MiSTer FPGA Forum

I know it seems obvious to just program the SPI port to be used as an SPI port but I don't know which system can afford the bandwidth to run a Vector monitor over SPI.

If it matters I have the digital I/O board and I am using an Hdmi DAC running on arcade monitors for video right now. I am pretty sure the SPI protocol could be bit banged out over the same GPIO as the the original VGA board.

I have seen a video of someone who had it working to an extent so I am encouraged by that.

Ultimately I am wanting to run Vector monitors for all the Vector games but it looked like they Bit-banged it out over GPIO.

I realize I may be one of the few that would ever want to do such a thing but honestly the Arcade cores are maturing in such a nice fashion that I am ready to stop fixing arcade boards but not ready to stop playing on real cabinets with CRT's.

Any help on which way would be a better direction to start out would be helpful (Sorelig?) Or if someone knew how to get ahold of ElectronAsh @ Twitter in some other way that would be helpful (I don't do Twitter...)

As another thought it could be sent over SPIDF/Coaxial audio much like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRmgAqyIweU Oscilloscope Music. There is more than enough bandwidth and honestly a Vector monitor is basically fed from an audio amp anyway....

Analog has a 16 channel SPI DAC project board that plugs into the LTC port of the DE-10.

https://www.analog.com/en/design-center ... 25a-a.html16 channels @ 12bit or 16bit depth.

Its $100 and could conceivably give you 16 channel control to 4 or more devices.

Monitor 1 = X/Y/Z for Color Vector Monitors. 3 channels
Monitor 1 = X/Y for B/W Vector Monitors. 2 channels
Monitor 2 = RGBs for Combined Sync Monitors. 4 channels
Monitor 3 = RGBHV for Separate Sync Monitors. 5 channels

1 possible use I can see is driving a static picture to an LCD Marquee display while using another channel to actually display the Game, or maybe you love 2 display Arcade games (punch out?).
Just some thoughts

This is Arcade Core section. None of your questions have anything to do with Arcade Cores.

What is SPI?
What is LTC?
What is Bit bang?

Some people run their arcade cores through arcade monitors, I am wanting to add support for Vector monitors.

That being said maybe an OP could move this question to the Hardware section?