gscartsw / gscartsw_lite / gcompsw switches support thread

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Those custom charges are dumb.

[mjs0686]

Yes, it would be enough. Search for "barrel plug splitter" on eBay or Amazon.

Got one this weekend and it works great, I power my gscartsw and gscompsw with a single power supply.

The plugs are the 5.5mm x 2.1mm if anyone else is interested. They're cheap.

Thanks Superg.

Now I'm just waiting for my new scart cables to come.

[superg]

The following story is not supposed to be criticizing superg, instead I want to give other Germans a perspective what they have to deal with when they want to import a gscartsw_lite.
The content of the packages has been identified as "Scart Watch" (sic!) each. I tried to explain to them that there are actually scart _switches_ in there.

For every package I set "Videogame accessory" type and state "SCART switch" in the details. It's declared $100 value (the maximum I get from USPS insurance in case the package is lost). CN22 is the only mandatory form I have to fill in order to ship internationally. No invoice is required inside. That said I have no idea how they came up with "SCART watch"

Then they asked for a bill so they could determine the value and charge customs based on that. I showed them the Paypal transaction email on my smartphone, but they insisted on a paper bill and asked me to print out this email. I notified them that the value of the package was written on the parcel label, but the told me that this could be made up. I asked myself if they believe that a printed out Paypal email could not be faked. They let me open the package since I was hoping of finding some kind of invoice, but I got no luck.

Luckily a friend is just living around the customs office, and seven minutes later I showed up back at the office with the untampered printed out email. I had to wait another 30 minutes. Then they told me that they just experienced a computer crash and that everything's going to take a while. After I opened the packages again and described in detail what the content was (not a watch), they searched ca. 20 minutes for the correct category in their catalog (which denotes how much customs I have to pay). They were unsuccessful with both "SCART switch" and "SCART Umschalter" (switch in German), but managed to find "HDMI Umschalter". To get out of there before sunset I told them that this is basically the same. After some more waiting they charged 81€ (~97$), based on the value of the gscarts _and_ the shipping costs, this included ~20€ of administrative charge.

But since the payment is managed by another employee I had to wait another 20 minutes. Oh dear.

Fun fact: Customs offices are not obliged to take credit/ec cards, only cash (I was warned of that in the inital letter I got). Luckily this one did take cards.

The other stuff sounds like extremely incompetent customs employees. Usually they tax based on the value + raw postage, all specified in the CN22.

[Pushky]

The reason why i don't buy a gscart as the German user in Portugal the story would be like this. You send the item it arrives in Portugal then probably a month month and half they send me the paperwork to fill, i send it back, then they send the item to me charging, from my estimate something like 100€ so a scart of 200€ would cost me 300€ and customs are only in Lisbon, and I am in Porto. By mail is the only way


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chromium]

Wow. For once something works better in Australia.

We don't pay any tax on imports valued under $1000. Although they are trying to change this.

[gordon-creAtive]

I tried out the gscart yesterday and I'm really pleased. Besides the already known advantages I also enjoyed the following enhancement to my setup:

* My consumer CRT always switches to antenna input when turned on (but remembers the selected channel -_-). Since there's no antenna connected it will make a loud hiss and display noise for several seconds until it mutes itself automatically. With the gscart connected it immediately switches to the SCART input even if no console is powered on.
* When turning on an RGB console the TV switched to the SCART input automatically but always enabled 16:9 mode. I always needed the remote to enable 4:3. With the gscart this no longer happens. Thank god!
* The rubber feet of the gscart are really useful. Even though there are some heavy Scart cables connected (like the ones from KabelDirekt), it just stays at his place. Very convenient.
* I encountered color banding with Super Mario Allstars on my 1-CHIP SNES with my consumer CRT (but not on my BVMs). With the gscart this is gone.

Thanks superg!

[hakotaku]

Is there any way to still order a gscartsw_lite and a gcompsw v1.1? I've been checking the site off and on but they are always sold out. Thanks!

[RaphM]

The other stuff sounds like extremely incompetent customs employees. Usually they tax based on the value + raw postage, all specified in the CN22.

The story indeed sounds strange - I ordered one to Austria (so I guess the legal circumstances should be similar, but I'm no expert on that field) and the procedure was straight forward:

*) Delivery is held in customs department
*) They determine the tax (no need to show up personally)
*) Packet gets delivered, tax is payed on delivery (which was about 30€ for mine)

[coderkind]

Yes, it would be enough. Search for "barrel plug splitter" on eBay or Amazon.

Got one this weekend and it works great, I power my gscartsw and gscompsw with a single power supply.

The plugs are the 5.5mm x 2.1mm if anyone else is interested. They're cheap.

Thanks Superg.

Now I'm just waiting for my new scart cables to come.

The plugs; did you buy a splitter of some description therefore (and if so, can you provide a link to it please)?

[gordon-creAtive]

*) Delivery is held in customs department
*) They determine the tax (no need to show up personally)
*) Packet gets delivered, tax is payed on delivery (which was about 30€ for mine)

I talked to collegues, they encountered similar experiences when importing stuff. So either German customs offices in general or this particular one in my city suck bad. When importing NTSC consoles I used a reshipping service, Shipito in my case. This always went smooth and I do have the impression the taxes are even cheaper (customs are cleared in London). When I order the gcompsw I'll go this route instead.

[mjs0686]

Yes, it would be enough. Search for "barrel plug splitter" on eBay or Amazon.

Got one this weekend and it works great, I power my gscartsw and gscompsw with a single power supply.

The plugs are the 5.5mm x 2.1mm if anyone else is interested. They're cheap.

Thanks Superg.

Now I'm just waiting for my new scart cables to come.

