Extron Crosspoint switches

[BuckoA51]

Okay. so I picked up an Extron Crosspoint switch from eBay, it arrived today. While I wait for some cables and bits to try it properly, I decided I'd give component video a go through it just to see if it worked (the instructions say this is possible)

I set my PS2 to component video and hooked it up through the Crosspoint (Y to red, P to green, Br to blue) to the Mini, and set the mini to D input. I powered on the Extron switch and routed input 1 to all outputs, at least that's what I believe I did, input 1 red light is on steady, while all the output lights are lit steady too.

Mini says "NO SIGNAL".

Have I done something wrong or is it a dud?

[Fudoh]

Luma gets usually connected to "G", but if did the mix up on both ends it shouldn't matter.

[BuckoA51]

Hmm, so there's no secret to getting a picture out of the thing, if an input light is on and an output light is on it should be routing that input to that output?

Strongly beginning to suspect it might be faulty then. I will test the Dreamcast when I get another RGBHV breakout cable.

[Fudoh]

there are so many models, that I can't tell. It's usually really easy. On mine I simply hold the output button and press the input I want to see on it. Mine has green lights though. Does yours have integrated sync processing ?

[BuckoA51]

No sync processing. There's a bunch of DIP switches for changing the sync termination on some outputs. Here's some pictures of it:-

https://flic.kr/p/nQsUeb
https://flic.kr/p/o5VaGq

I had the input plugged into input 1 and output into output 1. I then Set the unit so the input 1 light was lit and ALL The output lights were lit, which says to me input 1 should be routed to all outputs. Still no signal though.

[Fudoh]

you have to make sure that both i/o lamp on the right are lit as well, otherwise you might only be routing audio, but not video. You also have to press enter after every input/output combination to activate/save it.

[BuckoA51]

Yep both I/O lights were on.

Here's the part I'm not clear about. I pressed the buttons and lit the lights as explained. When I press Enter to save the configuration, all the lights all go out. After this I press input one button again and the lights light up again in the same configuration, which I assumed meant that it should be routing, but maybe not then?

[Fudoh]

I haven't used mine for such a long time. Maybe PM Konsolkongen. He's got one in daily use.

[BuckoA51]

Good idea. I'll wait and see when I've got some proper cables for RGBHV too just to be 100% certain it's not my crappy cabling.

[Seraphic]

I have a Extron Crosspoint Ultra 8x8 that I purchase quite some time ago but never used. I hope to change that when I get my analog setup complete.
Should be able to offer some assistance and well as find some information here useful to get my Crosspoint working.

[BuckoA51]

Bought some proper VGA to BNC cables and tried my Dreamcast.

extron-sucess by videogameperfection, on Flickr

Success! Now onto getting sound and 15khz RGB through the thing.

[Seraphic]

Looking good! For that image with Sonic, are you feeding the Dreamcast into a DVDO Edge or Optoma HD-3000?
My cables should arrive on July 8th, so hope everything goes well too.

[BuckoA51]

In that particular case neither, and it's just the Dreamcast's "Please set the clock as you haven't powered me on in a couple days" screen.

Or do you mean my Flickr account with Sonic R? That's the PC version forced into 1080p with a little hex editing and yes that's my DVDO Edge.

[Seraphic]

Yes, I was looking at the other pictures on your Flickr account (saw that Optoma HD-3000 ).
About that Sonic R picture showing 1080p, how did you get a Dreamcast to output six multichannel LPCM channels at 96Khz?

And how did you like that Auzentech HDMI soundcard? Can it record more then two channels of HDMI audio?
I own their Prelude soundcard, but I went to download drivers from their website the other day and seems the company is no longer operating.

[BuckoA51]

About that Sonic R picture showing 1080p, how did you get a Dreamcast to output six multichannel LPCM channels at 96Khz?

It is not a Dreamcast! lol, it's a PC, for the second time...

And how did you like that Auzentech HDMI soundcard? Can it record more then two channels of HDMI audio?

Never tried recording with it. It's the only card I know of that can do X-Fi and hardware accelerated audio via HDMI though. Of course you need to be either in XP or using some sort of wrapper like ALchemy for that to work, but very handy if you like to play older PC games.

Cards like the Prelude are limited to analogue audio or Dolby Digital for surround sound. I have the latest Prelude drivers if you need them btw. Yes Auzentech disappeared some months ago, I think the demand for PC sounds cards now is pretty low considering most graphics cards can do HDMI sound output now too.

[Seraphic]

That's the PC version forced into 1080p with a little hex editing and yes that's my DVDO Edge.

Oh, I thought that said DC not PC. My bad.

Cards like the Prelude are limited to analogue audio or Dolby Digital for surround sound. I have the latest Prelude drivers if you need them btw. Yes Auzentech disappeared some months ago, I think the demand for PC sounds cards now is pretty low considering most graphics cards can do HDMI sound output now too.

That's too bad. You got the Creative hardware without all their driver bloatware. I might have one of the newer drivers on one of my usb hard-drives, will have to check.

[BuckoA51]

I think the driver packages were about the same, but the Auzentech cards seemed to be made to a higher standard, at least in my experience. Last Sound Blaster I owned always had a little noise on the analogue outputs.

Of course unless you want to play old games in surround sound there's really no need for a sound card any more.

[BuckoA51]

Successfully rigged up an audio in and out connector and tested my Crosspoint switch for audio (I wired it up Phoenix or whatever those connectors are called to 2xRCA female as per Extron's instructions here - http://media.extron.com/download/files/ ... 9-03_A.pdf)

I didn't enjoy the soldering part much but luckily both my dad and my girlfriend are pretty good at it, so usually one of them will help me

[Fudoh]

It's important that you use the wiring for unbalanced audio on both the inputs and the outputs.

[BuckoA51]

Yep, that's what I did.

[BuckoA51]

Oh dear, I do not have good news. Half an hour into testing with mine today everything was going swimmingly then poof... no bang, or burned smell but.. no picture, no LEDs on the switch, nothing.. the entire thing just died.

I guess these aren't as robust and indestructible as people make out I'm opening it up now to see if I can figure out what gave out.

[Fudoh]

It's the capacitors inside. The switches aren't this complicated, so recapping or at least finding the culprit shouldn't be too hard.

[BuckoA51]

capacitors on the PSU board? I just checked the fuse there and it seems fine.

[Fudoh]

I would assume, yes. I had a high-end Extron VSC unit going down like this.

[BuckoA51]

Ok, this thing looks like it's split open:-

extron-psu-possible-fault by videogameperfection, on Flickr

Could that be the culprit?

[BuckoA51]

I'm dumb, it's never happened before but turns out it was the power cable that was faulty all along. Replaced it and my Extron Matrix works again. Furthermore, I got the first prototype cable in and to my surprise my PC Engine and Atari Jaguar must be using clean sync as they route through the matrix no problem.

I just have to test sound now, then sort out a cable with a sync stripper built in for a couple of systems (clean sync is definitely needed, can't even get away with luma for sync).