MAKE: Blog: HOW TO - Mod a VGA screen into a Chumby

HOW TO - Mod a VGA screen into a Chumby

Vga Mod Finished Sm
Bunnie writes-

For hackers, the fun part of consumer electronics is taking things apart and making them do things they weren’t originally meant to do. Since most consumer electronics devices are closed source, it’s a laborious process to do a hack; first you must reverse engineer the platform, and you are often relying on gut and instinct to grope around at the edges of your knowledge about the platform. Thus, on most platforms, it’s a challenge to reskin or case-mod the device, and deducing the location of a debug port and opening a console shell on the device is a big deal.

Chumby is different; it is open source, and designed to be hacked. For example, the serial port is spelled out on the silkscreen for you and there’s a backdoor to enable sshd, so it’s not big deal to bring up the console. Because of its hackability, you are enabled to do significant modifications due to the availability of all levels of design documentation—hardware, drivers, and application software. While it would be an enormous task to, for example, open up a Zune and put a larger screen on it, here, in this post, I will show you how to hack a chumby to have a larger, higher-resolution screen without too much effort. The native chumby screen is a 3.5” QVGA (320×240) display, but after you complete this hack, you will be treated to a 5.7” VGA (640×480) display.

Related:

Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Subscribe to MAKE Magazine!

Subscribe today, save 42% and get web access to MAKE free. MAKE Digital Edition is available only to subscribers.

$34.95 / 1 year
(4 Quarterly Issues)

Subscribe now

Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out... Welcome to the Make Blog!

Features and more @ MAKE!

Get MAKE 14 - Subscribe or on newsstands!

Add MAKE to iGoogle - GoogleGoogle.
Add MAKE to your RSS reader - Real simple.
Add MAKE on Twitter.
Add MAKE on FriendFeed & the MAKE room.

Why advertise on MAKE?
Read what folks are saying about us!

Click here to advertise on MAKE!

Phillip Torrone
Senior Editor
Tel: 707-827-7311

Gareth Branwyn
Robot Maker

Kip Kay
Video Maker

Jonah Brucker-Cohen
Artist / Researcher

Suggest a Site!

Natalie Zee Drieu
Senior Editor
CRAFT

Becky Stern
Culture jammer

Collin Cunningham
Sound Maker

Marc de Vinck
CNC Maker

Current Podcast

Weekend Project: Styrofoam Plate Speaker Get surprisingly good sound from disposable picnicware with this easy to make and inexpensive Styrofoam Plate Speaker. Thanks go to José Pino for the original article in Make Magazine.To download Styrofoam Plate Speaker MP4 click here or subscribe in... More...

Get the Make blog sent via email

Enter your email to receive the Make blog each day:

WOW! Thanks to everyone involved with Maker Faire Bay Area: attendees, makers, exhibitors, sponsors, volunteers, and crew...it was AMAZING! Over 400 Makers and 60,000+ attendees! Be sure to check out the photos @ Flickr, and our Maker Faire posts for all the action! The next scheduled Maker Faire is Austin: Oct. 18th & 19th, 2008 - Travis County Expo Center!