Game Gear Portable - Raspberry Pi ***Finished***

[grippie]

I'm working on a battery powered portable raspberry pi. I have received the broken game gear and removed all of the internals. I have some stuff incoming on Monday from Adafruit that will let me decide how i can trim down the internals of the game gear case. I bought a 4.3" backup monitor from ebay for 12 bucks and will hook it up via composite. This will require bypassing the 12v input on the monitor to run it on 5v like the Pi, but this is ok since the monitor is rated for 4.7v and above.

Components I have
4.3" composite TFT Monitor
Broken Game Gear
Raspberry Pi 2 (Replacing with an A+ for lower power consumption)
3700 Mah Cell Phone battery

On Order
Raspberry Pi A+
Powerboost 500C
SPDT power switch
3.5mm Composite Cable with correct pinout (Video|Gnd|Right|Left)
2 Mini Metal Speakers
Class D Audio Amplifier
Breadboard for prototyping before soldering


I found the pinout for my monitor's voltage converter. It's the same chip as some of the tutorials online where the pin2 is the 5V power. I'll have to disconnect the red cable and solder it to pin 2 to bypass the 12v input.


I will be using some plastic welding putty to fill in a lot of the gaps and one battery cover. I'll use the other to access the SD, USB via maybe a 90degree adapter, and battery. the 4.3 inch screen is much bigger than the 3.2 that comes with the game gear so i will need to cut a lot of it away. I saw one person online who used the existing bezel from the monitor to cleanly merge into the GG case. They also hacked in a PS3 analog stick and used the PCB to create a new button layout. I cut up an old xbox 360 controller and might use that to add 4 buttons but may also try and use the existing GG PCB and then add in a few extra buttons for things like coins. If i keep only the 2 game gear buttons and add in 2 shoulder type buttons that will take care of 99% of the possible games i'm looking for.


I'm not expecting a glorious street fighter or shump experience on a portable so i'm aiming this at mostly old console/ Mame platfomers and game boy/game gear games.

[vwalbridge]

This is right up my alley so I will watch fo sho.

Bonus: You announced your project after having some work done! 

[grippie]

Ha, I really didn't want to post this yet since i'm still waiting on some components, but i'm pretty psyched about it and will be putting in a lot of work over the next few weeks to get this guy rolling.

[tigernut]

Excited about watching this also. Would love me some portable mame.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Subscribed.  Looking forward to seeing this Raspberry Pi A+ come to fruition (no pun intended).

D

[Slippyblade]

Why an A+ instead of a Pi2?  More power and less juice.

[severdhed]

awesome, i can't way to see how this turns out. 

[grippie]

Why an A+ instead of a Pi2?  More power and less juice.

What do you mean slippy? The A+ consumes about 1/4 of the power as a pi2.  Thats the main reason, to get maximum battery life.

Got my composite cable today.  Screen works!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slippyblade]

What do you mean slippy? The A+ consumes about 1/4 of the power as a pi2.  Thats the main reason, to get maximum battery life.

I thought it was less power consumption, but I was wrong.  But it is a very small increase in power draw.  Take a look at this page.
http://raspi.tv/2015/raspberry-pi2-power-and-performance-measurement

The only reason I'm mentioning this is that the performance increase from an A+ to a Pi2 is great.  I've done builds with several different models and really prefer the 2.

[grippie]

The only reason I'm mentioning this is that the performance increase from an A+ to a Pi2 is great.  I've done builds with several different models and really prefer the 2.

Yea, i was originally thinking of using my Pi 2 and slimming it down by removing the USB and Ethernet ports, but have heard that the type of solder used makes it a real pain and I don't want to damage the board. When my Pi A+ comes in i'll throw my micro SD in it and see how it feels. If it's sluggish, then i'm going to work with the Pi 2. The game gear case is pretty large and should have enough room. I'll update on Monday!

[grippie]

Got my components today.  I put together the breadboard with the cell battery, powerboost 500 and amplifier with speakers to verify it all works.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grippie]

Had some soldering issues so it slowed me down.  My tip wouldn't tin, it just beaded off.  (that's too big of an opening, queue dick jokes)
I finally got the tip cleaned with some flux and a sponge and was able to solder up some components namely the battery and the audio amplifier. I connected everything and found that everything works. One thing I learned with a soldering iron is that you should let it heat up all the way before tinning the tip.  Maybe that's just because mine is 40 W and that gets pretty hot.

