When we built our new IMAG system in 2006, we made the decision to jump headlong into the world of HD video.  We’ve learned and grown over the past 2 years (has it been that long already?!), and now that HD stuff is finally dropping in price, we’re able to add some more functionality to our system and get it functioning the way we want.

One piece of HD gear that gives us consistent heartache is this HDSDI to DVI converter from AJA.  We have about 12-15 of these in use in our building, and normally they perform great.  But when you try to warm-start them (power-cycle them anywhere under 30-60 seconds), they invariably falter and leave you with a blank screen.  In an area where one-second power outages are pretty common, that tends to happen quite often.  It usually means that if we have a power outage, someone is going to be walking around the building, reaching behind every plasma panel and unplugging these boxes to sit for a minute or so (and by someone I mean usually myself).

I got to thinking, there has got to be a way around this, right?  Surely someone sells a power-on delay timer that’s relatively inexpensive.  I started looking around and found that pre-fab power-on delays are expensive, or at least more than I’m willing to pay.  Ok, well what if I roll my own, maybe that’s cheaper?  I started snooping around W.W. Grainger’s site to see if they had something, and I stumbled upon this little gem.

Now these come in many different flavors, but the idea is the same.  As soon as current hits this circuit, it waits X seconds before passing the current to the load.  Seems perfect for keeping the AJA converter boxes from restarting too fast in case our power flickers.  Even better, these are WAY less expensive than the pre-fab stuff I was looking at.  I’ll still need to throw another $5 at each build for plugs and a little wiring though.  And since these will sit behind plasma panels where no one sees them, I don’t have to worry about making them too pretty.

I hope to have our first unit built by next week.  Once it’s ready, I’ll post a pic or two and a wiring diagram.  Hopefully this will be helpful to someone else who uses these scalers.