Rfniner's A+ build

[Rfniner]

Been lurking for a long long time. Finally gathered all of the required parts. Using a zero seemed to easy and a 3b+ seemed to hard. So I decided to try using a pi 3 a+. More pictures to follow as the build progresses. If anyone else is working on the same thing I'd love to see your ideas and share mine.

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[VeteranGamer]

Nice....
you've kinda beaten me to it.....
I'm also working a Pi3 A+ build (as well as the many other builds I've got going)....
I have everything I need, I just need some time to assemble it....

will be nice to see what you do and how yours turns out (Good Luck).....

what have you decided to power the build with, which PSU?.....




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[Rfniner]

I went with the adafruit 1000c. I bought everything planning a zero build. And last minute decided to go the a+ route. Hopefully it all works out

[infinitLoop]

I built one too, but then ran into a space issue in the back of the case because I was going all-out... two analog sticks, led backlit buttons with switch, fan with control switches, fiber optic led indicators on the front, and shoulder and trigger buttons, but once I got an hdmi adapter that would work and fit, it bumped up against the four button bracket HoolyHoo designed. Very disappointing. So now I’m waiting on a new case to do a different config in the back.

For mine I went with Tinkerboy’s V3 board also, to try and save space. I was going to use the powerboost but I just got some of Helder’s Psus so I think i’m going to swap it out. I have his battery as well and Camble’s safe shutdown, and YaYa’s stickers. Very much a community backed build.

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[infinitLoop]

One thing I did find doing this one that may be a surprise (or maybe it’s just my ignorance)... I have a few RetroPie images I use, which work great on zeros and b+s but wouldn’t boot at all on the a+. I had to tweak the config a little to get it to boot successfully on the ones I got working.

[Rfniner]

I literally pulled my sd out of the b+ and it booted perfectly on the a+. Nothing added or different.

[Rfniner]

I was toying around with removing the battery compartment completely and lining up the board so that the hdmi would be exposed right behind the headphone jack. Helders battery would fit in where the game cart goes just barely. But I wonder if the gear best screen board gets hot and if so hot enough to cause problems with the battery?

[infinitLoop]

I literally pulled my sd out of the b+ and it booted perfectly on the a+. Nothing added or different.

nice. maybe your image is new enough then, or maybe my a+ is more finicky with the cards or something. i have maybe a half dozen retropie images, and i only had one that worked without any tweaks - mainly updating to latest packages and setting the mem split to 348. i figured anything that worked in the zero should work in the a+, and assumed the b+/a+ is essentially the same, so those should be good too. i'd test them out in the other pis, they'd be fine, and then the a+ would just sit there with a red light and no screen. the a+ booted up with a noobs sd when i first go it, so i didn't think the pi itself was dead. for a while, i thought for sure i had messed up a connection to the board somehow, but couldn't find the problem in the wiring (which was just the usb and video, so not really a lot to go wrong there).

[Rfniner]

Ya it was a recent build and did a full update about a week ago but no other tweaks other than splash screens and themes. I did disable all the boot text and images. Maybe that helped?

[infinitLoop]

I was toying around with removing the battery compartment completely and lining up the board so that the hdmi would be exposed right behind the headphone jack. Helders battery would fit in where the game cart goes just barely. But I wonder if the gear best screen board gets hot and if so hot enough to cause problems with the battery?

the screen's board does get pretty hot. i haven't run mine for a long time yet, but even in ten/fifteen minutes it can get pretty toasty. i don't think it's probably hot enough to damage the battery, but also probably not be a good idea to have it right up against it. if you have a little room for ventilation, it might be ok. with the b and b+ builds, everyone says they need fans, so i assumed the a+ should get one too. that's a real challenge to cram in there. i took a cartridge and drilled some holes for vents, and was going to mount it back there. i also had to pull off the usb and rca jack on the pi, if you can't tell from all the tape on it

helder's battery goes great inside the original compartment, but i removed just the top of my battery compartment anyway partly because it exposed the graphics on the battery, which i thought were really cool looking in there, and partly because it allowed me to get to the sd card in the battery compartment, with the pi turned upside down like i have it, although it's not super accessible, but you can get the card in and out.

your idea might work too with the battery/hdmi. I tried to work out somethign down there but didnt wan't to take out too much of that area. the hdmi out seems to be the thing that really throws my builds out of whack, but i just love the idea of it being a portable and a console, so it's a must have. i have another a+ that i want to do another build with at some point, so maybe i'll try something like that. (the second a+ is finally what let me do some sanity testing to figure out it was the software that wasn't booting.)