I then use my rotary tool to remove a lot of the pieces inside of the case. Tonight I'm gonna cut up the game gear PCB and try to wire up the buttons. I was going to hack another game pad but I think using the PCB from the game gear and then adding two buttons on the back will give me four.  The game gear PCB is super easy to wire since it has solder points on it so that's why i want to try to use it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grippie]

Put a big hole in the front case for the 4.3 inch screen.  Im using the bezel from the monitor. It will be jb welded in and sanded to match.  This will be cleaner than trying to make perfect cuts. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grippie]

Cut up the pcb too.  The cuts are based on the adafruit raspberry gear. They also have the solder points already marked. There are labeled points and a common ground.  Should be cake to wire.   


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dbhjed]

This is a cool project it reminds me of what Ben Heck has done with some of his portable pis

[grippie]

Aaaaaaand a bit of plastic weld. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[reptileink]

HUGE fan of handheld mods, but you guys that can pull these off are WAY above my head...lol 

Nice work, enjoying the build.

[grippie]

This is a cool project it reminds me of what Ben Heck has done with some of his portable pis

I really like his portable stuff but he has so many tools to use in his shop that its not fair lol.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grippie]

HUGE fan of handheld mods, but you guys that can pull these off are WAY above my head...lol 

Nice work, enjoying the build.

Hey I'm learning this as i go ha.  I have a nice rotary tool now but i was still nervous when chopping up the case.  The plastic melts as much as it cuts but plastic weld fixes everything! Things will come together quick now!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Superfrog]

This is a cool project it reminds me of what Ben Heck has done with some of his portable pis

I really like his portable stuff but he has so many tools to use in his shop that its not fair lol.

I did find the early stuff way better then what he is doing right now with all the laser and 3D printers.
The outcome is always very bulky and not cool looking.

Working with old handheld body's or consoles can everybody pickup and work with instead all the new tech stuff that cost a lot of money.
And we don't have a big sponsor 

[grippie]

Wired up the pcb gamepad.  The solder in the solder points were so soft that i had trouble getting the wires to stick, but finally got them and hot glued them in place. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grippie]

having a weird issue with one of the directional buttons. The down pad doesn't seem to register using my multimeter and just checking for continuity. If i put black to ground, and press the red probe to all of the other spots, the mutimeter zero's out, but when i'm checking the down solder point, or pad it doesn't zero out. The trace looks fine and there isn't any damage or anything cut off... could it be fried somehow? this was a broken game gear and I don't know what was broken... just assumed the screen as I didnt' try to turn it on when i got it, just started hacking away at it. Also, to test this, i guess i'll have to hook it up to the Pi's GPIO and turn it on to see if anything works.


I really want to use the game gear pcb since it's simple and fits in the case perfectly already. Otherwise i'll have to cut new holes and standoffs and all of that jazz so that a new PCB will fit and be secure.

[grippie]

I posted about my issue in the main forum and was able to fix the PCB by scratching off the green surface along the traces and soldering on that spot. I then cut the traces behind this so that i was sure that i had a clean connection. It must have had a cross connection somewhere so that it thought all of the traces were grounded.


     
BUT i just made a catastrophic error. I moved on to making the screen run off of 5 volts by removing the red wire and soldering it directly to the IC. i did it as cleanly as i could and used a magnifying glass to check, but i still didnt' get anything showing up on the screen (yes the pi was outputting to the screen. I verified with the original connection before i did this and it was working fine on 12 volts. HOWEVER i unplugged it and checked it all out, and when i went to plug it back in, i guess i grabbed the 12 volt wire and hooked it up. so 12 volts going into the 5v input is probably not the best thing in the world. i'm pretty sure i fried my screen since i can't get it to turn back on. not even to use the menu to adjust brightness and contrast which worked before even without something hooked to it.


It's only like 12 bucks wasted, but it was such a pain to get off of ebay and the seller took 12 days to get it to me. AND there is no guarantee i'll get the exact model and i already cut the game gear case to fit this monitor.

[grippie]

So i got a new screen off of amazon, and luckily it's the same model. I have an issue that I don't know what to do with. When I measure the output from the powerboost 500c with a multimeter I get 5.12v from either the usb out, or the power out (there are two power out locations). When i measure these when they are hooked up to the screen, i see that they are measuring at 3.3v. Why is that? I think it needs 4.7v minimum to power the screen and everything looks good from a connection standpoint...
 



