Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

The place for all discussion on gaming hardware
User avatar
Gunstar
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Gunstar »

strayan wrote: Picked up one and it’s working great with my GBS-C in 480p to 240p downscale mode (the GBS wouldn’t power it though):

https://imgur.com/a/hlnHnWl
Looks great, I still need to check out downscaled Anthology!
Elrinth wrote:How will OSSC like this if we feed it VGA via Scart (via gscartsw) instead of in the VGA port? Will it still handle all the synk signals, resolutions etc the same way?
There is an option to disable the sync signal blocker to get 31khz but I'm not sure if the sync signal will also be consumer safe/75ohm sync like it is at 15khz. Hopefully, Tim can clear that up if not I'll try and test it when it arrives.
strayan
Posts: 671
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:33 pm

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by strayan »

Gunstar wrote: There is an option to disable the sync signal blocker to get 31khz but I'm not sure if the sync signal will also be consumer safe/75ohm sync like it is at 15khz. Hopefully, Tim can clear that up if not I'll try and test it when it arrives.
Did you end up testing to see whether Csync stays at 75ohm when feeding it 31khz?
User avatar
Gunstar
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Gunstar »

strayan wrote:
Gunstar wrote: There is an option to disable the sync signal blocker to get 31khz but I'm not sure if the sync signal will also be consumer safe/75ohm sync like it is at 15khz. Hopefully, Tim can clear that up if not I'll try and test it when it arrives.
Did you end up testing to see whether Csync stays at 75ohm when feeding it 31khz?
Not yet, I'll try and get around to testing it this weekend. I know someone who said it passed through 720p/1080p to his capture card and he hadn't disabled the blocker so I'm curious to see what's going on.
Last edited by Gunstar on Wed May 12, 2021 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
archimage
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:00 am

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by archimage »

kitty666cats wrote:
kitty666cats wrote:Ahh, well this explains why that JS Tech box didn't arouse much interest when I reached out to a few places to toy with it, heh. This thing's got several more inputs and dat versatile output!
(...as in, those big retro vidya/gear news sites/YouTube pages and some of the AV companies have their hands in eachother's pockets and don't give a flying fuck about something different when they've already been in the know about stuff like these new devices that their personal friends made, haha. BUT, that's good business, hype something up too early and the idea could get jacked :o These new devices do look cool!)

EDIT: Not at all that I am butthurt about that 1:2 SCART splitter, it's a pretty simplistic unit, I just found it ironic that several I'd reached out to try it viewed it with skepticism, perhaps the impression was as if it was some iffy dev new to the mix. Head honcho's a nice fella who's been making transcoders/switches/splitters & scalers for like 2 and a half decades :shock: BUT, to be fair, the products of JS Tech aren't intended solely for gaming use, and never were. A bit of an apples and oranges deal, this new splitter+switch is quite diff :) I guess I'm just bummin' my efforts convincing that company to make it may have been over-excitment over something people would need (wasn't gonna make any moneys on the device!), but with enough factors of what people are willing to pay coming into the mix, people usually just grab up those Shinybow Matrixes or gscartsw's / Hyrdras if they're already ready to drop around $70

I'm just glad there's more units being made providing dual SCART output that aren't loaded with more inputs/tech/features than I'd particularly need, there's a pretty strange lack of ready-to-order powered SCART devices to distribute a console's RGB signal. The Shinybow matrixes and also their crazy 1:8 distro amp seemed to be the cheapest bet, and reside still far over a hundo :o

Hope more stuff with 2 outputs keeps getting made, even something like a switchable 2:2 would be neat! No clue if that's fathomable under $100 though :o All the TaoBao designs making it over to Aliexpress are interesting, can't wait to see if more stuff pops up.

--------------------

ONWARD: on the note of the Worthington stuff, I am most definitely interested in seeing a price point on his SCART switch/splitter, as well as that DE-15 -> SCART doohickey. Don't particularly need either, but I dig the designs of them... moreso curious about the first one! The latter is nice, but I feel like we've already had boundless possibilities for CRT Emudriver / 15kHz DE-15 to SCART Pi output for quite a long time now. I do like how it has that 'damage control' for 31kHz and beyond though :)

For instance, Antonio Villena has designed this cable that carries audio through the DE-15 cable (though it's currently used specifically for his own devices)

https://www.antoniovillena.es/store/pro ... art-cable/

Image

Here's the unit said cable was originally designed for, I think?

https://www.antoniovillena.es/store/pro ... 0crt-rpi4/

Image
Yes I can confirm this cable is designed only for his device, the pinout is a bit different, pin 11 has audio left, and the right audio is going through the shield
Last edited by archimage on Fri Jun 11, 2021 11:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Gunstar
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Gunstar »

strayan wrote:
Gunstar wrote: There is an option to disable the sync signal blocker to get 31khz but I'm not sure if the sync signal will also be consumer safe/75ohm sync like it is at 15khz. Hopefully, Tim can clear that up if not I'll try and test it when it arrives.
Did you end up testing to see whether Csync stays at 75ohm when feeding it 31khz?
Well using the methods from the How to determine TTL Sync thread I've got some multimeter readings.

