GameGear Zero

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rodocop
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GameGear Zero

Post by rodocop » Wed Sep 05, 2018 8:38 am

Hey all, so I decided to make a gamegear zero, this took a while, mostly because I was busy during the summer with vactions and just not wanting to work on it. But it's finally done. I used an original PCB for the buttons, and used some copper tape to make the new button contacts, all other buttons were nice since each one already has a test pad to wire to.

I used a pi zero W with a 3.5" screen, apparently a 640X480 VGA screen (although I just used composite for connecting to the pi). It's really crisp and runs out of the box on 5V.

I added an ads for batter monitoring, as well as a TP4056 for charging, and a boost module from Aliexpress. the only reason I used the TP4056 is that the boost module does not allow for hot swapping, and would power off the pi every time the micro usb was pulled. This power supply is also odd, in that it has a key pad, that needs to be grounded once to turn on the power module. so I added a tactile button inside the battery compartment to turn it on. Kind of a pain, but not the end of the world.

I have left the original audio board in place, and was hoping to use it, but I could not get it to function, so I added an i2s amp instead. For now the volume wheel and headphone jack are just for show, at some point I will wire up the headphone jack, but will leave the wheel, since I am using hotkeys for volume anyway.

Hmm, what else to say, I added a small tactile button for select, and LR and just some tactile buttons soldered to some perf board and glued in place. Sonic the hedgehog cart was used. I added an LED in the original spot. wired direct to the pi, it will shut off when the pi is powered down.

I'll add some pics below and in the next post I will add a few links to parts I used:
frontShow
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frontShow
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USBShow
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power switchShow
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bottomShow
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back/shouldersShow
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Power supply areaShow
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PCB before being cut downShow
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placement of the front componentsShow
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Last edited by rodocop on Wed Sep 05, 2018 8:47 am, edited 2 times in total.

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rodocop
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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by rodocop » Wed Sep 05, 2018 8:44 am

Here are some links, screen was this one, although I only paid $40 CAD for mine (bought from a friend)

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/VGA-AV-LCD-Cont ... SwSypZAH7f

Console and cart were from Ebay, the cart is working, and I still have the PCB, may transplant it to a 3d printed cart. The console was damaged enough that I was okay to harvest it. The screen was totally smashed.

Spare buttons from here:

http://www.jellybellycustoms.com/index. ... duct_id=70

Glass lense from here:

it was from ebay, and the seller is sold out, lots online, or you can get from Jelly belly too:

http://www.jellybellycustoms.com/index. ... duct_id=69

Power module from here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5V-2-1A ... 4c4dEr4qgj

I used this to drill out my extra buttons:

https://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4738#p51600

MrErickson
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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by MrErickson » Wed Sep 05, 2018 11:24 am

Nice looking project! A Game Gear was one of the first things I thought of when I saw wermy's first GBZ video.

Lpoolm
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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by Lpoolm » Fri Sep 14, 2018 2:09 pm

Really good, makes me want to start my atari lynx build, but also other things to do (can't be bothered)..
Check out my modding and repair channel of retro and modern consoles:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFz7yW ... GtQ/videos

Chisharpe
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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by Chisharpe » Fri Nov 23, 2018 10:17 am

I really struggled to get the button connections to work did you need to do anything special?

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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by rodocop » Sun Nov 25, 2018 3:56 pm

Chisharpe wrote:
Fri Nov 23, 2018 10:17 am
I really struggled to get the button connections to work did you need to do anything special?
No real problem. Everything worked pretty easily. Did you use copper tape like I did? Maybe it needs to be readjusted? Could always swap the copper tape for a soft tactile tile buttons or something like that too.

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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by Rowi » Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:20 pm

Hi I bought same screen - can you show me how you wired it to the pi :) thanks

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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by rodocop » Fri Mar 01, 2019 9:29 pm

Rowi wrote:
Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:20 pm
Hi I bought same screen - can you show me how you wired it to the pi :) thanks
Jeez. Just noticed this a month later...oops. I just used the composite out of the screen. Yellow av wire to the pi's av port. Then power and ground to my power strip. Just like any other composite screen.

I removed the vga connevtor. But you could use that if you have a vga to hdmi adapter and coils make it fit.

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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by Rowi » Sat Apr 13, 2019 4:57 am

hi do not have a yellow out wire :(
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VeteranGamer
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Re: GameGear Zero

Post by VeteranGamer » Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:17 am

Rowi wrote:
Sat Apr 13, 2019 4:57 am
hi do not have a yellow out wire :(
AV1 is your "yellow out wire"

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