Looking for a decent Scart Switch

[mickcris]

There is a guy on neo-geo forums who is selling powered 5-way bandridge scart switches. Anyone tried these? Thinking about getting one

It's not bad.  I used that until I got a gscartsw.

Couldn't you just daisy chain two bandridge connectors for more inputs? What makes the gscartsw your preferred switch or the bandridge?

I had issues chaining them together where some consoles on the 2nd switch would not work.  I have heard others do it without any problems.  It may have been an issue with port 5 needing modded on mine, but I did not know about that at the time.
I have 2 gscartsw chained together to my framemeister and they work perfectly.  I have a couple of the older ones that did not need external power so that is one reason I like them.  I also like the extra inputs (15 compared to 9 for 2 switches).
I also have 1 of the newest version hooked up to my BVM. 

[wildfruit]

Ok so I finally got round to testing the cheap piece of crap I bought. I can confirm it is a cheap piece of crap. Whites are off grey. Sometimes even off yellow. Tried with saturn & wii. Do not recommend.

[SamIAm]

Wildfruit, I was waiting to see your verdict.

I bought one of those roughly 10 years ago, and I was wondering if they had improved their design at all. It seems not.

At least now you've got something to cannibalize for parts.

I've been getting better at soldering lately, and I wonder how hard it would really be to build your own switch? Maybe something non-powered, but with actual mechanical switches. I know there are a crapload of pins in a scart connector, but a lot of them are ground pins, and most game systems have only one ground at the output anyway. 10 pins should be enough.

A few of these, a bunch of connectors, some breadboard, a whole bunch of wire, and a nice box to stick it all in might actually work. You could keep the design simple by making it so that you have to turn every switch off except for the one for the system you want to use.

Could be a fun way to spend an afternoon.

[wildfruit]

I think people have said above that unpowered switches may be dim and this one definitely is dimmer than a direct connection.

[crazydean]

I just got the Bandridge 5-way SCART switcher. It is powered but it switches automatically. It's awesome. I know some people have had issues, but it works great with my BVM 20G1U.

[SamIAm]

I think people have said above that unpowered switches may be dim and this one definitely is dimmer than a direct connection.

I think the problem there is that this particular device doesn't allow you to disconnect any of the inputs in the series. The systems you're not using somehow soak up some of the signal from the one you are, and that leads to darkness and other weirdness. For example, if you disconnect all butone cable and use this thing like a mere extension, it will probably be just fine.

There is really no reason why an unpowered, totally passive switch couldn't be adequate. It's just that a lot of makers cut corners and don't properly isolate the one input you want to use.

[Bloufo]

Been using this el-cheapo for years. No complaints.