Amiga Scandoublers on eBay again!

[Amiga_Always]

Hi

Those custom Amiga Scandoublers which were on eBay a while ago are back and selling worldwide! I've already got one and it works great for all my games, even de-interlaces the screen on interlaced modes

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amiga-500-...ht_1236wt_1139

[Harrison]

I've been discussing this device with some other retro enthusiasts since originally discovering it a while back. The actual PCB this device uses can be purchased from ebay for around £30, and it is fairly easy to make a custom Amiga RGB cable to connect to it, as we have now worked out the wiring needed to produce the best image. The cable wouldn't cost more than £5 to make at most. The hardest bit is sourcing the 23 pin Amiga connector, but old Amiga A520 modulators can be broken to obtain these, so not too much of a problem. Therefore for under £40 to make a working unit, plus a bit more for a case to house it and I think you can see the huge markup this ebay seller is making from this sale, easily 100% profit.

A member over at Amibay is even willing to make up the cables needed so that might be sorted.

Still, it is a great solution for Amiga fans wanting to connect their Amiga's to a modern monitor, but i don't think buying from this seller is the best option. Much better to buy the parts and build it yourself. After all, half the fun of the retro hobby is actually playing around with the hardware.

[Tiago]

half the fun of the retro hobby is actually playing around with the hardware

100% agree

What PCB are you talking about? Is it ready and we only need the cable? Or do we need to put other components?

[Harrison]

Here it is for sale as the standalone board:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-ARCADE...-/250899701935

And the price has dropped since I last looked. Now only £20. Bargain!

And yes, all you need is a custom cable to connect to this device/PCB and a VGA cable to the monitor.

Some more info:

Online manual can be found for this board here:

http://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/video/GBS-8200.pdf

And the following post over at EAB shows it works with the Amiga:

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=759262&postcount=16

And here is the discussion I started on Amibay:

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=20468

Schematics showing cable wiring diagrams:

gbs-8220-to-Atari-st.jpg GBS-8220 CONVERTER On Atari.jpg GBS-8220 CONVERTER On Amiga.jpg

Plus they seem to work fine for conversion:

[Bloodwych]

That's a good price for an Amiga scan doubler solution supporting interlaced.

I bet a load of Amiga peeps would pay £50 in total for one of those ready to connect out of the box (custom cable included). Considering the price of them in the past!

[Tiago]

Very interesting.
I saw it's good for games, but anyone tested in Workebench at higher resoluctins?
The cable should not be difficult do do it. humm.... after i finnish my pc in Amiga project i think i will do this.

[Amiga_Always]

@Harrison
While I agree with you that you can buy the bits and assemble it yourself for £50, considering the work involved and time it would take I don't think £99 is a bad price for a ready assembled unit.

Not everyone wants to tinker with electronics, some just want something which works out of the box! Also the eBay product has the control buttons moved to the side of the casing, which would be a fiddly soldering job for any of us!

Apart from the small fact that these are selling quite fast, I notice this morning that 3 have gone already and it's 2 days into the listing!

Just wanted to give anyone who is interested a heads up before it's too late again!

[Harrison]

Amiga_Always, are you the ebay seller selling these? I wonder this because you have only ever posted on these forums to promote this item's sale.

I personally think that in general £99 is too high. Especially when this isn't actually a true scan doubler/flicker fixer in the same sense as the Indivision devices which offer so much more for just a little more money.

A total cost of £30 to build these ourselves (£20 for main board, plus £5 max to make cable and maybe £5 for a suitable case) is a much more realistic price for the retro scene in my view, and the high cost of the Indivison units is the only thing that has put most people off from buying those. Yes, some people will always jump at the chance to buy a device to allow connection of a retro system to a modern LCD regardless of the price, but this is a minority.

There is also the question of multiple systems with that pre-assembled version. The reason I would want an external unit would be to accommodate multiply system use. However the way the unit being sold on ebay is constructed means the Amiga cable to permanent. If I were developing a pre-made unit I would look to add a port on the outside of the case to allow changing of the cable for different systems. However, that could also prove an issue with this device as it needs to be internally wired differently for different systems, such as Atari ST and Amiga. I would also utilise the RGB Component inputs for other systems too such as Xbox that directly supports that output for 720p output. It could be possible by using a switching system so the system could be wired out for different system uses and switched between the wiring setups for each platform, with an easy to use selector with systems marked on it. If that were integrated into the pre-assembled version then i think it might deserve the higher price.

At the end of the day though, I personally would not pay £99 for one of these, and as with most others here, once they know they can buy the parts and make it themselves for a 1/3 of the price they will do that as they also enjoy actually playing around with the hardware itself. But others won't and instead will want a ready to go plug and play system, and for that this ready to go version is ideal for them. It just depends on the person, and their budget.

[Amiga_Always]

Just to set the record straight, I am not the seller of these things, I simply think it is a good product that I personally was very impressed with and that it was something the Amiga community would like to hear about. Did I do wrong?

Charging £40 for 2 hours or so (at least) to make these is not a lot considering an electrician or PC tech will charge £50 or so per hour! All the seller is doing is offering a service for those who are less able/do not have the time/don't want to (delete as applicable) build their own.

On the subject of other uses I think you failed to read the full spec, it has a port for an external power supply, a 15 pin VGA style in port and Component in ports (YUV), there is also a button on the side which will allow you to switch between the inputs! How much more do you require? I have tried mine on my PS3 & Wii and they look great on a PC Monitor! The Component input also does support HD up to 1080p.

[Harrison]

Sorry. I just get a bit suspicious when a member actively promotes something, as I also run amibay.com and we get members on there posting "information" about something on ebay and it often turns out to be the seller themselves "promoting" their own sales.

You didn't do anything wrong. It is good to make everyone aware of new hardware to keep our hobby going, or to expand it some more. And yes, as I said above, it is a nice solution if you don't have any skills or don't wish to get your hands dirty, and instead just want a plug and play solution to get your hardware working with a VGA monitor or HDTV. But I think personally think it is too expensive. Anyone with some electronics knowledge could make up the cables and anything else needed in a few minutes. The only other real cost is the casing and the micro switches to relocate the controls to the outside of the case, which I admit is quite a nice metal case.

So yeah, nice product for those willing to splash the cash to avoid having to do any work themselves to make it work.