How do I connect Raspberry Pi to a monitor with VGA?

[Adamskii]

I am very new to the Raspberry Pi. I have set it all up, I have everything I need (I think) but I have a monitor I would like to use with it which isn't connecting. It has VGA and my Raspberry Pi has HDMI. Problem is, although I have an adapter, nothing is showing up on the monitor when I turn the Raspberry Pi on and they're connected.

Please tell me if this was a problem any of you had and how you fixed it, or if there is a cable that you recommend that works. Thanks in advance, Adamskii

[texy]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
What do you mean by having an adapter?
If it's just a cable or cable adapter it'll probably not work - HDMI is digital, VGA is analogue. You'll need some convertor electronics to do the magic.
rgds,
Texy

[fruitoftheloom]

I am very new to the Raspberry Pi. I have set it all up, I have everything I need (I think) but I have a monitor I would like to use with it which isn't connecting. It has VGA and my Raspberry Pi has HDMI. Problem is, although I have an adapter, nothing is showing up on the monitor when I turn the Raspberry Pi on and they're connected.

Please tell me if this was a problem any of you had and how you fixed it, or if there is a cable that you recommend that works. Thanks in advance, Adamskii

Check out this post for info regards HDMi-VGA: http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt ... 91&t=83446

[drgeoff]

Go to http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... y_adapters and read the sections "HDMI ->VGA Cables" and "HDMI->VGA converter boxes".

[W. H. Heydt]

You may find it cheaper to obtain a monitor with DVI-D input (for which a simple HDMI to DVI cable will do the trick) than to get a decent HDMI to VGA converter. Check your local thrift shops, freecycle or equivalent, or ask around about companies replacing equipment. The first source is cheap, the second is free, and there is a chance that the third will pay you to take stuff away.

[Adamskii]

Thanks everyone, I have a cable with HDMI to VGA, there's no converter or anything. I do not have a converter box, nor only a VGA cable, so I think I will just play it safe and buy another monitor with HDMI. This is because I don't want to mess around with some box which, with my luck, will probably be the wrong one anyway. Thanks again!

[mahjongg]

as said, you can probably pick up an old second hand LCD monitor with both VGA and DVI-D for far less than a new HDMI monitor, (actually it's possible it will be even cheaper than the HDMI to VGA adapter) only disadvantage is that DVI-D doesn't support sound. But a small HDMI monitor might be the best solution, if you have a bit more money to spend.

[Adamskii]

I'm going to get the HDMI monitor because I'm going to use it as a small little personal computer. I will load Ubuntu onto it and when that's all working I will do this* with the monitor.

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL_HAmWQTgA

[mahjongg]

I'm going to use it as a small little personal computer. I will load Ubuntu onto it

I hope that by "it" you don't mean the PI, as ubuntu doesn't run on a PI, but Raspbian is very much like Ubuntu as both are based on debian.

p.s. fixed the youtube link for you.

p.s.s. Nice trick with the "invisible" monitor!

[Adamskii]

Thanks for fixing the YT link first. I thought you could load Ubuntu on it, as demonstrated here*, or an I just missing something?

* http://www.engineersgarage.com/embedded ... spberry-pi

[mahjongg]

someone is calling raspbian "wheezy" ubuntu, but its really not!

The Ubuntu image for the Raspberry pi (is) (sic) called ‘Soft-float Debian “wheezy”’

a "real" ubuntu should be supported by canonical, but canonical stopped making a version of ubuntu for ARMv6 cpu's a long time ago!

this is very tricksy, a nasty wordplay.

[Adamskii]

OK... I'm going to be honest and say I didn't know what some of that meant lol

So I can't use Ubuntu? Is there no way around it?

[mahjongg]

no you can't, but raspbian works just like ubuntu, because ubuntu is just a "souped up" version of debian, and Raspbian (as the name implies) IS debian. Raspbian just uses a simplified desktop compared to Ubuntu, so not as much "bling", but mostly it can run the same software as ubuntu (if "rewritten" for the ARMv6 of the PI, but that shouldn't be a problem for Linux software).

[Adamskii]

Great. Thanks so much, you've helped a lot!

[AndrewS]

That "ubuntu" page also says

The operating systems versions of Windows, Mac and Linux are available which can be installed in the Raspberry pi board.

[Shadow_7]

Go to http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... y_adapters and read the sections "HDMI ->VGA Cables" and "HDMI->VGA converter boxes".

That's a very short list for known HDMI -> VGA. And apparently one cannot search hdmi or vga on this forum because it's too common a term.

http://plugable.com/products/hdmi-vga

I'm curious if anyone has this one and knows if it works on the RPi B. It seems to work for chromebook (according to youtube) that does something non-typical.

ATM I have a sansui 19" TV(HDLCD1912) with VGA, Component, and S-video inputs. And the RCA connector is how I currently use it with the pi. But 720x480 seems to be the best I can do with that on a display that would otherwise do 1366x768. It's horrible as a TV, but does okay on VGA for a computer monitor.

[mahjongg]

And apparently one cannot search hdmi or vga on this forum because it's too common a term.

thats why i always use the google "site:" tag, like this

google site:http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums hdmi to vga

the buying guide sticky has some good info on vga adapters. http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt ... 91&t=83446

using a b+ solves most of the power problems with these adapters, a separate power input is no longer required.
cheap adapters often still disconnect the HDMI EEPROM though, so auto detection of monitor features may still be a problem, so you may yet need to edit config.txt to tell the PI the monitor settings.

[fruitoftheloom]

Go to http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... y_adapters and read the sections "HDMI ->VGA Cables" and "HDMI->VGA converter boxes".

That's a very short list for known HDMI -> VGA. And apparently one cannot search hdmi or vga on this forum because it's too common a term.

http://plugable.com/products/hdmi-vga

I'm curious if anyone has this one and knows if it works on the RPi B. It seems to work for chromebook (according to youtube) that does something non-typical.

ATM I have a sansui 19" TV(HDLCD1912) with VGA, Component, and S-video inputs. And the RCA connector is how I currently use it with the pi. But 720x480 seems to be the best I can do with that on a display that would otherwise do 1366x768. It's horrible as a TV, but does okay on VGA for a computer monitor.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HDMI-Audio-Vide ... B007MJKEPS

[drgeoff]

Go to http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... y_adapters and read the sections "HDMI ->VGA Cables" and "HDMI->VGA converter boxes".

That's a very short list for known HDMI -> VGA.

I didn't send you there for the list of known workers. I sent you there to understand that a cable won't work and for pointers as to what sort of thing you could buy that would work.

[mahjongg]

That's a very short list for known HDMI -> VGA.

the wiki is a bit deprecated these days, and not really updated. besides a list of all working adapters probably would list hundreds of devices, nobody really bothers with creating such a list.