The SCART Emotia [update]

[tcancian]

Last month I was finally able to purchase a couple of Super Emotia units locally and opened them up for a check-up at capacitors and etc and then I found that Extron didn't built the circuitry with BNCs in mind, but rather SCART. They end up with BNCs probably due to BNCs being a much higher quality connection than SCART will ever be, but I needed SCART and so I decided to mod my unit to have a SCART jack instead of the four BNCs for RGBs.

The Emotia was also intended for use within TV stations where BNC is a must for most equipment.

If you own a PVM and an Emotia I strongly advise against this mod. As said, BNCs are a much higher quality connection that is less prone to interference and you use long cables without any distortion. I did this as I needed a SCART output to feed to my RGB to YUV converter, TVs in Brazil don't have SCART inputs.

Keep in mind too that you'll need to mod the metal casing in order to plug the SCART.

Here's how it looks before the modding:



The underneath of the board.



Mod done.



You won't need to solder anything else on the SCART jack, all signals are there, including the Sync and the Grounds. I got the SCART jack from eBay.

I'd like to thank Fudoh and Fagin, and all the other members of this forum engaged in gathering information about the Emotia. Without you guys I'd never knew about this awesome piece of equipment, thanks!

UPDATE

I decided to saw off the metal casing. I used a regular steel saw and I believe the case is made out of aluminum so it wasn't hard, it took less than 10 minutes. First I made two cuts on the sides of the BNCs and then I wiggled the metal so I was able to saw through the last part. I used some oil to grease the saw and a sandpaper to polish the edges.

I'm not responsible for any damage caused to your physical self or hardware if you attempt to do this without proper skills.

Maybe I should have left the Sync BNC hole but as this side will be facing backwards I don't care all that much.



If you have the time and skill to afford a fancier solution I'd advise using transparent acrylic, it would look awesome.

[antron]

Wow, nice work. So the scart connector you bought had pins that lined up exactly with the emotia pcb? Do you have a link or part number? What about the exterior case?

[matrigs]

great find!

i'm curious if that's the case only on the super emotia or also on previous models.

[Overkill]

Cool, i want to do that mod too. Can you make a tutorial? it will certainly be helpfull for everybody. Thanks in advance

[tcancian]

Wow, nice work. So the scart connector you bought had pins that lined up exactly with the emotia pcb? Do you have a link or part number? What about the exterior case?

Yes it did, looking from the underneath it might not seem so but you ought to remember SCART actually has 21 pins, the last one is for the grounding of the outer shield, I've used this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/320587049713

Even the tabs at the side fit perfectly in the holes.

great find!

i'm curious if that's the case only on the super emotia or also on previous models.

I own two Super Emotias, one of them has red LEDs and the other one has green LEDs, both of them have the SCART pins. The BNCs get their signals from there.

Cool, i want to do that mod too. Can you make a tutorial? it will certainly be helpfull for everybody. Thanks in advance

It's pretty easy, remove the bubble gum like thing on top of the solder points where the BNCs get their signals from. I'd advise cutting the cables if you're confident and then removing the solder so the SCART jack and pins can fit in, then I soldered from the underneath of the board. Don't apply much solder or else it might get difficult to remove in the future. It should work right from the go, but keep in mind you'll have to moddify the case to plug the SCART cable. You could use acrylic to replace the upper shell, but in either case you'll need a drilling tool for the job. If you want to, I can put this on video and upload next week or so. It's also very easy to open the Emotia and unscrew the board, just don't pull the board if it ain't coming out, check if there's any screw before doing so.

[Overkill]

I would like to see the video very much. I allready opened my emotia, when i bought it, just to see the inside.

[tcancian]

I would like to see the video very much. I allready opened my emotia, when i bought it, just to see the inside.

I'm yet to do the video but I updated the thread with some pictures from the modified case I just did. It was fast and easy, the metal casing of the Emotia is made out of aluminum, which is very easy to saw and manipulate if you're strong enough. It doens't look as pretty as before but it's working great. I just noticed you're from Portugal, I've sent you a PM in portuguese about how to mod the unit if you're still interested at it.

[Overkill]

Thanks tcancian

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