Thrilled with my Aurora!

[Racalfanatic]

It's superb!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCN0402.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCN0391.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCN0388.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCN0387.jpg

[Racalfanatic]

A couple more shots.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCN0409.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...h_DSCN0404.jpg

[Panrock]

Yes, these excellent little boxes have really opened up the market for working 405 TVs.

I'm expecting another one, destined for the Dorking pub, to be delivered on Tuesday. I paid the import charge today.

We'll all have to meet up for a drink there when it's installed!

Steve

[Racalfanatic]

I can not imagine how I ever managed without it

[ppppenguin]

I couldn't agree more with both Racalfanatic and Steve.

When I reviewed the Aurorae (there were 2, it's the later one that's really opened up the market) I was necessarily taking a professional view and picking at the very few nits that were there to be picked. (You can see the review on the publications page on my website) In fact I'm as excited as anyone else that a highly skilled engineer like Darryl has taken the time and trouble to design and manufacture such a superb unit for the amateur market. Darryl is a professional design engineer in the video equipment industry; his knowledge and skill are abundantly obvious in the Aurora. Not just on the design side but the whole business of putting it into production.

I too design video equipment for a living so perhaps I can appreciate more than most just what Darryl has achieved. I know that if I had attempted something similar it would have been a lot less elegant, rather bigger and more expensive.

[murphyv310]

Hello.
I too must agree these converters are wonderful.
I now have 3, the original multistandard converter, a 405 only basic converter with modulator & a 405 NTSC converter with modulator.
I would think the NTSC converter would be a suitable video scource for the AP transmitter project.
Well done Darryl
you are 100% and should be knighted etc
Trevor

[Racalfanatic]

It's such good value and it's so small. I hope that Darryl continues producing these so that more people can enjoy seeing 405 line pictures again. Not to mention the other obsolete standards.

[tubesrule]

Hello all,
Thanks for the feedback and the praise This has been such a fun project both from a design standpoint, and meeting collectors around the world. I'm closing in on shipping the 200th unit! I hope to continue to make them available as long as there is interest and I am able to do so.

Cheers,
Darryl

[johnlees]

Brilliant job, Darryl. I now have my Aurora and it's superb. Superb pictures on my Defiant Model 7109 (Thanks, Chipp.). My acquaintances think I'm peculiar (or mad), the young salesman in a well-known High Street electronics store scratched his head as to what 405 lines meant and my brother threw a wobbly.
But "The nostalgia is terrific" as some character in the Bunter stories said. Maybe tomorrow I'll remember his name.

[Mike Phelan]

That was Hurree Singh, John.

[johnlees]

That's the one!
Back on topic, I did have a little snag with the Aurora and that was I didn't at first use the correct size of DC supply plug to it. I thought it was the right size as it seemed to plug in but it wasn't. After a fit of despair and after I had PM-ed Darryl to tell him that it didn't work, a sudden flash of inspiration got me trying a smaller plug whereupon the problem was solved.
I immediately PM-ed Darryl again with the good news and he commented back that I was not the first person to make this mistake as with some plugs the centre spike doesn't connect to the Aurora correctly.
All my fault, of course, but it took me a while to spot it.

[ppppenguin]

I don't think much of those concentric power connectors. Too many different sizes, some of which look similar and aren't quite the same. The PSU I was using with my Aurora probably has the wrong size plug and was occasionally intermittent. I've found another wall wart now which seems to fit properly.

[Panrock]

Originally Posted by johnlees

...and he commented back that I was not the first person to make this mistake as with some plugs the centre spike doesn't connect to the Aurora correctly.

And that other person was me It's an easy mistake to make.

Needless to say, Darryl's converter was perfect. There's yet another TV22 on the horizon now so another order will likely be on its way soon...

Steve

[Ian - G4JQT]

I know I’m repeating what numerous others have already said, but I too am thrilled with the Aurora!

