Comment by mogrinz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mogrinz | Hacker News Reader

This started because I built a full-size Robby the Robot suit and discovered I couldn't actually see out of it (https://youtu.be/gAHd46ErNA8?si=-iOwbobp4trPXdGB)

I bought a $35 backup camera/display to solve that problem, then discovered that the display contained an AMT630A video processor with a surprisingly capable OSD system. That sent me down a rabbit hole of I2C probing, firmware dumping, register tracing, custom graphics, bitmap formats, hidden factory menus, and eventually figuring out how to use an ESP32 to generate a programmable HUD over the live composite video.

I ended up turning what I learned into an Arduino library, which I've released on GitHub. It supports built-in and custom fonts, multiple OSD windows, 16-color bitmaps, palettes, transparency, and animation. It can also be used with composite video sources other than the camera.

The library and code are here: https://github.com/mogrinz/AMT630A You can also install directly from the Arduino IDE Library Manager (search for AMT630A)

Hah, the video is more exciting than the readme, IMO an image of the robot in the readme would be attention-getting.

Would "rear view mirrors" help navigation in the suit? So 2 extra displays that would give you a view of what's over your shoulder, like on some cars nowadays (for example): https://www.carscoops.com/2022/02/heres-what-you-wanted-to-k...

The setup I bought only has one camera but the AMT supports up to 3 separate composite sources (I did not add switching to the library yet b/c I couldn’t test this). It looks like split-screen is supported also. For now, I am adding some simple sensors to the back of the suit and triggering an on-screen pop-up when something is behind me

Hm. Have you thought about using a backup camera? =)

Holy smokes I like that. Maybe it will catch on, I dunno.

Cameras are rear view mirrors? Audi e-trons have them, they're also available as option on Hyundai Ioniqs. But apparently it's unlawful to not have physical side mirrors in North America...

Neat! Can you add the pictures of your setup? Display, soldered wires, some overlays?

(sorry if they in the video - I generally don't watch the videos before reading the text first)

the video goes into a lot of this. it is far above average YouTube quality.

Tracking-free YouTube link: https://youtu.be/gAHd46ErNA8

@dang Could HN remove source identifiers from links by default?

About 12 minutes into the first vid, the thought struck me: How will the EMT's react to a guy stuck halfway inside a Robby the Robot suit?

"can we legally post the teardown video of this to hacker news?"

Heads up, your youtube link has a tracking ID in it that is bound to the account/device you shared the link from.

This video on the device itself (from the readme), not about the robot suit itself.

How I See from Inside Robby — AMT630A Heads-Up Display https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eQ94DHOay0

Thanks! I’ll fix that

Still not fixed :(

Replace it with: https://youtu.be/gAHd46ErNA8

Yeah, I didn’t realize there was a time limit on edits, and I was well outside of it

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