Video & Stereo AV4 Connector instead of RCA ? (for sale too)

Cluso99

My pcbs are small and require a new connector instead of the RCA connector used for Video (and sometimes stereo). I am using an AV4 3.5mm 4pin T/H R/A pcb connector for this.

I propose the connections be from tip Red Audio, White Audio, Yellow Video, and then Ground being the last ring/sleeve. This is the major standard for camcorders and Nokia phones, but not Apple iPod and iPhone which reverses the Ground and Video. The camcorder standard cables are available on eBay for $1 shipped. Apple cables are expensive.

The connector I am using (see dwg below) cost me 0.15c ea shipped, but I had to buy 1,000 of them. It would be nice to standardise on these connectors too. They are quite small.

I am making them available for a small profit to cover my costs and can ship quite cheaply by unregistered mail from Australia in 7-14 days. Contact me by e mail " cluso at bluemagic dot biz " if you are interested.

I gave Hanno a few to take to UPEW for those of you are making pcbs for sale to check out. There are a few other connectors including 1x14 RA TH pin sockets and pin headers, 1x6 ST TH pin sockets and 1x6 ST TH pin sockets with long pins. Also I bought crimp female pins and some housings to make cables - you can solder cables to these, and then squash. These make cables like the old pcs used to connect to the front panels. I will be using them to make 6pin cables to VGA sockets as I my pcbs are not much bigger than the VGA connector!

potatohead

I was going to write that I have no real preference, but...

After setting up for S-video, I am leaning that way going forward and the RCA is a bummer. What I like about these is the same connector could do S-video, if audio were one channel, or just not included at all.

Cables are no big deal. Easily made. I really don't like the S-video connector much. Right now, I've got two RCA jacks, one for luma, one for chroma, and a cable that brings that to the standard S-video on the other end. The pins get bent in those, and it seems they are stress sensitive too.

The dual RCA takes a lot of space though. I don't have the usual S-video connectors, and have no desire to build with them. I wouldn't mind seeing the switch to these happen over time.

Tubular

These AV connectors are really neat.

Is there a way of doing component video (which uses the Red-Green-Blue RCA triplet)? So then we could trade off audio for higher quality video?

Cluso99

There would be no problem in using the same connector for RGB component video by removing the audio. I suggest then we use tip as Red, then Green, Blue and Ground last as ring/sleeve.

For S-Video, tip as Red for audio, White as Chrominance (Color), Yellow as Luminance (Y greyscale) and Ground last as ring/sleeve.

This way we can use the same cable sets which are cheap too.

Rayman

Sounds like a good idea to me. Maybe somebody can talk Parallax into putting a place for one on their Proto boards...

schill

One thing to bear in mind if you go this route... It's pretty easy to find prebuilt cables with 4 connectors on the 1/8" (3.5mm) plug, but it's harder to find the plugs themselves if you want to make custom cables. They are out there but there aren't nearly as many options as with other plugs. That being said, I think standardizing on these plugs/jacks is a good idea.

Martin Hodge

Whatever the final consensus on the pinout, I think using these plugs is a great idea!

RDL2004

Mouser stocks those 4 conductor plugs, I couldn't find any matching jacks though.

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/KC-300914.pdf

schill

RDL2004 wrote: »

I couldn't find any matching jacks though.

That's a bit of a concern. I think this is a good standard to follow, but we also may want to make sure that the parts are readily available. If people are going to start designing boards to use these, we should probably find out how standard the PC board connections are.

I have some old (pre Propeller days) boards that use RCA connectors that are non standard. The person who designed the board didn't realize that he was using "the only RCA jacks in the world" that had the signal and ground contacts reversed - same pin pattern on the circuit board, just reversed connections.

I'd hate to have people pick something that was really hard to find. Of course, this only affects the board itself and not the signals.

By the way, it looks like digikey has SMT and panel jacks:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=CP-43514SJCT-ND
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=CP5-43502PM-ND

Cluso99

I looked at other AV4 sockets including all those from DigiKey. I settled on this one for its pcb size and mounting ease. It is also true that the 4pin plugs are more difficult to find. But why would you want that when you can buy a premade cable with RCA plugs on the end for $1 shipped? FWIW I also found 3 ganged RCA female-female adapters for $1 shipped.

Board designers can always use other AV4 socket alternatives if they are providing pre-assembled pcbs. I intend to provide my pcbs assembled or bare with parts. I wanted something cheap that I could effectively throw in the parts with the pcb.

Cluso99

This connector is on a new pcb of mine to be announced shortly.

I bought a cable on eBay which has 3.5mm to 3 RCA plugs (R, W & Y) 600mm for $1.00 inc postage (user vii-win www.bqueenway.com) Be careful, there are different standards, particularly the video and gnd are reversed. The iPod uses the reversed connections. Tripple RCA-RCA female-female adapters are also available on eBay $1.00 inc postage (user buyincoins www.buyincoins.com)