Obscene amount of Memory

[Electroguard]

Yes, I'm more than happy to share the risk and reasonable cost of VGA, Fernando.
I suspect that Francesco has already been checking out some modules with VGA potential, but perhaps we can find something new to seek his opinion on.

[cicciocb]

The VGA requires a module with OPI PSRAM, I have just one of these modules, many modules have a QIO PSRAM.

The reason is simple: the PSRAM must be read constantly by the DMA processing and must be as fast as possible.

For clarification, the OPI means OCTAL and QIO means QUAD.

The OPI is roughly 2x faster than the QIO

[Electroguard]

Useful info, thanks Francesco.
Have you got a link for that module, just so we know what we're looking for.

[cicciocb]

I just uploaded a little demo here :


I implemented the color at 8 bits (256 colors) but I'm just using 3 colors so far, for the testing.

The module I'm using is the official Espressif development module with 32MB of flash and 8Mb of PSRAM, both OPI.

edit :
this is some fonts shown on the VGA monitor

IMG_6682.jpg

[Electroguard]

Wow, Annex has come such a long way since early days.

I hope that a 32Mb+8Mb PSRAM will be affordable.

Just a thought... if user USB is available, maybe a cheapo usb to vga or hdmi adapter could eventually be used on lower spec esp's to offer a simple monitor solution.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005 ... WXFS03p2

[cicciocb]

Wow, Annex has come such a long way since early days.

I hope that a 32Mb+8Mb PSRAM will be affordable.

Just a thought... if user USB is available, maybe a cheapo usb to vga or hdmi adapter could eventually be used on lower spec esp's to offer a simple monitor solution.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005 ... WXFS03p2

No, this is not possible; however the modules with OPI PSRAM are easily available and probably the one you have is OK

[Electroguard]

32mb.jpg

Ouch- more than 40 euros puts it way out of my league.
It may come down, but that's not usually how Ali works.

Which was why I quickly jumped on my existing n16r8, but it seems it's the slow type... so will be good for something or other, but not VGA.

Screenshot_2023-07-08_16-32-11.jpg

[cicciocb]

No, I think your module is OK as it should have a quad flash but an octal PSRAM.

I have some of them, I'm testing right now

[Electroguard]

I have my fingers crossed.
Is there a way to check what mine is ?
If yours test for vga ok, and mine seems to be the same, I will order another 2 or 3 while the price is still only 7 or 8 euros... it could justify doing a 44 pin carrier pcb which includes a wemos d1 mini footprint socket, so any of the S3's could take advantage of the many available wemos accessories.

[cicciocb]

I just tested and it works but only at max 640x480 whilst the other can achieve a max of 800x600.

Maybe there are some tricks (still to find) to push the PSRAM at DDR and obtain the same target.

The one I'm testing now is this one :

IMG_6684.jpg

You can check on the metallical plate if is written
ESP32-S3-WROOM-1

and in the bottom, a nearly invisible
16R8

image.png