Aurora. Odd problem. - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Heatercathodeshort · 26th Dec 2006, 4:07 pm

Hello,
I purchased an AURORA standards converter earlier this year but have only recently used it for more than about 20 mins. After this period has elapsed I find that the flashing LED slows to around one flash per second and the signal vanishes. Switching off and on again will reboot the converter only for the whole process to repeat itself. I have tried running it on reduced voltage of around 6v and the results are the same so I don't think it is overheating as such. Results other than that are truly amazing giving the best 405 line pictures I have seen since the closedown of the service.
Any ideas? Regards John.

ppppenguin · 26th Dec 2006, 4:14 pm

This sounds like the auto standby facility that was made into an option in later firmware versions. If there is no video input, the unit powers down after a certain time. Later versions had this feature on one of the DIP switches. Set switch 7 to ON to disable this standby mode.

If your converter is too early to have this change (unlikely) then I'll reporgram it for you. I think the firmware version is noted on the label.

Heatercathodeshort · 26th Dec 2006, 4:25 pm

Hello Jeffrey,
I think you are spot on with your answer. Unfortunately I didn't get any information with mine, only the unit in a postal box. I have been using it mainly with the 'built in' testcard rather than an input from a video source. The numbers on the label are:SCRF-405A Rev 1.4
Thanks for your help Jeffrey. Now I know how some of my customers thought...Regards John.

ppppenguin · 26th Dec 2006, 4:40 pm

The manual is downloadable from Darryl's website.

http://converter.home.comcast.net/

He doesn't send it with the converter because that would increase the cost, especially postage from the US.

I'm pretty sure v1.4 predates the firmware change so if you are up my way I'll reprogram it for you. Takes all of 5 minutes, mostly finding the special cable and taking the lid off. In theory I can do it with any PC that has a parallel port but in practice the software is a bit temperamental (it's not Darryl's own!) and only works on one of my PCs.

Heatercathodeshort · 26th Dec 2006, 4:43 pm

Sorted! I have set switch 7 to on as you suggested Jeffrey and it has not powered down since. I will leave it running on my D16T......The converter will be fine..Its the D16T I'm worried about! Regards John.

tubesrule · 26th Dec 2006, 4:56 pm

Hi John,
Yes, the Sleep mode feature was one I thought was a good idea when I first designed the converter. It was meant to shut down all the internals when there was no video input connected for more than 30 minutes. This drops the power requirement to under 1W, and the LED starts to pulsate to indicate the Sleep mode. Unfortunately many people like yourself wanted to run the unit in the default image mode, and this was a nuisance. I added the Sleep disable switch so you can run the unit indefinitely with no video connected.
From yours and others feedback, it sounds like I should at least provide a link in the box to the downloadable user manual so you know where to go to get it. I have avoided providing a printed copy due to cost and weight, but perhaps a CD or DVD with the manual and some test images would be a good idea.

Darryl

ppppenguin · 26th Dec 2006, 4:56 pm

According to the version notes the sleep disable using SW7 wasn't introduced until v1.6 on 12/6/06. But if it works, it works. It's possible that the label is wrong.

When the documentation and reality don't agree it's always reality that's correct

tubesrule · 26th Dec 2006, 5:24 pm

Jeff,
That is strange as the Sleep disable was introduced in 1.6. If the unit is in stock when a new version of the firmware comes out, I reprogram all units and hand write the new version over the original on the label. As you say though, reality must be correct.

Darryl

Heatercathodeshort · 26th Dec 2006, 5:40 pm

Hello to Darryl and Jeffrey,
First of all Darryl I hope you had a good Christmas. Very quiet here but thats fine by me. I have downloaded all the information from your website as I should have done when I received the unit some months ago. And to think I used to have a go at customers that never read the instruction books with new receivers. Jeffrey has kindly answered my query and it looks as if it is going to be o.k.
The 405 quality from this unit is truly outstanding and appears to be better than the original 625/405 converters installed at our transmitting stations. Non technical friends who have viewed the pictures simply cannot believe how good 405 line television was and this is on 60 year old receivers. I well remember this superb quality as a young service engineer. Its great to be able to see it again with such simplicity with your converter. It also supplies plenty of good quality audio output. Regards John.

garfy · 7th Feb 2007, 10:04 pm

Hello,

Just like to say on my Bush TV62 when veiwing the built in Testcard i get the 4 Megs bars which is the highest i have seen on a 405 line tv.

Regards,

Garfy.

ppppenguin · 7th Feb 2007, 10:41 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by garfy

... when veiwing the built in Testcard i get the 4 Megs bars....

I thought the finest bars were only about 3.5MHz but that's still impressive on any TV. I'm sure that Darryl will have the exact numbers but I think he's away until mid February.

garfy · 7th Feb 2007, 11:01 pm

Hello Jeffrey,
Yes if i can i will take a picture of this thats if it will show up off my camera

.
Regards,
Garfy.

