Circuit Gem - Installed Pi zero with no Wifi!!

[zeropoint97]

Have I messed up? There was no zeros in stock with WiFi. Picked up a regular one, just assumed installing a premade image meant that everything was installed.
I was wrong!! I now can't configure retropie and also discovered the file system is hidden in Windows - so not sure how to get the roms over even if I do set it up.

Is it possible to connect to PC somehow and work around this, or am I looking at trying to desolder the circuit gem off the zero and trying again.

Just to really mess myself up, I also desoldered the usb ports on the pi for the extra space in the VMU before installing.

Any help appreciated. Thanks!!

[millski]

I don’t have a gem but I think if you have a micro usb to USB adapter you can use that to plug an empty usb stick in to the gem. Wait a minute (if the stick has led lights wait for them to stop flashing) then take the stick out and put it in your pc. It should have a retropie folder with the roms folders inside it. Put your roms in the appropriate folders and put the usb stick back in the gem. Wait for the roms to transfer/led lights to stop blinking. Restart emulationstation on the gem and you should have some games to play.

[kite]

As mentioned the micro USB connector on the GEM is a 'OTG' port, you can plug in an 'OTG cable' and either use a USB wifi adapter, or a USB stick as mentioned. The easiest way is to get one of those "USB OTG HUB" adapters, which gives you like 3 full sized USB ports, connects to the Gem, and also has another micro USB which powers the hub and charges the Gem all at once https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adaptor-TUSITA ... B078M3Z84Z

[pCeSlAyEr]

I also just built my Circuit Gem using a Pi Zero and ran into the same issue.

Luckily there is a way to connect to the pi via a usb cable and the RNDIS driver. With ICS you get internet access and everything...

hope links are allowed..

https://www.circuitbasics.com/raspberry ... USB%20too.

I only had to add the lines to the two config files in boot partition, connect it to windows and setup ICS.

-EDIT-
ICS doesnt seem to work properly so I cannot reach out to the internet from the Pi. I am able to use the IP address shown on the Pi to access the SAMBA share and SSH into it it.

[zeropoint97]

As mentioned the micro USB connector on the GEM is a 'OTG' port, you can plug in an 'OTG cable' and either use a USB wifi adapter, or a USB stick as mentioned. The easiest way is to get one of those "USB OTG HUB" adapters, which gives you like 3 full sized USB ports, connects to the Gem, and also has another micro USB which powers the hub and charges the Gem all at once https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adaptor-TUSITA ... B078M3Z84Z

I was using my powered USB and the WiFi adapter from my Mister... Keyboard worked so convinced myself something was broken. Turns out it was actually a compatibility issue as another cheapo USB WiFi from amazon solved it. Appreciate all the replies.