A few "modding" questions

[Exar Kun]

Hello there! First post :D

I have finally unpacked my old PAL Megadrive after many years and did some mods on it as per the guides found here (working 50/60hz and Region switches, OC in progress). I have no 60Hz CRT TV however, but I do have 2 old CRT PC monitors picking dust on the garage. I do have a SCART RGB cable for my MD, so what I'd like to know is IF and HOW could a SCART to VGA connector be made (or a direct connection from the MD back plug). I have good enough soldering skills, just I'm not good at figuring circuit things on my own.

Mine's a model I by the way.

[KillerBean2]

I do have a SCART RGB cable for my MD, so what I'd like to know is IF and HOW could a SCART to VGA connector be made (or a direct connection from the MD back plug).

I'm afraid it's not possible to make a simple converter cable. A VGA monitor can't handle the 15 MHz horizontal sync signal from the MegaDrive. The PAL/NTSC resolutions are also to low for a VGA monitor to handle. You can only make it work if you put an upscan converter and a scaler in between. That solution will probably cost you way more than a new TV set :)

[ApolloBoy]

I would suggest getting a different TV, since it's fairly common in Europe for TVs to support NTSC.

[Exar Kun]

I will do at some point, this was just supposed to be as something for the time being. Anyways, how's that one can do VGA to SCART but not viceversa? (technically speaking, I mean)

[villahed94]

Of course you can do that mod, if it is an old enough monitor, you can take the rgb and hsync signals from the scart and use them in the monitor.

[villahed94]

By the way, it is awesome to play Sonic at 60hz you´ll discover how fast it was supossed to be!

[Exar Kun]

Of course you can do that mod, if it is an old enough monitor, you can take the rgb and hsync signals from the scart and use them in the monitor.

So dou you have any schematics for it?

BTW I have a 17" Hyundai deluxscan and a 15" HP from a Pavilion v50. Are those old enough?

[villahed94]

About the monitors , maybe they can work, a good schematic for it is here
http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/gamescart/gamescart.htm
You need some resistors as you can see, 75 ohm, or if they are on your cable, don´t worry.
If it was helpful, don´t forget to add a rep!
http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/vga2arc/vga2arc.htm#acvid
another one

[Exar Kun]

I think you got me wrong; I have a MD SCART cable, what I'd need is a SCART to VGA cable

[villahed94]

Oh, with simple speaker cable can be done, just get a vga male or female connection(depends on the monitor)
http://pinouts.ru/Video/VGA15_pinout.shtml
Good pinout to find out the pins

[Exar Kun]

Thanks for the tips, I researched a bit and seems none of my CRTs can do 15KHz Hsync, so I'm stuck with my lcd HDTV until I find a decent CRT TV (as odd as that may sound out of context xD)