How to use SCART for our hobby

[lettuce]

@lettuce if you bridge Scart 20 - 16 then you can bypass the 5v power altogether. trouble is, it only works for some tvs. it is quite easy to make this kind of cable so it is worth a try. I have several different types of vga-scart cables on hand to use when testing tvs.

So the attached revision diagram, could work then??

[lettuce]

So would the diagram attached be correct for a ATI card??
If you lead voltage from SCART 20 to SCART 16 (what I would not do), then why giving power from the VGA too?

Also whats the black ?wire that comes from VGA pin 10 and goes to pin 17 and bridges to pin 18 on the scart?
These are GND pins.

I noticed that a cable with the BC548B gives better picture than the one with the twisted sync wires.

Regards,
joecontra

Joe, i contacted you outside this forum before Christmas, and asked you to make me one of these VGA to Scart cables which you kindly did. But have noticed with my PC turned off, put still plugged into the wall socket that if i touch the metal socket part of the scart plug i get an mild electric shock!. Any ideas why this happens even though the PC isnt turned on?

[apfelanni]

mounting the pcb on a low profile bracket might be difficult , coz of the size of the scart plug. an alternative could be to screw it into a 3,5 or 5,25 front slot . this would make it easy to connect the 5-12 volt molex.

[joecontra]

lettuce
Joe, i contacted you outside this forum
I looked at your e-mail adress and now I remember you.

i get an mild electric shock!. Any ideas why this happens even though the PC isnt turned on?
Even if the PC is turned off, there is some power in the system.

How's the cable working I built for you?


Paradroid
I think it might be time to retire from building VGA to SCART tables
I don't agree. 
An EEPROM chip which provides EDID data and a sync merger XOR gate chip can be placed on a small PCB, and this small PCB can be placed in a nice little box, attached to the cable.

But I have to say, that PCB you linked is a good work, many will find it useful.

Regards,
joecontra

[Paradroid]

BTW, in my day job I am an economist & policy analyst

Haha! The Canberra connection...

[Paradroid]

So what advantages does this device have over say building your own VGA to Scart cable then?

The answer is in your question: the advantage is that you DON'T have to build your own cable. If you have more money than time this is the perfect solution. I'm pretty fastidious with my soldering but I'll admit that I could never make something as neat looking as that new gadget. Plus, it looks like this new solution "just works" as opposed to having to nut out schematics and make sure you don't make any mistakes during your cable build.

I reckon it looks really cool! Hopefully it'll open up this particular avenue of arcade gaming to people that are put off by the need to solder...

[lettuce]

lettuce
Joe, i contacted you outside this forum
I looked at your e-mail adress and now I remember you.

i get an mild electric shock!. Any ideas why this happens even though the PC isnt turned on?
Even if the PC is turned off, there is some power in the system.

How's the cable working I built for you?

So its getting the power from PIn 9 on the VGA then right? Yeah the system is turned of but still plugged into the wall socket. Yeah i guess theres always certain amount of power always going to the motherboard hence the status lights on the mobo are always on when the PC is powered down. So it is perfectly normal then?, i wanted to make sure it was some sort of short happening somewhere?

Yeah it does its job, or though it does pick up interference if i have the Sky Satalite box on near the cable (maybe its not shielded well enough, and the audio channels must have been soldered on to the scart plug the wrong may round. But i get a picture which is the main thing!

[joecontra]

lettuce

So its getting the power from PIn 9 on the VGA then right?
Yes.

must have been soldered on to the scart plug the wrong may round
Don't you get sound or what's wrong?

But i get a picture which is the main thing!
Yeah! 

Regards,
joecontra

[lettuce]

lettuce

So its getting the power from PIn 9 on the VGA then right?
Yes.

must have been soldered on to the scart plug the wrong may round
Don't you get sound or what's wrong?

But i get a picture which is the main thing!
Yeah! 

Regards,
joecontra

Yeah i get sound, but the channels are flipped, so the right sound comes out of the left speaker, and the left sound out of the right speaker

[Zebidee]

lettuce
Joe, i contacted you outside this forum
I looked at your e-mail adress and now I remember you.

i get an mild electric shock!. Any ideas why this happens even though the PC isnt turned on?
Even if the PC is turned off, there is some power in the system.

