TV/VGA Connections on the PropBOE: The Basics!
So as we've been chatting on First Spin, we realized we hadn't addressed the TV/VGA capabilities on the Propeller.
You notice that on the Propeller BOE (the board I use most often) - we have a VGA connector on the left. Per an appnote: "This is a convenient port for Propeller microcontroller applications that display data and graphics on devices with VGA inputs, such as certain computer monitors and televisions. Signals are applied to the VGA driver circuits by running jumper wires from Propeller I/O pin sockets (15) to VGA inputs on the 2x10 socket (18).":
And then in the middle you notice those two headers. On the left is the "VGA Socket" and per the appnote: "The VGA sockets are connected to active-high, color-coded LEDs and buffered inputs that drive the VGA Video Output Port (3) channels.
R1 and R0 are red channel inputs and drive red indicator LEDs.
G1 and G0 are green inputs and have green indicator LEDs
B1 and B0 are blue inputs and have blue indicator LEDs.
The horizontal and vertical channel inputs are labeled H and V, and have yellow indicator LEDs."
We've used the LEDs in other projects too - never knew there was a reason to their coloring (Though I should have guessed as such :p)!
Anyway - in order to use the VGA properties of the pins/board - you need to connect the VGA header to the pins on the Propeller. The following link is a good resource for figuring it out but in case you don't want to download it - the gist is:
And you keep connecting the pins in that left header to Propeller pins until you finish with the V header slot.
Code: http://obex.parallax.com/objects/70/
Now in the code you'll need to change the line text.start(16) to text.start(8) - because we've changed the VGA to start working from pins 8-15. Note, for this code, I believe all wires have to be consecutive. You can't go pin 4 for one thing, then pin 8 for another.
What it looks like:
@atdiy/@tymkrs