Modded GCN RGB cable help (what the hell is going on????)

[phresh]

Hi, is theer anyone on these boards who could give me some advice on modded RGB cables? I'll detail the problem below.....

Basically my RGB cable broke (a couple of pieces of solder came off in the scart plug). I took this as an opportunity to upgrade it with a new scart plug and some phono sockets!

Problem is.......the cable was nothing like the modded one on the RGBCube web page! (it was the lik-sang/console plus one). I originally tried to rewire it as it was originally although this failed miserablly. I then decided to do it properly (as on RGBCube) and I have a problem.....

Ground is Live!!!!!!

I have checked every connection on the cable and I cant find any crossovers or anything. Ive also tested with a multi meter which has bought nothing up.

What I want to know is if anyonew else has had problems with grounding on there able, as i really cannot find anything wrong with it!

[guiddruid]

Ground is Live!!!!!!

you mean you get sparks when you plug it into the tv?

If the GC and TV are both connected to the mains before you plug the cable in then what you are seeing is probably normal; iirc the GC power supply is not grounded (to mains earth), it's double-isolated. When you connect the ungrounded GC to a (presumably) grounded TV then you will get some capacitive discharge through the scart screen.
That's why the manual that came with your GC, and the one that came with your TV will both suggest making all signal connections before connecting to the mains.

If on the other hand that is not what you are on about, then you would be better off sending the cable to someone who knows what they are doing (Saurian for example). Diagnosing a wiring fault in a scart cable is going to take forever via a bulletin board.

hth,
gd

[phresh]

Thanks

There was no charge when i plugged the scart in, it was coming from the phono connectors I attached.

Either way I re-did it all with a standar A/V cable and it works fine, except I need to add the switching voltage, which leads to another question....

Anyone know if i can get a 1V source from anywhere other than the 2 AV outs? Not bothered about the AV switchin voltage as i can do this by hand, but need the RGB switching otherwise im stuck with composite!

[EvilBoris]

what I think you could do is to wire in the composite sync from the standard AV connection into your modded cable scart.

you could just buy a cheapo RGB cable for a pal gamecube and take the scart block off the end and use that.

GAME's ownbrand cables have all the autoswitching stuff in them

[mmmonkey]

I used a Game branded cable to repair a faulty modded RGB lead. Once I'd soldered it up, RGB switching was working okay, but to get the AV switch to work I had to solder a wire as shown in section 5 (i think) on rgbcube.co.uk

Pete

[mmmonkey]

Edit, whoops - double post during forum problems...

Pete

[Saurian]

Anyone know if i can get a 1V source from anywhere other than the 2 AV outs? Not bothered about the AV switchin voltage as i can do this by hand, but need the RGB switching otherwise im stuck with composite!

It's very easy man - I agree that using a standard AV cable for sound + sync is a much better method.

(this cannot be done with a component cable)
Take off the cover at the Gamecube end of the D Terminal cable, remove the metal casing and you'll see a black wire soldered onto the underside of the PCB. Detach this wire and bring it round to the top and extend it, use heatshrink on the connection as this can be used to hold the wire secure after all soldering is done. Connect this wire the the 3rd pin from the right as shown:



This voltage to SCART pin 8 is enough to for auto switch function, bridge with a 300ohm resistor to SCART pin 16 for RGB mode.

[phresh]

Cheers, problem is I already cut the black (and the other 2 coloured cables) when I made it originally, Now ive fixed the original bodge job I really dont wanna have to bodge any further!

I think the best option is to just run another cable out of the D-terminal connector. Problem here is I dont know if my soldering skills stretch to something this small.

Is there anyone on the boards who could do this? Everythings already here (i'll even supply the wire and ive got a few inches of silver solder left over). You only have to promise not to laugh at the soldering and the melting round the edges of the actual scart block!!

Thanks

Phil