• dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
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    2 hours ago

    That’s VGA, it’s gonna be fine. Most wires are either ground or not used for actual image data. R, G and B are analog so noise on those just makes the output noisy, no big deal. That leaves us with HSync and VSync. They are digital signals with 3.3V between on and off and only a single pulse per line / frame so they’re also pretty robust against noise.

    So unless you’re going for an extremely high resolution on a really cheap monitor over a long distance, the worst that will happen is that your image will look grainy like TV static. It would take quite a bit of interference before the sync signals degrade enough to not get any image at all.

    • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
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      2 hours ago

      Now I wonder if I can route VGA through unusual items. Cutlery, the railing on a staircase, swords, something like that. As long as I can find six pieces of metal of roughly equal length, it should work.

      • WesternInfidels@feddit.online
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        2 hours ago

        Q: So do you have any hobbies?

        A: Well lately I’ve really gotten interested in routing VGA through unusual items!

        Q: Ooooh, that’s so hot right now

        • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
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          1 hour ago

          Well… I don’t think it would be the weirdest thing I’ve done with my free time. Would probably barely rank in the top three.

            • dfyx@lemmy.helios42.de
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              9 minutes ago

              Let’s see:

              • Back in 2007 or 2008 I attempted to create a CPU architecture that directly uses Brainfuck as its instruction set. I had to put it on hold before it was completed because I had a custom FPGA development board with really bad documentation but if I ever get my hands on an affordable FPGA, it will get done eventually.
              • I’ve created a nonogram that solves to a rickroll QR code. I had to rely on the error correction because the exact pattern didn’t result in a well-defined solution but I’ve recently learned about some more parameters that you can tweak on a QR code. So now I just need to acquire or more likely build a QR code generator that lets me manually control those parameters and an automatic nonogram solver so I don’t have to manually solve a bunch of 25x25 nonograms to confirm they have a single solution.
              • My plan for tonight is to start porting a 22-year-old handheld game to a ~35-year-old home console. I’ve acquired a C compiler but will probably have to learn assembly for a CPU architecture that was barely used for anything else. There is no chance to ever share the resulting game without getting sued to hell and back again.
              • I’ve made chainmail bikinis for a couple of friends.

              That’s just what I comes to mind at the moment. I’m sure if I spend some time thinking or digging around old hard drives, I can find more.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      So unless you’re going for an extremely high resolution on a really cheap monitor over a long distance

      Speaking of “extremely high resolution on a really cheap monitor,” it took a solid decade and a half before I was able to buy a digital flat-panel monitor capable of resolution comparable to the analog CRT I was using in 2002. VGA was no joke!

      (The only problem with QXGA on a 19" CRT, aside from the weight and power draw, was that in a world before decent high-DPI fractional scaling the text was too tiny to read easily. Other than that, it worked fine.)

      • glimse@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        The last part reminded me of a night my friends and I played Dead Rising on a CRT. Couldn’t read any text so we were just guessing what to do