All you wanted to know about Homebase Cameras & SCART.

[patrickl@xxxxxxx]

--- In ukha_d@y..., Pedro de Oliveira <oliveirp@B...> wrote:
> I'm sure everyone with a SCART cam wishing to use it on their PC
would
> appreciate the wiring diagram that you used to get yours to work.
I know I
> would ;)

This is what I have, based on a straw poll of Response colour & b/w
cameras. Use it at your own risk - apply common sense before
following it blindly, your own kit may well differ and I'm not
accepting responsibility for killing it. That said, the kit is pretty
robust and you'll have to try hard to do real damage.

There are two kinds of response cameras - those with a hardwired
SCART connector, and those which use a "tail" SCART connector
which
can be unplugged from the camera using an RJ45 connector.

Both use wall-wart power supplies.

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The following applies to the "tail" SCART connector:

The SCART plug comes pre-wired as follows:

pin 2 (Left Audio In), pin 6 (Right Audio In) - commoned, camera Red
pin 8 (Switching voltage) - camera Brown
pin 17 (Composite video out ground) - camera white, power black
pin 19 (Composite video out) - camera yellow

camera green is connected to power red inside the plug, but doesn't
touch the SCART connector.

Summary (if you want to cut the SCART plug off):
Camera Red - Audio
Camera Brown - Switching voltage (V+ supply?)
Cemera White - Ground
Camera Yellow - Composite Video
Camera Green - +ve supply

--------------------------------------------------------------

The following applies to the hardwired SCART connector (colour codes
are different):

The SCART plug comes pre-wired as follows:

pin 2 (Left Audio In), pin 6 (Right Audio In) - commoned, camera
green or white
pin 8 (Switching voltage) - power red
pin 17 (Composite video out ground) - power black
pin 19 (Composite video out) - camera yellow

Summary:
Camera red - supply +
Camera black - supply ground
Camera green or white - audio
Camera yellow - composite video

--------------------------------------------------------------

For cameras with SCART tails, I found it necessary to connect pin 4
(Audio Ground) to pin 17 (Composite video out ground) in order to get
a picture on my kit. [This doesn't make much sense, and I think the
response cameras are mis-wired - it suggests the (video, audio)
signal grounds are separated from the supply ground. If so, then they
should have commoned the Audio & Video Ground and not relied on the
internal configuration of the kit the camera is connected to to do
this for them].

To connect to a composite video source, connect the composite video
signal (pin 19) to the centre of a phono jack. Connect video ground
(pin 17) to the screen/sleeve of the phone jack.

To connect take out the audio, connect the audio signal (pin 2 or 6)
to centre of the phono jack. Connect supply ground (pin 17) to supply
ground.

----------------------------------------------------------------

General approach:

The secret to getting composite video out of a camera is in the
signal grounding. Everybody seems to do it a little differently... In
the worst case, commoning: pin 17, pin 4 and the camera supply ground
should do the trick. (Usual disclaimers apply)

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If you want to dismantle a camera and extract the CCD board, perhaps
to mount it in a PIR sensor:

Response cameras have two parts - a circuit board in the head of the
unit, which contains the audio components and CCD supply circuitry,
and a separate CCD board in the swivel camera head, which does the
actual "picture bit"

Camera Head: Black - supply ground
Camera Head: Red - supply +ve (12V nominal)
Camera Head: Green - Audio
Camera Head: Yellow - Video

Camera CCD: Yellow - Video
Camera CCD: Black - Supply Ground
Camera CCD: Red - Supply +Ve *** 3.5V ***

I have also dismantled another camera I bought in the Homebase sale
which is unbranded. The packaging is pretty distinctive - basically a
warning triangle, and the camera housing is a "globe" shape, for
want
of a better description - which, whilst not waterproof, looks like it
would withstand the elements particularly well. This camera uses an
all-in-one CCD and audio board, with the same colour codes as the
response camera head. The single board approach makes it a much
better candidate for PIR integration IMO.

The aperture for the lens can be very small - making the camera very
discrete. I used blue tack to mount my camera, allowing for
repositioning/aiming once in situ.

You do not need to use screened cable to feed the video signal back
to source over short/medium runs of say less than 20m - twisted pair
works just fine.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Scart connections can be found in many places. I found the numbering
of the pins counter-intuitive. This link has a helpful picture which
makes it all clear: http://www.mpeg2-dvb.com/scart.htm


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Hope this is useful to you all. Mark - if you want to put archive
this on your site somewhere feel free.

Patrick



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