Ben Eater's World's Worst Video Card

[Martin_H]

Ben Eater is a YouTuber who builds circuits out of TTL logic. His recent set of videos is building a VGA card from scratch. It outputs 64 colors in a 200x600 grid:

Part 1 https://youtu.be/l7rce6IQDWs
Part 2 https://youtu.be/uqY3FMuMuRo

He also did an excellent set of videos on CRC's in software and hardware that is also worth viewing.

[cbmeeks]

I love Ben Eater's videos. The last two on a VGA card were great as well.

[Oneironaut]

Nice project!

Brad

[DerTrueForce]

It might only be the output stage of a video card, but it's still useful to someone looking to do VGA output. The memory might become a bit of a pain, but it's still quite respectable for something built on a breadboard, and it illustrates just how simple the business end of an old-ish GPU really is, and how the spec can be used to produce somewhat non-standard resolutions.

[jmthompson]

i watched those videos a couple weeks ago, and then went through more of his catalog. His series on building a computer from discrete logic parts was fantastic, and his breadboard wiring puts mine to shame. In fact he is part of the reason why i just tore down my entire breadboard SBC build so that I can rewire it.

[barrym95838]

I "like" how he manages to eyeball the 90° bends and lengths for his wires perfectly off-screen. He is either a savant of the highest order, or he's just showing us the result of hours of careful preparation. I don't have any evidence to disprove the former, but I'm definitely leaning toward the latter.

[Oneironaut]

I vote for "hours of practice".
No, let me correct that...
"days or weeks of practice".

Brad

barrym95838 wrote:

I "like" how he manages to eyeball the 90° bends and lengths for his wires perfectly off-screen. He is either a savant of the highest order, or he's just showing us the result of hours of careful preparation. I don't have any evidence to disprove the former, but I'm definitely leaning toward the latter.

[Chromatix]

He's most likely prepared labelled trays full of bent wires of specific lengths. Then he only need to reach into the correct tray.

[Jeff_Birt]

It is not that difficult to cut and bend wires. It just takes some practice, pliers and wire stripper.

[cbmeeks]

barrym95838 wrote:

I "like" how he manages to eyeball the 90° bends and lengths for his wires perfectly off-screen. He is either a savant of the highest order, or he's just showing us the result of hours of careful preparation. I don't have any evidence to disprove the former, but I'm definitely leaning toward the latter.

Either way, his devotion and production values are amazing.

[thedrip]

Ben Eater's latest video is taking on a 6502 directly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzuMJLZRdU

[BigEd]

Nice - I've started a new thread here.