VGA Video out on BluePill microcontroller board #Video #Microcontrollers
Video out is amazingly helpful on certain microcontroller projects. Either temporarily in debugging or as an output for users, the ability to see via a monitor is handy. Dave Marples writes on Embedded Rambling how to achieve this on the inexpensive STB32 “BluePill” boards.
One major limitation during the development of an embedded system, especially for programmers who are used to PCs, is the lack of video output. That’s exactly what Vidout provides, using only 24% of the CPU on a STM32F103.
The project objective was simple enough: produce stable video using that board and no (or minimal) additional components.
The tricks are to recreate the video timing, carefully plan your RAM usage, and generate characters rather than raster images when possible.
See how Dave achieved his objective in getting VGA output on a BluePill without sucking up all the microcontrollers resources in this post.
8-6-2021 (August 6, 2021) is the Snakiest day of the year and it’s also this year’s CircuitPython Day! The day highlights all things CircuitPython and Python on Hardware. See you there!
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Welcome to CircuitPython Day 2021! #Python #Adafruit #CircuitPython @micropython @ThePSF
