"Official" DC RGB lead - not actually "official"

[guiddruid]

I just received the RGB lead I ordered from swallowgames:

http://www.swallowgames.com/ProductDetail.asp?ProductId=17678

It does not look like an official lead to me, as there are no ferrites (bulges in the cable), and there doens't seem to be any scart switch voltage present. Oh, and I would have expected a new official cable to come in a box, not a plastic bag. And the ground wire going to the shield of the scart plug ('pin' 21, IIRC) is just stuffed under the shield and held in place by the plastic shell.

All my other consoles auto-switch correctly, I haven't had a chance to measure the voltage on the pin yet, or check the wiring properly.

Anyone confirm if an official sega DC scart lead has ferrites on it? Anyone else bought one of these leads? Any known problems with scart switch voltages on DCs?

[Yod@]

My official lead has one ferrite at each end of the lead, there are only 9 pins present in the SCART plug, and the SCART plug has a screw holding it closed.

If yours differs from that, then I guess it's not an official lead.

[guiddruid]

thanks for that Yod@. Presumably it actually says "Sega" or "Dreamcast" on it somewhere too?

[Yod@]

Presumably it actually says "Sega" or "Dreamcast" on it somewhere too?

Actually, mine doesn't.
If it wasn't for the fact that it came in a proper official box and has an actual circuitboard in the SCART plug (I'd take a picture but the batteries in my camera are dead) then I'd say it looked like a 3rd party cable.

EDIT: Found some batteries.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v204/retroyoda/DC.jpg

[guiddruid]

wow. thanks for that
the lead they sent me is a nasty skinny grey lead. no pcb inside the scart connector. gave swallowgames a phone call and the woman who answered actually understood what I meant when I said it "looks like a cheap chinese cable". some hope then. still a pain in the behind having to sort out a replacement though.

[Luke_H]

The official DC RGB SCART cable looks very similar to the offical Saturn RGB SCART cable as well (except the plug which connects to the console of course). These two cables use a unique SCART head that I've not seen used anywhere else.

Luke

[guiddruid]

Checked the pinout of the cable last night, and scart pin 8 was only 5V, not 12V, which explains why it wouldn't auto-switch. Anyway, definitely not the cable I ordered. Spoke to a bloke at swallowgames today, and he is sending me out the right cable - checked for me and it's black and has two ferrites on it.

Had a quick play on a few of the games that came with the console, and I must say I am kicking myself that I didn't buy a DC when they came out... why the hell did I wait till now? The picture quality is great, even with this crappy lead. Not so keen on the controller (especially the dpad), but...

thanks again!

[Mr-Niceguy2001]

My official lead has one ferrite at each end of the lead, there are only 9 pins present in the SCART plug, and the SCART plug has a screw holding it closed.

If yours differs from that, then I guess it's not an official lead.

Just to confirm, my official DC Scart Lead is the same as described above though I have an unofficial one just as good for my spare DC.

[Lyris]

Yeah, my official RGB SCART cable was black, had a ferrite core, and looked just like the Saturn one. Only the connecting end was made of more expensive rubbery plastic instead of the Saturn's shiny stuff.

[guiddruid]

one ferrite at each end of the lead, there are only 9 pins present in the SCART plug, and the SCART plug has a screw holding it closed

Just to put this one to bed, the replacement cable arrived today, and is exactly as described above. It also auto-switches properly, as you might have expected.

Swallowgames may have cocked the order up initially, and taken rather too long to ship in the first place, but they did deal with my complaint swiftly, and with minimum fuss.

Thanks for the help guys