Viliv Super IO Port Pinout

I have took apart the VGA and Video Super IO plugs of my Viliv S5 and here is the pinout:

01 - GND
02 - Audio Left
03 - Audio Right
04 - Video Plug Key
05 - ?
06 - ?
07 - VGA Plug Key
08 - VGA V-Sync
09 - VGA H-Sync
10 - VGA SLC
11 - VGA SDA
12 - VGA Red
13 - VGA Green
14 - VGA Blue
15 - GND
16 - Component Blue
17 - Component Green
18 - Component Red
19 - Composite
20 - GND
21 - S-Video 2
22 - S-Video 1
23 - ?
24 - ?

As you can see there are 4 pins that are unknown to me (not used in eider of the plugs)
The key Pins are to be puled down with 1K

Mini Projector Opened

Here you go. An image of the opened MSI mini Projector.
The 640x480 chip used with 600x800 input gives a suprisingly sharp image.

it can be set to focus on around 10 cm so a first iteration of a HMD may be only a head gear and a small white screen.

Stay tuned.

Selfmade HMD vision

I was unable to find a cheep monocular HMD with 800x600 and VGA input.

Stereoscopic HMD's with this specs starts at 650€ and have to be modded for monocular use.
Native Monoculars HMD's start above 1 k€
Also 640x480 units come mostly with composite input, what is a catastrophe.

So I decided to make my own HMD, well not from scratch but almost.

I'm going to get a cheep Pico Beamer, like: http://geizhals.at/a509791.html

Ok it  has only 640x480 but (!) it has VGA input to the few pixels will at least be sharp.
Oh and it costs only 70€ thats the half of the cheapest stereoscopic 640x480 composite input HMD.

So if its going to work it will be a solution that is honestly worth its price.


In theory I need only to separate the projection unit from the PCB and put some long flexible cable in between, and adapt the optics a little bit, so that the image will be sharply projected on a post stamp sized screen which is then focused by one lens so that it can be viewed sharply by the human eye.


The unit should arrive soon so stay tuned, for some dissection pictures and further details on how to made your very own custom HMD.

After many years of dreaming

After many years of thinking about it and waiting for the technology to catch up with me, I finally decided to realize my long overdue dream of becoming a borg, the first step towards sit is building a wearable computer.

The demands for the system are quite high:

It has to run windows 7 and not be sluggish.
It also needs to have Wifi, BT, 3G, and GPS.
Also it needs to be able to store a lots of data.
And a long long Battery life

After looking around for some weeks for the right hardware I came up with a Viliv S5, it as:
1,3 GHz Atom CPU
1 GB Ram
32 GB SSD
Wifi, BT, 3G, and GPS. all integrated
6 hours battery life, and replacement batteries for only 50 bucks
1024x600 pixel touchscreen with HID drivers for window s7.

Drawbacks:
The Wifi reception shows in win 7 only at most 4 out of 5 but never the less it seams to work ok.
The battery needs 5 h to fully charge, well as long as its shorter than the battery life of the unit with a second battery and charger its fine.
32 GB SSD (the 128 GB unit would cost 50% more thats not necessary worth it)
No keyboard
Driver Installation for win 7 is a pain in the but: http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=5871

Due to the low SSD space I'll use an old 128 GB 1st generation SSD with a built in USB port, the cheap 1st generation SSD's ware no good for windows, but for Storing movies and media its good enough.
Also I'll add mini keyboard for the wrist and maby a touch pad some ware in the same area.


What I'm still missing is a monocular HMD (Head Mounted Display) that would idealy provide a resolution of at least 800x600.

I'll also add some USB hub most likely with an own power source.