gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thread

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SuboX
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by SuboX »

Hey, trying this again (keeps saying a moderator has to approve my post)

I ordered a Gcompsw after having a Gscartsw for a while and loving it.

Is it ok to daisy chain 2 Gcompsw's together? I'm going to eventually need 12 devices hooked into the CRT and I'm hoping it won't cause any issues.
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

Hello, is it possible to daisy chain a gscart with a gcomp? Basically, have a Retrotink comp2scart with the component end go from the input of the gcomp with the scart end going into the output of the gscart? Or would it have to be the other way around with a scart2comp, or some other configuration I might be missing here to make this possible? Please help as it will inform me what I need to purchase to hopefully make this work. Thank you!
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

teerazzler wrote:Hello, is it possible to daisy chain a gscart with a gcomp? Basically, have a Retrotink comp2scart with the component end go from the input of the gcomp with the scart end going into the output of the gscart? Or would it have to be the other way around with a scart2comp, or some other configuration I might be missing here to make this possible? Please help as it will inform me what I need to purchase to hopefully make this work. Thank you!
Yes, you can daisy chain. You can do either way around but I suggest to keep gscartsw last in the chain (use comp2rgb).
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

superg wrote:
teerazzler wrote:Hello, is it possible to daisy chain a gscart with a gcomp? Basically, have a Retrotink comp2scart with the component end go from the input of the gcomp with the scart end going into the output of the gscart? Or would it have to be the other way around with a scart2comp, or some other configuration I might be missing here to make this possible? Please help as it will inform me what I need to purchase to hopefully make this work. Thank you!
Yes, you can daisy chain. You can do either way around but I suggest to keep gscartsw last in the chain (use comp2rgb).
Any particular reason you suggest to keep the gscartsw last in the chain? Will it damage equipment if I don’t follow your suggestion?
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

teerazzler wrote: Any particular reason you suggest to keep the gscartsw last in the chain? Will it damage equipment if I don’t follow your suggestion?
So there is one minor visual issue when using rgb2comp with gcompsw - you might see garbage if you keep your TV on and no consoles are on. This is nothing to worry about but people ask about it. There is no way to turn off video output of gcompsw when it's searching for the signal and rgb2comp is having logic high when there is no signal, the combination of both effects (sync logic high and gcompsw searching for the signal) generates weird sync output which gets picked up by a TV.
There is no such problem with comp2rgb and gscartsw because gscartsw has more advanced circuit and video output is disabled when there is no signal detected.
Nothing can get damaged in both connection scheme anyway.
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

Awesome, thank you for the help!
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djc5166
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by djc5166 »

Greg is now offering his bumper case for the OG gscartsw with the D15 connector.

https://laserbear.net/shop/ols/products ... mper-cases
bhalen
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by bhalen »

I'm having an issue with my gscartsw, specifically the dual output. When I try to use it, I get static (screen rolls, green distortion). Both the outputs are fine and work separately, but I get the distortion if two cables are plugged into the output slots. All my cables are from Retro Access except for one of my Scart male to male cables, which was built by "KabelDirekt" (their profile series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DYELZXE/re ... 3Fb6R5743D )

Any ideas? The dip switches didn't seem to have any effect. Otherwise, it works perfectly (near as I can tell).

EDIT: Never mind. I double checked the cables later & found I'd plugged the retro-access cable in backwards (apparently, it's one-way only while my KabelDirekt cables aren't). It works fine now, and it doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects from the cable being plugged in wrong.
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

@superg


Hmm, so I tried daisy chaining the gscart to the gcomp and when I turn on a console that is plugged in either through scart (that is plugged into the gscart) or component (that is plugged into the gcomp), I only get wavy blue lines on my PVM. The way I connected it was like this:

gscart out 1, scart cable -> PVM
gscart out 2, scart cable -> retrotink comp2scart, component cable out of retrotink comp2scart -> gccomp input (not putting the component end into gcomp out)
gcomp out 1, component cable -> comp2 d-terminal adapter
d-terminal end -> framemeister
framemeister, HDMI cable -> flatscreen

