Use an Amiga Modulator on your CPC.

[Bryce]

Hi all,
       I was given an old A520 Amiga Modulator at the weekend (This one in case you don't know it: http://cbmmuseum.kuto.de/images/steck_a520.jpg) and decided to connect a CPC to a TV with it. It offers Composite + Audio or RF outputs and actually gives a really good picture, due to the fact that unlike Amstrad, Amiga went to the bother of designing it properly and included proper delay line circuitry. Obviously it doesn't have a power supply inside, so you still need a 5V/12V supply, but it gives a much better picture than an MP1/2. If anyone has one of these and wants to use it for their CPC, let me know and I'll draw up the required cable diagram.

Bryce.

[RockRiver]

I will use it in my PCW to LCD board with crazy syncro signal... maybe is the solution to this mod project (PCW7512)...

[Bryce]

Crazy Syncro Signal?

Bryce.

[RockRiver]

Yes!! PCW board to CTR without problems but PCW to LCD brings me cut off chop borders... sig!!!
Sorry amstrad.esp topic in spanish... but great photos... (please use g**gle translator or similar)
http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2480

[CanonMan]

Hi all,
       I was given an old A520 Amiga Modulator at the weekend (This one in case you don't know it: http://cbmmuseum.kuto.de/images/steck_a520.jpg) and decided to connect a CPC to a TV with it. It offers Composite + Audio or RF outputs and actually gives a really good picture, due to the fact that unlike Amstrad, Amiga went to the bother of designing it properly and included proper delay line circuitry. Obviously it doesn't have a power supply inside, so you still need a 5V/12V supply, but it gives a much better picture than an MP1/2. If anyone has one of these and wants to use it for their CPC, let me know and I'll draw up the required cable diagram.

Bryce.

Yes please! Just last week I was thinking of setting up something like this, so I could use my 6128 on the big TV in the lounge

[TotO]

Better to buy a French TV with RGB IN

[RockRiver]

My old eyes likes best solution: CPC on LCD through Scart-RGB, but sometimes is needed alternative way 

[steve]

I would say that providing a monitor with the machine indicates a much higher quality of design than using a modulator to give a fuzzy image on an old TV.
Amongst the Amiga community, using the A520 modulator is regarded as a fate worse than death.

[Bryce]

Compared to an RGB Monitor that was made for the computer, an RF modulator will always produce a worse picture. However, as these A520s were handed out with the A500 (ie: lots of people have one / the internet is full of cheap secondhand ones) and the fact that it supplies not just an RF output, but a composite output (and S-Video would be possible too with a bit of hacking), I thought I'd give it a go. The result isn't as crisp as a SCART cable or my S-Video modulator, but it is better than an MP1 or MP2.

Bryce. 

[Garrettimus]

Dear Bryce, I´d like to know how you did that, please. 

No SCART TV sets in my country... 

[Garrettimus]

Great success! Just bought a boxed PAL A520 off of eBay. 

Now I only need to know how to make it work with the CPC!

[Bryce]

It's a standard Classic CPC6128 you have isn't it?

If so, you need to make the following pin connections:

CPC Monitor Output           Function       DB23 on A520
1                                        Red                3
2                                        Green            4
3                                        Blue               5
4                                        CSync            10
5                                        GND               16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 (any one or all of these)
6                                        Lum                Not required
                                          12V                22
                                          5V                  23

Make up a cable with a 6 Pole CPC monitor connector at one end and a 23 Pole Sub-D at the other end and a flylead to the 12V and 5V supplies of the 6128 and that's all you need. The GND can be taken from the Monitor connector Pin 5 or the GND or either the 5V or 12V supply (remember that the 12V connector to the CPC is the "wrong" way around = Plus on the outer ring, GND in the middle).

Bryce.

[Garrettimus]

Thank you very much, Bryce, how about the S-Video hack?

[Bryce]

Do you mean my S-video Adapter or the A520 S-video hack? (Yes there's a way of converting the A520 to S-video too )

Bryce.

[Garrettimus]

Do you mean my S-video Adapter or the A520 S-video hack? (Yes there's a way of converting the A520 to S-video too )

Bryce.

Erm... Both! 

[Bryce]

Well I don't have any of my S-Video adapters left, nor do I have the parts to build one, but all the information needed to build one yourself is on the Wiki page.
As far as the A520 is concerned, you can find the hack information here: http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/a520.html    But I haven't tried this conversion, so I can't comment on the quality.

Bryce.

[Garrettimus]

Thank you very much, Bryce!