You: an 80s-style cyberpunk hacker who's got to spread your video message to the people. Jam this tiny, battery powered video nub shank into a state-of-the-art composite video input of a "television" and run!

Use the QT Py ESP32 Pico to build a stylish vaporwave clock, NTSC SPMTE color bar test pattern generator, or other lo-fi/hi-style video applications.

Thanks to the incredible coding efforts of rossumur, bitluni and marciot, it's possible to generate an analog composite video signal with the original ESP32 chip's 8-bit DACs.

Due to 'creative' uses of the DAC on the ESP32 original chip, this code doesn't work on ESP32-S2, C2, S3 or newer chips. Only the ESP32 as found on the QT Py ESP32 Pico, Feather ESP32 v2, and others build on the original architecture.

Parts

Angled shot of purple square-shaped microcontroller.
This dev board is like when you're watching a super-hero movie and the protagonist shows up in a totally amazing costume in the third act and you're like 'OMG! That's...
$14.95
In Stock
Video of a person with white painted nails unplugging a USB cable from a small, black, square-shaped lipo battery breakout board soldered to a similarly shaped microcontroller, which is also connected to a monochrome OLED display breakout. The OLED breakout displays battery and power data.
Is your QT Py all alone, lacking a friend to travel the wide world with? When you were a kid you may have learned...
$4.95
In Stock
USB Type A to Type C cable - 6" long
As technology changes and adapts, so does Adafruit. This  USB Type A to Type C cable will help you with the transition to USB C, even if you're still...
$2.95
In Stock
RCA Male Plug Terminal Block adapter
One truth about working with A/V is you always need the cable or adapter you don't have in your toolbox. That's why we love these terminal-block RCA connectors so...
$1.50
In Stock

or, alternatively, use a jack and cable instead of a plug:

RCA Female Jack Terminal Block adapter
One truth about working with A/V is you always need the cable or adapter you don't have in your toolbox. That's why we love these terminal-block RCA connectors so...
$2.50
In Stock
Slim Lithium Ion Polymer Battery 3.7v 400mAh with JST 2-PH connector and short cable
Lithium-ion polymer (also known as 'lipo' or 'lipoly') batteries are thin, light, and powerful. The output ranges from 4.2V when completely charged to 3.7V. This...
Out of Stock
5 pieces of Extra-long break-away 0.1 inch 16-pin strip male header
Breakaway header is like the duct tape of electronics, and this header is one better with extra long pins on both sides. This makes it great for connecting things together that...
$3.00
In Stock
Five pack of 20-pin 0.1 Female Header - Yellow plastic
Female header is like the duct tape of electronics. It's great for connecting things together, soldering to perf-boards, sockets for wires or break-away header, etc. We go through...
$2.50
In Stock

You'll need a TV or monitor with a composite video input -- this is nearly always a yellow RCA jack.

Some modern displays have compositve video inputs, but this looks particularly awesome on an old CRT TV!

This guide was first published on May 25, 2022. It was last updated on Mar 28, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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