3. Hardware Design

The hardware design of this project is very simple in principle. Two Atmel Amega32 microcontrollers (MCUs) are soldered on to separate prototype boards which have the appropriate power input, mouse input, and video output connections. One microcontroller is used to generate a NTSC B/W video signal that is transmitted to a state-of-the-art consumer electronic 5” B/W Jensen television. The second microcontroller interfaces with a PS/2 mouse and is responsible for transmitting the relevant mouse parameters to the video generation microcontroller.

Custom PC Board (prototype board): A prototype board for the Atmel Mega32 (PDIP) MCU includes a power supply, crystal clock, RS232 interface and generous bypass capacitors. A six-pin header allows flash memory programming from an STK500. There is space to optionally mount 0.3 inch PDIP, SOIC16, SOT23-6, LCC-16 (0.05 inch) and headers. A 32-pin header-plug mounted along the top edge of the board could interface to a stardard solderless white-board.