This should work in theory, right? I feel like I am missing something of some other equipment/configuration that I might need to buy here to get this whole circuit to work. Basically my end goal here is to make it so I can have 240p/480i show on the PVM and have the consoles show on the flatscreen at the same time, but I am wanting the flatscreen to be receiving 480i deinterlaced to 480p (for the Dreamcast specifically) and 240p consoles upscaled to 1080p by the framemeister. Please help and explain if what I am trying to accomplish here is possible and how I would go about doing this precisely. I would prefer not to have to get into the world of extron switchers and pheonix adapters and all of that. My technical knowhow is precisely zero, so please bear that in mind with any recommendations. Thank you!
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

teerazzler wrote:@superg


Hmm, so I tried daisy chaining the gscart to the gcomp and when I turn on a console that is plugged in either through scart (that is plugged into the gscart) or component (that is plugged into the gcomp), I only get wavy blue lines on my PVM. The way I connected it was like this:

gscart out 1, scart cable -> PVM
gscart out 2, scart cable -> retrotink comp2scart, component cable out of retrotink comp2scart -> gccomp input (not putting the component end into gcomp out)
gcomp out 1, component cable -> comp2 d-terminal adapter
d-terminal end -> framemeister
framemeister, HDMI cable -> flatscreen

This should work in theory, right? I feel like I am missing something of some other equipment/configuration that I might need to buy here to get this whole circuit to work. Basically my end goal here is to make it so I can have 240p/480i show on the PVM and have the consoles show on the flatscreen at the same time, but I am wanting the flatscreen to be receiving 480i deinterlaced to 480p (for the Dreamcast specifically) and 240p consoles upscaled to 1080p by the framemeister. Please help and explain if what I am trying to accomplish here is possible and how I would go about doing this precisely. I would prefer not to have to get into the world of extron switchers and pheonix adapters and all of that. My technical knowhow is precisely zero, so please bear that in mind with any recommendations. Thank you!
That should work.
One question, you say you want to connect gscartsw->gcompsw, but you use "comp2scart"
There are two RetroTink products: rgb2comp and comp2rgb.
If I understand you correctly, you are using comp2rgb but connecting gscartsw to gcompsw, is that right?
If so, it won't work, with comp2rgb you can connect gcompsw to gscartsw but not vice versa, maybe this is a problem you're having?
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

superg wrote:
teerazzler wrote:@superg


Hmm, so I tried daisy chaining the gscart to the gcomp and when I turn on a console that is plugged in either through scart (that is plugged into the gscart) or component (that is plugged into the gcomp), I only get wavy blue lines on my PVM. The way I connected it was like this:

gscart out 1, scart cable -> PVM
gscart out 2, scart cable -> retrotink comp2scart, component cable out of retrotink comp2scart -> gccomp input (not putting the component end into gcomp out)
gcomp out 1, component cable -> comp2 d-terminal adapter
d-terminal end -> framemeister
framemeister, HDMI cable -> flatscreen

This should work in theory, right? I feel like I am missing something of some other equipment/configuration that I might need to buy here to get this whole circuit to work. Basically my end goal here is to make it so I can have 240p/480i show on the PVM and have the consoles show on the flatscreen at the same time, but I am wanting the flatscreen to be receiving 480i deinterlaced to 480p (for the Dreamcast specifically) and 240p consoles upscaled to 1080p by the framemeister. Please help and explain if what I am trying to accomplish here is possible and how I would go about doing this precisely. I would prefer not to have to get into the world of extron switchers and pheonix adapters and all of that. My technical knowhow is precisely zero, so please bear that in mind with any recommendations. Thank you!
That should work.
One question, you say you want to connect gscartsw->gcompsw, but you use "comp2scart"
There are two RetroTink products: rgb2comp and comp2rgb.
If I understand you correctly, you are using comp2rgb but connecting gscartsw to gcompsw, is that right?
If so, it won't work, with comp2rgb you can connect gcompsw to gscartsw but not vice versa, maybe this is a problem you're having?
Yes, sorry, I am using the comp2rgb. So basically, with the way I connected it I have to get the rgb2comp or else what I am trying to do won't work? I have tried chaining the two the other way around by doing gcomp component cable going from the output of the gcomp going to the retrotink comp2rgb then the scart cable from the comp2rgb going to one of the inputs of the gscart, and that still didn't work. Does it only detect the chain if I use rgb2comp retrotink or something?
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

teerazzler wrote: Yes, sorry, I am using the comp2rgb. So basically, with the way I connected it I have to get the rgb2comp or else what I am trying to do won't work? I have tried chaining the two the other way around by doing gcomp component cable going from the output of the gcomp going to the retrotink comp2rgb then the scart cable from the comp2rgb going to one of the inputs of the gscart, and that still didn't work. Does it only detect the chain if I use rgb2comp retrotink or something?
gcompsw->comp2rgb->gscartsw should work. Try to troubleshoot it. Connect only one input device for the test, don't connect any TV / XRGB / PVM outputs, just gcompsw connected to comp2rgb connected to gscartsw. Power both switches and turn on the console. Observe whether gcompsw and gscartsw LEDs quickly blinks - the indication of successful signal detection. If you get that, connect one output and see if you see the picture.
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