Just found a “wall wart” PSU, switched it on and was presented with a beautiful Test Card C and tone.

But a note about those horrid “wall warts” – apologies if this has been discussed before …

The cheap ones (that seems to be most of them) are horribly unregulated. My two (different makes) that are marked 9V at 600mA are 18V off load and still 16V when drawing 300 mA! To cut a long story short, for the Aurora I’m using one marked 6V 1A and even that’s 12V off load and 10V drawing 200 mA.

Unfortunately many are sealed, but I did have one that could be opened and so modified it with a proper regulator IC and added some decent smoothing and 0.01 uF RF decoupling disc ceramic caps. That was very successfully used for a 12V PSU.

This isn’t to suggest that Darryl should include one – the varying mains-pin configurations and voltages required (and varying national regulations over mains equipment?) together with the added postal weight makes including them a non-starter. The Aurora spec shows that there is plenty of latitude (7 to 14V) in DC output voltage before any damage occurs.

Parcel Force required me to pay £24.07 VAT plus £13.50 “Clearance Fee”. This seems about what others have paid.

Anyway, great device Darryl – many thanks!

Ian

[evingar]

The cheap ones (that seems to be most of them) are horribly unregulated. My two (different makes) that are marked 9V at 600mA are 18V off load and still 16V when drawing 300 mA! To cut a long story short, for the Aurora I’m using one marked 6V 1A and even that’s 12V off load and 10V drawing 200 mA.

The low current ones are usually unregulated linear design. If a higher current type is chosen (say a couple of amps output or greater), it will usually be of a switching regulator design. These types have much better regulation, although they can give be noisy.

[Hunts smoothing bomb]

I run mine on a regulated multi voltage adaptor, I did run it the other night on 12vdc without realising and the aurora shut down after 30 secs or so, there was a moment of panic as I thought I had popped it!
After disconnecting the supply and resetting the correct voltage of 9vdc and powering up again I was rewarded with testcard C .... Phew!!

Lee

[evingar]

I did run it the other night on 12vdc without realising and the aurora shut down after 30 secs or so, there was a moment of panic as I thought I had popped it!

I don't know the design, but I should imagine it has a small linear (5V / 3.3V / 1.8V ?) reg inside for the logic. These invariably have a thermal shutdown built in.

[tubesrule]

Hi Lee,
All power for the board goes through a Schottky diode for reverse battery protection and then a 5 volt regulator. All other regulators are driven off this one. 12 volts is within the normal operating range for the unit (7-14VDC) so I'm not sure why it would have shut down. I run mine off an unregulated 9VDC 200ma rated transformer and end up with just over 12V to the unit. They will run warmer at this voltage, dissipating about 2.5W at 12V, but this is well within spec. The main regulator will go into thermal shutdown to protect itself if to high a voltage is applied. The only thing I can think of is to make sure the supply was not providing a higher voltage than expected.

Cheers,
Darryl

[ppppenguin]

I did run it the other night on 12vdc without realising and the aurora shut down after 30 secs or so, there was a moment of panic as I thought I had popped it!

Lee, yours might be an early firmware version which shuts down automatically after a time in the absence of signal inputs. Not sure which version this was changed on. Need to look at the label on the back, post the version number here and Darryl or I should be able to tell you. If it's an early one I can update it FOC if you bring or post it to my place.

[murphyv310]

Hello Darryl.
No doubt you have seen the thread on the Decca 405 line NTSC mod, I am hoping to do some work on the decoder this weekend perhaps there will be pictures in colour to see! My intentions are to have the mains auto transformer rewound into an isolated primary so the sets chassis will not be at mains potential. I have decided to not repair the sets tuner & IF strip but feed video at baseband via an amp to get the correct phase into the luma/chroma board, I will feed the conveter from a freeveiw box.

To my main point though, with the way the dollar is now these converters are really cheap here now, are you still building them Darryl and for how long?
Trevor