Hello Friends.
I’m waiting for my new Andor 1 to arrive, but as the ‘Deluxe Accessories’ pack was unavailable, I only ordered the unit itself. Question for any Andor 1 users - what will I need to connect this to my Visual Cortex? I just want to make sure that when it arrives, I’m ready with any bits I need. I have a usb keyboard. What else should I be prepared with? Making my own ‘deluxe accessories’ kit I guess! 
You might consider an HDMI to YPbPr converter for best quality going into Cortex. If you only need the luma video from Andor, you could use a TRRS A/V cable designed to work with Raspberry Pi 2 and plug it directly into Cortex.
Oh wow I hadn’t thought of converting the hdmi to ypbpr. Is there a converter that you recommend? I’m looking on amazon but so far only finding ones that output progressive, not interlaced.
Thanks. I have a feeling I bought one of those for something else a year ago and it didn’t work properly. Do you recommend any particular brand or model of those converters?
I guess I may only need luma though. The VC creates plenty of colour itself!!!
Thanks for the reply 
oops, just saw your message now… same question! 
Okay, got into the studio this eve and I had two random cables (from old game consoles I think) that I thought might do it (they both have 1/8 TRRS jack on one end and three rca type connections on the other (one lead has them coloured RGB, the other is red, white, yellow). Neither of them will give me anything but scrolling nonsense. I tried all kinds of combos in order, and switching sync and format on the back of the VC.
Is there something I’m missing or will a Rasberry Pi 2 cable really solve my problem?
Didn’t think there would be anything unusual about that cable but hopefully I’m wrong!
Not all TRRS A/V cables are the same. You need one with the right pinout for a Raspberry Pi.
Considering the above image, you want to use a cable where the 4th band on the jack is connected to the center pin on the RCA video jack and where the 3rd band on the jack is connected to the outer ring on the RCA video jack. (If you have a multimeter you can test the continuity to map out which band goes to which part of the jack. I did that with all my TRRS a/v cables to figure out which would work.)
Thanks for that. Interesting.
I’ve ordered the correct cable, hopefully not more than a couple of weeks delivery time. I’ll be patiently waiting! Looks like it’s cable that’s wired differently than the required one, but it comes with an adaptor that obviously swaps the connections.
So that should fix my problem. Thanks for the help!
Okay. Finally got cable, hit the studio last night, all excited, and… more problems.
Hopefully it’s a simple fix. When I plug Andor1 into Visual Cortex, picture is scrolling. I can see the content of the Andor1, but it scrolls left to right, over my VC picture, I’ve tried different combinations of sync and format switches on the back of VC, but no luck.
Anyone know what’s wrong?
You’re plugging it into the top jack of the YPbPr area, right? Only the top jack handles the sync from the composite signal, as far as I know.
And what’s happening with the VC’s Sync Generator section LEDs when you plug it in? Are you getting the lock one to light up green? And which format LED lights up? NTSC or PAL?
The Genlock Source switch on the back of the module should be set to the DECODER side in order to set it to get sync from the input decoder.
Also, what format do you want it to be? What format is your monitor? You should be working in the same format from start to finish… Either (NTSC output from Andor 1 -> VC set to NTSC -> NTSC monitor) or (PAL output from Andor 1 -> VC set to PAL -> PAL monitor). No mixing of NTSC and PAL.
Hey Joem, thanks very much for the advice. Got it working!
So, it seems I got confused, there are yellow, black, and red RCAs on the new cable I got, and somehow I didn’t try with the red as the top YPbPr input with the right genlock setting.
I now have picture from the Andor1, displaying in LZX world.
HOWEVER…
I now realise that without there being a colour input for the VC, it’s not so colourful anymore! That would seem to be obvious, but somehow I thought that the colourful world I’m used to seeing in my video would still be there if I simply added some video content from the Andor1, even if that was only outputing black&white itself. But it seems I’m wrong. I now realise that, of course, if you don’t put any colour signal in, then perhaps there’s nothing for the Visual Cortex to colour?
Now, after going to the trouble of getting this cable working, I’m thinking about not using the cable after all!!! Z0NK0UT mentions in this thread about using the HDMI output with a converter. I have a Blackmagic Shuttle Express, which I haven’t been using at all for ages, it’s just sitting there. But as far as I remember, it needs a computer to operate it. (Doesn’t run standalone, right?) The whole point of me getting the Andor1 was to get rid of a computer from my setup!
Oh well… I’ll get there eventually I guess.
Any further advice still much appreciated.
A lot can still be done with just the luma signal, though maybe it doesn’t fit your needs… If you plug the luma signal into the colorize input and flip some of the nearby switches (and maybe the knobs too?), you can do some interesting colorizing. You probably won’t be able to get the colors the way they are in the source material (and might not even be able to get them remotely close) but it is a way to get some colors into the signal. Also if you have a Staircase, Mapper, Topogram or Castle ADC, you can do other kinds of colorization with those.
Otherwise, if you want the colors to be the same as your source, you need to input YPbPr format video.