Cool, sorry to be a pain though, but does it need to go from gcomp output to comp2rgb to gscart input, or gscart output to comp2rgb to gcomp input? Or does it need to be gcomp output to rgb2comp to gscart input, or gscart output to rgb2comp to gcomp input? I did exactly what you were suggesting in your last post and it didn't work unfortunately. No picture on the PVM when connecting everything beforehand, and I get that blinking LED light saying everything is connected. Also, won't the picture not be true RGB when upscaled to the Framemeister when going from scart to component when it leads into the framemeister intot the flat screen? For example, if I turn on my NES which is connected to scart, won't it get downgraded to component quality because the chain would be - gscart -> gcomp -> framemeister ->flatscreen

Thank you for your help
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

teerazzler wrote:Cool, sorry to be a pain though, but does it need to go from gcomp output to comp2rgb to gscart input, or gscart output to comp2rgb to gcomp input? Or does it need to be gcomp output to rgb2comp to gscart input, or gscart output to rgb2comp to gcomp input? I did exactly what you were suggesting in your last post and it didn't work unfortunately. No picture on the PVM when connecting everything beforehand, and I get that blinking LED light saying everything is connected. Also, won't the picture not be true RGB when upscaled to the Framemeister when going from scart to component when it leads into the framemeister intot the flat screen? For example, if I turn on my NES which is connected to scart, won't it get downgraded to component quality because the chain would be - gscart -> gcomp -> framemeister ->flatscreen

Thank you for your help
One thing at a time.
"it need to go from gcomp output to comp2rgb to gscart input" <- this!
1. which console are you connecting to gcompsw input for the test?
2. when you turn on the console, does gscartsw LED blinks too, or only gcompsw LED?
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

superg wrote:
teerazzler wrote:Cool, sorry to be a pain though, but does it need to go from gcomp output to comp2rgb to gscart input, or gscart output to comp2rgb to gcomp input? Or does it need to be gcomp output to rgb2comp to gscart input, or gscart output to rgb2comp to gcomp input? I did exactly what you were suggesting in your last post and it didn't work unfortunately. No picture on the PVM when connecting everything beforehand, and I get that blinking LED light saying everything is connected. Also, won't the picture not be true RGB when upscaled to the Framemeister when going from scart to component when it leads into the framemeister intot the flat screen? For example, if I turn on my NES which is connected to scart, won't it get downgraded to component quality because the chain would be - gscart -> gcomp -> framemeister ->flatscreen

Thank you for your help
One thing at a time.
"it need to go from gcomp output to comp2rgb to gscart input" <- this!
1. which console are you connecting to gcompsw input for the test?
2. when you turn on the console, does gscartsw LED blinks too, or only gcompsw LED?
1. I tried the Gamecube with official component cables, and a generic male to male component cable going from an input of the gcomp into retrotink comp2rgb to gscart output. I also tried the NES with scart into the gscart when the gcomp and gscart were daisy chained.
2. They both blinked.
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

teerazzler wrote: 1. I tried the Gamecube with official component cables, and a generic male to male component cable going from an input of the gcomp into retrotink comp2rgb to gscart output. I also tried the NES with scart into the gscart when the gcomp and gscart were daisy chained.
2. They both blinked.
Got it. Ok, what do you see on the PVM screen when the console is on, does it flicker or no signal? Did you try Framemeister? Which SCART cable do you use for PVM and for Framemeister?
gscartsw LED blink means that switch successfully detected the signal so there has to be at least sync on both gscartsw outputs. Also try to turn on DIP1 on gscartsw and see if that changes anything.
teerazzler
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by teerazzler »

superg wrote:
teerazzler wrote: 1. I tried the Gamecube with official component cables, and a generic male to male component cable going from an input of the gcomp into retrotink comp2rgb to gscart output. I also tried the NES with scart into the gscart when the gcomp and gscart were daisy chained.
2. They both blinked.
Got it. Ok, what do you see on the PVM screen when the console is on, does it flicker or no signal? Did you try Framemeister? Which SCART cable do you use for PVM and for Framemeister?
gscartsw LED blink means that switch successfully detected the signal so there has to be at least sync on both gscartsw outputs. Also try to turn on DIP1 on gscartsw and see if that changes anything.
On the PVM screen it shows wavy blue lines when the console is on. I haven't tried the Framemeister yet, I will in the next day or so when I get my setup together. Didn't think of the DIP1 on the gscart, I will try that in a couple days and get back to you if there are any other questions I have.

