Arduino Composite TV output Shield

HARDWARE
– a PCB or Prototype Board
– Resistors (470- and 1K-ohm)
– 8-Pin headers (or at least 3-Pin headers)
– a Spare RCA cord (any RCA is ok, you can use the red/white audio cables as well)
– a Soldering Iron + Tin
– Box cutter and a small saw

SOFTWARE
– Arduino Software ( http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software )
– The TVout library ( http://code.google.com/p/arduino-tvout/ )

OPTIONAL:
– Glue Gun

First cut a piece of prototype board to the size we need.(at least) (8 x 9 holes)

Now get your 8-Pin headers, we will only use 3 for output but I’m using 8 for extra stability.

Get your resistors and wire them in the prototype board:

Cut off a piece of composite video cable and gently strip it and twist the “shielding” wire. Now strip a shorter part of the center of the cable but make sure it will never touch the outer shielding wire!

Your almost done, plug in your soldering iron and start making the connections Like the picture below :

• Arduino Software ( http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software )
• The TVout library ( http://code.google.com/p/arduino-tvout/ )

Download and Install the Arduino software. The setup will ask you (too) many times if you really want to install a driver,  keep clicking “install this driver anyway.

Then download the latest version of the TVout library(Beta1 at the time or writing). The zip will contain 3 folders. these folders go in the “libraries” folder in your Arduino installation folder (default : c:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\libraries)

Here is a basic code that puts out “stevenbreuls.com!!!” to your TV. If your TV is PAL, uncomment the “PAL” line and comment on the NTSC line.

#include TVout TV;
unsigned char x,y;

void setup()  {
  //TV.start_render(_PAL);
  TV.start_render(_NTSC);
}

void loop() {
  TV.clear_screen();
  TV.print_str(10,40,"Stevenbreuls.com!!!");
  TV.delay(60);
}