Skipping the USB hub?

[Sandler]

Reposting this question because apparently the first time I accidentally posted in "Other Projects" instead of "Game Boy Zero."

A bit of background: My boyfriend and I have been working on our GBZ builds for a while now and we're running into a wall -- for whatever reason, we keep getting USB hubs that don't seem to work. We started by each taking apart a Targus USB hub the way wermy did in his guide, soldering them to our Pi zero w's, and plugging a USB controller into the remaining port. Mine worked and went on to work with the Teensy no problem. His didn't work. We tried redoing all the connections in case there were shorts, including removing it entirely and connecting it to my pi, but it didn't work there, either. We ordered a new hub, stripped it, and tried again but came across the exact same problem. We're both frustrated and looking for another way to finish our builds together.


My actual question: We're not using USB audio and the zero w has built-in bluetooth and wi-fi, so we only need the hubs to hold the teensy and the external USB port. Is there any way to connect both of those to the pi directly? Is it possible to solder one to pads 22/23 and the other to some set of GPIO pins or will that cause interference?

Thank you in advance to anybody who can provide advice!

[wermy]

Hi,
Unfortunately no, it's one or the other. If you're happy with transferring roms and stuff over wifi then you could forego the external USB port and just connect the teensy to the USB pads.
Another option would be to use GPIO for your buttons. This requires some software setup (and some more soldering) but is not hard, and would let you then skip the teensy, and wire up your USB pads on the pi to the external USB port.
This is the software I use for GPIO button input on the mintyPi. It's very easy to set up and works great (it shows up as a keyboard just like the Teensy): https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Retrogame

[Lphillimore]

I recommend using the GPIO for buttons and skipping the teensy - this will also slightly save on space inside. So long as pads 22/23 are good, as Wermy says you can wire up an external USB port from these and power straight from the Powerboost or Bangood / Generic psu.

As ever, it's always good to fire some images over of your current wiring as often you miss / overlook things that are obvious, I've done this a lot myself

[Sandler]

Thank you both! I guess we'll probably end up wiring the controls through the GPIO, then, and the external hub through the USB port. Even if we can transfer ROMs via WiFi, it would be nice to potentially be able to plug in another controller.

[Lphillimore]

You could also Bluetooth a controller to the Pi