The Cheap Yellow Display is an all-in-one ESP32 board with a touchscreen, that’s as the name suggests, cheap. It’s appeared in a great many projects since it emerged from the depths of AliExpress, and today thanks to [Nickm324] it takes the turn of becoming a mini TV.
The tiny TV project world is one of successive developers building on previous works to deliver their own refinements on the idea, so this one borrows heavily from an earlier ESP32 project. Its twist on the idea is a single button interface using the CYD’s BOOT button. It supports a range of “channels” of which each one is a different piece of media played from the SD card. As far as we can see it’s only able to play synchronised .mjpeg and audio files, probably a shortcoming of the older ESP32 found on the CYD. The photo features a rather cutesy retro 3D printed TV case which annoyingly isn’t linked from the repository at the time of writing.
It’s a nice idea, and the CYD makes it as easy as possible with minimal wiring. Yes it’s a novelty, but we’re guessing there could be many non-novelty applications for it too. It’s certainly not the first such project we’ve seen, here’s an earlier one.
Perfect for a SPACE: 1999 COMLOCK
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/space-1999-comlock-tankton
Hm. What I’ve always admired in Moonbase Alpha 1 was the use of b/w CRTs.
They looked so smooth and graceful. So very 70s.
No wonder, monochrome studio/security monitors were HD capable (800 too 1000 lines).
I hope there’s a good software emulation to simulate that effect.
Or a physical effect, such as a lense or a magnifier glass.
Users of the Sinclair ZX81 micro maybe remember how soft the image of a small b/w TV could been.
3D Monster Maze and other classics don’t feel right without a monochrome CRT.
Just checked. The Comlock project uses an Raspberry Pi Zero.
And luckily, the Pi Zero has got an “TV out” pin header for CVBS signal.
So it’s possible to attach, say, a little viewfinder CRT (+ magnifier) and make an authentic Comlock! 😃
https://magazine.raspberrypi.com/articles/rca-pi-zero
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_viewfinder
CYTs are best for those…you don’t want the display too good.
Only Gary 7 from Star Trek should have smartphone level quality :)
The CYD itself or a slightly more capable compute device could pull down a radar gif turned mjpeg every 5-15 minutes and save them to the SD card for display.
Alternatively, do a “weather channel” and put weather info for the local area, each staying on screen for a few moments, with an override to a priority display if there are any weather warnings to be aware of? You could even have it playing the requisite vaporwave in the background.
Are there any 3D print files for the TV shown? Looks awesome.
I’d recommend this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7376836