Hackaday.io user [mincepi] wanted a VGA output on his Raspberry Pi Zero. His quest led him to design a PCB that mates with a VGA monitor and the Pi board and–according to his estimates–costs about $3.62 each (although to get that price, you have to build three).

The VGA hack uses the Pi’s built-in port for driving a VGA (the vga666 by [Gert]) that we’ve covered before. Keeping in the spirit of the Zero, though, [mincepi] stripped the external components to a minimum. He uses fewer bits, so there is less color resolution. He uses cheaper 5% resistors and solders them directly between the Pi and the VGA board to save a connector (see below). He uses a male connector with the middle pins removed, so it straddles the PCB and plugs into the monitor directly.

You can order the boards from OSHPark, or you can make boards yourself. There are even instructions for recycling old VGA cables for connectors if you don’t want to buy new ones. Don’t worry about the rumors that VGA is dead. Vinyl records and tube amplifiers were dead too for a long time, but they still manage to hang in there year after year.

This project, by the way, was an entry for the Raspberry Pi Zero contest.

The Raspberry Pi Zero contest is presented by Hackaday and Adafruit. Prizes include Raspberry Pi Zeros from Adafruit and gift cards to The Hackaday Store!

See All the Entries || Enter Your Project Now!