Thanks so much for your help
Entroper
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Entroper »

Hi superg, loving my gscartsw, just had a quick question -- is it designed to be left plugged in and running 24/7 or should I unplug it when I'm not using it?
Cooperd9
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Cooperd9 »

Sorry if this has already been asked, but google isn't giving me any useful results (although I'm probably just searching the wrong terms).

In my current setup, I have a gscartsw 5.2 with a bunch of RGB consoles and a raspberry pi running retropie for kodi and arcade stuff that isn't practical for me to run on real hardware connected to the inputs and an rgb modded NTSC crt and an OSSC connected to the outputs. Before I connected the pi, everything worked great, but the pi is causing problems for me. I would prefer to leave the pi always powered on because its lack of a physical power switch means I have to physically disconnect and reconnect the delicate little micro usb cable every time I want to power it on, however if I do that it always outputs a signal and the gscartsw won't display any consoles that I power on when the pi is powered on first. Is there a way to set this up so that the signal from the pi will only be output from the gscartsw when no other input devices are on and if I power on any devices while the pi is being output it will switch to the other device? This is likely relevant to users of other devices which always output a signal, I've heard some transcoders might do that as well.
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

Cooperd9 wrote:Sorry if this has already been asked, but google isn't giving me any useful results (although I'm probably just searching the wrong terms).

In my current setup, I have a gscartsw 5.2 with a bunch of RGB consoles and a raspberry pi running retropie for kodi and arcade stuff that isn't practical for me to run on real hardware connected to the inputs and an rgb modded NTSC crt and an OSSC connected to the outputs. Before I connected the pi, everything worked great, but the pi is causing problems for me. I would prefer to leave the pi always powered on because its lack of a physical power switch means I have to physically disconnect and reconnect the delicate little micro usb cable every time I want to power it on, however if I do that it always outputs a signal and the gscartsw won't display any consoles that I power on when the pi is powered on first. Is there a way to set this up so that the signal from the pi will only be output from the gscartsw when no other input devices are on and if I power on any devices while the pi is being output it will switch to the other device? This is likely relevant to users of other devices which always output a signal, I've heard some transcoders might do that as well.
Unfortunately no easy solution for this. Raspberry Pi was designed to be always on and as you probably figured out, it's always outputting sync on your SCART connector. You can either try to find a way to disable that in software (retropie perhaps?) or try to find a MicroUSB breakout cable with the on/off switch, I've definitely seen those somewhere.
Cooperd9
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Cooperd9 »

superg wrote:
Cooperd9 wrote:Sorry if this has already been asked, but google isn't giving me any useful results (although I'm probably just searching the wrong terms).

In my current setup, I have a gscartsw 5.2 with a bunch of RGB consoles and a raspberry pi running retropie for kodi and arcade stuff that isn't practical for me to run on real hardware connected to the inputs and an rgb modded NTSC crt and an OSSC connected to the outputs. Before I connected the pi, everything worked great, but the pi is causing problems for me. I would prefer to leave the pi always powered on because its lack of a physical power switch means I have to physically disconnect and reconnect the delicate little micro usb cable every time I want to power it on, however if I do that it always outputs a signal and the gscartsw won't display any consoles that I power on when the pi is powered on first. Is there a way to set this up so that the signal from the pi will only be output from the gscartsw when no other input devices are on and if I power on any devices while the pi is being output it will switch to the other device? This is likely relevant to users of other devices which always output a signal, I've heard some transcoders might do that as well.
Unfortunately no easy solution for this. Raspberry Pi was designed to be always on and as you probably figured out, it's always outputting sync on your SCART connector. You can either try to find a way to disable that in software (retropie perhaps?) or try to find a MicroUSB breakout cable with the on/off switch, I've definitely seen those somewhere.
That is unfortunate, thanks for responding anyways. I guess now I have to figure out the cleanest way to get one of those set up. It looks like it would be really easy if I don't mind having a loose bare pcb dangling around with buttons on it, but if I want something clean it would be trickier, but there may be an option that solders directly to gpio, which I don't need since I am using HDMI->vga and then a custom vga->scart cable with a passive sync combiner built in, although I would then have to cut a hole in my case and have a power cable sticking diagonally out the corner.