The plugs; did you buy a splitter of some description therefore (and if so, can you provide a link to it please)?

Yeah, I just bought a splitter that I plugged into the supplied power supply.

The one I bought is sold out now but there's lots of them:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... l+splitter

Just need to be the 1 to 2 splitter (with plug dimensions 5.5mm x 2.1mm) types.

[superg]

Is there any way to still order a gscartsw_lite and a gcompsw v1.1? I've been checking the site off and on but they are always sold out. Thanks!

gscartsw_lite will be available in 3 weeks, gcompsw will be ordered after this gscartsw_lite batch.

Update: Lite boards are finished manufacturing. I ordered all the case parts yesterday (plexi panels, screws standoffs power supplies etc.).
Now the manufacturer is soldering everything.

[zak]

I managed to get a used gscart_lite. I can't fault this product. It's worth every penny.

superg, thanks for taking the time to make these - they are amazing.

[Dopefish]

The gscartsw_lite arrived a bit earlier today, and it's beautiful! Was about €30 in customs to Sweden.

[hakotaku]

Is there any way to still order a gscartsw_lite and a gcompsw v1.1? I've been checking the site off and on but they are always sold out. Thanks!

gscartsw_lite will be available in 3 weeks, gcompsw will be ordered after this gscartsw_lite batch.

Update: Lite boards are finished manufacturing. I ordered all the case parts yesterday (plexi panels, screws standoffs power supplies etc.).
Now the manufacturer is soldering everything.

Thanks! I'll check the store in 3 weeks.

[mjs0686]

Finally got my scart cables in the mail today so I could properly test the gscart.

This thing works perfectly!

Flawlessly switches between NES, SNES, Genesis, Saturn, N64, and Dreamcast.

No more fiddling with cables in the back of the tv every time I wanna change what I'm playing.

Thanks Superg!

[ChinZilla]

Hello SuperG
I have been using your Gscart v3.4 now for a while, but yesterday a couple of my inputs will no longer work properly. Its as if the sync is off in some way. At first i thought it was my system (Sega Genesis at the time, but when I changed my scart cable to a different input on my Gscart it worked fine. This is occuring in about half of my inputs. Any Idea of why/how I can fix this?

[superg]

Hello SuperG
I have been using your Gscart v3.4 now for a while, but yesterday a couple of my inputs will no longer work properly. Its as if the sync is off in some way. At first i thought it was my system (Sega Genesis at the time, but when I changed my scart cable to a different input on my Gscart it worked fine. This is occuring in about half of my inputs. Any Idea of why/how I can fix this?

Did you connect anything new?

[jondoeiowa]

When will the Gcomps be available again for order?

Thank you Superg

[ChinZilla]

No not at all. That's what is so strange I literally changed nothing.

[superg]

No not at all. That's what is so strange I literally changed nothing.

PM sent.

[superg]

When will the Gcomps be available again for order?

Thank you Superg

After this lite batch, could take up to 2 months.

[herbscottie]

Im ordering all my scart cables for this, for ps1 do I want sync over luma or or csync with built in sync seperator? Also what about my saturn, I can choose a sync on luma or csync via pin 1? All my consoles are ntsc and ill be plugging the gscart into a bvm-d20f1u. Thanks Looking forward to this next batch of gscarts

Also will I run into issues with the length of my cables? They will be a 2 meter from console to gscart lite, a 1.5 meter between the 2 gscarts then another 2 meter from gscart to bvm? Will this be ok or should i try to keep everything 1.5 meters in length? All my cables will be the packapunch.

[mjs0686]

Im ordering all my scart cables for this, for ps1 do I want sync over luma or or csync with built in sync seperator? Also what about my saturn, I can choose a sync on luma or csync via pin 1? All my consoles are ntsc and ill be plugging the gscart into a bvm-d20f1u. Thanks Looking forward to this next batch of gscarts

Also will I run into issues with the length of my cables? They will be a 2 meter from console to gscart lite, a 1.5 meter between the 2 gscarts then another 2 meter from gscart to bvm? Will this be ok or should i try to keep everything 1.5 meters in length? All my cables will be the packapunch.

For Saturn you can just get a csync cable cause it outputs csync natively (I assume you are NTSC?).

For PS1 it doesn't output csync so just go with sync-on-luma, no need for a sync separator in the cable. The gscart does sync regeneration anyway (toggleable) but your bvm can take sync on luma (or composite) directly so either way it doesn't really matter.

[herbscottie]

Ah thanks man ordered my cables im stoked!

[LK4O4]

Sorry if this question has been answered already: Do these component-to-SCART passthrough adapters work with the gscartsw_lite? I haven't had any luck so far, but maybe I'm using the wrong port or something.

https://store.retrofixes.com/products/a ... pter-audio

[Guspaz]

No. The gscartsw-lite uses the composite video pin to detect the active input, and that sort of adapter does not put anything on the composite video pin.

[StarcraftM]

I haven't missed the October batch of gscartsw_lite, have I?

Recently got into SCART / RGB- picked up a PVM, a SNES with an RGB kit and have a WIP Neo-Geo MVS build- logical time to grab the best of the best when it comes to SCART switches

[Smile_Kaiser]

Hey, so... I'm about to be hit by a small-ish hurricane in like... an hour or so. Is there any way I can get a GSCart Lite on hold? I'd really, really appreciate it. I dunno if or when my power will go out, or for how long. There's really no telling with these things.

If not, that's okay. I'll do what I can.

[thebigcheese]

I haven't missed the October batch of gscartsw_lite, have I?

Recently got into SCART / RGB- picked up a PVM, a SNES with an RGB kit and have a WIP Neo-Geo MVS build- logical time to grab the best of the best when it comes to SCART switches

If he's still on schedule, should be going up next week.