Test Pattern Generator Recommendations

[jerryspaghetti]

Anyone recommend a TPG. Basic and cheap as possible really.

Just want to save the grief of hooking up superguns etc when testing monitors.

Saw this one but its a bit more than I want to spend really.

https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=TPG

 

[DanP]

Don’t think you’re going to find a dedicated TPG cheaper. The other alternative is to use an old crappy PCB with decent monitor tests but then you do need the whole supergun setup.

 

[JohnT]

I ended up getting on of these.

Arcade Monitor Tester – pcbjunkie.net

pcbjunkie.net

PCBJunkie was selling on Etsy - it cost me £55.20

Works fine - cheap and cheerful

 

[jerryspaghetti]

Cheers guys.

 

[John Bennett]

I need to get some pi pico2 testcard generators made, just need them to actually ship some RP2350 chips so I can make some.
If you have a handful of resistors and a Pi Pico, I'm happy to dig out the schematic so you could make one, if time is plentiful.

 

[jerryspaghetti]

I need to get some pi pico2 testcard generators made, just need them to actually ship some RP2350 chips so I can make some.
If you have a handful of resistors and a Pi Pico, I'm happy to dig out the schematic so you could make one, if time is plentiful.

Thanks man but....I have no idea what you just said!

Probably a bad idea then!

 

[Tibal]

Don’t think you’re going to find a dedicated TPG cheaper. The other alternative is to use an old crappy PCB with decent monitor tests but then you do need the whole supergun setup.

An other option is to use a VideoAmp and a Windows PC.
It has the advantage to be cheap (45€ with VGA input or 55€ with HDMI input), to be compatible with all CRTs (15, 24, 31k, positive and negative sync) and you can display all the patterns you can imagine.
The drawback is that you need a Windows PC. It's not portable.

VGA video amplifier board for Arcade Monitor with sync filter

Hello everyone, I present you a new realization made by people at gamoover french forum : a video amplifier board made to simplify the swap between a stack/pcb and a PC with VGA output which would be placed in a cabinet with an original arcade monitor. The board is a video amplifier with...

www.arcade-projects.com

 

[NivagSwerdna]

I made my own using https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-vga-demo-base?variant=32369520672851 as the base for a Pico and some code.

I haven't looked at it for a while but could dig it out and open source if interested

I even went as far as changing the base libraries to support the sync I needed.

 

[Retroman839]

I made my own using https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pimoroni-pico-vga-demo-base?variant=32369520672851 as the base for a Pico and some code.

I haven't looked at it for a while but could dig it out and open source if interested

I even went as far as changing the base libraries to support the sync I needed.

Do that please ..
I have a spare pico

 

[NivagSwerdna]

I will have to revive it.

I did make https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-extras/pull/53 which was never merged and this was required.

My efforts were 3 years ago.. it is possible that someone has done this much better by now but the hardware is a good basis.

 

[John Bennett]

Similarly, I've stuck it up before, this is an old WIP the testcard for my Pi Pico stuff.

Happy to share files. It should work with a bundle of resistors on stripboard if you just want an image generator (can remove the input and audio test pages).
I have designed and made an entire arcade testcard PCB, but I decided to move it to the Pico2 as that's much nicer to tinker with, but they need to ship some of the bare ICs before I can actually make a batch.

 

[Retroman839]

Similarly, I've stuck it up before, this is an old WIP the testcard for my Pi Pico stuff.

Happy to share files. It should work with a bundle of resistors on stripboard if you just want an image generator (can remove the input and audio test pages).
I have designed and made an entire arcade testcard PCB, but I decided to move it to the Pico2 as that's much nicer to tinker with, but they need to ship some of the bare ICs before I can actually make a batch.

That’s nice ..
Dig the screen rotate..

 

[NivagSwerdna]

My attempt was rather amateur.... I would love someone to take this further...