I wish for a VGA connector on a DISCO

[gregstm]

There are many occasions where I would like to put simple graphics up on a TV - to use it like a giant oscilloscope, or to log data via an optically isolated link. Monochrome, low resolution would be fine.

It sounds like you have to pay licensing fees if you want to sell a product using HDMI ($5K a year!?). So VGA seems like the simplest approach, and if the TV doesn't have a VGA input, you can buy a VGA to composite converter. (But I have noticed that some newer TV's only seem to accept HDMI as an input option).

I know there are options on the web for building your own VGA interface - and I may end up resorting to that. But I thought I would add my name to those who would like a VGA connector on a DISCO board - as Clive commented back in 2016 :

"I'm surprised ST doesn't have a DISCO with a VGA 15-pin connector on it. A Video DAC might be asking a bit much, but a resistor chain/ladder would do, and it wouldn't have the licensing or IP issues of HDMI, etc."

[KnarfB]

VGA, really? For any reasonable size, you need a lot of RAM for framebuffer, probably fast external RAM? There are some nice DISCOs out with LCD. For a tiny display, attach a ss1306 OLED over SPI or I2C and you are done.

[S.Ma]

Load bluetooth electronics android application on a phone, tablet, or android TV, use a 5 USD HC06 bluetooth serial module, and you can do graphs. All this for a usart and 2 pins...

[berendi]

A 8 MB SDRAM module found on many discovery boards can comfortably hold a full HD frame. Two, if using RGB565. It could just barely keep up with the pixel clock (or maybe not at all), and LTDC doesn't support it anyway. 1024x768 would work though.

[berendi]

A frame update through bluetooth would take some time...

[Tesla DeLorean]

I guess most boards supporting LCD's have enough memory for a frame buffer.

One of the advantages of VGA screens is that they can be found/sourced cheaply, and people might also have them, unused and on-hand. Saves landfilling them in China or Africa? And as I'd mentioned in the earlier post it is not something requiring a license or IP payment.

I've used SSD1306/1309 displays, and I like them, but different people want different things.

https://www.arcadeit.net/

https://www.arcadeit.net/ArcadeIT-Mainboard.html

https://www.arcadeit.net/ArcadeIT-Modules.html

[waclawek.jan]

Isn't it as little as bringing out the relevant pins to a header? Doesn't the 'F429 Disco do that?

Then the "DAC" and connector could be added as an external board. Heck, it could even be wired up on a perfboard, with the DB15 being hung out of a cable. And then, as an exercise in I2C, the DDC info could be read out by the STM32 :)

OTOH, ST appears to go away from the DISCO line, and the management responsible for the devboards probably does not understand the source of the STM32 popularity.

JW

[Tesla DeLorean · Accepted solution]

There were definitely members in the prior forum instantiation that had built VGA adapters/dongles. I've driven large panels of the F769I-DISCO using the HDMI dongle, and had 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 modes working on HDMI/DVI panels.

https://www.tindie.com/products/masihvahida/vgaduino-ii-256-color-vga-shield-for-arduino/

https://www.micro-nova.com/products/nv-1a

Also some other stuff using FTDI VGA chips like the FT80x and FT81x series

http://sustburbia.blogspot.com/2015/12/colour-coding-part-iv.html

[S.Ma]

You just wrote that you didn't even check what the app does... so no need to suggest alternate implementations. You think that when you play a 3D game the frame buffer is in the cloud?

[gregstm]

Excellent! That simple NovaVGA board will do the trick (for the mean time). Thank you everyone for your responses.