alternative to gba transverter

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 9:43 pm

http://www.bripro.com/low/hardware/vidc ... p?page=gba
it's a rough plan to extract digital RGB from a gba. Seems incredibly handy... Might be the first step in a gbm project for me.

assuming micro works the same way, that is. Eventually--once I get the courage to open it--I'd like my micro to plug into a stand next to my projector so I can play it there. I'm so encouraged I'm going to dig up those internal micro pics and see if the board's labeled for me.

I wonder if he'd tell me what all he's running the signal through to make sense out of it.

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:23 pm

This thing looks a bit bulky, but cool. I dont like how you have to desolder the screen connector, didnt the transverter just plug in?

Metroid fan · Post by **Metroid fan** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:25 pm

You could do it just use a cartrige that you don't like and solder to the correct points.

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 5:13 am

you don't *have* to desolder the screen, that was just his solution, and yes, the transverter had kind of a piggy back that it did.

I really don't care much about bulk since I'm creating an external base for the gba to set in when I'm at home, but what does worry me is that he's got it hooked to what looks to be a parallel cable, and he's using a software solution for the other half of it. I bet the logic involved could easily be converted to hardware. it's probably as simple as knowing the sync, clock and hard resolution. there's probably a few similar circuits I can look up, or I can just see how my broken transverter did it.

I just never thought that if I would have desoldered the connector they'd be nice enough to label everything underneath. There's no way I could have figured out what went where with my set of tools.

metroid fan> it must be too late at night for one of us. I'm thinking you mixed up the screen and cart pins... unless it's me who is up past his bed time. (which is entirely possible at 4:15)

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:08 am

Looks like I can mod that GBA I hardly use. I'm glad they found a way to copy the transverter, the GBA's screen sucks I can barely play it in my room.

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:48 am

What's the huge board for? Just to enable him to play it on his monitor? If there was a simpler, smaller way to get the RGB out in a way you could use in a PSOne screen, that would be awesome.

superdeformed · Post by **superdeformed** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 10:37 am

G-force wrote:What's the huge board for? Just to enable him to play it on his monitor? If there was a simpler, smaller way to get the RGB out in a way you could use in a PSOne screen, that would be awesome.

Keep in mind the huge board is a hand-wired perf board. You can probably get all of those parts in much smaller packages. I wish he had more info on how to make it though

.

x24 · Post by **x24** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:07 pm

Why do people want to enlarge the gba screen using a PSone screen all the time?? isnt the gba in widescreen? it gets stretched and makes it look like crap on my tv using the tv transverter mod (even in half mode, i figured u need a widescreen tv).. would this actually look better?

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:26 pm

x24 wrote: Why do people want to enlarge the gba screen using a PSone screen all the time?? isnt the gba in widescreen? it gets stretched and makes it look like crap on my tv using the tv transverter mod (even in half mode, i figured u need a widescreen tv).. would this actually look better?

Nope the GBA has a 4:3 aspect ratio. So it will look fine on a regular screen. And even if it was widescreen the picture wouldnt be distorted, likely it would look like a widescreen movie on a 4:3 tv, you'd have black bars on the top and bottem.

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:02 pm

Too bad he didn't post schematics. It looks like you could actually compact that a lot if you made an actual circuit board for it.

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:13 pm

x24 wrote: Why do people want to enlarge the gba screen using a PSone screen all the time?? isnt the gba in widescreen? it gets stretched and makes it look like crap on my tv using the tv transverter mod (even in half mode, i figured u need a widescreen tv).. would this actually look better?

who said psone screen? There's no need anymore, the GBM screen is by no means inferior (for gba purposes) to the PSOne unit and is far more portable. I really didn't notice any stretchng with the transverter, but when displayed on a CRT there naturally tended to be cropping, and it looked terrible displayed any lower than s-vid--though I never understood why.

I wonder what comes out of the 5 various color inputs? does it break the gba screen down into portions?

nos_slived · Post by **nos_slived** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:40 pm

I was wonderring that myself. I noticed that he only listed the first one for each colour, so I can't figure out whether he used all 5 for each colour, or just one. If it was one, it would be nice and easy, because you would only need 5 wires.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 5:48 pm

Well if no one else does I can email him and ask if he could make a numaric pinout of the converter. That way someone here that has experiance with a PCB making software can design one for mass production.

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:15 pm

Did anybody notice that its hooks up to a computer, and opens the window in Windows, to play the video? I dont see any points for RGB or composite, and theres no DB-25 on the PSone screen.

Post by **gannon** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:27 pm

In the first post of this thread it's stated "digital RGB"
Ever guess why soundwave?