If I can't find anything sufficiently clean for my tastes I guess I could also look through any documentation you have on the EXT port to see if there is enough info there that I could program an arduino nano or if I get really dedicated to this a PIC and an adapter board to force the behavior I want since I could at least stick that inside a bumper case and not have loose cables hanging around. A quick google search isn't showing that anyone else has done that yet. As far as the documentation for EXT is concerned, all I found so far is this
superg wrote:gscartsw_lite EXT pinout:
Pin 1: GND
Pin 2: Override
Pin 3: N/C
Pin 4: +5V
Pin 5: IN_BIT0
Pin 6: IN_BIT1
Pin 7: IN_BIT2
Pin 8: N/C

Pin 5-7 represents selected input in binary.
There isn't a whole lot there, but based on the features page of your store and what you have, it sounds like in the default state pin 4/5/6 will report whatever input is currently selected as a binary number and if I were to have an external output device output voltage on pin 2 (or short it to ground, I would have to check what its default behavior is with a multimeter) then 4/5/6 would act as an input and the gscartsw would read those pins as a binary number and select the corresponding input. That would be enough info to set up a remote or something to force a specific input if you already know what you want to override with (IE pressing 8 on a remote to force the switch to select input 8), but doesn't sound like it is quite enough for what I want to do, I would need to query for all currently active inputs. If I could do that, I should be able to code that would always override with the lowest numbered input when more than one are detected. Maybe in future hardware revisions the ext can be extended to support that or maybe that behavior can be built into new hardware (or firmware) revisions, but I don't have that much experience with hardware design, I'm just a programmer that can solder some basic stuff together if I have decent instructions.
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

Cooperd9 wrote:
superg wrote:
Cooperd9 wrote:Sorry if this has already been asked, but google isn't giving me any useful results (although I'm probably just searching the wrong terms).

In my current setup, I have a gscartsw 5.2 with a bunch of RGB consoles and a raspberry pi running retropie for kodi and arcade stuff that isn't practical for me to run on real hardware connected to the inputs and an rgb modded NTSC crt and an OSSC connected to the outputs. Before I connected the pi, everything worked great, but the pi is causing problems for me. I would prefer to leave the pi always powered on because its lack of a physical power switch means I have to physically disconnect and reconnect the delicate little micro usb cable every time I want to power it on, however if I do that it always outputs a signal and the gscartsw won't display any consoles that I power on when the pi is powered on first. Is there a way to set this up so that the signal from the pi will only be output from the gscartsw when no other input devices are on and if I power on any devices while the pi is being output it will switch to the other device? This is likely relevant to users of other devices which always output a signal, I've heard some transcoders might do that as well.
Unfortunately no easy solution for this. Raspberry Pi was designed to be always on and as you probably figured out, it's always outputting sync on your SCART connector. You can either try to find a way to disable that in software (retropie perhaps?) or try to find a MicroUSB breakout cable with the on/off switch, I've definitely seen those somewhere.
That is unfortunate, thanks for responding anyways. I guess now I have to figure out the cleanest way to get one of those set up. It looks like it would be really easy if I don't mind having a loose bare pcb dangling around with buttons on it, but if I want something clean it would be trickier, but there may be an option that solders directly to gpio, which I don't need since I am using HDMI->vga and then a custom vga->scart cable with a passive sync combiner built in, although I would then have to cut a hole in my case and have a power cable sticking diagonally out the corner.

If I can't find anything sufficiently clean for my tastes I guess I could also look through any documentation you have on the EXT port to see if there is enough info there that I could program an arduino nano or if I get really dedicated to this a PIC and an adapter board to force the behavior I want since I could at least stick that inside a bumper case and not have loose cables hanging around. A quick google search isn't showing that anyone else has done that yet. As far as the documentation for EXT is concerned, all I found so far is this
superg wrote:gscartsw_lite EXT pinout:
Pin 1: GND
Pin 2: Override
Pin 3: N/C
Pin 4: +5V
Pin 5: IN_BIT0
Pin 6: IN_BIT1
Pin 7: IN_BIT2
Pin 8: N/C

