Masochist's Video Card

An Overview Of The Masochist's Video Card
           This video card is mostly a personal proof-of-concept to myself. I knew that it could be built, but just didn't know if it would work. The video in the data section is proof enough for anyone that this system works. While it is a fun thing to think about and build, designing video output signals with only discrete TTL IC's is not an easy task, I think I'll stick with FPGA's and microcontrollers.


What To Do Now
           If you're as crazy as I am, you will probably want to do things like make shapes on the screen or text. To do that you need to add circuits that combine the Hsync/Vsync counters with the color generator.
           For example, if at lines 150-250 and at pixels 75-125, output is only red. When converted into logic circuits, this would draw a red box on the LCD. There are many avenues you could continue designing toward in this project, but I'd really recommend moving to an FPGA platform =D and save your wrists/fingers from all the wire-wrapping.


Conclusion
           The design presented in this article worked as the purpose and goals specified that it should. The discrete TTL IC's all worked their little transistor's off throwing out accurate VGA signals and meeting the proper timing specifications. While I did not utilize any of the expanded 256 colors from the resistor DAC, the circuitry was still included in the design in case I changed my mind in the future. To conclude; things were successful, everybody party!
           If you have any further questions, I implore you...don't be shy, take a look at the forums or ask a question there. I check them out regularly and love getting comments & questions.



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