Gert VGA 666 - Hardware VGA for Raspberry Pi

The Gert VGA 666 (6 bits per colour channel, hence 666) is a breakout/add-on board for the Raspberry Pi.  Works with all modern Pi's that have 40 pin GPIO.  Does not work with the original Model A and B due to their 26 pin GPIO.

It is an open source hardware design recently released publicly by Gert van Loo who was one of the hardware engineers that was instrumental in the initial design of the original Raspberry Pi (also one of the chip architects on the BCM2835 chip at the heart of the Raspberry Pi).  It is a useful solution for using a VGA screen/monitor with your Raspberry Pi.

The VGA connection is driven natively in hardware over the GPIO pins (using a parallel interface) and uses around the same CPU load as the HDMI connection on board. It is capable of displaying 1080p60 VGA video with no CPU load. It is also possible to drive this interface at the same time as the HDMI connection, so a dual screen setup is also possible. 

Gert VGA 666 Kit Contents

• 1 x Gert VGA 666 PCB
• 1 x 40 pin GPIO header connector
• 1 x 15 pin female VGA connector
• 20 x through hole resistors (2*120 Ohm, 3*499 ohm, 3*1kOhm, 3*2kOhm, 3*4kOhm, 3*8kOhm, 3*16kOhm)
• 2 x Pi Supply Stickers

Please note: This is a kit that requires soldering.  Also, this add-on on board uses all but 6 of the GPIO pins so it may not be possible to use other add on boards at the same time as the VGA adapter. 

Here are some handy instructions for building and using this board