Quick-links:
Quick-links:
A Serial to TV adapter
This adapter takes serial data and displays it on your TV.
If you're looking for a version that plugs straight into an Arduino, see our TellyMate Shield.
It has a wide range of uses, from a simple debugging tool, all the way to a games console display (erm - possibly).
We use ours as a debugging/logging tool - it's often displayed on our computer monitor as Picture-in-picture whilst we're writing/debugging code.
Because of it's autobauding capability, the TellyMate will happily take its data from sources with non-standard baud rates. That means it can receive data from internally clocked AVRs. Even tiny AVRs without a serial module can be easily programmed to output suitable serial signals. A sample program for a Tiny13 is available to download.
A (very) simple skiing game (T13 + a few buttons) is in the pipeline available for download (Many thanks, Keith!).
Baud Rate
The baud rate is selected by jumper (see the User Guide).
When configured to "autobaud", a power-up or reset will cause the TellyMate to look at the first few bit-transitions in the serial data it receives to determine the baud rate.
PAL / NTSC
As from firmware 1.0.6, the format of the output signal (PAL or NTSC) is determined by a jumper (see the User Guide).
The TellyMate is controlled by a mixture of VT52 and H19 (heathkit/zenith 19) control sequences. Details of these are given in the User Guide
All the Source Material is released under a simple FreeBSD style licence. See the code for details.
A couple of (optional) circuits for RS232 signal translation are shown on the schematic.
These resources are available for downloading, below.
Please feel free to make your own version (that's the point of making the source materials available!), but do not use the TellyMate trademark without an explicit license. See the 'About Us' page for details.
An in-depth article covering the design is available in our Read Me section.
If you'd rather not make your own from scratch, we've designed a ready-to-solder kit. It uses the single-transistor serial translation circuit (input only) shown in the downloadable schematic below.
The kit contains:
You will need to provide your own solder, soldering iron, tools, phono cable and time.
Note: The TellyMate kit is currently being redesigned to use a professionally made PCB - it should be available again in February/March 2010 - drop us an email if you'd like to be informed when it returns.
Parts with a TLM001 prefix.
| Part# | Description | price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| TLM001WW | TellyMate Kit (for home soldering) | £10.50 | available again late Q1 2010 |
| Version | Date | File | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4 | 2009-06-20 |  sch_tm_14.pdf |
(57.8 KB) |
| 1.3 | 2009-05-20 | sch_tm_13.pdf |
(50.5 KB) |
| 1.2 | 2009-03-17 | sch_tm_12.pdf |
(48.3 KB) |
| 1.1 | 2009-02-25 | sch_tm_11.pdf |
(43.1 KB) |
| 1.0 | 2009-02-06 | sch_tm_10.pdf |
(41.2 KB) |
| Version | Date | File | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.14 | 2009-09-05 |  code_tm_114.zip |
(110.2 KB) |
| 1.0.11 | 2009-06-25 | code_tm_111.zip |
(79.5 KB) |
| 1.0.10 | 2009-06-20 | code_tm_110.zip |
(79.1 KB) |
| 1.0.9 | 2009-06-09 | code_tm_19.zip |
(58.9 KB) |
| 1.0.8 | 2009-05-20 | code_tm_18.zip |
(58.4 KB) |
| 1.0.7 | 2009-03-23 | code_tm_17.zip |
(57.8 KB) |
| 1.0.6 | 2009-03-10 | code_tm_16.zip |
(58.0 KB) |
| 1.0.4 | 2009-02-25 | code_tm_14.zip |
(56.5 KB) |
| 1.0.1 | 2009-02-12 | code_tm_11.zip |
(47.0 KB) |
| 1.0.0 | 2009-02-06 | code_tm_10.zip |
(44.9 KB) |
| Version | Date | File | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1.0 | 2009-03-06 | Brownian_01_1.zip |
(9.49 KB) |
| 1.0.0 | 2009-02-20 | Brownian_01.zip |
(9.26 KB) |
| Version | Date | File | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2009-03-13 | Skiing_1_0.zip |
(12.1 KB) |
