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Serial to NTSC
mindedc writes
"ITU makes a
small module that
takes text from an RS-232 serial connection and displays it on
NTSC. It can also overlay an existing video signal... It
would make a nice menu for a dedicated stereo rack MP3
Player! They also have a cool
Caller ID > RS-232 widget..
Just need a WM dock APP to recieve caller id now."
Interesting toy. Especially dig the BASIC example code.
Unfortunately, the sole proprietor of ITU passed away not long before Christmas. The web site still operates without him (I continue to see advertising too!). A mailing list for PIC microcontrollers has an occasional gripe of someone placing an on-line order and never receiving their merchandise.
The only other alternative I've found is a BOB-II display. No URL is handy, though.
Except that it uses a TV as it's display. And they took away the keyboard. This is news?
How 'bout hooking one up to a Jumptec's DIMM-PC (see the smallest web server article) that would seem like a nice use! (now I just have to figure out how to hook up that keyboard :)
Or a serial console display for several computers.
Use one of these for each computer, with the video out from one fed to the next; each overlays the previous video. Make each emit a different screen coordinate code ahead of its output.
I'm one step closer to my dream: computer backups to VCR tapes.
Try a cheap replacement for a genlock card for subtitling purposes only...
That's why your pathetic PC is no match for my kick arse Amiga 500! With it's onboard co-processors my Amiga can multitask 5,000 applications simultaneously in 512k of RAM! We're talking NO BLOAT HERE!!! Instant response no matter how loaded down the system is. Its 68010+MMU CPU is still years ahead of the latest Intel crap.
Plus, it can do backups to VCR's no prob.
(This is not a troll, its an amazingly realistic simulation of comp.os.amiga.advocacy)
today's dream is a yesterday's reality. There was such a device (ISA card) some years ago (3 or 4 years). Less than $10. Look for it in old electronics magazines (Electronics and Wireless world, I think)
There's a link on the ITU page to www.jameco.com - Jameco mail order. You'll find what you're looking for there, plus other toys.
The URL for BOB-II is:
http://www.decadenet.com/bob2/bob2.html
look around for software called lirc. i have it on my box and can use a packard-bell fastmedia remote control. that remote with this display will make a great mp3 player :-)
dave
My high school's minicomputer (AlphaMicro running AMOS) did this back in the mid-80's. Took 4 hours to backup a few dozen MB. They were WILD to play back and watch on TV tho.
Patch it into an aux. input on your TV. Then you can use Picture-in-Picture to check on your Linux box (or MP3 player) while you watch a movie, without getting up.
Nobody appears to be running the show. Although I haven't tried myself, others on the PIC mailing list have mentioned that nobody ever answere the phone and email never get replied to.
http://www.jwz.org/cid/
I don't need to overlay it on my tv, because the computer is visible. I just use an enormous font on its popup window so that I can see it from across the room.
I remember seeing a program either here or on freshmeat that suggested that yer modem could be used to pickup caller id. It's just a few strings of data between rings, right? euh...
detroit
I saw a caller ID dock app at bensinclair.com/dockapp somwhere.
i like rob's idea.
much nicer than dealing w/ a lcd display, plus all you need to have exposed now is the ir receiver! (nicer 'cause you don't need to make it look nice anymore)
the way i see it making an mp3 player just got much easier, no need for a nice box (since you can hide a deskop/minitower case behind your stereo rack)
henri
(who is now trying to find out how to get an ir port to read in some random old remote he has laying around)
Seriously though, something like this would be neat to pipe ruptime to or something..
this would make a nice console display for the World's Smallest Webserver ;>
http://www.danmere.com/
-- I can't say enough in 120 chars!
Bummer.
It's quite a simple unit to build but why do it if you can buy it off the shelf?
Here's how I would do it. I figure that you could achieve the same effect by using a Philips I2C teletext chip (I think the new ones have onboard framebuffer ram - 8k don't get excited) and they can handle incoming video to overlay on. The small 8 pin chip on the module looks like one of the natty 8 pin PICs to do the RS-232 to I2C bit bashing which should be dead easy to program. The rest of the components should be straight off the standard Philips app note as I remember.
A bit of smart programming would allow you to build something that could suck Teletext info off onto a serial line....although I think that Linux do that already with a parallel port and a few gates.
About 18 years ago, our state-of-the-art college network was 8 Apple ][s connected to a 10Mb Corvus HD - which was formatted into umpteen 147K partitions...
The entire thing was backed up onto a VHS via UHF...
This sig left unintentionally blank.
Now that's really useful...
Why on earth would you want an NTSC display anywhere *near*
your MP3 player unit?
A backlit LCD ought to be plenty -- or if you *really* want a CRT, possibly a 9" (or smaller) VGA monitor....
Possibly -- but one of the reasons I bought a "proper" CD player, instead of just using the one in my Playstation, was that I was pissed off with having to switch on the TV just to know what was going on.
http://psyndicate.netpedia.net/voiced/voiced.html
...
easy enough to modify..
What I'd really like to have for my custom-built electronics projects is a simple two-way Ethernet to RS232 board of some sort. Currently I'm using a printer server to drive remote displays (my favourite is a big, bright vacuum flourescent display from IEE), but it would be nice to have something smaller and 2-way.
If such a module existed, it would be trivial to simply run Ethernet cable alongside audio cable, and have your "stereo rack MP3 player" be nothing more than a small terminal that controls an MP3 codec somewhere else in the house.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Seems to me that both these units should be combined into one unit. It would be neat to have caller ID data overlayed right on your TV screen. No need to look over to some dumb little LCD screen on some box somewhere. Since many folks already have a phone line run near the TV for DSS access, it seems natural.
Aside from that, the only use I can think of for this little beast would be video editing since it can overlay the text. But for not much more money ($200-300) you can buy a "real" box that would do a much better job. Or spend a little more and get a real solution.
Oh, I suppose when coupled with one of those video transmitters and a CCD camera you could build a robot that could broadcast the video as well as text messages back to a TV in the room. That might be cool...
--Donnie
Can anyone think of a practical application for a glorified (well, not really, other than fame achecived by being on /.) terminal with an 11 by 24 character display? I sure can't.
Does narcissism count as a hobby? --Shawn Latimer
What an invention! Serial to video! Why, they've reinvented the terminal! Now where did I put that vt100....
...and you can do this already anyway. I've seen
little devices for backing up onto VHS tapes in various consumer electronics chains. They hold a few GB AFAIK.
K.
-
-- Proud descendant of semi-nomadic cattle-herders.
For instance, one can merely trap the data coming into the serial port. The specs (of the caller id data stream) for doing so are freely available, and there is no need for a dongle hanging off the back of your machine.
Perhaps I do just lack imagination.