gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thread

[andykara2003]

Thanks for that Superg, I'll give you a shout at some point if I decide to go ahead :)

[superg]

I prepared a lot to ship, will be dropped off tomorrow.
Slightly more than 60% are shipped.

[Sabin]

Sup SuperG, just wanted to say thanks for the gscartsw, its an amazing device. We were actually in the last shipment you sent out - your gscart lite showed up Friday, which was right before my event, I was super relieved.


RetroRGB was recently at an event we were doing yesterday (2Old2Furious) which is a retro game fighting game tourney.

We used 3 gscartsw (gscart 3.4) and 2 gscart lites to split the feed properly from BVM/PVM to get 4 arcade feeds going simultaneously on a stream.
I would definitely reccomend your device to just about anybody, there's basically no signal loss from gscart that I can see. Easily the best scart splitter I've ever used.

Here's a video from Bob showing off a lot of the tech that was used to stream the tourney - ossc, framemeister, RGB distro amps and of course Gscart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbq-aZO3qDQ&t=681s

Will definitely order a second one as soon as you have any in stock.

Also, reading this thread I do have the same problem that everyone else does with PC Engine and Gscart lite. Will be checking back here to see a possible fix. Thanks and keep up the great work.

[zionfarm]

Sup everybody,

Just got back from a nine month deployment to Iraq. Really excited to get on the pre-order list for the gscartsw lite.

[Xenomrph]

I prepared a lot to ship, will be dropped off tomorrow.
Slightly more than 60% are shipped.

Glad to hear it, definitely looking forward to mine! It's going to really streamline my scart cable setup.

[beaver_cheese]

Got my lite in the mail today. Very excited to get it hooked up.

Would this be suitable for connecting the lite to a PVM?

https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/son ... rter-cable

[Guspaz]

Yes, but be sure to get the right direction (you want the INPUT one).

[benvw99]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the place to leave this message, but it's my best guess. I saw on your website that the gcomp is sold out. I was just wondering if there is a waiting list or a subscription list that I am supposed to go on? I am just not sure what to do as I would like to order 2 gcomp devices. Thanks!!

[superg]

Got my lite in the mail today. Very excited to get it hooked up.

Would this be suitable for connecting the lite to a PVM?

https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/son ... rter-cable

Yeah, that should work.

[hyrulebr]

I just received my Gscartw_lite here in Brazil. Thank you!

[coderkind]

Sup SuperG, just wanted to say thanks for the gscartsw, its an amazing device. We were actually in the last shipment you sent out - your gscart lite showed up Friday, which was right before my event, I was super relieved.


RetroRGB was recently at an event we were doing yesterday (2Old2Furious) which is a retro game fighting game tourney.

We used 3 gscartsw (gscart 3.4) and 2 gscart lites to split the feed properly from BVM/PVM to get 4 arcade feeds going simultaneously on a stream.
I would definitely reccomend your device to just about anybody, there's basically no signal loss from gscart that I can see. Easily the best scart splitter I've ever used.

Here's a video from Bob showing off a lot of the tech that was used to stream the tourney - ossc, framemeister, RGB distro amps and of course Gscart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbq-aZO3qDQ&t=681s

Will definitely order a second one as soon as you have any in stock.

Also, reading this thread I do have the same problem that everyone else does with PC Engine and Gscart lite. Will be checking back here to see a possible fix. Thanks and keep up the great work.

What are the issues people are experiencing with the PC Engine?

[superg]

What are the issues people are experiencing with the PC Engine?

got my gscartsw_lite finally. I connected my Super Famicom, Sega Genesis, and PC-Engine scart cables to the switcher, then a male-to-BNC cable to my PVM. Only the SF and SG worked fine. Unfortunately, the PC-Engine didn't work.

PC-Engine set-up goes like this: PC-Engine -> db-grafxbooster -> genesis model2 scart cable -> gscartsw_lite -> male-to-female BNC -> PVM 20M2MDU.