Image

Removing the case and plugging Tim's SCART adapter into a CRT I sent out a 15khz signal from a GBS-C board with the source being a white screen, I had to use the extra 5v USB to DC cable to get the CRT to recognise an RGB signal is coming through (Blanking/Pin 16?). Multimeter set to (DC) 2V I got a .323 from Pin 20. I then soldered the jumper (J1) on Tim's adapter to disable the sync blocker and then retested it with the GBS-C spitting out 480p (CRT image was no longer stable) to get the same .323 millivolt reading on Pin 20.

The proper method is to use an oscilloscope (I don't have one) but apparently, it's good enough to tell the difference between TTL and 75ohm? Let me know if there are any mistakes to the methodology and I'll do a retest.
strayan
Posts: 671
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:33 pm

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by strayan »

That’s good news for Retrotink 5x users who want to reverse the orientation of the SCART plug.
User avatar
Josh128
Posts: 2123
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 9:01 am

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Josh128 »

Gunstar wrote:
strayan wrote:
Gunstar wrote: There is an option to disable the sync signal blocker to get 31khz but I'm not sure if the sync signal will also be consumer safe/75ohm sync like it is at 15khz. Hopefully, Tim can clear that up if not I'll try and test it when it arrives.
Did you end up testing to see whether Csync stays at 75ohm when feeding it 31khz?
Well using the methods from the How to determine TTL Sync thread I've got some multimeter readings.


Multimeter set to (DC) 2V I got a .323 from Pin 20. I then soldered the jumper (J1) on Tim's adapter to disable the sync blocker and then retested it with the GBS-C spitting out 480p (CRT image was no longer stable) to get the same .323 millivolt reading on Pin 20.

The proper method is to use an oscilloscope (I don't have one) but apparently, it's good enough to tell the difference between TTL and 75ohm? Let me know if there are any mistakes to the methodology and I'll do a retest.
Sync is a high frequency AC signal, you should have probably tested with the AC voltage setting on your DMM. At the very least it should be more accurate than DC, see what you get with the AC setting. DMMs AC setting will give you the RMS value of a sine wave. Sync is not a sine wave, but pulses, so its not going to be super accurate either, but you may be able to divide the output by .707 (or multiply by 1.414) to get a better idea of the actual peak voltage, which is what you need to know.
User avatar
Gunstar
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Gunstar »

Josh128 wrote:
Sync is a high frequency AC signal, you should have probably tested with the AC voltage setting on your DMM. At the very least it should be more accurate than DC, see what you get with the AC setting. DMMs AC setting will give you the RMS value of a sine wave. Sync is not a sine wave, but pulses, so its not going to be super accurate either, but you may be able to divide the output by .707 (or multiply by 1.414) to get a better idea of the actual peak voltage, which is what you need to know.
Thanks for this, I'll retest with the DMM using the 200v AC setting and report back.
User avatar
Gunstar
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Gunstar »

@Josh I'm not getting any reading with the 200v AC setting (lowest on my cheapie DMM). I'm assuming the load is too small?

Stupid question time: With both DC readings matching and knowing one is definitely 75ohm attenuated sync should that not mean they're the same regardless of the inaccuracy of the actual voltage?
User avatar
Josh128
Posts: 2123
Joined: Thu Jan 16, 2014 9:01 am

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Josh128 »

Perhaps, but its hard to say how the DC setting will read pulsed voltage like that. Its possible it could be reading just noise / some constant minimal voltage, etc. I dont really know.

You said you cant go under 200V on AC setting? Most even cheap DMMs can read into the 10th's of a volt on AC settings.
User avatar
Gunstar
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Gunstar »

Yeah, it's not showing any reading on the SCART. I did a quick test on a 5v barrel jack and it gave a reading (10.0) so I assume it was working?

I tested pin 20 using both the common ground/outer shield and sync input ground on pin 18 and nothing :/
Last edited by Gunstar on Wed May 19, 2021 3:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Gunstar
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:29 am
Location: UK

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by Gunstar »

I messaged Tim and he confirmed it's always 75ohm:
The sync output is always 75 ohm, regardless of the frequency.
So it's safe for the OSSC/Tink at 480p.
strayan
Posts: 671
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:33 pm

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by strayan »

Gunstar wrote:I messaged Tim and he confirmed it's always 75ohm:
The sync output is always 75 ohm, regardless of the frequency.
So it's safe for the OSSC/Tink at 480p.
Woohoo!
fernan1234
Posts: 2175
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:34 pm

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by fernan1234 »

Does Tim's VGA to SCART dongle accept RGBS inputs or only RGBHV?
strayan
Posts: 671
Joined: Sun Mar 19, 2017 8:33 pm

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by strayan »

fernan1234 wrote:Does Tim's VGA to SCART dongle accept RGBS inputs or only RGBHV?
Both (see image 4) https://etim.net.au/shop/shop.php?crn=2 ... how_detail#
fernan1234
Posts: 2175
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:34 pm

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by fernan1234 »

strayan wrote:Both (see image 4) https://etim.net.au/shop/shop.php?crn=2 ... ow_detail#
I missed the info there. Thanks! Still not sure if I'll need this long term but it seems worth having in one's tool box.
archimage
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 1:00 am

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by archimage »

received a couple of them today, very well designed and very handy, works fine with the MiSTer
thchardcore
Posts: 481
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:20 am
Location: Liberal cesspool

Re: Tim Worthington: SCART2ARC30 Announced

Post by thchardcore »

Will this work with medium res 24 Khz signals?
A camel is a horse designed by a committee
Post Reply