sudomod

I first want to thank everybody on this forum for posting and sharing their builds. It has inspired me to try my hand at it. I've built some arcade cabinets in the past both from wood and metal but this is my first attempt at a handheld. I quickly realized it's pretty tricky to get all the little bits and pieces to fit inside a handheld system compared to a full size arcade machine. At first, I was just going to go the case mod route but I never found a AIO board with all the features I was looking for. So I decided to start from scratch and create my own case and PCB. It's taken me about 4 months of design time (working on it in my spare time) but I've finally started making some aluminum chips. My background is CNC machining / mechanical design so the case design and prototype is by far the easiest of all the task for me. I've only created basic PCB's in the past so creating the PCB's for this design will be a good learning experience.

Below are a few pics I took during the 1st and 2nd operations of cutting the front case.

looking forward to seeing some more progress on this. It looks amazing! Will the case act as a heatsink as well?

Those look really nice. Great job!

Are you targeting the 3A+ or 3B+? Fitting everything in a Zero build isn't that hard anymore with all of the custom boards the community's come up with (mine included).

I'm looking forward to seeing these in action.

rodocop wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:03 pm

looking forward to seeing some more progress on this. It looks amazing! Will the case act as a heatsink as well?

Not currently. The CPU of the Pi isn't pointing at an aluminum surface. I've mostly ran Pi 2 & 3 versions with other projects, never played with the Zero that much. Does the Zero get hot enough for a head sink?

Dividion wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:52 pm

Those look really nice. Great job!

Are you targeting the 3A+ or 3B+? Fitting everything in a Zero build isn't that hard anymore with all of the custom boards the community's come up with (mine included).

I'm looking forward to seeing these in action.

I currently have it designed for the ZeroW. I'm using a 4400 battery so that eats up alot of space. Plus I wanted direct access to the HDMI port on the Pi without having to use an adapter or cable so the layout is a little odd but hopefully it'll all work out.

jwh02017 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:15 pm

Not currently. The CPU of the Pi isn't pointing at an aluminum surface. I've mostly ran Pi 2 & 3 versions with other projects, never played with the Zero that much. Does the Zero get hot enough for a head sink?

Depending on the casing, (i've seen 70ish celcius in gameboy zero builds that I have measured temp without heatsinks), but yeah, it's not nearly as hot as a pi3. But it wouln't hurt.

jwh02017 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:15 pm

I currently have it designed for the ZeroW. I'm using a 4400 battery so that eats up alot of space. Plus I wanted direct access to the HDMI port on the Pi without having to use an adapter or cable so the layout is a little odd but hopefully it'll all work out.

Yeah, if you need access to the HDMI port things can get a little challenging. Here's a ZeroW build I did last night to give to a co-worker who's getting married this weekend. Uses an SPI display, 4000mAh battery, safe shutdown, etc. The back half of the case is mostly untouched (shoulder buttons, LED pinholes, headphone jack area trimmed). If it had a composite screen I'd need to use some of that cartridge area.

This looks impressive and quite heavy at the same time.

Dividion wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:08 am

jwh02017 wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:15 pm

I currently have it designed for the ZeroW. I'm using a 4400 battery so that eats up alot of space. Plus I wanted direct access to the HDMI port on the Pi without having to use an adapter or cable so the layout is a little odd but hopefully it'll all work out.

Yeah, if you need access to the HDMI port things can get a little challenging. Here's a ZeroW build I did last night to give to a co-worker who's getting married this weekend. Uses an SPI display, 4000mAh battery, safe shutdown, etc. The back half of the case is mostly untouched (shoulder buttons, LED pinholes, headphone jack area trimmed). If it had a composite screen I'd need to use some of that cartridge area.

Your build looks great...very clean. Which battery are you using? I'll be using the BW 3.5: TFT screen for this build. So the SPI screens are thinner than the TFT's? Seems like I read that the TFT are faster framerate but lower resolution whereas the SPI screens are better resolution but slower framerate.... does that sound right? I need to get a SPI screen to check it out.

ekilla wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:19 am

This looks impressive and quite heavy at the same time.

I like to look at it as "durable" haha Yes, it will be heavier than a normal plastic shell but I really like the fact that the parts will simply drop in without having to modify anything.

I finished the 3rd operation last night which was milling the hole for the head phone jack. Next up is programming the back half of the housing. I hope to start cutting on it this weekend.

jwh02017 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:57 am

Your build looks great...very clean. Which battery are you using? I'll be using the BW 3.5: TFT screen for this build. So the SPI screens are thinner than the TFT's? Seems like I read that the TFT are faster framerate but lower resolution whereas the SPI screens are better resolution but slower framerate.... does that sound right? I need to get a SPI screen to check it out.

Thanks! The battery is a 4000mAh 125054 (12x50x54mm) so it fits in the battery compartment without modifications. If you get them in bulk they're really cheap (about $7 each), but they do take awhile to receive.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-B ... 08513.html

SPI screens are known for their slower framerates, but they can be driven off 8 (or 10) GPIO pins and are still completely playable. I've read that some have experienced tearing issues, but I haven't run into that myself with the 3.2in screens (also cheap at $7.50 each). These have a 320x240 resolution.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-2-inc ... 82096.html

I'm curious what you're planning to use for buttons in the aluminum build. Plastic just doesn't seem appropriate. Also, since you went with a full rectangle for the screen cutout, which screen protector are you going with?