TinyVGA

Possibly world's smallest VGA videocard...

The TInyVGA board is a very small (30x45 mm) PCB board which generates a VGA signal using a PIC microprocessor.

This page contains source code and links for this device, which is used in the workshop "Generating VGA signals".

Random workshop notes

This will someday morph into a fully-fledged knowledge-base wiki, but for now it's all on one page.

Assembler

The gpasm program is used to compile .asm files to .hex.

apt-get install gputils

.hex files are then uploaded with a PIC programmer onto the PIC microcontroller.

However, ofcourse you will need to learn the beatiful PIC assembler language. My friend Robin Gareus has a page dedicated to PIC ASM, it very dense with information. I also tend to use this helpful page a lot, which explains every command nicely.

PIC programmer

I got one from Olimex, http://www.olimex.com, this model
You'll have to find a reseller for your country though; in NL that's www.antratek.nl

The software for programming the chips using the MCP-USB, I use the program 'picp';

apt-get install picp

Board design

I use the very popular program Eagle (www.cadsoft.com), but I'm still looking for somethin else because it's not open source. It has a free-as-in-beer version though, but that is limited to a 100x80mm board layout.

TinyVGA Components

The checklist. When you get your package, make sure that every component is in it.

1 x TinyVGA board
3 x resistors (2.2k)
2 x yellow capacitors (33pF)
1 x Crystal 20mhz
1 x IC socket
2 x black capacitors (0.1uF)
1 x LED
1 x Voltage regulator
1 x VGA connector
1 x 9V clip
1 x 4 I/O pins (for arduino)
1 x PIC16F628a microcontroller (preprogrammed)