zeppike's 2nd gbz build [waiting for parts and ideas]

[zeppike]

I started to create my second GBZ, this time from a Gameboy Pocket in beautiful green color.
I managed to buy a broken one from ebay for about 8$ +shipping from Japan...
After realizing that repairing this GB is far beyond my current level of knowledge, I decided to give it a shot and try to fit an rpi0 into it.
I'll try to keep most of the original hardware, like wheels, buttons, audio jack ect...
With this logic board it it much easier to solder to the pads, after removing a couple of IC's from the other side of the board there are 8 exposed pads to solder on.
I also managed to quickly connect all the ground traces .
I am still thinking about what screen to pick. The usual 3.5 "screen won't fit, so I am thinking about an spi 2.8 ish " screen, though I could not make that work yet...
If you have any suggestion how to do that, or what screen to pick pls, don't let me hang.

Just one more thing
I was pretty unhappy how long it took for rpi0 to boot retropie. Did any of you managed to make it faster?
Any of you considered to build an embeded style buildroot distro? Recallbox seemed to be a nice try, but with the added eyecandy it is actually slower than retropie...
Any thoughts?

[spoiler="pics"]

My current take on the spi screen

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The screen seemengly exploded... :(

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Easy to solder to.

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The huge battery pack

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Current state of the world

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[/spoiler]

[ABH]

Awesome i'm also going to build a gameboy pocket , I have ordered the parts already and i'm waiting to them to arrive . Furthermore , it might take a month approximately
I've chosen those tow screens and i going to use the one which will fit perfectly

[spoiler=" 2.8 SPI TFT LCD "]
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-240x320-2-8 ... SwBLlU~rVa[/spoiler]
[spoiler=" 2.4 GD24TWD"]
http://www.good-display.com/products_de ... d=186.html[/spoiler]
Good luck

[zeppike]

In my opinion, the 2.4" screen is a bit too small. I've seen people building on those, but with that there is gap between the screen and the case... and it looks kinda' unpleasant.

[ABH]

In my opinion, the 2.4" screen is a bit too small. I've seen people building on those, but with that there is gap between the screen and the case... and it looks kinda' unpleasant.

Yes it's little bit small
[spoiler="2.4"]

Screen Shot 2016-11-02 at 12.19.08 AM.png (233.38 KiB) Viewed 9527 times

[/spoiler]
But with custom screen lens ummm it will look nice
What is your plan for x , y buttons?

[zeppike]

I am fine without x,y
for me it just ruins the otherwise perfect look.
You wont need those buttons for anything but snes games, which are not running well on the rpi0 anyways.

[Dukana]

I am fine without x,y
for me it just ruins the otherwise perfect look.
You wont need those buttons for anything but snes games, which are not running well on the rpi0 anyways.

I understand wanting to keep the look of the original, a low profile GB0 sounds pretty awesome. But theres nothing wrong with snes emulation. It works perfectly. In fact, I was playing THPS 2 and it was emulating the Playstation flawlessly. And Mario 64 can work great with a bit of tweaking. Don't underestimate the raspberry pi zero, you get quite a great computer for $5!

[zeppike]

Probably I missed something, but for me snes and ps emulation was pretty choppy. Probably some oc would help that, but my main focus for this build is gb, gbc, gba games and of course PICO8. Also the controls for ps are pretty hard to implement on this case. Even on the original GB the analog sticks feel super odd. I also found that with the addition of the two shoulder buttons most of the snes and sega genesis games are playable, though they also felt a little slow (Probably I am too sensitive for lag).

I am fine without x,y
for me it just ruins the otherwise perfect look.
You wont need those buttons for anything but snes games, which are not running well on the rpi0 anyways.

I understand wanting to keep the look of the original, a low profile GB0 sounds pretty awesome. But theres nothing wrong with snes emulation. It works perfectly. In fact, I was playing THPS 2 and it was emulating the Playstation flawlessly. And Mario 64 can work great with a bit of tweaking. Don't underestimate the raspberry pi zero, you get quite a great computer for $5!

[winnetouch]

Just a thought... I use the same charger chip as you did (budget offcourse ). Is it a good idea to have it glued to the battery? The thing can get pretty hot and the battery being that close seems kind of dangerous.

[zeppike]

Well, no. At the moment I sicked that tape there I turned.
I'll put them separately in the final version.

Just a thought... I use the same charger chip as you did (budget offcourse ). Is it a good idea to have it glued to the battery? The thing can get pretty hot and the battery being that close seems kind of dangerous.

[zeppike]

I wanted to move a bit forward with this build albeit I am still waiting for some parts.
I decided to create a bit more space by using up the cartridge slot. To do that seamlessly, I trimmed a plastic case (from aliexpress 3$ 6pcs) to cover the places that will show but leave as much space as possible.
Also I scavenged a few parts from the original logic board. The power switch, and the volume pot will definitely needed and I think I'll keep the com port as well just to preserve the looks.
What I discovered and possibly you can also learn from it, is that the pockets board is easiest to cut with a pair of scissors. I tried to keep a bit of pcb with the parts just to let the hot glue to stick to something.

[spoiler="OFF"]In the meantime I acquired a very cheep possibly working DMG. It had horizontal lines missing from the screen. I fixed vertical lines before, but these were much harder to get to. The ribbon cable has much worst coating, and the traces are much thinner. After I gave up fixing the screen I also tried to swap it with an old screen, but failed that as well. [/spoiler]
[spoiler="pics"]

The empty shells from alliexpress

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This is how the pi will fit in the case.

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The bust screen I tried to swap.

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Parts ripped out the logic board.

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Depending on how much space I'll have... I may chose the smaller one.

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RetroPie already prepared.

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[/spoiler]