How's the cable working I built for you?


Paradroid
I think it might be time to retire from building VGA to SCART tables
I don't agree. 
An EEPROM chip which provides EDID data and a sync merger XOR gate chip can be placed on a small PCB, and this small PCB can be placed in a nice little box, attached to the cable.

But I have to say, that PCB you linked is a good work, many will find it useful.

Regards,
joecontra

You can fit such a PCB onto a small triangle which will fit inside the Scart housing. I've seen it done before.

[Zebidee]

BTW, in my day job I am an economist & policy analyst

Haha! The Canberra connection...

Oh, well connected!

[joecontra]

Zebidee
such a PCB onto a small triangle which will fit inside the Scart housing
I also saw that solution. As I remember there was a XOR gate on the PCB, but no EEPROM chip.

The solution I mentioned needs no big place:


XOR and EEPROM

The dimensions of the box are 22×42×48.
This can be made at home, no big deal.

Regards,
joecontra

[Zebidee]

@joe

That is impressive work.

I reckon there is further scope for miniaturisation.

[joecontra]

Zebidee
That is impressive work.
Thanks! 

I reckon there is further scope for miniaturisation.
You may be right, but I think there's no need because it fits into the little box and that's important for me.
And attached to the cable it doesn't ruin its look.

In the future maybe I will show a picture of it.

Regards,
joecontra

[lettuce]

So would either of these methods work?......

[joecontra]

lettuce
So would either of these methods work?......
I recommend the first one.

You told, your cable works fine. Why do you need build a new one?

Regards,
joecontra

[lettuce]

cos its not shielded correctly, im getting interferance

[joecontra]

lettuce
cos its not shielded correctly, im getting interferance
When your new cable is done, then please let me know if the interferances are gone or not.

Regards,
joecontra

[lettuce]

Ok will do. So either of the methods i posted above would work then?

[joecontra]

lettuce
So either of the methods i posted above would work then?
Yes but the first one is better.

Regards,
joecontra

[lettuce]

lettuce
So either of the methods i posted above would work then?
Yes but the first one is better.

Regards,
joecontra

Thanks, so its fine to have the 2k resistor on the scart pin rather than have a 1k resistor on each of the sync wires??

[joecontra]

lettuce
Thanks, so its fine to have the 2k resistor on the scart pin rather than have a 1k resistor on each of the sync wires??
It would be better 1k resistor in each sync line. I think 2k might be a bit too much.

The best option would be using a BC548B and 2 resistors 3,3K and 68 like this:


But if you can't, the 2x1K solution is also right.

Regards,
joecontra

[lettuce]

lettuce
Thanks, so its fine to have the 2k resistor on the scart pin rather than have a 1k resistor on each of the sync wires??
It would be better 1k resistor in each sync line. I think 2k might be a bit too much.

The best option would be using a BC548B and 2 resistors 3,3K and 68 like this:


But if you can't, the 2x1K solution is also right.

Regards,
joecontra

So the BC548B circuit can fit inside the actually scart plug housing if soldered on to vero board?

[Paradroid]

So the BC548B circuit can fit inside the actually scart plug housing if soldered on to vero board?

For sure! Take a look here.

[joecontra]

lettuce
So the BC548B circuit can fit inside the actually scart plug housing if soldered on to vero board?
Yes, it does. I built a lot of cable that way and I can say that this circuit can be nicely placed into the SCART housing.

Paradroid
For sure! Take a look here.
Thanks, this is a good example.

Regards,
joecontra

[lettuce]

So the BC548B circuit can fit inside the actually scart plug housing if soldered on to vero board?

For sure! Take a look here.

Ah good pics!!

The way im going to do the audio plug is to have it coming from the VGA end rather than the scart end, that way you wouldnt have a audio cable running along the scart cable aswell. So ill leave the pins 6,4 and 2 soldered to the scart lead and then solder the audio wires to the other end of the scart cable which will be inside the VGA house....i think it will make it look alot neater

[Paradroid]

The way im going to do the audio plug is to have it coming from the VGA end rather than the scart end, that way you wouldnt have a audio cable running along the scart cable aswell.

