Liath's Gameboy Zero

[Liathou]

Hi there,

I finally took time to finish my first build.
I'm so happy to have it now, and the nostalgia is satisfied whenever I play it, that's so cool.
I'm also happy I could build something and actually finish it, even if I knew nothing about electronics or soldering before starting.

Parts list
- White case
- Gearbest "new" screen
- Tinkerboy's V3.01
- Tinkerboy's Add-on board (makes it easy on the soldering, but eats so much space :/ )
- Powerboost from Aliexpress
- Bluetech battery

So, here's how it looks:

FrontShow

(Messy) InsidesShow

First timesShow

Booting for the first time on the screen


First time booting the whole system on battery

Things that bother me
Now it's finished, there are some things that bother me a bit.
- I would have gone with shorter and more flexible wires (I stripped an old ethernet cable)
- I would have made the corners of the screen's cut neater (and at 90°) cause some of the white of the case is showing (maybe I can unglue the glass, I don't know and I don't want to ruin it).
- I does not have a safe shutdown, so I have to got in the menus to shut if down.

Things that do not work
Yeah... cause it's not completely finished. Some things are not working.
- Firstly, the system crashes after a while. The game freezes and you can't do anything, apart switching it off.
- It also get hot, so maybe it's the cause of the crashes, I don't know.
- I can't get GBA games to work, and I don't know why. I tried multiple sources for the roms, but maybe it's me. I'll have to investigate.
- My red external led stopped working, not sure why.

Special thanks
I want to thank rodocop and infinitLoop for their help during my build, on this thread : https://www.sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=8490.
Also, thanks to this board for making me want to try making one for myself, it was fun !


Since I'm a web developer, I made a little web page for my project (in french), if you're interested : http://liath.fr/gameboyzero.

[infinitLoop]

- I would have made the corners of the screen's cut neater (and at 90°) cause some of the white of the case is showing (maybe I can unglue the glass, I don't know and I don't want to ruin it).

yeah, if you are very careful, you can pry it up with a blade. a black marker hides those corners pretty well

- I does not have a safe shutdown, so I have to got in the menus to shut if down.

it's very easy to wire an extra button to the gpio to do it, if you wanted to. just sayin.

- Firstly, the system crashes after a while. The game freezes and you can't do anything, apart switching it off.
- It also get hot, so maybe it's the cause of the crashes, I don't know.

i was going to say, it sounds like heat (i've had that happen when using composite screens, since a lot of them get very hot). it's not super easy to resolve. heatsinks can help some.

- I can't get GBA games to work, and I don't know why. I tried multiple sources for the roms, but maybe it's me. I'll have to investigate.

you need the bios file. look for "gba_bios.bin" and copy it to the ~/RetroPie/BIOS folder

[Liathou]

And he continues to help !
Seriously, thank you, I'll try the bios thing
But I don't know yet if I'm willing to risk the screen cut rescue.

[superman]

it's very easy to wire an extra button to the gpio to do it, if you wanted to. just sayin.

What would the script be for that button...
I am putting a button like that in my build..
I understand how to wire it to the gpio but i am not sure how to configure it as a shutdown.

[Spyder]

- I does not have a safe shutdown, so I have to got in the menus to shut if down.

it's very easy to wire an extra button to the gpio to do it, if you wanted to. just sayin.

Does this cut power to the screen too or do you have to flip the switch?

[infinitLoop]

- I does not have a safe shutdown, so I have to got in the menus to shut if down.

it's very easy to wire an extra button to the gpio to do it, if you wanted to. just sayin.

Does this cut power to the screen too or do you have to flip the switch?

it wouldn't cut the power to anything directly. it would only initiate the shutdown, just like when you select shutdown in the menu in retropie. you'd still have to switch the power off after the shutdown.

[amcic1995]

it's very easy to wire an extra button to the gpio to do it, if you wanted to. just sayin.

What would the script be for that button...
I am putting a button like that in my build..
I understand how to wire it to the gpio but i am not sure how to configur pornjk porn800 redtubee it as a shutdown.

I'm also happy I could build something and actually finish it, even if I knew nothing about electronics or soldering before starting.