Hacking VGA lines with Arduino

Video URL: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HNJxHzu2NLg

I have been experimenting today with controlling the RGB lines of a VGA connection on a computer monitor using Arduino. The results have been quite promising -- in fact, it was very easy to do and the outcome was considerably better than i had anticipated. In these examples, i am simply using three pins to control the RGB lines. However, the Arduino is not generating horizontal or vertical sync - this is generated by a computer. An extension of this would be to construct a circuit such that each colour data line has a two or three bit DAC controlling the input.

These pictures and the video do not really show all the details.

For me, this is in some ways an extension of the composite video piggy-back noise synthesis stuff i was doing a short while ago.

This project is based largely on an inspirational page on vidiotsquad.com: http://vidiotsquad.com/?page_id=6.


Hardware Connections:




Arduino Code:
byte data1 = 0;
byte data2 = 0;
int dT = 0;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(57600);
pinMode(2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(4, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
if(Serial.available() > 1) {
data1 = Serial.read();
data2 = Serial.read();
}
dT = data2 << 5;
PORTD = data1 << 2;
delayMicroseconds(dT + 1);
PORTD = (255 - data1) << 2;
delayMicroseconds(dT + 1);
}

Max Patch:
Download a version of this patch here: http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/downloads/max_patches/vgahack.pat

Use of this patch will require either the full version of Max/MSP, the Max/MSP Run Time or the Max/MSP 30 day trial.

Let me know if you need this patch changed in some way.


Photos: