CXA1645 DIP Package - US Supplier Found

[Lastcallhall]

Hi all. A week or so ago, I contacted my supplier at Syracuse Semiconductors to see if he could get ahold of any DIP packages locally and he said he would get back to me. Below is his response:

I can get the CXA1645P (DIP package) @ $12.95 each, but there is a 25 piece minimum. It will take me about a week to get them in.

You mentioned you might have some friends who need this part. Please let me know if you would like to order them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Best Regards,
Joe

Syracuse Semiconductors, Inc.

I'm posting this here, as well as on AA, in hopes that there is enough interest to put together a group order, as I cannot afford the whole 25 by myself. Also, I called Joe back today to inform him of my status, and he said he would be willing to purchase the full 25 even if we cannot get a full order together, and that he would just burn them off as he normally does - through eBay and word of mouth.

Please PM me if interested. I'd like to have an answer to give him by Friday. Thanks!!!

[kool kitty89]

I think I may have already responded to this on AA, but:
Why bother with the CXA1645??? There's much better modern encoders that are similarly easy to use (if not easier) at similar or lower prices than that, and some including component video output -or cheaper bare bones encoders having only RGB and component out. (among others there was one modern high-end Samsung RGB encoder that came up in this context before -mentioned as it was one of the few encoders being sold in small quantities on ebay) I need to check again, but I think it may have been the Samsung KA2198, though that's not a particularly new design. (I think it was available in the 90s, but it's far better than the KA2195D iirc as well as the Sony and Fujitsu encoders in common use by Sega)


There's a bunch of 1645Ms on ebay now for a very similar price along with some other encoders I'm not sure about.
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_kw=rgb&_kw=encoder

http://cgi.ebay.com/RGB-Encoder-Sony...item3c9938aa48



If you're going to aim at bulk, I say go for the best bang for the buck you can find, but I haven't done enough research to know what that is right now.
There's the CXA2075M which is definitely improved over the CXA1645.

[Lastcallhall]

I'm not skilled enough with a soldering iron (yet) to wire up SOP packages, so the DIP is a nice alternative choice. Someone at AA mentioned getting a SOP to DIP board, but the total cost came out to a good 5.00 USD more than getting the plain DIP packages. Also, I wasn't aware of alternatives - I did a (admittedly) quick Google search, and didn't come up with much in the way of alternatives. I'll look into the chips you suggested; at this rate a group order isn't going to happen, anyway.

[kool kitty89]

I'm not skilled enough with a soldering iron (yet) to wire up SOP packages, so the DIP is a nice alternative choice. Someone at AA mentioned getting a SOP to DIP board, but the total cost came out to a good 5.00 USD more than getting the plain DIP packages. Also, I wasn't aware of alternatives - I did a (admittedly) quick Google search, and didn't come up with much in the way of alternatives. I'll look into the chips you suggested; at this rate a group order isn't going to happen, anyway.

I haven't looked into what makes the best alternative (probably better or more cost effective examples than the couple I listed). But as to soldering: are you talking about soldering to the motherboard or just soldering wires to the chip?

It's probably easiest to not remove anything from the MD's motherboard and just solder a few leads to the board (or piggyback from the old encoder) and attach those to a project board with the new encoder (and any external components) or directly to the encoder's pins. (there may be few enough components to just chain them together with some solder and maybe a few additional wires -and then the final analog output leads for the Y/C and composite -and RGB if you want to, some could provide better RGB buffering as well and maybe avoid the vertical line issues on some TVs/consoles in RGB/component)

[Lastcallhall]

I'm talking about getting a loose SOP and soldering it to... well, I have no clue. I wouldn't even know what to solder the contact points to. I guess I could solder loose wires to the legs, but it being such a small chip, I'm worried that the solder wouldn't hold.

[kool kitty89]

I'm talking about getting a loose SOP and soldering it to... well, I have no clue. I wouldn't even know what to solder the contact points to. I guess I could solder loose wires to the legs, but it being such a small chip, I'm worried that the solder wouldn't hold.

Good solder should hold very well (ie a proper joint with flux/rosin used)... you'd have more concern about breaking off the pin/leg due to excess handling then anything else. (if you were worried about handling it, you could always use a small project board, but that should be unnecessary -just as it is for normal s-video mods, and most internal mods for that matter)

As for how to connect it... I'd just piggyback on the existing encoder for the RGB+sync inputs as well as +5V and gnd (or tap other common lines for those), and then run the proper buffering (a few resistors and capacitors) for composite and Y/C output then connected to wires run to the AV connector and/or custom video jacks. (you could run composite to the RF modulator too if you cared about improving RF too)

Basically you'd treat it like a normal s-video mod, but with a bit of added steps.

However, the only systems that you'd ever really care about using a CXA1645 would be models stuck with a KA2195D (blurry and poor quality in general with no luma line for s-video... though it does prevent rainbow artifacts common to all other encoders used in NTSC). The common CXA1145 seems to be very much like a more primitive predecessor to the 1645 and as such can almost match it in composite (and even more so for s-video) provided with the proper external amps and buffering for less work and cost than adding a CXA1645 would be. (there's a composite mod made by Ace that gives video almost as sharp and bright as a properly configured 1645: it's simple too, just a single 100-220 uF capacitor and a 33 ohm resistor attached to the composite output while S-video has a few different methods but generally requires a single transistor and resistor on luma and a single capacitor on chroma -some call for an added resistor and in some cases a bare chroma line is also acceptable though not ideal)