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It's my first build and I don't understand how to wire anything

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2018 9:37 am
by WaruPeachy
As the title says. This is my first build and I have never done anything like this before. I've read some of the online guides and watched videos but some of it kind of goes over my head and I don't understand how to apply some of the knowledge to my build since I have zero experience with this sort of thing. I understand how to do the soldering of course, but what I mean is that I don't know where to solder my individual connections to. Please, I need a lot of help. I will share my parts list. Please, I would really appreciate any help explaining where to make my connections. Please dumb it down as much as possible lol.

I guess to start, I got one of these controller PCB boards from aliexpress and it has holes at the top where I need to solder connections from to the GPIO holes on the raspberry pi. I don't know where exactly I'm supposed to solder to. I will be using the AB and XY buttons from the board, and I will be using micro switches for LR and a home button so I think that might be a completely separate connection? These are the microswitches I bought, I'm using the tallest ones from the pack.

For sound I'm using a USB sound card and will be connecting it to a volume wheel, headphone jack, and a GBA SP speaker.

I got a battery with a connector on the end because I was worried about safety and being able to remove it easily if need be. So of course I got some connectors for it and I plan to cut the wire and solder it to the charging module of course. I also got a breakout to easily position the charging port to whichever part of the case I want. And I got a power switch that seems similar enough to the original Gameboy switch.

I got some USB ports because I want to put one on the side of the case.

This is the screen I got as recommended by somebody on the discord chat. I also had a little board made for it which looks like this (front, back) but honestly I have zero clue how I'm supposed to connect it to the screen lol.

I might be forgetting something, but I think that's all the parts. I'm really nervous and what to build this as soon as my last two parts arrive this week, but I'm scanning guides and don't quite understand anything. Please teach me where to make all of my connections :(

Re: It's my first build and I don't understand how to wire anything

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2018 11:45 am
by KonnorJ
OK so,

Controls
For your controls you'd be using retrogame which is a script that turns gpio button presses into keyboard input the pi can understand, here is a tutorial that is very good and gives you a pinout, https://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57

Sound
http://www.tinkerboy.xyz/pinout-diagram ... -adapters/ Here is a wiring diagram for your usb sound card, For the wheel you should use a multimeter too check for resistance between 2 of the legs, 2 pairs should have resistance and the other that doesnt fit in should be ground, https://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=701 there is a link too the headphone jack pinout and your speaker will wire to the outputs of the jack, polarity doesn't matter on the speaker. I reccomend you use an amplifier too, these are a good option

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2x3W-PA ... autifyAB=0

I suggest you wire the components in this order, Pi, USB sound card, headphone jack, amp, speakers.

USB
Here is a pinout for a standard A female port, https://www.petervis.com/electronics/US ... inout.html
Too wire both the port and sound card into the single port of the pi you will need a hub like this,

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-in1-M ... autifyAB=0

These have tiny boards inside so you wont have to worry about it taking up too much space.

Screen

For the screen you will need to solder that ribbon to the board, make sure you line pin 1 up to pin 1, here is a good guide on soldering screen ribbons, https://youtu.be/1bqrFNeLCS8, you will also need to solder a 10 ohm resistor in place of R1 as moosepr suggests on his oshpark page, make sure you get one that is 0805 if you go the smd route on that one

Screen Wiring

Here is a screen pinout

Display--------Raspberry Pi
BL--------------pin 12 (GPIO 18)
SCK------------pin 23 (GPIO 11)
MISO----------pin 21 (GPIO 9)
MOSI----------pin 19 (GPIO 10)
CS--------------pin 24 (GPIO 8)
RST------------pin 22 (GPIO 25)
D/C-------------pin 18 (GPIO 24)
VIN-------------pin 17 (3.3v)
GND-----------pin 20 (GND)

Thanks to Moosepr for that.


That seems to cover all you asked about in the op, any more questions let me know.

Re: It's my first build and I don't understand how to wire anything

Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2018 9:16 pm
by WaruPeachy
I don't understand the part on the screen pinout. The board is labeled SDO, SDI, CSX, D/CX, SCL, RST, GND, VCC which is a different than what you said. Also the oshpark page says R1 is a resistor, so do I still need to solder one on?

Re: It's my first build and I don't understand how to wire anything

Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 2:07 pm
by KonnorJ
Answered in Discord