How to - Use the GPIO for Buttons instead of a Teensy

[snoek09]

Yes, that's correct. As long as you update retrogame.c with the correct values it should be fine.

[markag]

Does this also work for full sized raspberry pi boards (pi 2 or pi 3)?

Looking to build my own handheld RetroPie gaming device with the 7" pi screen. Would be interested in doing GPIO buttons for that to keep the USB ports free and cost down.

[Helder]

Yes you can.

[markag]

Maybe It's a silly question... Do I need to apply 5V power to the buttons to make them function?

I breadboarded out a controller with buttons that bridge back from the GPIO pin to ground. Some of the buttons worked, others didn't. I was concerned on those that did not work that I maybe had a wiring issue or bad connection on my button, so I tried manually connecting the IP pin to my ground as a button press, and still got nothing.

Was using a Raspberry Pi 3B+

The only buttons that worked were connected to BCM 0, 5, & 6. I was using the ground from pin 39 for all the buttons.

I didn't install onto a clean RetroPie build, but it was pretty close to clean. I'm using the Raspberry Pi official 7" touchscreen, my retropie build has a few skins, and I ran the retropie update on it at one point in time. That's it. I didn't have any errors or anything when going through the setup.

[goosewerks]

Maybe It's a silly question... Do I need to apply 5V power to the buttons to make them function?

I breadboarded out a controller with buttons that bridge back from the GPIO pin to ground. Some of the buttons worked, others didn't. I was concerned on those that did not work that I maybe had a wiring issue or bad connection on my button, so I tried manually connecting the IP pin to my ground as a button press, and still got nothing.

Was using a Raspberry Pi 3B+

The only buttons that worked were connected to BCM 0, 5, & 6. I was using the ground from pin 39 for all the buttons.

I didn't install onto a clean RetroPie build, but it was pretty close to clean. I'm using the Raspberry Pi official 7" touchscreen, my retropie build has a few skins, and I ran the retropie update on it at one point in time. That's it. I didn't have any errors or anything when going through the setup.

No you do not. You just have to connect the GPIO pin to a GPIO ground completing each circuit per button press.