Panrock · 7th Feb 2007, 11:36 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by ppppenguin

I thought the finest bars were only about 3.5MHz but that's still impressive on any TV.

Wouldn't a signal that carried video this high normally cause some vision buzz on the sound? And if your set was aligned to capture it you might get some sound-on-vision wobbles too.

Steve

ppppenguin · 8th Feb 2007, 8:54 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panrock

Wouldn't a signal that carried video this high normally cause some vision buzz on the sound? And if your set was aligned to capture it you might get some sound-on-vision wobbles too.

Sorry, I was talking rot when I said 3.5MHz. That's the sound to vision carrier spacing. The highest frequency bars can only be 3MHz.

garfy · 8th Feb 2007, 8:59 pm

Hello Steve,
The 4th box of bars come in right on the edge of the tuning just before break up,and whilst the picture is ok i don`t know about the sound yet as there is no sound on the Aurora.

This tv is one which i have just [Almost] finished,and i may post this on the forum soon with some pictures and hopefully i will be able to show one with the 4 meg bars.

As you might expect the bars are only faint but they are there.
To complete this the Smoothing block needs replacing has it has dried up and there is a nice wavy picture at the moment which looks like a an egyption bellt dancer.

As this is a 200+100+100mfd i will have to fit three separate ones in it if i cannot get another block.

Regards,
Garfy.

garfy · 11th Feb 2007, 11:28 pm

Hello again,

I think i have done a bunk here regarding the 4mhz signal,as i think the 4th box on the testcard "C" is 3.5mhz and not 4mhz.

So call me a nutter if you like but this is what comes of looking at Testcard "F" for over thirty years.
Next week i will try and get colour on the TV62.

Regards,

Garfy.

tubesrule · 15th Feb 2007, 1:09 am

The highest frequency grating on Test Card C is 3.0MHz. Using the actual test pattern I flash into the unit, it's coming out to about 2.95MHz.

Now, if you really want to push your set, I have a built in multi-burst pattern that I use to verify the output curcuit during final test. You can check in the user manual on how to get to this test pattern, but you'll basically get 7 bursts between 0.5MHz and 4.4MHz. Of course everything around 3.5MHz will be band-stopped out if you use the RF output, but you should get them all from the video line output.

Darryl

garfy · 16th Feb 2007, 5:46 pm

Hello Darryl,

Many thanks for the info i will have a look in your user manual.

I should have realised this before i said anything as it`s just not fesable to get somthing whats not there.

Best regards,

Garfy.

26th Dec 2006, 4:07 pm	#1
Heatercathodeshort Dekatron Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING. Posts: 9,127	Aurora. Odd problem. Hello, I purchased an AURORA standards converter earlier this year but have only recently used it for more than about 20 mins. After this period has elapsed I find that the flashing LED slows to around one flash per second and the signal vanishes. Switching off and on again will reboot the converter only for the whole process to repeat itself. I have tried running it on reduced voltage of around 6v and the results are the same so I don't think it is overheating as such. Results other than that are truly amazing giving the best 405 line pictures I have seen since the closedown of the service. Any ideas? Regards John.

26th Dec 2006, 4:14 pm	#2
ppppenguin Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: North London, UK. Posts: 6,168	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. This sounds like the auto standby facility that was made into an option in later firmware versions. If there is no video input, the unit powers down after a certain time. Later versions had this feature on one of the DIP switches. Set switch 7 to ON to disable this standby mode. If your converter is too early to have this change (unlikely) then I'll reporgram it for you. I think the firmware version is noted on the label.

26th Dec 2006, 4:25 pm	#3
Heatercathodeshort Dekatron Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING. Posts: 9,127	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Hello Jeffrey, I think you are spot on with your answer. Unfortunately I didn't get any information with mine, only the unit in a postal box. I have been using it mainly with the 'built in' testcard rather than an input from a video source. The numbers on the label are:SCRF-405A Rev 1.4 Thanks for your help Jeffrey. Now I know how some of my customers thought...Regards John.

26th Dec 2006, 4:40 pm	#4
ppppenguin Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: North London, UK. Posts: 6,168	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. The manual is downloadable from Darryl's website. http://converter.home.comcast.net/ He doesn't send it with the converter because that would increase the cost, especially postage from the US. I'm pretty sure v1.4 predates the firmware change so if you are up my way I'll reprogram it for you. Takes all of 5 minutes, mostly finding the special cable and taking the lid off. In theory I can do it with any PC that has a parallel port but in practice the software is a bit temperamental (it's not Darryl's own!) and only works on one of my PCs.

26th Dec 2006, 4:43 pm	#5
Heatercathodeshort Dekatron Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING. Posts: 9,127	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Sorted! I have set switch 7 to on as you suggested Jeffrey and it has not powered down since. I will leave it running on my D16T......The converter will be fine..Its the D16T I'm worried about! Regards John.

