Aurora converters - latest news

[ppppenguin]

I've been in touch with Darryl recently. Glad to know he's safe and well. He says he has about 20 Aurora SCRF converters in stock but they are selling very slowly. Not helped by the current crisis and the the strong US dollar. About 780 have been sold to date, the vast majority are the 405 line version to UK buyers.

He says he will keep making them if there is continued interest - he still has adequate stock of critical parts such as the RF modulators.

The World Converter (WC-01) hasn't been made for some years and won't be made again. The downloads of manuals etc are back on the website.

http://www.tech-retro.com/Aurora_Design/Video_Home.html

[Panrock]

Thanks Jeffrey. I'm glad I got my World Converter when I did. It's proved incredibly useful. 
Steve

[ppppenguin]

I've seen that the Crowthorne website is no longer in existence. I've been in touch with Darryl who was unaware of this. The only way to get an Aurora now is directly from Darryl: http://www.tech-retro.com/Aurora_Design/...erter.html

They are definitely still available. He has a number in stock which will last for a while at the current low demand. Once they have all sold he will decide whether to make more.

[tubesrule]

Greetings to all,
I'm curious if anyone knows what happened to Gerry at Crowthorne? The last correspondence I had with him was in February. I'm hoping he's doing OK and he just decided to retire, but not hearing from him doesn't seem good.

Do people think it would still be worthwhile to have a stocking UK dealer? This definitely gets the cost down by reducing the shipping to a negligible amount. I have someone who has expressed interest but I don't want them to have a good understanding of the current market situation.

Darryl

[tubesrule]

Good News. I have been in contact with Gerry and he is doing fine. His contract with the company hosting his website expired so he is looking for a new host. It doesn't sound like he is fully retiring yet.

Darryl

[lemke]

Hello. I have been trying to contact Daryl - I wish to buy a convertor. My emails have been sent back as "undeliverable". Does anyone know how to contact him?

[Brunel]

@lemke

https://www.tech-retro.com/aurora-design/sc.html

[ppppenguin]

You've probably seen that the Auroras have moved to a new web page: https://www.tech-retro.com/aurora-design/legacy.html Now called a legacy product and no facility for buying online. This is why I emailed Darryl a few days ago at: darryl ***at**** tech-retro ****dot*****com (disguised address) where we have corresponded for many years. No reply, though the message didn't bounce.

At last contact I had with Darryl in May this year he was certainly considering not making any more SCRF converters and it's possible that the current batch have all been sold. We discussed the possibility of making the design fully open source when production has finally ceased. In theory this would allow anyone with sufficient ability to make and modify them though I can't see that happening. In practice it would really be for study and curiosity.

If you need a 625>405 converter at the moment you can buy a fully assembled Hedghog (note unusual spelling) from Stephen Evans in Falmouth, Cornwall.
smevans ?>?>at%$%$%$btinternet"£"£"£dot^&^&^&com (disguised address)

You can also build one yourself to Frank Cuffe's design though you need decent surface mount soldering skills. Personally speaking I'd use Stephen's service: https://electronics.frankcuffe.ovh/hedghog-ii

For basic picture quality there's nothing to choose between the Aurora and Hedghog converters. The Hedghog has a few more bells and whistles, with all user controls on the front panel. The Aurora has better testcard facilities. It can capture a stationary video image and store it in flash memory. The Hedghog is limited to a fairly simple test chart generated in the FPGA.

Disclaimer: Both Frank and Stephen are friends who I have met on various occasions. I regard Darryl as a friend but we've not yet had any opportunity to meet. We've been corresponding since 2004 since he did his first work on standards conversion. Both Darryl and Frank have given me evaluation samples of their converters. You can see my writings on standards conversion on my website.

[ppppenguin]

I've been in touch with Darryl. He has about 10 SCRF left in stock. Supply to UK customers is now via Gerry at Crowthorne Tubes: https://www.crowthornetubes.co.uk/ Darryl says sales have been slow (50 over 2 years) and he's not sure whether he'll make any more.

So if you want an Aurora converter buy it now. You may not get another chance.

Thank goodness Frank has developed the Hedghog and Stephen Evans is supplying them fully assembled. The alternative is using a PC to generate suitable video and use an external modulator. Peter Scott has done much work on this.

It will be interesting to see Frank's programmable converter. This is mainly relevant to those who want to explore unusual standards such as Baird 240/25p.

[LENINGRAD T2]

Hello,

Will the programmable converter support all standards, e.g. pre-war from the US? When will it be available?
Adam