Pin 5-7 represents selected input in binary.
There isn't a whole lot there, but based on the features page of your store and what you have, it sounds like in the default state pin 4/5/6 will report whatever input is currently selected as a binary number and if I were to have an external output device output voltage on pin 2 (or short it to ground, I would have to check what its default behavior is with a multimeter) then 4/5/6 would act as an input and the gscartsw would read those pins as a binary number and select the corresponding input. That would be enough info to set up a remote or something to force a specific input if you already know what you want to override with (IE pressing 8 on a remote to force the switch to select input 8), but doesn't sound like it is quite enough for what I want to do, I would need to query for all currently active inputs. If I could do that, I should be able to code that would always override with the lowest numbered input when more than one are detected. Maybe in future hardware revisions the ext can be extended to support that or maybe that behavior can be built into new hardware (or firmware) revisions, but I don't have that much experience with hardware design, I'm just a programmer that can solder some basic stuff together if I have decent instructions.
That all sounds too much work. If you can program I suggest to look into how GPIO RGBS is implemented. Most likely this is kernel module and maybe it exposes something in /proc you can use to control it. Let's say enable the output on running retropie and disable it on exit. You can even try to load/unload the module if it does the trick.
Cooperd9
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Cooperd9 »

I ended up finding a pi hat that would work as a power switch, has a compatible 3d printed case, and even includes a remote that will work with kodi, so that will resolve things for me, but I would have preferred to implement something that would implement input priority on the gscartsw end because the project would be interesting and it would solve more setup problems. I can use a pi hat with my setup because I am outputting video over hdmi then converting to analog rgb (which was a pain to do, but the pi won't output interlaced resolutions over gpio so that was the only way I was going to display old 4:3 video content at its native resolution), but that doesn't solve the problem for people using one of the scart pi hats or anyone using some other device that always outputs a signal. I could probably figure out the software implementation for an arduino wired up to the ext header in a couple hours if I could check all active inputs, the code would just need to check the lowest active input and override to that input. Figuring out how to consolidate that into something smaller and potentially cheaper would be an interesting project, but that would all depend on finding a way to check which inputs are active.
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

Cooperd9 wrote:I ended up finding a pi hat that would work as a power switch, has a compatible 3d printed case, and even includes a remote that will work with kodi, so that will resolve things for me, but I would have preferred to implement something that would implement input priority on the gscartsw end because the project would be interesting and it would solve more setup problems. I can use a pi hat with my setup because I am outputting video over hdmi then converting to analog rgb (which was a pain to do, but the pi won't output interlaced resolutions over gpio so that was the only way I was going to display old 4:3 video content at its native resolution), but that doesn't solve the problem for people using one of the scart pi hats or anyone using some other device that always outputs a signal. I could probably figure out the software implementation for an arduino wired up to the ext header in a couple hours if I could check all active inputs, the code would just need to check the lowest active input and override to that input. Figuring out how to consolidate that into something smaller and potentially cheaper would be an interesting project, but that would all depend on finding a way to check which inputs are active.
Fair enough, just a few notes on EXT:
1. You can draw some power from pin 4 but try not to exceed 100mA
2. Pins 2, 5, 6, 7 are all 3.3V (connected through resistor to Altera IC)
3. Pin 5-7 should always be wired e.g. you can't expect logic low there if they aren't connected
4. I think something is inverted, either override or 5-7, almost nobody is using EXT so I keep forgetting, in any way it's easy to figure out
Cooperd9
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Cooperd9 »

I will have to wait until some parts I ordered get shipped, which could be quite a while these days, but I have at least got a basic plan for this now. I picked up an arduino nano every, which has exactly enough analog inputs that can read analog voltages from 0-5v and several digital pins that can work as an input or output and be controlled in software. The only problem is they are 5v high, so I'm going to have to step that down to 3.3v (this may not technically be necessary, but I don't know if the EXT is built for a 5v input to be safe). There are a bunch of different implementations for this so I'm not totally sure how I'm going to implement the step down yet. It looks like it could be powered by sending 5v from 5v on the EXT header to the 5v source pin on the arduino as long as USB isn't powered on, and a bit of research is suggesting the power draw will be under 100mA but I will have to double check that.

I'm also going to have to break out my multimeter and double check that the EXT header is behaving as expected since something might be inverted.