26th Dec 2006, 4:56 pm	#6
tubesrule Hexode Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Michigan USA Posts: 325	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Hi John, Yes, the Sleep mode feature was one I thought was a good idea when I first designed the converter. It was meant to shut down all the internals when there was no video input connected for more than 30 minutes. This drops the power requirement to under 1W, and the LED starts to pulsate to indicate the Sleep mode. Unfortunately many people like yourself wanted to run the unit in the default image mode, and this was a nuisance. I added the Sleep disable switch so you can run the unit indefinitely with no video connected. From yours and others feedback, it sounds like I should at least provide a link in the box to the downloadable user manual so you know where to go to get it. I have avoided providing a printed copy due to cost and weight, but perhaps a CD or DVD with the manual and some test images would be a good idea. Darryl

26th Dec 2006, 4:56 pm	#7
ppppenguin Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: North London, UK. Posts: 6,168	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. According to the version notes the sleep disable using SW7 wasn't introduced until v1.6 on 12/6/06. But if it works, it works. It's possible that the label is wrong. When the documentation and reality don't agree it's always reality that's correct

26th Dec 2006, 5:24 pm	#8
tubesrule Hexode Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Michigan USA Posts: 325	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Jeff, That is strange as the Sleep disable was introduced in 1.6. If the unit is in stock when a new version of the firmware comes out, I reprogram all units and hand write the new version over the original on the label. As you say though, reality must be correct. Darryl

26th Dec 2006, 5:40 pm	#9
Heatercathodeshort Dekatron Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING. Posts: 9,127	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Hello to Darryl and Jeffrey, First of all Darryl I hope you had a good Christmas. Very quiet here but thats fine by me. I have downloaded all the information from your website as I should have done when I received the unit some months ago. And to think I used to have a go at customers that never read the instruction books with new receivers. Jeffrey has kindly answered my query and it looks as if it is going to be o.k. The 405 quality from this unit is truly outstanding and appears to be better than the original 625/405 converters installed at our transmitting stations. Non technical friends who have viewed the pictures simply cannot believe how good 405 line television was and this is on 60 year old receivers. I well remember this superb quality as a young service engineer. Its great to be able to see it again with such simplicity with your converter. It also supplies plenty of good quality audio output. Regards John.

7th Feb 2007, 10:04 pm	#10
garfy Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cornwall,UK Posts: 25	Re: Aurora.4 Megs Hello, Just like to say on my Bush TV62 when veiwing the built in Testcard i get the 4 Megs bars which is the highest i have seen on a 405 line tv. Regards, Garfy.

7th Feb 2007, 11:01 pm	#12
garfy Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cornwall,UK Posts: 25	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Hello Jeffrey, Yes if i can i will take a picture of this thats if it will show up off my camera . Regards, Garfy.

8th Feb 2007, 8:59 pm	#15
garfy Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cornwall,UK Posts: 25	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Hello Steve, The 4th box of bars come in right on the edge of the tuning just before break up,and whilst the picture is ok i don`t know about the sound yet as there is no sound on the Aurora. This tv is one which i have just [Almost] finished,and i may post this on the forum soon with some pictures and hopefully i will be able to show one with the 4 meg bars. As you might expect the bars are only faint but they are there. To complete this the Smoothing block needs replacing has it has dried up and there is a nice wavy picture at the moment which looks like a an egyption bellt dancer. As this is a 200+100+100mfd i will have to fit three separate ones in it if i cannot get another block. Regards, Garfy.

11th Feb 2007, 11:28 pm	#16
garfy Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cornwall,UK Posts: 25	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Hello again, I think i have done a bunk here regarding the 4mhz signal,as i think the 4th box on the testcard "C" is 3.5mhz and not 4mhz. So call me a nutter if you like but this is what comes of looking at Testcard "F" for over thirty years. Next week i will try and get colour on the TV62. Regards, Garfy.

15th Feb 2007, 1:09 am	#17
tubesrule Hexode Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Michigan USA Posts: 325	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. The highest frequency grating on Test Card C is 3.0MHz. Using the actual test pattern I flash into the unit, it's coming out to about 2.95MHz. Now, if you really want to push your set, I have a built in multi-burst pattern that I use to verify the output curcuit during final test. You can check in the user manual on how to get to this test pattern, but you'll basically get 7 bursts between 0.5MHz and 4.4MHz. Of course everything around 3.5MHz will be band-stopped out if you use the RF output, but you should get them all from the video line output. Darryl

16th Feb 2007, 5:46 pm	#18
garfy Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cornwall,UK Posts: 25	Re: Aurora. Odd problem. Hello Darryl, Many thanks for the info i will have a look in your user manual. I should have realised this before i said anything as it`s just not fesable to get somthing whats not there. Best regards, Garfy.