Retro games on a Pico, out through an HDMI sock

Difficulty

Intermediate

AI-buildability

4/5

Most of the work is Arduino-Pico firmware using PicoDVI, mic and ultrasonic input, which AI handles well, while the header soldering, Dupont wiring and fitting everything into a case are hands-on.

Time

A weekend

Cost

$30–50

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. The maker built this with AI tools: more vibe-coded builds. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

A Python meetup talk about showing images on a TV from a $4 DVI Sock was the dare. Majed Abouhatab built his own version: a Pico W with the Adafruit DVI Sock on headers, so the sock can be pulled off and reused, and the whole thing is driven by a microphone and an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor instead of a keyboard.

The build is wired with Dupont jumpers, which eat space in the case, and it gets micro-USB pass-through, a boot-button hole, and a power switch for easy resets during development. HDMI doesn't supply enough power to run the Pico, so a power bank handles that. Code was written mostly with Gemini and then tuned in PlatformIO, with the Arduino-Pico core and Adafruit's PicoDVI library.

The honest takeaway: fitting everything into a small case meant cutting dividers and drilling holes, and the maker admits removing more plastic than they should have. If you want a cheap way to get a microcontroller onto a TV screen, the DVI Sock on headers is the reusable part here.