Operation

Operation of the Retro Scaler A1

Basics

You need power, a display and a source.  It doesn’t matter in which order you connect these.

Power

You power the unit via the USB port using a micro-usb cable, which is a very common type.  You can power it from a computer, a phone charger or the Jammafier. When powered, a red LED next to the VGA OUT port will light up.

Connect to a display

Connect your display to the ‘VGA OUT’ port.  Both RGB and sync output is standard VGA, and you can use an LCD monitor – though a CRT by nature will look a lot better :).

Be aware that the scaler does not change vertical frequency, i.e. if the source if 54Hz, the output will also be 54Hz.  For CRT monitors this is usually not an issue, but LCD’s may be more picky.

Arcade game as source

If you want to upscale an Arcade game and have a Jammafier, just use a normal VGA cable and you’re done.  If you have a tri-sync helper, disconnect it before using the scaler. The Retro Scaler uses and defaults to raw arcade video, i.e. there should be a direct connection between the Jamma edge and the RGB input on the scaler.

Retro computer/console as source

You will most likely need a custom cable, and you will need to configure the input to be 75-ohm.  

Buttons

Button A, brightness/white

The scaler adjusts to the incoming signal once synced up, and then again after 8 seconds (by default), and will also do an adjust if the signal overloads at any time.  You can press the ‘A’ button to trigger a re-adjustment.

Button C, scanlines

The scaler has 5 scanline setings, from none to heavy.  The default is none.  You can cycle through these by pressing the ‘C’ button.  If you start the scaler with an SD card, it will remember your setting.

 

LEDs

There are 3 leds, next to the buttons.  They are red, green and blue.  When all 3 are illuminated and stable, there should be an output to the display.

Red led

The scaler is waiting for any sync activity

Green led

The scaler is trying to lock stable sync from the sync processor.

Blue led

The scaler is trying to lock stable sync from the video digitizer.

 

Last Updated on 2022-08-18 by admin