, rather than go out and buy additional parts. Also, SCART leads are scarce stateside and I'd have to purchase them online. I did keep the Saturn end in case I ever wish to wire up a replacement cable; it's certainly not ruined. For now, I'm making do with what I've got. My understanding is that the "AV Control" pin is used to tell the display whether to select Composite video or RGB. It's definitely possible that it's checking for signal on the sync line to determine whether to select RGB. Thanks! The additional confirmation is much appreciated -- I'll keep the RGB21 side as-is and wire the console side accordingly. Your post seems to infer that newer XRGB units (e.g. the Framemeister) may not require C-Sync at all? I'm also curious whether I will need to feed the Framemeister 5v for it to recognize my RGB signal.
It's a power connection - you have to apply 5V to the AV control pin to switch the device over to RGB mode, so I would expect it to be wired to pin 8 on the chip if they are using an LM1881 (which it certainly appears to be - you can see the R and C connected between pin 6 and pin 4 (Rset) and a decoupling cap between pins 4 and 8). Pin 1 (Csync out) should wire to pin 9 on the JP 21 pin and the video should go to pin 2. GND is pin 4 on the chip and could wire to any of the grounds on the plug.
Yeah, I wasn't being that clear - except for the reference to pin 9, everything else is talking about pin numbers on the chip - which judging from the photo are exactly what you would expect for an LM1881.
