Break Out Box Available For Pre-order

[nubie]

My TV doesn't have an SVideo socket so I have to use a scart adaptor. That being said, I prefer S-video output to standard composite. composite video sucks ass. The colours bleed and the picture is less sharp.
RGB wired scart would be the best option for me, since the picture quality would be the same, if not better than Svideo, and it would not be in black and white.

What you have got is a simple capicitor tying one S-Video line to the other (chroma and luma) and faking Composite. (Turns out you didn't even get that lucky)

Since it is just a capacitor, I suggested they throw it in for 20 cents. Pay attention silly

Edit: I was wrong !!! more to follow

On the Wikipedia.org

Today, S-Video can be transferred through SCART connections as well. However, it was not part of the original SCART standard, and not every SCART-compatible device supports it for this reason. Also, S-Video and RGB are mutually exclusive through SCART, due to the S-Video implementation using the pins allocated for RGB. Most SCART-equipped televisions or VCRs (and almost all of the older ones) do not actually support S-Video, resulting in a black-and-white picture if attempted to use, as only the luminance signal portion is used. Black-and-white picture in itself can also be a sign of incompatible colour encoding, for example NTSC material viewed through a PAL-only device.

A hack exists to possibly attain color on devices that do not support S-Video through SCART. This is done via joining the pins 15 and 20 in the SCART connector (either directly or using a 470pF capacitor), and may not yield optimal results.

You are getting a black and white picture? Possibly your TV isn't actually Scart S-Video Compatible?

Try tying your lines together with a 470pF capacitor like they say

<childish jibe> how does it feel that I knew more about Scart than you even though I have never ever seen one because I live in the US? :lol: </childish jibe>

I learned that trying to interface my actual MegaDrive RGB to an old computer monitor a few (7 already?) years ago.

 

[jmetal88]

External Hard Drive? Or Wifi? I should hunt for a step-up transistor.

If I just needed a step-down, I would use a resistor.


The problem is regulating the voltage, so it is a constant 5v and will not drop voltage until the power supply is no longer capable of supplying the correct amount of power.

*hint hint.

Quick edit, like I say, What type of 9v are you going to use?, and What do you want to power?

I find that 9v are not capable of a high-drain for an extended period, I may of course be wrong, either way AAA batteries will make 7.2 volts in a 6-cell pack and be capable of much more current capacity, depending of course on what you want to power.

If you make your circuit independant of battery pack, you can always move to a 6-cell AAA pack of NiMH later on.

If you want to be mobile consider making the battery pack suited to the load, be it a 1.8" HD, a 2.5" HD, a low power wifi, or a hi-power wifi. (You still haven't said what it is, could be a customised rumble pack for Lady Killer for all I know, Ewww.)

And I said I would experiment.

Besides, you need more than just a transistor to step up. You usually need a step-up IC in conjunction with a transistor, and I have no such IC in my parts bin (I have the ICs in their own little drawers, easier to check for).

I was originally intending on using a regular 9v alkaline battery though, but I wasn't sure how that would last, so that's why I said I would experiment.

EDIT: Also, it isn't for anything in particular. Just a powered dongle. If I use a device that needs more power, I'll probably just change my supply.

 

[nubie]

What are you building? (Third times the charm?)

I don't think it is anything we can steal.

Darn edits, cool enjoy that ,

I just find personally that 9volts are horribly expensive to fool around with, not to mention the environmental damage.

@PokeParadox, did you see my Scart to S-Video adaptor post above?

 

[jmetal88]

What are you building? (Third times the charm?)

I don't think it is anything we can steal.

Darn edits, cool enjoy that ,

I just find personally that 9volts are horribly expensive to fool around with, not to mention the environmental damage.

@PokeParadox, did you see my Scart to S-Video adaptor post above?

I have a 1970s calculator that runs off of 9-volts so it was kind of an obvious thing for me to think of... Where are you shopping for 9-volts anyways? They're fairly cheap around here...

And what do you mean about environmental damage? They're just miniaturized and repackaged AAA batteries...

Unless your talking about the disposal of them, which I could understand.

