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The world's worst video card?

Ben Eater · tutorial · Watch on YouTube

Electronics & circuit designEmbedded systems & DIY electronicsAudio & video engineering

What it is

Ben Eater explains how VGA signals work and builds a breadboard circuit that produces correct sync timing so a monitor recognizes the signal. He then builds toward displaying an image from simple logic chips.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as a clear, from-scratch look at how video hardware works, understandable with just basic logic knowledge.

  • 8 people recommended it
  • 7 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “He builds up to it in his usual amazing teaching style, highly recommend”

    Building VGA display from breadboard circuit.

    dimator, 2019-09 · Strong recommendation · in “CPU Made from 74HC Chips Is a Glorious Mess”

  2. “His stuff is just fantastic.”

    How VGA signals work and timing circuit.

    Diederich, 2020-01 · Strong recommendation · in “Show HN: 1.5kb Microkernel for Ben Eater's 6502 Computer”

  3. “Anyone with a basic understanding of logic circuits has enough background to understand it. Worth a watch.”

    Building a VGA video card understandable with basic logic.

    MarioMan, 2020-02 · Recommendation · in “Brown: color is weird [video]”

  4. “Maybe something like Ben Eater's video card series?”

    Fundamental graphics card on a breadboard.

    el_oni, 2020-10 · Recommendation · in “A trip through the Graphics Pipeline (2011)”

  5. “you’ll understand what every transistor does at a high level in an hour”

    Framebuffer display built from scratch on breadboard.

    dahart, 2020-10 · Recommendation · in “A trip through the Graphics Pipeline (2011)”

  6. “He made a video-card using ICs on a breadboard that fascinated me”

    Video card from ICs on a breadboard.

    vishnuharidas, 2020-12 · Recommendation · in “NandGame – Build a Computer from Scratch”

  7. “Fascinating.”

    Graphics card on breadboard with discrete logic.

    fowl2, 2021-05 · Recommendation · in “The Graphics Gremlin – An Open Source Retro ISA Video Card”

  8. “Ben Eater has a great video[1] about building a video card from simple gates and other basic components.”

    Video card from gates and how VGA is generated.

    caymanjim, 2021-06 · Recommendation · in “An interactive look at how a video signal is made”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: vga, breadboard, ttl logic, ben eater, video signals, hardware

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