I confirmed there's nothing wrong with neither the model2 scart cable nor the db-grafxbooster by not using the gscartswitch_lite, but rather connecting like this: PC-Engine -> dbgrafxbooster -> genesis model2 scart -> female-to-BNC -> PVM.

It seems to be the switcher Any Ideas?

Some people are having problems with TurboGrafx / PC-Engine and my switch due to incorrect mods and incompatible sync level. I don't own db-grafxbooster and I can't say for sure what's going on there. I have Voultar kit for TurboGrafx though and once I ship everything I'm going to look what's going on.

[Fudoh]

Some people are having problems with TurboGrafx / PC-Engine and my switch due to incorrect mods and incompatible sync level

what's the sync level range the Lite will accept for it's sync processing ?

[superg]

Some people are having problems with TurboGrafx / PC-Engine and my switch due to incorrect mods and incompatible sync level

what's the sync level range the Lite will accept for it's sync processing ?

The detection is complex because the sampling is done so many times a second and basically the integration is done in order to decide whether it's a signal or not. ADC range is −0.3V to +5.25V but there is also a multiplexer, an opamp and other logic (which I am to lazy to check ATM) with it's own ranges and it can be cut anywhere. Basically TTL doesn't work. Based on reports *Grafx stuff works for most but not for some, mostly I get PC Engine incompatibility reports so the PC Engine hardware might be different. I don't own PC Engine here.

[Fudoh]

mostly I get PC Engine incompatibility reports so the PC Engine hardware might be different.

I don't think it's different, it's just that PCE RGB mods have been sloppy for decades.

Would be great to hear from somebody who tried a PCE or Duo using Tim's AV Driver board.

[axlblazeadam]

Are the preorders of the gscartsw_lite closed?

[coderkind]

Thanks for posting the info @superg.

mostly I get PC Engine incompatibility reports so the PC Engine hardware might be different.

I don't think it's different, it's just that PCE RGB mods have been sloppy for decades.

Anyone know if any of the RGB mods outlined on http://retrorgb.com/tg16.html work with the gscartsw_lite?

[superg]

Are the preorders of the gscartsw_lite closed?

Yes, currently I'm shipping the pre-orders. There will be extra units from this batch which I will put on sale some time after I finish with the pre-orders.
I'll announce everything here.

[Mobiusstriptech]

The board from Voultar is supported.

I do wonder if the issues with the dbgrafx booster are related to the fact that its using the sony encoder and basically massaging the signals twice and trying to output as a genesis? I hope that sounds like some sort of coherent thought.

[superg]

The board from Voultar is supported.

I do wonder if the issues with the dbgrafx booster are related to the fact that its using the sony encoder and basically massaging the signals twice and trying to output as a genesis? I hope that sounds like some sort of coherent thought.

If you're talking about Genesis 2 and XRGB-Mini screen corruption - sync regeneration fixes that.

[Mobiusstriptech]

The board from Voultar is supported.

I do wonder if the issues with the dbgrafx booster are related to the fact that its using the sony encoder and basically massaging the signals twice and trying to output as a genesis? I hope that sounds like some sort of coherent thought.

If you're talking about Genesis 2 and XRGB-Mini screen corruption - sync regeneration fixes that.

I meant it mainly in regards to the people complaining about pc engine having issues with the dbgrafxbooster. Not related to the genesis 2 issue. I'm just wondering if the sync signal is not quite correct and is occasionally experiencing a spike or a drop in signal which the regeneration then doesn't process correctly.

Like a chain reaction type of situation.

[superg]

I meant it mainly in regards to the people complaining about pc engine having issues with the dbgrafxbooster. Not related to the genesis 2 issue. I'm just wondering if the sync signal is not quite correct and is occasionally experiencing a spike or a drop in signal which the regeneration then doesn't process correctly.

Like a chain reaction type of situation.

Oh, got it.

[axlblazeadam]

Are the preorders of the gscartsw_lite closed?

Yes, currently I'm shipping the pre-orders. There will be extra units from this batch which I will put on sale some time after I finish with the pre-orders.
I'll announce everything here.