 

[Arcnaleon]

Hi! I have been thinking same thing about portable HD.

Also runned into to same problem how to supply power. Well as long as I know 1.8" and 2.5" drives should work fine with +5V and 500 mA (standard USB). Well I was thinking about 4xAA 2500 NiMh that could supply nessesary power and could get decent operating time.

But also, I was wondering what really happens when the HD doesnt get enough power? What happens to the FAT32 filesystem, does it loose data or even harm the drive. So it sould have a somekind of power led to notify battery charge so the drive could be stopped before it ends itself.

 

[nubie]

I have a 1970s calculator that runs off of 9-volts so it was kind of an obvious thing for me to think of... Where are you shopping for 9-volts anyways? They're fairly cheap around here...

And what do you mean about environmental damage? They're just miniaturized and repackaged AAA batteries...

Unless your talking about the disposal of them, which I could understand.

Calculator from the 70s? check the mAh draw on that, it could possibly be high, then again not.

I have tried to use a 9volt alkaline and NiCD for high-drain motors, it lasts under a minute. Any testing done that way will incur disposal of dozens of them to just check out an interface.

I guess a NiMH battery might last a bit longer, but those likely have sub AAAA batteries in a 6 pack configuration, it would be more ideal to have flat battery pack that lasts longer.

When thinking of going mobile it is best to do some calculations (even in your head) for the load and length of time you plan to use it.

Wifi sticks draw easily 450ma for a low-power on transmit, how long will the 9volts puny cells last under that? Figure it as half the GP2X's power draw on cells much, much smaller, that is why I was concerned.

If you just want to use a keyboard or mouse I thought that power would come from the EXT port, in wich case trying a 3-cell AA pack for the main GP2X power would fix you right up (just put the extra cell on the back of the GP and wire it in series, the internal regulator will take care of it, see squidge's?? tests up to 4v on a bench supply going into the battery compartment, mAh draw was very low around the high 3.6-.7 volt range.

Just some thoughts, I want to see you succeed without a lot of wasted batteries/effort.

 

[fragglerok]

if it comes with a jag then hells ya, i can use that cable to buy bricked gamepark systems and fix em!

I'd buy anything that came with a free jag!

If it costs you $50 how free is it?

I can make a Jtag for free from parts out of my desk drawer that I harvested from old 286 PC's

@PokeParadox,

How would you feel having layed out your own hard-earned cash, a not insubstantial amount either, for a TV-Out cable and finding it won't plug into 90% of TV's.

Scart carries a standard Composite signal, it does not have S-Video support, EVER.

my 20" tv only supports s-video over scart and i have a few s-video to scarty adaptors around

I too want RGB, for a VGA port, check the wiki (see my sig), the chip is fully capable of VGA out, GPH cannot design worth a DAMN!!

If the headphone jack on the top of the unit had carried the Video signal and been a Through board connector to begin with we wouldn't even been having this discussion, you would have grabbed an unused Camcorder 3.5mm headphone to A/V Stereo cinch cable and just plugged right into your TV.

The USB Device pins on the EXT port provide 2 more lines, if they had been used for RGB I could have made a VGA BoB.

 

[OmarNawaz]

Personally, I could care less about the BoB.

What I would like is a battery-powered USB-host dongle (single port), and a TV-out cable that has composite instead of S-Video.

I'm going to have a go at making the USB dongle, and perhaps power it with a 9v battery. I found a LM317K voltage regulator lying in a bin of random components at my house that I can use to keep the voltage at a steady 5v.

Hopefully, a 9v will have enough juice to power some of the USB devices that require higher amounts of current.

yeah like a ext cable with usb on the other end with a small inline lithium battery and you can have a switch that lets you charge it thru the usb end when you plug it into the pc with lil led to show when charged

 

[jmetal88]

From what I've heard, Lithium rechargers are quite complicated, though.

I dunno if I would want to mess with that, I'd rather use disposible batteries for mine.

 

[nubie]

I'd rather use disposible batteries for mine.

The environment Nooooooooo!!!!