Here is my plan so far in case that helps anyone else.

https://imgur.com/a/3m3ukq8
Image

I guess I will let everyone know how it works out once I get the parts in, but there are tons of delays lately.
Cooperd9
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Cooperd9 »

I was supposed to get most of my parts delivered today but they were delivered to the mail room minutes before the mail room closed, so I have to wait until they open after new years, but I at least did some poking around with a voltmeter. The pins 5-7 are producing producing the expected input number based on the numbers printed on the bottom side of the PCB (the numbers are all 1 lower than the printed number because the printing starts at 1 and the binary starts at 0) but the override pin (2) is defaulting to 3.3V, so I presumably have to tie that low to override, not high like I was expecting.
Cooperd9
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Cooperd9 »

It isn't nearly as clean as I would like it to be and it took longer than I had hoped (debugging was a pain because my pc isn't close enough to my tvs to have both connected at the same time), but I have a working prototype for an EXT device to allow higher priority inputs to be selected overriding lower priority ones, so now I can have a device that always outputs a signal plugged into input 8 and when I turn on any of my other consoles they will be displayed (although the work is very messy). I had to make a few changes from the plan, notably tying the override pin high rather than low, connecting the analog reference to the 5v vcc pin of the arduino, not using 5v from EXT for power and instead using a separate usb cable, and adding a bunch of 10k pull down resistors to the analog inputs because without them they can float very high and cause false positives for active inputs. This design should work assuming the scart cables all have pin 16 wired up to a voltage source, which it should be because voltage on that pin is how tvs sense that an rgb signal is connected. Anywhere between 0.5 and 5v should work. The code could probably be modified to detect sync instead (scart pin 20) and that approach would also allow this design to work with the gcompsw, but I don't know enough about analog video signals or using the arduino's analog inputs to know how to implement that code at the moment.

If anyone else wants to improve on this, please go ahead but share your improvements with the community.

If anyone wants to try it out themselves, the only parts I needed were an arduino nano every (although a regular nano should do), 8 10kohm resistors, 3 voltage regulator step down modules I used to reduce the 5V high from the digital output pins down to the 3.3V the gscartsw needs, some basic prototyping solder board, and some 2x4 header pins and connectors.

Here is a picture of my (very messy atm) work

Image

and here is the code I used in case anyone wants to try this out themselves
Spoiler

Code: Select all

  /*
   * Constants for analog pins
   */
  /*
   * analog read returns a value between 0-1023 with 0 = ground
   * and 1023 = analog reference (5v for this purpose)
   * For scart fast switch pin, < 0.4V is low, so 0.5V will be the target
   * (0.5V/(5V/1024)) should give the int value corresponding to 0.5V
   */
  const int activeInputVoltage = 102;
  const int I0 = A0;
  const int I1 = A1;
  const int I2 = A2;
  const int I3 = A3;
  const int I4 = A4;
  const int I5 = A5;
  const int I6 = A6;
  const int I7 = A7;

  /*
   * constants for digital pins
   */
  const int inAddr0 = 10;  //Input address bit 0 (EXT 5)
  const int inAddr1 = 5;   //Input address bit 1 (EXT 6)
  const int inAddr2 =  2;  //Input address bit 2 (EXT 7)

  //pin 12 is OVERRIDE (EXT 2) set low to enable
  const int overridePin = 12;

  /*
   * variables for code execution
   */
  //store the lowest numbered input detected this loop iteration
  int lowestEnabledInput;

  /*
   * store the input that is currently selected
   * store this so the digital pins don't need
   * to be reset every second
   */
  int currentSelectedInput = 8;//default to 8 so it will be overwritten first loop iteration

void setup() {
  //set up digital pins
  
  pinMode(overridePin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(overridePin, LOW);   //enable OVERRIDE

  pinMode(inAddr0, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(inAddr1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(inAddr2, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(I7, INPUT);
  pinMode(I6, INPUT);
  pinMode(I5, INPUT);
  pinMode(I4, INPUT);
  pinMode(I3, INPUT);
  pinMode(I2, INPUT);
  pinMode(I1, INPUT);
  pinMode(I0, INPUT);

  analogReference(EXTERNAL);

  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // read inputs from highest to lowest fo find the highest 
  // priority that is currently active

  Serial.print("beginning loop iteration, current input = ");
  Serial.print(currentSelectedInput);
  Serial.println();

  lowestEnabledInput = 8; //guarantee an input will be found to have a higher priority

  if(analogRead(I7) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 7 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I7));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 7;
  }
  if(analogRead(I6) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 6 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I6));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 6;
  }
  if(analogRead(I5) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 5 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I5));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 5;
  }
  if(analogRead(I4) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 4 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I4));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 4;
  }
  if(analogRead(I3) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 3 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I3));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 3;
  }
  if(analogRead(I2) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 2 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I2));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 2;
  }
  if(analogRead(I1) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 1 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I1));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 1;
  }
  if(analogRead(I0) > activeInputVoltage) {
    Serial.println("Input 0 active");
    Serial.print("Voltage = ");
    Serial.print(analogRead(I0));
    Serial.println();
    lowestEnabledInput = 0;
  }