Yep. I've made cables that way before. The problem is that it's a lot more work to have to solder the SCART and VGA ends separately. Plus, it's cheaper when you can cut a VGA cable off a disused computer monitor and use that instead of finding or buying a fully loaded SCART cable. Theoretically, the audio will be better shielded with a separate cable.

I do agree that the single cable approach looks neater though.

[lettuce]

Yeah i had thought about using a VGA cable to hack rather than a scart cable. But 99.9% of VGA cables are sealed units, how would you tell which wire on the hacked end was connected up to what pin on the VGA plug?

[joecontra]

lettuce
how would you tell which wire on the hacked end was connected up to what pin on the VGA plug?
I built cable even that way. You got to measure which wire belongs to which pin.
It's not that hard.

Regards,
joecontra

[Zebidee]

Yeah i had thought about using a VGA cable to hack rather than a scart cable. But 99.9% of VGA cables are sealed units, how would you tell which wire on the hacked end was connected up to what pin on the VGA plug?

You need to use a multimeter on diode setting, which looks something like this:    ->|-

[lettuce]

Anyone have an info on the, hantarex CT EQ/3 28" monitor, have the oppotunity to grab a hardly used one. Just wanted to know what refresh rates, resolution these support. Plus if the image can be altered via pots at all?

[Paradroid]

@lettuce: Post your question in the main monitor forum. More eyes will see it there. I'm sure the image can be altered by pots. Most arcade chassis have these as opposed to a menu system navigated using an OSD.

[lettuce]

@lettuce: Post your question in the main monitor forum. More eyes will see it there. I'm sure the image can be altered by pots. Most arcade chassis have these as opposed to a menu system navigated using an OSD.

good idea

[Lewer]

Hello all, First time posting, long time lurking!

This thread has some really great Info, Ive learned a great deal. Thanks!

Im getting the bits together to make a vga/scart following the schematic attached.

Could anyone tell me the 'values' of the resistors used?
I get that 2 x 1k = 2 x 1000 ohm, and the 100 - is a 1 x 100 ohm but what are their wattages?
Would 0.6 Watt resistors be suitable?

Also, just to clarify, VGA pins 5 & 10 are unused so are grounded at SCART pins 17 & 18.
So,
     VGA                  SCART
       5       <---->       18
      10      <---->       17
and then bridge SCART pins 17 & 18?

Thanks,
Lewer.

[joecontra]

Would 0.6 Watt resistors be suitable?

Yes, they're fine. I use'em too.

VGA pins 5 & 10 are unused so are grounded at SCART pins 17 & 18[...]and then bridge SCART pins 17 & 18?

VGA pin 5 doesn't need to be connected at all. SCART pin 17 can be left also unconnected. You just connect VGA10 and SCART18 together and that's it.

Sorry for late reply I didn't get any email notifications about new messages.

I recommend you my site where you can read useful articles about this stuff:
https://sites.google.com/site/joecontrae/

If someone needs a VGA to SCART lead or has problems with the graphics cards settings just write me a personal message or connect me through my site.

Regards,
joecontra

[adder]

I recommend you my site where you can read useful articles about this stuff...

i just checked out your site and the information looks superb, thanks for that

[joecontra]

i just checked out your site and the information looks superb, thanks for that

I'm glad that you found it useful. 
Feel free to share the URL. 

Regards,
joecontra

[joecontra]

I've got a VGA to SCART lead 3 m with audio for sale.
If someone needs it, contact me.

Sold already.

Regards,
joecontra

[joecontra]

Hi!

Recently I've got some free time, so I could build some VGA to SCART leads if requested.
If someone needs my work just feel free to let me know. 

Regards,
joecontra

[arcadeswede]

Hi everyone! Got a little color problem!
I followed the instructions in this thread and managed to make a vga to SCART-cable. However, the colors on my CRT seems washed out. The blue color isn't very blue it's more greyish and the red is also kinda faded.

Here's the pic:


Do I need some kind of resistors on the RGB pins? I don't know anything about these things, I'm just guessing.