I attached 2 files showing the video board. I cut the 12 volt in, (red wire from the cable) and soldered a new wire to the 5v in (pin 2) on the IC. Then I added another ground wire to the existing ground connection just so i didn't have to tear the cable down all the way for video. This way i can make sure everything works and isn't just my cable modifications.

[grippie]

Major Update:


I figured out my 12v to 5v power issue. It's a rookie mistake by me not knowing how the powerboost works. I didn't have the battery plugged in and was using the powerboost as a 5v passthrough, however the powerboost only charges the battery, and boosts its voltage from 3.7 to 5v. Once I tried it with just the battery plugged in, it powered on the screen using the solder pad where the 12v signal was orignally coming in. I didn't have to worry about the IC, or what pin to use, I just used the existing power connection but with 5v of input.


Here is what I did today. I'll explain each attached picture.


1 - To fasten the screen to the case, I had the idea to use the back of the monitor case so that I didn't have to create any custom standoffs. I cut two corners off of the case backing and once those two corners are screwed in, it's super secure.


2 - I worked out where everything would go in the case. Seems I can use the existing PCB connections for the powerboost and amplifier so they are nice and secure. For the gamepad PCB's i'm also using the existing connections (That's why they are in that particular shape)


3 - For the monitor connections, i used the existing composite cable PCB that took the one ground input, and turned it into a common ground out. Not necessary, i could have just split the wire, but this is a clean and cool way to do it. I'll clean everything up and hotglue and shrink


4 - Tried all my modificiations and IT WORKS!!!


5 - A shot of the video out in process.


6 & 7 - for the battery, i plastic welded the battery cover in place (the game gear has 2 battery covers since it required so many batteries) so it will be sanded and appear as if it was never there. I then took some more pieces of the monitor bezel that was left over and glued in a small piece to act as a guide and to make it fit better. Notice that I also cut off some of the PCB connections from the game gear that were unused and I plastic welded them to act as stand offs for the Pi. The Pi sits in its position so that I can access the sd card via the battery cover.

[grippie]

Some solid progress today. I shortened all of the wires and made some 90 degree connectors by opening up an old pc ribbon cable. I broke down the composite cable but found out that position of the PI meant that i only had a small amount of space to work with. The composite connector was way too big even after decasing it. I removed all of the wires and bent in 90 degrees. Thought I might have broken it, but the connections are still active. I resoldered new wires to them and made the connections. So far the battery powers the screen and the Pi and i'm pretty sure the amplifier is powered, but I don't have the speakers installed yet so I don't know if there is sound. Next up is wiring in the gameboard PCB's to the PI and testing it out. I also have to add 2 more buttons to the back, and a select (coin) button somewhere. I broke down an old xbox 360 controller and that may have some good buttons to use.

[Frank Drebin]

This is a  cool build.  I have been keeping an eye on it.

[Slippyblade]

Looking at this build, I have to wonder about that new Pi Zero...  So much smaller, with solderable headers for composite and such.  No USB blocks or ethernet ports taking up space.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I had assumed that the PiZero had a dumbed down processor. Is this not the case?

[Slippyblade]

It's better than the Pi B+ but not as good as the Pi 2.

[grippie]

Looking at this build, I have to wonder about that new Pi Zero...  So much smaller, with solderable headers for composite and such.

Guess because I didn't know about the zero at the time haha.  I have more than enough room, the game gear us huge. (My pi2 even fits as is but I got the a+ for battery power savings). I just thought the composite cord would be a lot shorter but it had rather long solder rings. I think that zero would be perfect for one of those gameboy mods.  Would save a ton of space. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slippyblade]

I think that zero would be perfect for one of those gameboy mods.  Would save a ton of space. 

That's what I'm thinking - may be my next project!

[grippie]

I found out how to get the GPIO working with the game pad pcb's. I used adafruits "retrogame" code and modified the mappings.  It runs as a c program and works great.  I am now going to move on to finishing the case.  I need to mount the power switch and plastic weld and sand a bunch more. 