Okay thank you. I'll keep an eye out because i recently got the need for 2 outputs (extra monitor), so the lite is perfect for me.

[anolte]

I know this probably isn't the place to ask, but I will be away from home next week and won't be back until Monday, Aug 7. If you haven't already shipped my gscartsw_lite, would it be possible to wait until I get back to ship it? I live in an apartment and want to prevent against the possibility of theft or weather damage while I'm away.

[Mobiusstriptech]

I just thought about this, I wonder what scart cables are in use on the consoles having issues with the dbgrafx booster. I bet they are cables with the boosted sync that use a THS7314 in the scart head and crank the voltage up to 5v.

[benvw99]

How does the upgradeable firmware work on the gcomp?

Is there just a microSD slot?

[Guspaz]

No, like the gscartsw there is a jtag header, so presumably you'll need something like an Altera USB blaster to update the firmware. They're super cheap, though, they sell for one or two dollars on eBay.

[hyrulebr]

What are your thoughts on Robs testing with the BVM A series , and the sync issue? (even with the your sync regen on the lite)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkslzaHJXzE&t=2s

Is is possible / easy to generate "Horizontal slices in the vertical sync block" realtime within the circuitry ?

If I understand what's going on correctly, it makes perfect sense the gscart lite didn't fix the issue. It's merely digitizing the existing sync signal. No clue myself how easy/hard it would be to reprogram the signal to have slices in real time.

I started playing with my gscartw_lite and BVM A24. I linked gscartw_lite to gscartw 3.2 (rev. is my guess) and then to the BVM. All the sync problems gone!

Maybe Bob from Retrorgb has not been able to get rid of the BVM A issues because I had to enable sync regeneration (CS ON) on the lite model and also "CS ON" on the 3.2 model. Without the "CS on" in the 3.2 I get a very shaken image. Maybe Bob has an old firmware version - Bob upload the video 15 days before my switch was sent (HARDWARE rev. 1.5).

Another thing: I didn't use the vga out from Gscartw 3.2. I prefer to use the scart out with a scart to VGA adapter (and then a monoprice VGA to BNC cable) because that way I can control "CS" on the switch (gscartw have "always on" CS on the vga output but controlable in the scart out).

I was able to fix all these consoles or cores (from NT mini):

3DO with RGB mod (Otaku France board)
PC engine with RGB mod (made by Keith Courage from PCenginefx.com foruns - probably a DIY solution)
Supergrafx with RGB mod (made by my tech here in Brazil - DIY circuit)
Master system (original console)
Master system (NT mini core)
Game gear (NT mini core)
Other cores (Atari 2600, Odyssey, etc)

The only core I couldn't make work was the Atari 7800 (all messed up screen). I will try latter if the extron can help in this case.

Also I found that the old Extron 109xi interface solves BVM A sync issues the same way as 580xi and it's a lot cheaper.

[Gabeshack]

Not to get off topic but Tim Worthington has said he is working on an rgb mod for the Atari 7800. Hoping that may fix what your describing.

[Kagigod]

Hello,
yesterday I got the lite

So far I tested it with Staturn, Megadrive, PlayStation and SNES. Everything seems to work perfect but the SNES.

My setup is a Samsung KS7000 using a Framemeister. If I connect the SNES to the mini (edit: I mean xrgb mini) directly, the image is just perfect, but if I connect the gscart lite to the xrgb mini and then the SNES to the gscart, the image I get is yellow tinted, like if it was super super warm. I've checked with 2 different SNES, a 1-chip and a 2-chip and 2 different cables, a Sync on luma from retrorgamingcables and a sync on composite I got many years ago, happens the same with both consoles and cables. Also checked with sync regeneration on and off, same again.

I've taken a couple crappy pictures with phone, I you look closely you can see the effect, but it's much more visible in person. Any ideas? Is there a problem with my gscart lite?

Screen cap using the Gscart:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B06_M ... 3ZYNG95MFE

Screen cap direct connection to the mini:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B06_M ... zJEZExFdEk

Again, sorry for the crappy pictures.

Any help will be much appreciated