Bonus Genesis Question!

[Drewman21]

In my previous question  that I just posted IF it is possible to remove a RF unit from a Genesis ver 1 and I have a follow up if it can be.
    Could you take the RF unit, power it up(somehow) and feed it a standard composite video signal and/or audio and tie it into a person's cable feed to broadcast on ch. 3 or 4 some how?  I know this might be kinda out there but it would be cool to use so could turn around and broadcast in your house/apt building a security camera, movies, or I dare say video games to those two channels.  
     Granted it would take a bit of wireing and a few parts but it would be dirt cheap compaired to the channel amps that we use at my Univ.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or how to do it?
Drewman21

[NFG]

You'll need a tool to mix your signal with the ones that are already there, otherwise you'll be broadcasting your signal over another, and badness will result.  In addition you won't be able to prevent your badness going OUT of the house, cable's a two way street.

[phreak97]

does the signal really need to go back out to the street? couldnt you shove some kind of diode in there or something?

[atom]

Rf adapters already have diode's in them so that the signal only goes one way. Im also sure the cable company puts some sort of device on the poles at the street so you arent broadcasting your own tv shows to all your area.

But yes drewman, that of course would work, just plug in the rf adapter outside the house where all the lines split, just put it before all the splits. You could probably power it with 4 AA batteries.

[Aidan]

Diodes will block a DC waveform that's trying to travel in the wrong direction. RF, however, is an AC waveform, so a diode will pass half of the signal.

Instead, when you're trying to block AC waveforms, devices such as filters are used to cut out the unwanted frequencies. Most cable boxes already have filters in, so injecting your RF post the cable box is probably safe.

You certainly wouldn't want to do it pre-cable box!

[atom]

I never thought of it as being an AC waveform but I guess that would make sense because it has to travel long distances. Thanks for the info.

[Drewman21]

Wow! Glad I asked this question.  I still have a few questions though.  Say I remove the the RF unit that is in the genesis and look to wire it up to do this. What do I send to it to get a signal?  Now that it is removed how do i get video/audio to it.  I see that there are a few pins that go directly into the RF box, 3 of them if i remember correctly.  Would those be audio, video and a common ground? Or should i look elseware for the video/audio feed into it?
     Second question is what type of power setup would i need and again where to hook it up?  I would want to look at a plug in solution and not battery but i'll take what i can get.  
        Thanks again for the discussion and help on this topic!
Drewman21

[Aidan]

I'd expect to see four pins at least...

One for audio, one for composite video, one for ground and one for power. You'd need to find out what the Genesis is actually feeding it powerwise, but I wouldn't expect the box to be too sensitive to voltages.

[NFG]

The RF modulator usually has only three pins: +5v, Audio and Video.  Ground is typically connected to the PCB via the shell of the box, there's often not a pin for it.

[Aidan]

That's a pin as far as I'm concerned. I get your point that if you're expecting to see a dedicated pin, it could be confusing.