Also I'm only getting about an hour and half with the Ethernet connection active (I have a usb Ethernet dongle)  I have enough room for a huge battery, maybe a 6600 maH.  I'll see what I get with normal gaming use before I do that.  I am going to measure and plan for that if needed.  All that requires is popping it in and plugging into the power boost.   Less than 2 hours isn't very good for some classic gaming action.  We'll see what the real world measurements are when I'm finished with the case. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[grippie]

I received my game gear cartridge in the mail last night.  I'm going to cut it down to fit in the slot on the back. I'm not sure if I'm going to fill it in with plastic, or make it look like a game is in there.  My usb breakout will be here on Saturday so il be able to mount the charging port and continue working on the case this weekend.

I need to find some mini buttons for the back of the unit, and for a select button. Maybe I should have just gotten mini arcade buttons instead of the pcb nonsense.

I also loaded up all of my emulators with roms. Work continues!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[vwalbridge]

moar pictures. 

[grippie]

I received my micro-B USB breakout board. Now I can position it in the case to figure out where the cutout will be, or what existing cutout that i will use. As far as the existing holes available, currently there is an expansion slot, volume slider and headphone jack on the top left, and power switch and ac adapter on the top right. I plan to use the the power switch slot on the top right for the new switch and one of the other slots for the usb power breakout board. I'll then plastic fill in all of the other slots since I won't be using them.


i'm unsure if/how to put in a headphone jack. i'll have to research it. I think my amplifier board can handle it, but i don't know about it yet.


I also bought a cheap game on ebay for a buck. i'm going to break it down and glue it in the back slot to make it look like a game is inserted. maybe i'll put a new sticker on it that's custom. I thought about plastic filling all of it and using the game casing to help create the curve along the top, but having it look like a game is inserted will be cool.


Once i get that stuff done, i can work on the dirty stuff. sanding and filling the case. i'm not sure what graphic/paint job i'm gonna do on this thing. any ideas?

[grippie]

Took a vacation day today and did some more work.


Pictures:


1 - testing the min-b breakout board. Connected the 5v and gnd to the corresponding pinouts on the powerboost. Works!


2 - Another view showing it charging the battery properly. Charge led is lit, and so is power


3 - What the inside of a game gear cartridge looks like


4 - What a cut up cartridge looks like


5 - I cut it down so it wouldn't interfere with the Pi standoffs.


6 - Looks legit. I like it. I'm going to get rid of that world series sticker and do something else, but looks cool.


7 - Just a closeup of the connectors that I made. Bend the connectors so i didn't have to solder directly the the GPIO. I'll probably tape between them in the final build so that I make sure there aren't any bridged connections if one of them spins.


8 - The whole thing wired up. I drastically shortened all of the connections from before and shrink wrapped them. I removed the switch and usb breakout boards for now until i get them mounted into the case.


NEXT. Now that i have everything located, I need to spend some time getting the power switch and usb breakout secured with some plastic weld. I also need a few more buttons. I have some broken controllers that i may try to piece in, but i think some mini arcade buttons that can be directly wired would be the easiest way by far. I need to find some small, maybe 10 or 12mm buttons somewhere.

[grippie]

So.......


I finally got back into working on this project. I had some issues with the video and finding some additional buttons (2 + start is not enough). Well I found 2 small buttons for the back and some very small ones that i'll put below the screen. they will be LB and RB to act mainly as shift keys for save, coin, pause, all the typical trigger type functions on an SNES pad with the PI.


My main blocker is that my amp was blown on the left channel. I purchased another one and it works great. I also redid the wires using adafruit prewired jumpers which made it 100% easier and the wire quality is great.
Here are some updated pics. i'll have more as i finish painting.


Pics.
1. I added some primer to find the imperfections. I put a lot of plastic weld to close up holes and stuff and now i'm fine tuning to get real smooth finish.
2. The new amp with pre-wired jumpers
3. I also rewired the 3.5mm jack with an apple headphones jack. it was way shorter than the other one i was using.
4. Also picked up a Pi zero with my order. Looking at putting it in a controller, or something like a gameboy SP.

[thomas_surles]

Glad to see this is still alive.

[grippie]

nothing fancy, just continuing to paint/sand. It's taken some elbow grease to get the plastic weld down to being smooth. You can still see a bit of the shine on the front face plate but it's 100 times better than previous. I'm up to 400 grit and plan to do rounds of primer - 600 - color - 800 wet - color - 1000 wet - color - 1500 wet - polishing compund.