Scan Doubler on eBay

[manic23]

Can I please ask people's opinion on this scan doubler from ebay?

It seems a bit pricy, but i guess if it works. Any advantage over other scan doublers available?

[desiv]

This is a GBS-82x0 scan doubler in a nice case with the cable pre-made.

I have a GBS. It works acceptably. Not anywhere near Indivision in quality/features, but I paid about $30 and then another $7 for the cable parts and PSU. I had a box to put it in already.

So, for the money, it was (IMHO) a great deal.

My concerns about that one are twofold.
1: That's a lot of money..
2: It's pulling power from the Amiga. The AMPs needed (as listed in the GBS manual anyway) is more than the Amiga puts out.

Now, that doesn't mean it won't work. It can and does. But that's a risk I'm not willing to take. I got an adapter for mine. This one is pulling power from the Amiga, so if you wanted to add an adapter, you'd also have to disconnect the power from the Amiga and probably (can't see the other side) add a hole for the adapter plug.

I like the GBS doubler, but I like it in the $30-$50 range.. ;-)

desiv

[manic23]

Very helpful, thanks desiv

[k4lmp]

I use the GBS, and have an Indy ECS as well, for two different Amigas. For the money, the GBS is hard to beat. Don't get it from this guy, though, for that money you could get an Indivision. Do a search for GBS-8200 on ebay. It is the same as the 8220, but only has one VGA output. If you only need a single VGA output, don't even pay the extra money for the 8220, just get the 8200. I have, like six of them, and use them on Amigas and Apple computers as well. You are paying for the nice case and stuff. For the amount they are charging, I would go to Amikit and get an Indivision. Just my humble opinion.

[whiteb]

Amikit is out of Indivisions (Everyone is).

[k4lmp]

Well, so much for that idea. Those things don't hang around long when they get a batch in. I got mine from Vesilia, about a year ago. It took me about a week and a half to get it, which I thought wasn't bad. Amikit was out when I got mine. Too bad they are sold out everywhere, as it is a good product. It is good for us as Amigans, though, when the addons they are making now sell out fast, it means there is money to be made, meaning maybe they will keep making it, or making new 'stuff'.

[manic23]

Superb advise k4lmp, very many thanks. I see there is one on ebay for £21 so I may get that, I'm assuming that I will also need some kind of amiga to VGA cable as well? The device only seems to have VGA outputs.

Also what about power, will I also need to buy a 5v power supply, or does this one draw power form the Amiga?

[Turran]

It will draw power from the Amiga if you want. Connect the power cable that comes with it to the 23 pin Video port cable. I do not recommend this though, as it wants 5v, 2A.

Default amiga PSUs give between 2.5 and 4.5A. Not much left for the Amiga if you draw power from the video port.

Get an external 5v, 2A adapter instead IMO

The cable to connect "Something" to the device is included. You need to solder on a 23pin DSUB to that cable so you can connect it to the amiga. Those are quite difficult to find. I bought 2 on amibay.com. Search there. I bought mine from this thread: http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...hlight=23+dsub (23 units left at the time of writing.)

Guide for soldering cable: http://awesome.commodore.me/articles...nverter-amiga/

And on another note, the Indivision AGA MK2 suppliers are not "out" of them. They have been stopped from selling them by Jens until we get working software for it.

[manic23]

I wonder if someone could advise me what cable I need for this, after doing some reading it seems I need to make one up myself! Is there a ready made one I can get or do I need to get my soldering iron out? I did have a look on Amigakit but could not see anything.

Edit: Sorry, just seen your edit Turran, I didn't see that before i posted this. Thanks.

[k4lmp]

I had a Amiga video cable which was DB23 on one end, and DB9 on the other. I took an old DB9 serial cable I had, and cut one end off, and soldered the wiring harness that came with the GBS to the appropriate pin on the old serial cable. I actually done all this in a box that I had laying around, and even put a DB15 in parallel with it, so I could hook my apple computers up to it. It works great.

[amiman99]

I have one too, and this is how I wired it.
The converter is labeled pretty good
All pins are on Amiga side:

PIN 3 RED
PIN 4 GREEN
PIN 5 BLUE
PIN 10 CSYNC
PIN 19 GND

[desiv]

Originally Posted by Turran

You need to solder on a 23pin DSUB to that cable so you can connect it to the amiga. Those are quite difficult to find.

They pop up on e-bay frequently also...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DB23-Female-...item4ac3010958

desiv
(Not recommending that seller. It was just a quick e-bay search result!!!)

[manic23]

Thanks, I think I will buy from the bloke on AmiBay, I have registered there now, just waiting for the admins to push the 'allow me to post' button and I will contact him.

[Cymru]

Can you wait a few weeks until the ScanJuggler is released for the general sale?

[desiv]

Originally Posted by manic23

Thanks, I think I will buy from the bloke on AmiBay,

No problem..
I'm a huge fan of Amibay.. Go there first for most everything...

There's a great (long last I checked) thread on the GBS on Amibay with lots of help too...
(Well, I think so.. I see a few threads, but none as long as I remembered, so maybe I'm confusing my forum threads.)

desiv

[johnim]

here you go

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...hlight=flicker

[manic23]

Originally Posted by Cymru

Can you wait a few weeks until the ScanJuggler is released for the general sale?

mmmm, yes good point, thanks, I may

[desiv]

You probably know this (didn't see what type of machine you have), but the ScanJuggler is for AGA Amigas.

So, 1200 and 4000.

Interesting device.. Nice looking so far..

desiv

[Turran]

Edit: Solved. See bottom..

I bought a GBS8200 a while back but never got around to testing it. I did read up about it, thats why I answered a question earlier in this thread.

Anyway, I decided to test it today. I have a nice ATX power supply so I hooked the power to pin 23 (5v) on the RGB port of the amiga. Atleast for now while I'm testing it.

I must say I am very disappointed! The colors are all washed out, the image is grainy and ugly compared to normal scart.. is this normal?

Normal RGB -> Scart:
http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_2.JPG

Using the GBS8200. Same on 2 different screens:
http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_1.JPG
Other screen:
http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_3.JPG

If I go through the different inputs and back, the screen goes haywire.
http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_4.JPG

Also seeing white dots and green artifacts.
http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_5.JPG

The menu is very sharp. I had to bring contrast up to 99 to even see well, which might explain some things I guess. But is this normal?

Thanks.

Update: I'm an idiot. Forgot about the RGB dials near the input on the card. I set those to maximum now and good picture. Still not as crisp as with the scart but not as much flickering. Well, no flickering but not as crisp and some artifacts around mouse cursor when moving it.

http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_6.JPG

http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_7.JPG

http://www.grandis.nu/images/GBS8200_8.JPG (flash makes the image look blue. Its purple as it should be)

I noticed the screen got corrupt when moving the image around. You do not see it but the picture stops updating on about 80% of the bottom part of the screen. I had to move the mouse all the time in that area and when the mouse stopped moving, I knew I had moved the geometry too far.

As a conclusion I have to say that this is a good replacement if you can't use scart. Otherwise don't bother. Its obviously miles away from, say, Indivision AGA MKII on a modern LCD.

[Cymru]

There is an Amiga.org discussion on using a $45 SCART to HDMI converter to upscale the image to 720p/1080p with good looking results (see pics).