The runtime, noooooooo!!!! h34r:

 

[Epicenter]

Sheesh, it's going to be a board that hangs off the unit? How nonsensical; this makes adding 2P USB gamepad support to my engine unnecessarily more ugly for users who want to utilize it-- hanging a brick or board off their machine rather than say, a neat clip-on device with the relevant ports as would be VERY doable. This looks more like a likely lower-quality near-duplicate of the 3rd-party breakout box posted on this forum already. And judging by the diagrams rather than photos, is probably still vaporware. How annoying. Oh well, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, but right now I don't see many advantages to this unit over the third-party one.

EDIT: Ah well, at least there are 4 USB ports so no need for a hub. And JTAG should you ever need to use it. A composite port would make sense, though, complementing S-Video since the signals for both, signal, chrominance and luminance all come to that same port. I'm not sure the Component video pins on the MMSP2 do, but if they did, I'd love to see those on the box for use with much higher-resolution video, a la HDTV resolutions, on higher-end televisions. But it's not a feature I'd use OFTEN, I'll admit.

 

[nubie]

Besides, you need more than just a transistor to step up. You usually need a step-up IC in conjunction with a transistor, and I have no such IC in my parts bin (I have the ICs in their own little drawers, easier to check for).

Check out the power supply setup inside the GP2X, this is what fishbong found in the voltagemod thread, I would get one of these it upconverts and everything, it would be perfect.

http://www.linear.com/pc/productDetail.do?...031,C1061,P1901

Check out this link, here are pertinent qoutes (bold mine):

# Synchronous Rectification: Up to 97% Efficiency
# 2A Switch Current Rating
# Fixed Frequency Operation Up to 3MHz
# Wide Input Range: 0.5V to 5V
# Very Low Quiescent Current: 38µA (Burst Mode™ Operation)
# 2.6V to 5V Adjustable Output Voltage

 

[thelamer]

WHY NO DOCK??

No but seriously why would they not design it just like an ipod dock where you can slot it in ? Having a cable go to the BOB is stupid in my mind . Because when you plug it in you will probally use a different interface device anyway .

Here was my idea .

 

[chris_r]

Ahhhh that's the picture I was looking for. If the BOB looked like that I would buy it instantly, but seeing as the breakout box is physicall a break out BOX it makes everything less conveniant.
I would even buy that if it needed external power, just because then it could quite easily become a portable games console(no witty comments, as opposed to a handheld) Just whip out the gp2x, plug it into the tv, plug in 2 usb controllers and enjoy some multiplayer drmd

 

[nubie]

WHY NO DOCK??

No but seriously why would they not design it just like an ipod dock where you can slot it in ? Having a cable go to the BOB is stupid in my mind . Because when you plug it in you will probally use a different interface device anyway .

Here was my idea .

[url="http://www.isuhalo.com/images/wip.jpg"]http://www.isuhalo.com/images/wip.jpg[/url]

Yes, they are stupid. Your Idea has some merits, two or three changes are necessary:

Longer, at least a tiny bit for the sake of the USB ports.

I have seen some super-slim VGA ports, but again I don't think GPH put out enough lines from the CX chip, once again, Stupid.

There needs to be a metal-to-metal screw-in and some locating pins, otherwise the thing will constantly fall off or break entirely.

I am glad you are thinking, but That is also too bulky to leave on the unit full time.

Use this type of cable for the TV-Out, get a Slim 4port USB HUB, and put it above the battery bulge, and sticking out no farther, then we would be all set to go. Those mini 3.5mm (headphone video) cords are everywhere and the jacks are easy to put on a Printed Circuit board, I am sure if you have a camcorder or a portable DVD player you have got one in a drawer or case somewhere. I would use a ribbon cable and a flat EXT connector to minimize the ugliness of the mod, another option would be to put this "on" the battery cover, that way it is easily removable and close to the EXT port, otherwise I would be putting the ribbon over the batteries, under the battery cover.

For S-Video you would only need a little dongle attached to a 4-pin jumper like a CD-Rom audio cable, not really important for portability because the A/V ports are usually on the front of TV's and VCR's, not S-Video.

