We have been using SCART compliant mini coax multicore in our cables now for 4 years. It is dark blue in colour, 9mm in diameter and because it is designed for two way SCART, contains some redundant lines for one way console SCART cable.
The problem is, our supplier has ditched most SCART cabling and hookups with no warning. We had a huge order scheduled with them, which they cancelled, leaving us with only 6 weeks left of cable last month.
On being queried, we were told that SCART is obsolete so their factory is discontinuing it. A little crazy considering the RGB gaming hobby was causing their orders of SCART components to rise exponentially over the past 3 years!
We have already found an alternative for SCART plugs/sockets and have enough stock to last months at any rate, so this was not a concern. We were, however, low on coax cabling. We are low on non coax too but 1. We have more in stock for the time being and 2. It is nowhere near as hard to source and isn’t a concern - we’re changing it anyway, but there was already a plan in place for that.
It is very hard finding suppliers who still stock analogue video compatible cabling in the current climate. We have had to find suppliers that could already manufacture mini coax lines and were also able to bundle these into a multicore cable. Ergo, we had to upload a design for cable to dozens of manufacturers and most of them lacked the equipment for manufacturing mini coax, let alone bundling it together.
We have spent the last few weeks securing new cabling and this ramped up last week as we were sorting out cable design with new manufacturers. If you have sent us recent communication via email and not got a response, we apologise but this is the reason: we prioritized securing a supplier before we could give concrete answers. We have been purposefully accepting less orders via our site and will run out of coax next week, but we are discontinuing website coax orders *now* for a limited time so we can control stock levels better. If you want coax right now, we have some in stock - please contact me. I will agree to sell this off the site til we run out of the majority and will keep some in stock for potential returns.
I have also been quite, quite depressed over the past month, for obvious reasons. For the emergency supply of new coax, the hobby can thank my husband who was able to secure a manufacturer in Europe. The cabling is based on my designs but his efforts in securing it. We are also very grateful to the company who could get this manufactured at relatively short notice.
I decided to hold off on any announcement until we were positive the cable could be produced. We are now positive, as we’ve been invoiced for it from a company who already produce two way compliant SCART cabling and who agreed to manufacture one way SCART for us based on coax used in their other cables. This is how we were able to have it confirmed at such short notice, the mini coaxes were already being produced and the new cable will bundle these into one new design.
The coax is, however *changing.*
We are getting our cabling made to our spec with 75 ohm compliant professional grade mini coax. This will feature enough lines for *one way* SCART, as used by game consoles. The coaxes themselves will apparently be slightly thicker, but the overall cable slightly thinner in diameter due to no longer featuring redundant lines to hook up two way SCART.
The new cabling will be black, not dark blue.
SCART to SCARTs will be one way only and labelled as such with “input” and “output” designations on the plugs. Nobody in the hobby needs a two way solution as far as I know, but if you do: we will have a new SCART to SCART option that uses thicker cabling.
We have secured a large bulk order from a European manufacturer to make the first batch of new coax cabling, but as it is coming by freight from Europe and also carries a manufacturing time, we are going to be out of coax for a while. As we plan to have the first reel sent via airmail, hopefully this will not be longer than a month but we have been making the best of a bad situation. The previous supplier gave us absolutely no warning of this change so please bear with us and we are also willing to take preorders. We will *definitely* have the cabling in stock.
BNC is similarly affected as we use the same mini coax cabling for that.