Spehro Pefhany wrote:
> At 12:44 PM 3/4/2004 +1300, you wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm looking for ideas for the following project: For a sheep shearing
>> competition a large screen TV will display the time for a single
>> competitor.
>> Needs start/stop/reset inputs, resolution to 0.01 or 0.001 seconds,
>> PAL video
>> output (+NTSC option would be nice), black and white display probably OK
>> but colour would be nice too. No PC nearby so can't use TV out graphics
>> card :-)
>>
>> I found the following which almost suits but not quite (small text only):
>>
>> http://www.mivs.com/products/videoproducts/videotiming/vsc300_d.html
>>
>> I have looked at several PIC and SX projects that generate video the hard
>> way (software), but I think I need to go the way of using some kind of
>> video
>> generator chip to minimise the development time.
>>
>> I found an excellent chip that could do the video display, the
>> STV5730A, but
>> it appears to be obsolete now. Comments? It has an SPI interface (that's
>> where the PIC comes into it) and does 28 character x 11 lines but has
>> 2,3,4
>> times zoom function for the first line which would give good sized
>> characters.
>> Any other chips I could look at? Other ideas?
>
>
> We just discussed this on usenet. Bottom line is that there is little else
> that performs that function so elegantly- overlaying color onto composite
> video with so few parts. The chip looks quite easy to use.
>
> You can still get that part. Nu Horizons has several thousand left as of a
> few days ago. If it's a one-off deal, you can just buy enough of them up
> front. It's obsolete, and prices are about triple what they were when it
> was in full production (about $15 vs. $5) but that's still not ridiculous.

I am quite fond of the STV5730A, and along with my clients, have lobbied
ST to continue it. Its designed into several surveillance products.

I've been told that ST is reconsidering, but nothing has of it yet. The
main advantage of it is that the characters are smaller and they look
quite good on the screen. And while the manual is supremely confusing,
it really is feature-rich. What they MIGHT do is license the design to a
smaller manufacturer, such as one of the Korean outfits.

BOBIII looks like a better replacement for the BOBII. Its available from
Jameco Electronics. Unlike BOBII, the BOBIII responds to the RS232
commands. Price is pretty good, too.

  --Bob
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                Bob Axtell
        PIC Hardware & Firmware Dev
          http://beam.to/baxtell
              1-520-219-2363

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