VGA on an ESP32? Cheap and easy!

[@onecircuit-as]

Wow, such a cool product! I’ve ordered one, don’t tell the Minister of Finance 😬

[@TradieTrev]

This is nuts! Hat's off the Fabgl library devs!

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

You could use it to make a visual display for your model railway, showing the position of points and lights, and where the trains are. Although you'd need a lot of GPIO's for sensors, you could always use the GPIO extenders you got a while back....

[@TooSlowTube]

FWIW, GPIO25 isn't just a GPIO pin. GPIO25 and GPIO26 each have an 8 bit DAC that can be connected to them internally, so it seems what we're hearing is 8 bit mono.

[@TheDefpom]

It’s worth it just for the space invader game… oh the joy I got from that game

[@pileofstuff]

Now I just need some carpentry skills to build an arcade game cabinet.

[@andymouse]

Me to !

[@TheRainHarvester]

My cabinet is going to have monitors above the crt to display the original cabinet's arcade logo. It will auto switch when a different game swaps in.

[@canalRetro269]

More than 60 games i test and work in this board and PCEmulator drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OFRNx3wDCHZ4ajmrT9v_o90OhCe7HoOJ?usp=share_link

[@bassbacke]

Bill Gates never said 640K is enough. When asked about it he responded: ""I've said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time.""

[@talideon]

The only thing I dislike about these boards (which are a tonne of fun) is that the two PS2 connectors are so close together that you can't plug in USB adaptors.

[@jlwilliams]

Am guessing the board developers have a stash of dusty old mice and keyboards they hope to dump on auction sites. Otherwise, what on earth were they thinking?

[@talideon]

@@jlwilliams It's a perfectly reasonable decision. USB would've lead to a more expensive device as it would've needed a USB controller at the very least. There are some fixed costs associated with USB certification, but this is really more of an issue on the peripheral side of the connection rather than on the host side. PS/2 connectors, OTOH, are cheap. Further, FabGL doesn't support USB, but it does support PS/2 mice and keyboards. I just wish they didn't put the two ports beside each others.

[@markusallport1276]

How cool is that.... I have failed to just watch yet another video without buying. thanks Kent! ((chuckles))

[@Johadart]

Kent, you just brought back memories of my time building and making computers, wow windows 3.0, the best version was windows 3.1 it added colour, then windows 95.. and so on… P.S never forget space invaders, it was the best.. Like your work mate.. keep it up.. P.S.S can you send me some of the beers you drink.. can’t find them in Australia.. grrr. 🤙🏼🇦🇺🤙🏼🇦🇺

[@douro20]

Apparently Dark Helmut is also produced by Comrade Brewing in Denver.

[@tinygriffy]

So you haven't see the movie "Spaceballs" ?

[@pileofstuff]

I've seen it many, many times. That's one of the reasons I picked this beer.

[@RixtronixLAB]

Nice video, well done, thanks for sharing it with us :)

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

I saw the thumbnail and immediately thought of that ST spoof song called "Star Trekkin' " by "The Firm": "We come in peace. Shoot to kill! Shoot to kill! " 😆

[@pileofstuff]

Boldly going forward 'cause we can't find reverse

[@douro20]

This was produced with FabGL in mind, as the preloaded program is a FabGL demo. Jeroen Domburg produced a Macintosh Plus emulator, which is no mean feat considering that this is Harvard architecture. The ESP32 module used is actually the smallest on the market.

[@pileofstuff]

Fabrizio also has (or had) his own boards which have a GPIO expander and a few other extras on it.

[@andrewkieran8942]

Was I the only one yelling at my display, "pick Altair 8800"?

[@paulramasco6769]

Hahahah very cool spaceballs beer. This is in interesting board.

[@bwselectronic]

To think that easily could have run a rocket to the moon or the space shuttles

[@lybce]

A time travel, i was play into screen monochromatic CRT display !!!! Amazing job !!!!

[@bobriemersma]

Imagine a good non-emulated native Basic interpreter with a mid-level assembler on this hardware. Within a year of tweaking and fixing it could be standardized and open a new world of retrocomputing.

[@DFX2KX]

There is such a thing for the Pi Pico, complete with retro save-state limitations and the like. Geoff's Basic interpreter it's called

[@henrikjensen3278]

There is some very nifty programming to simulate VGA, keyboard and mouse, it shows you can do a lot of stuff with the ESP32. But I do not see much practical use for it, I doubt I have any VGA or PS2 devices left.

[@DrexProjects]

I have the same MP3 player. It popped the cover off due to the flat pack battery swelling up. I never actually used it for more than 5 minutes just to see if it worked.

[@browaruspierogus2182]

you can run full linux on devices like Lichee Nano for $10 or less this vga model is not very practical except for hobbyists or retro fans

[@AJB2K3]

May the Schwartz be with you.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Imagine having this in the 80s ! So fun

[@GnuReligion]

Surely, it beats out any common 80's PC. Just think ... 2mb of persistent storage to play with!

[@TheRainHarvester]

@@GnuReligion so true!!

[@TerryLawrence001]

In the olden days colours came in regular and bright. ir Bright White is brighter than just white :-)

[@chrisb7957]

"MISTERY" lulz.

[@akhurash]

This is a very cool board.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Load all the old mod music player and files on it!!

[@captcraig777]

This is very cool. I am still waiting on the FM Transmitter and Receiver DIY kit. Wondering if it is worth it. Thanks for the content!

