After deciding the Arduino VGAX library was not going to serve my needs, I started researching other ways to generate a VGA signal. What became clear pretty quickly was that a standard Arduino isn't fast enough to meet timing requirements without additional hardware support. So solutions that work entirely in software will be roughly as limited as VGAX, and those that work for higher resolutions require auxiliary hardware.

Given that fact, I started looking at VGA signal generation by a faster line of microcontrollers: the Teensy line. I have on hand a Teensy LC and a Teensy 4, and I found this thread on Teensy forums announcing a library for generating VGA signal strictly in software, no auxiliary hardware. Browsing through the Github repository of this uVGA library, it looked quite promising. However, the primary target platform is the Teensy 3. I bracket it above and below with a Teensy 4 and a Teensy LC. Would one of them be able to run this code?

An attempt to compile an uVGA example for the Teensy LC failed:

In file included from /home/roger/Arduino/libraries/uVGA/examples/HelloWorldColour/HelloWorldColour.ino:3:0:
/home/roger/Arduino/libraries/uVGA/uVGA.h:297:16: error: 'TCD_t' in 'class DMABaseClass' does not name a type
DMABaseClass::TCD_t *edma_TCD; // address of eDMA TCD registers

My best guess is that the Teensy LC lacks the direct memory access (DMA) capability uVGA requires. I've already been foiled once on the reduced hardware capability on a Teensy LC, so this was no surprise. DMA is critical for shuttling memory back and forth without bogging down the CPU for timing-critical tasks (like VGA signal generation) so this requirement is unlikely to be lifted.

However, since my goal is only to generate a signal outputting a single color to the entire screen, I don't really need to shuttle data from a video frame buffer for display. If I'm willing to dig into the uVGA code, I can probably find a way to bypass the commands moving memory and accomplish my very specific goal.

Before I start doing work, though, I should see what happens when I try compiling the same uVGA example for the Teensy 4:

In file included from /home/roger/Arduino/libraries/uVGA/examples/HelloWorldColour/HelloWorldColour.ino:8:0:
/home/roger/Arduino/libraries/uVGA/uVGA_valid_settings.h:59:17: note: #pragma message: No resolution defined for this CPU frequency. Known CPU frequency: 240Mhz, 192MHz, 180Mhz, 168Mhz, 144Mhz, 96Mhz, 72Mhz, 48Mhz

It looks like the uVGA library has some hard-coded dependencies on a Teensy CPU's frequency, and it doesn't know what to do with the high speed of a Teensy 4. I expect that speed will open up new capabilities, but someone has to teach uVGA about a Teensy 4 before that could happen. If I'm willing to dig into uVGA code, this would be a more productive and forward-looking way to go and a positive contribution to the open source community.

But before I can realistically contemplate that project, I'll need to become a lot more knowledgeable about VGA timing requirements.