On the Headphone Video-Out front, GPH was very stupid not to put that on the headphones plug we have, then VGA/Composite out on the EXT. I don't know how they can live without using all the functions of the chips when there is clearly enough room and pins to do that (Lose the EXT USB 1.1 Device pins and we can have VGA), The headphones port is so easy and accessible for video, why not just use it, those who need VGA or S-Video will just buy your custom TV-Cable anyway.

The CX TV chip we are using is fully HDTV compliant to 720p, I know we can't push all the data to fill that in 3D, but in 2D it is possible we could, I would be happy with seperate RGB channels and progressive scan, or VGA since I don't own a HDTV.

Screwing your own console is insane, the Koreans should have at least ripped off some German or Swiss design elements, or at the very least Japanese, and designed their product properly from the ground up.

I am sure there will be a VGA/HDTV out mod sooner or later, just need to set the chip into the correct mode and tap a couple wires into the CX chip, about as hard as modchipping a PSX.

 

[nickspoon]

I think the VGA port is actually meant to be serial.

 

[Paradox]

a docking BoB like that would kick so much ass, it would never seperate from my 2X...

 

[jmetal88]

Besides, you need more than just a transistor to step up. You usually need a step-up IC in conjunction with a transistor, and I have no such IC in my parts bin (I have the ICs in their own little drawers, easier to check for).

Check out the power supply setup inside the GP2X, this is what fishbong found in the voltagemod thread, I would get one of these it upconverts and everything, it would be perfect.

http://www.linear.com/pc/productDetail.do?...031,C1061,P1901

Check out this link, here are pertinent qoutes (bold mine):

# Synchronous Rectification: Up to 97% Efficiency
# 2A Switch Current Rating
# Fixed Frequency Operation Up to 3MHz
# Wide Input Range: 0.5V to 5V
# Very Low Quiescent Current: 38µA (Burst Mode™ Operation)
# 2.6V to 5V Adjustable Output Voltage

But, you see, i'm trying to do all this without having to source parts (which can take a while for ICs, I've tried before) so I'll just build whatever I build out of whatever I can find in my parts bin.

EDIT: I could possibly do this, however. I think I have 3 or 4 555 timer ICs.

 

[PokeParadox]

What are you building? (Third times the charm?)

I don't think it is anything we can steal.

Darn edits, cool enjoy that ,

I just find personally that 9volts are horribly expensive to fool around with, not to mention the environmental damage.

@PokeParadox, did you see my Scart to S-Video adaptor post above?

Yes, just now... I managed to lose this thread somehow. The only reason I found it again, is that I was checking the referral logs for my website, and one came from this thread... lol.

And how does it feel that you know a lot about scart? Well good for you I guess

I'll try that Svideo hack when I have the resources to do so. (I have no tools at all here).

 

[nubie]

But, you see, i'm trying to do all this without having to source parts (which can take a while for ICs, I've tried before) so I'll just build whatever I build out of whatever I can find in my parts bin.

EDIT: I could possibly do this, however. I think I have 3 or 4 555 timer ICs.

Source parts? What are you using for the EXT port connector?

I wouldn't trust that circuit for powering USB devices, what is the power capacity? not 1 AMP like this one. The one I showed you is $4.14 at that store, try mouser.com or digikey.com.

I understand if you are playing around, just use a 7.2volt R/C car battery pack and a 7805 like you were going to. For designing it for maximum portability I would use an upconvertor with 2 or 3 cells, the least with the most current capacity the better

To make it painfully easy, go to the second-hand store and pick up a "Car to CD player" style 5v power supply (or check your junk drawer, I know I have at least 2 or 3 in mine ), the circuit will be ready to hook to a 9v battery or a 7.2v R/C car battery pack, I have done that before to power my CD player from a battery in my backpack.

And how does it feel that you know a lot about scart? Well good for you I guess

I'll try that Svideo hack when I have the resources to do so. (I have no tools at all here).

I see you got that I was kidding with you .

Are you going to modify your S-Video to Scart Adaptor?

Or make an S-Video to Composite adaptor?

The second one would be much more portable and easier if your TV has A/V front panel connectors.

If your Scart adaptor has a long cable then it might work to just use that with the short cables coming from the GP2X.