Alternative to Raspberry Pi Zero

[Freech]

Hi guys,

I'm not use to write in forums but i loved this project and so i'm here writing (with my bad english).
I'm a really beginner with raspberry (this is my first raspberry ever!)

I want to share my experience with this project:

I could not find the Pi Zero so i used the Raspberry pi B+ (but i think that this is going to work also with the others model, depending on the dimensions)

My hardwares are:

Raspy B+

- 3.5" PitFT Adafruit display

- 1300 mah lipo battery (better if bigger)

- Original Buttons (i have to add more, but i don't have time)

- Lipo Booster and charger

- Wires( lot of wires )


The only thing that i made different is to take off all the usb ports, the ethernet one, and all the pins (on raspberry and on the display).
I made this to add more space inside the game boy.
I don not use any Teensy or stuff like that because i didn't want to waste space with something that raspy can do.

The only problem was that the PitFT monitor use lot of pins, but i changed the buttons pins with the few empty.


I'm going to add some photos to explain better what i do, but in advance i want to thanks the guy that had this awesome idea, the result is amazing, and i love it.

If you have some question please write and i try to help, now the photos

The board without USB Ethernet and Pins



Full view of the game boy



Pins removed with the flat cable (2 cable with 13 wires each)

[dboSS]

You use the touch screen for this project. How is the framerate? Somebody told me that touch screen only have 17 fps ?

[Freech]

UPDATE

I forgot to tell you how i removed the ports and the pins. (this can be done before or after the programming but i suggest to let this step be the last, after all is checked and working)

This can be quite tricky but if you follow some steps you are not going to be mad.

I did something like that:

For the pins:

- I took the dremel, or something like that with the blade accessory, and very carefully i cut the base of the pin without touching the board.
It doesn't matter if you are not so close to the board, the importart thing is to burn the black plastic that holds all the pins together.
After this i took a flat screwdriver to remove the remaining plastic of the pins.
When all the pins are individually free you can easily desolder one after another.
[/url]



For the ports:

- This is quite the same for the pins except that you have to take care of the usb and ethernet pins if you want to use them again. (soldering back a usb or/and ethernet, at least one usb to upload roms is suggested)

The Usb port is the toughest because they have 4 big pins to hold the usb against the board. I started with the USB on the right cutting off the two big pins on the right and with a cutter i cut all the "wires" if the usb, done that you can quite lift all the usb port for reach the other 2 big pins.

The same for the ethernet ones, but luckily it has only 2 big pins holding the port to the board. (the plastic ones are useless, after removing the two metal ones and the connection pins, all came away pretty easily)
You can try to disassemble the ethernet port opening the back of itself (one big pin must me removed) and than break the plastic case of the port. I think this is the best choice because, maybe (all this tutorial have "maybe" before each sentence ), all the pins stay soldered to the board so you can cut them quite shortly but not to much to be soldered easily.

[Freech]

You use the touch screen for this project. How is the framerate? Somebody told me that touch screen only have 17 fps ?

I do not suggest this screen...this display framerate is very poor, and u can easily notice it playing mario for example.
The backgroud is refreshed by step, so you can see it changing in 3 horizontal stripes....first change the one on the top, then in the middle then in the bottom....just few milliseconds but it's quite annoying...
i ordered one analog screen, now i have to figure out how wire it up to the raspberry (noob)

And also you have 10k wires to solder to the board and the screen (i didn't find the pinout of the screen and so i don't know what pin can be stay unplugged), but i had this from 6 months and i use it, better than nothing

[dboSS]

You use the touch screen for this project. How is the framerate? Somebody told me that touch screen only have 17 fps ?

I do not suggest this screen...this display framerate is very poor, and u can easily notice it playing mario for example.
The backgroud is refreshed by step, so you can see it changing in 3 horizontal stripes....first change the one on the top, then in the middle then in the bottom....just few milliseconds but it's quite annoying...
i ordered one analog screen, now i have to figure out how wire it up to the raspberry (noob)

And also you have 10k wires to solder to the board and the screen (i didn't find the pinout of the screen and so i don't know what pin can be stay unplugged), but i had this from 6 months and i use it, better than nothing

Ya thx for the heads up. Keep up the good work mate

[Kilren]

Just for clarification, are you using the RPi1 or RPi 2?

@Popcorn can we get this moved to show-off corner? Thanks

[Popcorn]

Just for clarification, are you using the RPi1 or RPi 2?

@Popcorn can we get this moved to show-off corner? Thanks

Thanks for looking out. Done.

[Freech]

Just for clarification, are you using the RPi1 or RPi 2?

It's the RP1, but i'm planning to put the RP3, but until i have this screen is quite useless because (from what i understand reading around) with the Tift screen i can't use the GPU part of the processor.

[Kilren]

It's the RP1, but i'm planning to put the RP3, but until i have this screen is quite useless because (from what i understand reading around) with the Tift screen i can't use the GPU part of the processor.

Gotcha. I know that there are a couple that are pursuing the RPi 3 regardless of naysayers. As long as you can solve heat and power consumption, you're well on your way. Playing N64 roms in a handheld would be dreamy.