Testcard first version

I thought I would share the first version of the testcard with you.
At the moment it is not very complex but I will add further features.
I am currently using about 2% of the available RAM on the FPGA.

We have colour bars!

Well believe it or not the FPGA testcard generator now generates some colour.
I promise you it has RGB then a grey scale, it is just the angle I took the photo
that makes it look strange.

It took me a while to get it to work because there appears to be a mistake in the
spec I was working from and also Verilog does not seem to like combining a
signed multiply operation and a register bit select operation on the same line.

There are still some timing glitches to work out before I can add all the fancy
stuff like my callsign. The program takes RGB input and converts that into
composite video.

FPGA Testcard prototype

Well here is the prototype test-card generator with the Verowiring added.
So far so good as when the power is applied the Vref output from the chip
is at the right voltage indicating I probably haven't blown the whole thing
up yet. Next I will have to find and drill a suitable box. Next time I will do
a PCB for it. The wiring was tricky, at least there were only 48 to do. My last
attempt at this type of thing was in the 1970s when I Verowired my own
microcomputer! It did work btw.

Now it will just be software! Yippee

Well after a bit of hacking of FPGA code I am pleased to say the board seems
to work. Just a grey scale at the moment and the timing is not quite right but
it is going in the right direction. I only found one short on the board too!
I think it needs to be boxed next before I mess it up!