What can I do with it?

The NGT20 works excellently for:

• Video terminals
• GUIs and Graphics
• Games
• Arduino projects with limited pins

It prevents frustration and low quality in your project's video output. The NGT20 uses only 2 pins on the Arduino so you have plenty of spare pins for other hardware.

The NGT20 was originally designed to be a terminal for my custom computers, and it executes this task amazingly well. With the default color configuration there are 3 foreground colors: white, red, and green. It automatically scrolls the screen when the cursor needs space to go down, making programming even easier. It is, in short, great for making a color terminal.

NGT20 can draw sprites, do graphics, and write text independent of the cursor. This makes it great for games. Although the NGT20 is not double buffered, I have made great games using intelligent programming. Drawing a player on the screen is done quickly by using sprite draws. For examples see my Hackaday or send me a message, I'll give you some code.

The NGT20 can easily make windows, buttons, icons, text, etc by using boxes, box fills, and sprites. The text can be positioned anywhere, independent of the cursor so that you don't have to do a zillion set_cursor() calls. The NGT20 works very well for GUIs.

Product links

List of all documentation located here on my website.

What is it?

The NGT20 is an arduino shield that generates both a VGA and an NTSC video signal for your project so that you don't have to fuss or spend long, frustrating hours over high quality graphics. Only uses pins 6 and 9 on the arduino with a 115200 baud UART. Features:

• 256x192 pixels VGA and NTSC video output (duplicates displays)
• Sprite definition supported for fast draws, as opposed to slow pixel-by-pixel draws
• Tile colors (NES-like color system)
• Cursor for making terminals and fast text writes
• Screen scrolls when the cursor goes below the screen

Includes Arduino library with examples and a Hackaday project to look at.

Why did you make it?

I am always making some kind of computer. Drawing graphics is always a problem on the arduino, it just can't output high quality graphics on VGA and have time to do anything else. I also didn't want to write a GPU in VHDL for my FPGA, so I came up with a graphics module based on the Parallax propeller. It worked so well that I built another, a little better than before. After a few cycles of improvement I have the awesome NGT20 shield to give any Arduino good graphics with minimalized pain.

I often have terminals or text-based programs, so adding a cursor for text was automatic. The NGT20 even scrolls when it needs more space for text!

What makes it special?

The NGT20 is special because it allows the quick drawing of sprites without pixel-by-pixel draws. This speeds up things a great deal. Essentially the Arduino uploads an image to the NGT20, then it can display it as many times as it likes. The NGT20 has 2KiB for custom sprites.

• The NGT20 is not exclusively an arduino shield. It has pins broken out on the side for connecting to a breadboard or PCB.
• Compatible with 3.3v and 5v Arduino boards.
• Supports drawing rainbow shapes
• Pins 0-7 of the Parallax Propeller are broken out on a header, if you want to mess with the NGT20 firmware (or write your own)
• Faster and more pleasing drawing of multiple lines that connect to each other by using the fast() library function
• Every unit is tested

It is also very easy to make rainbow text or rainbow shapes because the NGT20 uses a tile-based color approach. This saves RAM on the Parallax Propeller and resembles NES graphics.

Datasheet goes above and beyond a normal datasheet by providing light tutorials and troubleshooting with common problems you may face interfacing with the board.

Unlike some TFT LCD screens, the NGT20 allows use of a larger monitor instead, and does its draws far faster for a better graphics quality.

When I order it, what does it come with?

The NGT20 Kit comes with:

• All necessary components
• NGT20 PCB
• Arduino headers to solder to the PCB, if you want to solder them
• Preprogrammed EEPROM for NGT20

Build instructions can be found with the documentation

The Headers Included comes with:

• A fully tested NGT20 with headers not soldered, but included

The Fully Assembled version comes with:

• A fully tested NGT20 ready to stack on an arduino board

All NGT20s come with a 4 pin angled header for soldering to the GFX_PORT. This is optional but allows connection to things that aren't compatible with arduino shields, like other AVR boards and ESPs.

The NGT20 comes with no printed manual. All documentation is online. There is a highly detailed datasheet and an Arduino library with examples here.

Finally, here is a playlist of videos of it doing graphics for my various arduino desktop experiments