Restarting the YouTube channel

It's been a while and I have decided that it was time to restart the YouTube channel.

I decided a few months ago it was time to start again to try and make some content more in reflection of how my life is now, this is because a lot of the content was well over 5 years old and in some cases much older.

I want to try and make this channel great and informative from the beginning and with help from my beautiful supportive wife 💗 I believe this is possible.

Onto the first video (don't get too excited it is just a channel update) 😊 but I have spent some time on the title sequence and eventually should have an ending sequence.The music by the way is free for non commercial use from fesliyanstudios so a big special thanks to them for providing that free for use as I believe it really works for my content.

I have several open projects that I started this year and I'm hoping to keep you in the loop and up to date on.

SimpleJTAG (low cost JTAG programmer)
Basic-MC6800 (Retro computer board)
Rabid's Electronics Emporium (My Tindie Store)
GOWIN GN1SE board
CH552 Dev board ( Yet to come up with a good name )

My filming schedule:
I am hoping that I can release two videos a month or a video every two weeks.

Let me know what you think either down below, twitter or Hackaday.io 

Ta Ta For Now

Pi Supply Gert VGA666 Software Setup and Test

This is how to Set up the Gert VGA666 for Pi Supply I have a previous post on assembling the components if you haven't already done so please check it out here.

Installing and Configuring software 

Be aware that you are changing the where the Pi is going to output it video if you have the option I would recommend setting up over an SSH connection.

Firstly you'll need to download the required software to run the Gert VGA 666. Make sure your Pi has an internet connection.

git clone https://github.com/fenlogic/vga66.git

Then you will need to copy the driver file into /boot/ and rename it.

cd vga666/setup/

sudo cp dt-blob-dpi.bin /boot/

sudo mv /boot/dt-blob-dpi.bin /boot/dt-blob.bin

Now the final step is to add it to your raspberry pi configuration.

So to open the configuration file.

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

The you'll need to add.

 enable_dpi_lcd=1
display_default_lcd=1

This will enable the VGA output. Then you can set the output resolutions by adding

dpi_group=2
dpi_mode=82

 For 1080p @60Hz or.

dpi_group=2
dpi_mode=86

 For 1366 x 768 @60Hz

These are the two screen modes I have tried myself please now the resolution values are the same as setting the resolution for the HDMI output, a full list can be found here.

Problems you may run into 

The first time that I tried this the VGA work for about 10 seconds of boot time the the text turned yellow and then vanished dropping my screen into power saving.

I was using a Rasbian image that had some of the GPIO setup for various tasks so it was 'grabbing' some of the GPIO for other tasks this was fixed with a fresh burn of Raspbian.

In conclusion 

This is great add-on to the Raspberry Pi and the documentation makes for interesting reading as it goes into an explanation of how it generates and analogue signal from the GPIO header, and makes for great learning and soldering practice.

This is in no way the perfect solution for VGA output on the Raspberry as it will have the occasional slight shimmer on the display and it uses huge chuck of you GPIO to drive it. So if your you are looking for a VGA output from your Raspberry Pi I'd recommend a good HDMI to VGA adapter.

So I award this 3 of 5 Sparks it was fun to assemble the documentation could be a little clearer but as a learning exercise it's fantastic.

PaperJams Speaker Teardown

This post is a Kitchen teardown to try and make up for not blogging for the last couple of weeks .

I got hold of a PaperJams Speaker, This was an accessory for the PaperJam Guitars and Drumkits that where popular around the same time as Rockband and Guitar hero. All the products in the range where all constructed in cardboard with all there electronics contained in a plastic housing that gives it some structure.

Things found in this teardown

• 1 Watt exciter transducer
• 3 Meter 3.5mm jack cable
• 4 x AAA battery holder 
• 1 Watt Amp board using the ChiPower CE0030B differential Amp ic 

Datasheet can be found here

This was a good little teardown and to gain a 1 Watt transducer that would be good for an audio furniture project :)

Though I can see where WowWee have made there profit estimated BOM £1.50 not bad for a £20 RRP.

Video wise trying out a few new things captions and a different camera also the camera jig. This unfortunately lead to the audio being poorer ( room for lots if improvement) ;)

Any other ideas or questions about the Teardown please leave in the comments below and if you like the video give it a thumbs up on Youtube