  Serial.print("lowest enabled input = ");
  Serial.println(lowestEnabledInput);
  if(currentSelectedInput != lowestEnabledInput) {
    Serial.print("updating input, previous selection was ");
    Serial.println(currentSelectedInput);
    Serial.print("bit 0 ");
    Serial.println(bitRead(lowestEnabledInput, 0));
    Serial.print("bit 1 ");
    Serial.println(bitRead(lowestEnabledInput, 1));
    Serial.print("bit 2 ");
    Serial.println(bitRead(lowestEnabledInput, 2));
    //send the address of the input to use to gscart EXT
    digitalWrite(inAddr0, bitRead(lowestEnabledInput, 0));
    digitalWrite(inAddr1, bitRead(lowestEnabledInput, 1));
    digitalWrite(inAddr2, bitRead(lowestEnabledInput, 2));
    currentSelectedInput = lowestEnabledInput;
  }

  delay(500); //wait 0.5 second to poll again
}
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

Cooperd9 wrote:It isn't nearly as clean as I would like it to be and it took longer than I had hoped (debugging was a pain because my pc isn't close enough to my tvs to have both connected at the same time), but I have a working prototype for an EXT device to allow higher priority inputs to be selected overriding lower priority ones, so now I can have a device that always outputs a signal plugged into input 8 and when I turn on any of my other consoles they will be displayed (although the work is very messy). I had to make a few changes from the plan, notably tying the override pin high rather than low, connecting the analog reference to the 5v vcc pin of the arduino, not using 5v from EXT for power and instead using a separate usb cable, and adding a bunch of 10k pull down resistors to the analog inputs because without them they can float very high and cause false positives for active inputs. This design should work assuming the scart cables all have pin 16 wired up to a voltage source, which it should be because voltage on that pin is how tvs sense that an rgb signal is connected. Anywhere between 0.5 and 5v should work. The code could probably be modified to detect sync instead (scart pin 20) and that approach would also allow this design to work with the gcompsw, but I don't know enough about analog video signals or using the arduino's analog inputs to know how to implement that code at the moment.

If anyone else wants to improve on this, please go ahead but share your improvements with the community.

If anyone wants to try it out themselves, the only parts I needed were an arduino nano every (although a regular nano should do), 8 10kohm resistors, 3 voltage regulator step down modules I used to reduce the 5V high from the digital output pins down to the 3.3V the gscartsw needs, some basic prototyping solder board, and some 2x4 header pins and connectors.

Here is a picture of my (very messy atm) work

and here is the code I used in case anyone wants to try this out themselves
A bit messy yeah but I'm glad you achieved what you wanted!
Basically you have the detection method exactly like I had it for older versions of the switch (v3.4 and lower), based on voltage on pin 8 / pin 16. It was problematic for a lot of users because some didn't have fully routed SCART cables and I was getting a lot of feedback like "it works directly on the framemeister with the same cable but not through the switch".
Cooperd9
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by Cooperd9 »

It would definitely be better to monitor on sync, that would just require a lot more research to figure out how to implement code that can accurately sense a sync signal, which will likely be trickier than just checking if there is any voltage. This implementation works with all of my devices except my genesis model 1, (I am using one of the retro gaming cables adapters that adapt the genesis 1 din to a genesis 2 mini din with stereo audio, but their product listing says that adapter won't work with TVs with a SCART input because they didn't wire up 5v and can only be used with upscalers or pvms), and my raspberry pi, because I am using an hdmi to vga adapter that doesn't have 5v on the right pin and sending that to a vga to scart cable with a sync combiner built in that I made. Both of those are things I can fix, I will just need to run a wire from a 5v source on the pi to my cable and make my own genesis adapter, which I was considering anyways because the headphone pigtail on theirs is 6" too long anyways.
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superg
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Re: gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thre

Post by superg »

Entroper wrote:Hi superg, loving my gscartsw, just had a quick question -- is it designed to be left plugged in and running 24/7 or should I unplug it when I'm not using it?
Yes, you can keep that plugged 24/7. Mine is plugged in for years.
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