RPI zero W inside a SNES controller

[Casperdroid5]

Hey everybody,

I was browsing on the internet latey and I found a cool RPI powerd project:
https://hackaday.io/project/16288-raspb ... controller

So I tried making one myself.

I started by figuring out how to make it very cheap. So I went to aliexpress and found all the parts that would be able to replace everything that Anthony (from the guide linked above) uses. However there where a lot of problems with the battery charger. I was going to use the TP4056 charger, which charges a battery at 5V at 1AMP. This seemd right to me at first, but later I found out that you should never charge a battery at a higher rate than its capacity. Sinds the capacity of my battery that I was going to use was 500Mah, there would be a "slight" overkill...

After a lot of research I found out that is was possible to change resistor 3 with a 2,2K resistor so the battery would be charged at 540Mah, which would be acceptable. So I orderd all the parts. After a week of waiting I realized that I didn't check if there was a 5V booster inside of the TP4056!!! This is as most of you know mandatory for the rpi to function.

So I went to the forums and asked around. Veterangamer helped me out and let me realize that a using a battery would be absurd sinds the controller will be pluged into a TV so you're wired anyway . dumb of me.

So I completely changed my design and here is the result:

IMG_20180302_123409.jpg (682.59 KiB) Viewed 3720 times

It has a micro USB input for power and you can decide if you want to connect that to your tv's usb poort or a powerbank. I think that a female jack like this is easier to use than the hdmi to usb adapter thingy that is used in prerunnerseth's build.

I'm still thinking of putting a Tiny USB hub on the right side so I can have one USB female what makes it possible for me to use it as a computer. I als think I might install a status LED.

Please let me know what you think about this project.

[Casperdroid5]

Here's a list of parts that I used:

• Raspberry PI Zero (I recommend the: “W” version)

• SNES controller (american) https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Data-Fro ... autifyAB=0

• Mini HDMI Male to HDMI Female adapterhttps://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1pcs-Min ... autifyAB=0

• Micro USB breakout board https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/5-Stks-C ... autifyAB=0

• Wires (you could also re-use the usb cable from te controller) https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/40pcs-lo ... autifyAB=0

• Tactile switch (for save shutdown/optional) https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/X123-Fre ... autifyAB=0

• Micro SD Card (min. 8gb) https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Kingston ... autifyAB=0

May be useful:

• 3M Flat HDMI cable https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Professi ... autifyAB=0

• 3M Micro USB cablehttps://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Carprie- ... autifyAB=0

Good luck building your own one, it's quite easy!

[rodocop]

Awesome!, sounds like what I did with one, it was a nice easy project, only difference, I added an LED (turn off when the pi powers down so you know when it's safe to pull the power cord. And I had no spare USB since the control i used was a USB control, so it took the only slot:

If you use a SNES control with the original SNES connector, you can actually wire the controls via GPIO, and then it will free up the pi's usb too.

SpoilerShow

[Casperdroid5]

Awesome!, sounds like what I did with one, it was a nice easy project, only difference, I added an LED (turn off when the pi powers down so you know when it's safe to pull the power cord. And I had no spare USB since the control i used was a USB control, so it took the only slot:

If you use a SNES control with the original SNES connector, you can actually wire the controls via GPIO, and then it will free up the pi's usb too.

SpoilerShow

Yeah, I actually designed my own and found your build just after I finished it hahaha
Anyways, I desided not to include a led, It makes the controller less retro in my opinion. I think that a light to see if your pi is shutdown is a bit useless since you have your tv to see that . If you would have an other reason to include one I would like to hear it! It might change my mind. I see that you glued our pi to the bottom side but isn't that getting a little hot? Or would it be better than my velcro way?

Hoping for your response!!!

ps. I'm gonna post my full build since I finished it today!

[Casperdroid5]

So here it is, my (pretty much) finished Pi zero in SNES controller!

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IMG_20180320_220305.jpg (1.6 MiB) Viewed 3570 times

I used velcro for the HDMI and back of the controller so I can stick them together when i'm not using the Controller.

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Re-glued a peace of earlier removed plastic to support the ABXY buttons.

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IMG_20180317_175325.jpg (1 MiB) Viewed 3570 times

The same design for your convenience.

IMG_20180302_123409.jpg (682.59 KiB) Viewed 3570 times

So overall the build was pretty easy. I fried one controllerboard by switching the + and - on pin 1 and 6 on the raspberry pi (happend before). Always check things twice!!!
I had to buy a new controller and that's why it took a little longer to post this.

So the Pi has a Switch for a save shutdown, the script for that can be found here: https://pie.8bitjunkie.net/retropie-shu ... e-easy-way (very easy to do)
When you press it for longer than 0,2 seconds it shuts down and if you press it again the pi reboots.

The heatsink i'm going to install looks like rodocop's and after that I think it is finished.

I'm hoping to recieve some advice from everyone who sees this post!

Ps, for the sharp readers, yes it's a pi zero (not a W), because i'm going to sell this one .

[rodocop]

Velcro is likely fine!, it does get a little hot where I had it placed, but I never did play it for extended periods. As for the LED, i used it more for people using it that are not familiar with retropie and that maybe don't know that cutting the power too early can lead to SD card corruption.

In the end, I actually scraped this controller, and used the pi in a gameboy zero! I was thinking it was going to be something I would keep, but decided to do another gameboy instead!

[Casperdroid5]

Well I heard from ETA prime that cutting the power off without a save shutdown, rarely causes a corrupted SD card. But I could re-use the button for different functions as well. Oh and rodocop, do you know what the "hotkey" is for in retropie? maybe I could repgram the tactile witch for that if it's usefull.

Btw eleven GBZ?! That's amazing! keep up the good work!

[rodocop]

Well I heard from ETA prime that cutting the power off without a save shutdown, rarely causes a corrupted SD card. But I could re-use the button for different functions as well. Oh and rodocop, do you know what the "hotkey" is for in retropie? maybe I could repgram the tactile witch for that if it's usefull.

Btw eleven GBZ?! That's amazing! keep up the good work!

Yeah, i'm not sure how often SD cards actually corrupt, but it had happened once to my brother in law, so that is why I implement some type of safe shutdown button usually (my nieces and nephew would always just pull the plug and never shut it down properly ever).

As for the hotkey button, it is for special functions in game. Typically I use select as my hotkey, so pressing select + L will load a save game, while select + R will save a game, select + start will exit a game. You can see the default key combos here:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Se ... figuration

Hotkeys can be swapped in the retroarch.cfg file if needed, you can also add some, like fast forward, volume control etc...

As for using the current tactile button as a hot key, you could do that, but you would need to install adafruits retrogame utility, which monitors gpios and reads them a keyboard presses. If you do that then that button can be used for a hotkey (you could call it L2 for example, and use it instead of select).

Personally, i would just leave it as a safe shutdown button, and just use select as the hotkey, that is usually sufficient.

[Percoseth]

Yeah, i'm not sure how often SD cards actually corrupt, but it had happened once to my brother in law, so that is why I implement some type of safe shutdown button usually (my nieces and nephew would always just pull the plug and never shut it down properly ever).

It depends on the quality of the sd card. The cheaper, less popular brands tend to fail more often, from my experience anyways.

[Casperdroid5]

Great answer thank you rodocop!