sudomod

Hi, so this is my first post, and I thought it would be cool for someone like Helder to make a Retropie All in one board like the GBZ one, but with solder pads where the button pads would be, and with no specific shape. This way, we could use all of the features of that wonderful board, but not have to use it in a gameboy enclosure. I have no idea if somebody already did this, but please tell me if someone did! The reason I want one of these is because I want to make a portable GBZ style retropie machine that fits inside an NES cartridge shell or a VHS tape shell.

Hmm... why couldn't you just solder the buttons to an Arduino for controls? Or are you wanting the USB hub and power strip to be on the same board as well?

Yeah, just like the all in one usb board with the audio amp and everything.

Except, in order to manufacture a PCB it has to be... a specific shape?

You could always just mount the existing AIO in whatever case you want and extend the buttons somewhere else. Mount tact switches on protoboard, then solder lines from the AIO traces to each switch. No need for a new design.

Yeah you could do, that, I suppose. What I meant by a "specific shape" is that it doesn't have to be shaped like the inside of a gameboy.

but each different casing has screw posts in different places, which the PCB needs holes for, and also the spacing between the controls are different (both between the groups and individual button)
I think the only ones that are even similar (and even that is a stretch) are GBC and GB pocket. literally everything else is so different from each other that an entirely different PCB is needed. it's not even enough to say make the D-Pad modular, because it's smaller on a GBC/GBP/GBA than a DMG/(S)NES pad.
the only thing I can think of is a common module with all the "brains" like the MCU, AMP, USB Hub etc. that attaches to a control pad carrier that's custom to the particular device, but then you still have the screw holes problem...