Well, since it’s been kinda quiet around here I figured I’d post up some info on a project I’ve been working on for a little while. It’s a VB->TV adapter (VBTV? anyone got a better name 😉 ). There’s really no good easy (that’s still cheap) way to do this, but I think how I’m doing it now will work.

Here’s a quick screenshot.

Sorry for the crappy pic, but I just had my cell phone w/ me at the time.

This is still early in the development… this is just the TV display half of the system, that image wasn’t taken from the real VB in real time. I believe I’ve gotten the displays completely reverse engineered though, so getting the uC to get that data shouldn’t be too difficult. Memory/Bandwidth on the uC is definately the limiting factor, but I think it’ll handle it.

DogP

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Heh, I don’t understand me… could you explain me please? 😉 But yeah… it’s not so much the value of time (I’d be making less than children in sweat shops), but the quality of the time… I spend hundreds of hours on weird projects because I think it’s a lot of fun to see how far I can push the hardware, or see how much I can accomplish with my skills (along with learning new stuff and getting experience along the way).

When it becomes manufacturing instead of engineering… that’s when it’s no longer fun… then it’s more of a job (and the time that I could be spending on my next project is valuable to me). I do like to help people out, and if someone would get a lot of enjoyment out of this, then I’d like to get them one, but I’d prefer to post the plans on my site and let them do the work themselves if they’re able 😉 . It’s not like I’m gonna get rich off building these things… I have a full time job as my regular income… this is a hobby, and I want to keep it that way 🙂 .

DogP

Your explanation is enough, but I’ll add mine just in case 😉 I loved computers and also loved putting them all together to get them working. Installing operating systems, getting them into home networks, configuring them, etc. Then I began working as an IT expert (sort of), managing four small networks. It was fun at the beginning, but then the networks grew and I had to choose. I finally decided to stay with one of them, which in two years time grew up to 200 computers scattered all around the country in five different offices. Then I began hating computers, more and more as days passed, and I finally chose to turn my career to a different direction, forgetting all about computers (professionally speaking).

Now, I only maintain my computers, and I’ve let aside everything related to computers. Since computers was a hobby which I loved, and turned out a job which I hated, I thought I’d leave videogames as a hobby which I love, so that it stays that way 🙂

Exactly… and I was the same way… computers were a hobby for me, then I started getting calls from everyone in town asking me to fix their computer… I got sick of that (I don’t really like people, especially dumb ones 😉 ), but still did IT as my job (that was fine since it had set times and days), but I knew I really wanted to do engineering.

So now I’m there, and engineering is my full time job, which relates closely with my hobbies (video games), but I try to keep the work at work and the hobbies fun.

DogP

Hey DogP,

I’d be more than happy to ‘beta test’ any working version of your device to see how it performs on my widescreen 50″ TV! *puppy eyes*

I’d even buy the parts and build it, per your instructions, when you get to that point. I’ve had a ton of experience soldering and wiring up mods on equipment. I just don’t know the principles behind what I do, I suppose.

Anyway, let me know! I’d love to help!! 🙂

Heh I wish I could offer my time for testing but I don’t have any experience or means of programming chips. I do have a few TV’s to test it out including a standard 4:3 TV and widescreen TV to see if anything goes wrong.