Analog A/V Routing Switcher

This is an old project! I made it 10 years ago. My DIY skills improved quite a bit since then…

It’s an audio/video (composite) routing switcher, i used it to switch between video sources on my tv. The tv I had back then only had 1 video input. It consist of a 8×8 video crosspoint (MAX4456) and a 16×16 analog crosspoint (AD8113) controlled by a small microcontroller (PIC18F452). It allowed me to distribute an audio/video signal from 5 different sources to 5 outputs by selecting it on the panel. I could split the audio from one input channel and take the video from another one if I wanted. It has 8 presets I can program to quickly recall channels assignation. It’s still working and I still use it today, but now, it’s used for routing audio only.

Crosspoint

There is a possibility of 8 inputs and 8 outputs but only 5 were used, 4 input/output on the back panel, 1 input/output on the front. I modified it later for 6 inputs and 2 outputs because i ran out of input channels. It can only accept a composite video signal in glorious full SD quality.

This was my first project using a PIC microcontroller, right after the “Hello World” equivalent of PIC programming, the blinking LED… I also used another PIC (16F675) for the black video generator, it generates a NTSC video signal by using 2 ports.

I had plan to add an LED audio level meter, but that idea never made it passed the prototype stage.

Front panel

I did not built this one from scratch, I used Front Panel Express instead, you send them your design by using the software they provide and they ship you back the fabricated panel about 3 weeks later. This was not cheap tough. This panel, costed about 70$ US + shipping to fabricate, but the quality definitely worth it.

Chassis

The next version…

I had plans to build a HDMI routing switcher based on the same concept as this one. I started building it but had put the project on hold for now. Maybe I did bite a little more that I could chew on this one… The front panel is done, a part of the case is built, but the switcher core is nowhere near complete.