[@ronm6585]

Lol, neat stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[@DrexProjects]

Thanks for the video. The thing looks like fun.

[@AJB2K3]

"They've gone to plaid!"

[@BurkenProductions]

Nit much to telnet to? Hello wbere have you been?? There are 1000s if bbses

[@vistinit353]

Blagodarnost

[@andre-le-bone-aparte]

Question: Doom?

[@pileofstuff]

That would be fun, but I haven't seen anyone do it yet.

[@BurkenProductions]

Accually gates never said THAT

[@DogRox]

Wow that is so cool! :-) now I want one hehe

[@RonDogInTheHouse]

onecircuit has a link in his video that pointed me here. I've got to get me one or two of these. I think I'll be able to dedicate one as a VT100 terminal. Thanks

[@pileofstuff]

That sounds like an ideal use. Thanks for stopping in.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

there has to be a math coprocessor on that or something because Extensa didn't add the floating point logic blocks for drawing images when they taped out the design of their riscv processor. I really wish they had. it would have added a few cents extra per chip but they were too cheap to license the ip from. any number of companies. no one else seems to agree with me on this. haha I'm all about some 3d with my 32 bit mcu's haha it would receive tensor flow support then. bahahahahahahhaaha windows 3.1. I had a monochrome laptop with that when I was a kid. add another 1 after the decimal and it's for workgroups. download corel for networks hahaha you need to switch to vs code buddy. it makes coding arduino so much easier. you can right click on a function from a library and it'll take you right to it and you can get a boo at how it's made.

[@pileofstuff]

The latest version of the Arduino IDE also has that kind of context aware help built in. I'm still getting used to it, but so far it seems like a useful feature.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@pileofstuff yeah it's great man. I still use the arduino ide too if I'm helping someone

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@pileofstuff I taught the wife how to solder recently and now I'm going to teach her how to code the movement for the bt app I'm making for it haha

[@my.own.devices]

You wonder what the inspiration is for the beer? Dude, you haven't seen Spaceballs???

[@pileofstuff]

It was sarcasm. use the Schwartz!

[@my.own.devices]

@@pileofstuff Thank goodness. You had me worried there :-P

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

In Indian colors?

[@jstro-hobbytech]

hey man. how has that breadboard psu that you demonstrated been working? the one that had the kick starter and had like 3 different voltage rails? I'm looking to buy one off him or make a trade if you're up for it. I'm turning a 16k tie point breadboard I have into an actual engineering proto/breadboard that big companies used to use. they cost a fortune second hand

[@pileofstuff]

Honestly, I haven't used it since that video - not because there is anything wrong with it, just that I haven't been breadbaording anything in several months.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@pileofstuff you ever want to get rid of it just let me know. I spent lime 5k on a new scope and computer parts the last week so no rush. Or even the name and I'll find the vid and click the link.

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@pileofstuff don't mean to pester ya man but when you get a chance can you tell me what the thing is called haha

[@pileofstuff]

@@jstro-hobbytech www.tikstation.com/

[@jstro-hobbytech]

@@pileofstuff cool man I checked. It's pricey for what it is. I'll give ya 50 plus shipping so I can avoid customs and shit if you want. If not ill just buy one when hes off vacation. I'd rather see someone I like get the money lol

[@miloudregragui]

can we use this board for smart home

[@pileofstuff]

It should work for that similar to any ESP32. I don't know the specifics, as I'm not really into the whole home automation scene.

[@svetlyo1972]

If it doesn't work for you, disable antivirus, windows defender , it worked for me

[@mattsadventureswithart5764]

If software won't work with antivirus and/or firewall running, it's bad software, and I'm not using it.

[@thisoldjeepcj5]

Takes one back. Thanks for the fun.

[@danman32]

I believe the board or at least the software is emulating EGA rather than true VGA. VGA electrically is analog, but based on the hardware test is producing 16 total colors: all combinations of RGB which is 8 combinations but with also an intensity bit making a total of 16.

[@canalRetro269]

For me is VGA but the PCEmulator is Hercules (mono) more CGA.

[@danman32]

@@canalRetro269 but it wasn't mono. The demo was 16 color. Later though you showed the GPIO mapping, with each color being 2 bits. That would be 4 levels for each of RGB or 64 colors. The demo didn't display all possibilities.

[@mikrohouse4064]

what about USB keyboards and mouse ? will they work with this ?

[@pileofstuff]

Not natively. The USB port isn't a host port. I'll have to see if I can find USB - PS2 adapters and test that

[@mikrohouse4064]

@@pileofstuff sorry if i am being stupid .but if they work through adaptors they have to work directly too since adaptors don't have any electronics in side .right ??

[@professormarky]

@@pileofstuff the ps2 to usb adaptors do work on the board.

[@pileofstuff]

@@professormarky Cool. I guess I'll have to find one to try

[@canalRetro269]

USB keyboard work with adapter. I tested.

[@andymouse]

Cool thing !...cheers.

[@fredflintstone1]

Cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@andymouse]

@@fredflintstone1 SQUEAK:):):)

[@jenntek.101]

C:\> DOS C:\> DOS RUN Run DOS RUN! LoL. I miss DOS. I should make a screaming DOS BOX. Thanks for the Retro Trip. I think you can do LOTS of cool things with that module. There are many different emulators out there...

[@jensjensen2896]

Well done.🖥⌨🖨