(WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

silentjames · Post by **silentjames** » Fri May 26, 2017 2:21 pm

Hey guys!
First of all, thanks to everyone here for your great projects and lots of advice, which inspired me to build my own GameBoy Zero!
Secondly, I must say that English is not my mother tongue, so I'm deeply sorry for all my future mistakes (maybe, you already noticed few of them

)
Not sure, but it could be the first GBZ ever made in Russia. Wow!

Here is the list of almost all parts I've started ordering in February. At first it was based on the details @wermy has used in his latest guide, but some of them were out of stock or stores didn't deliver goods to my country.

The listShow

I've also discovered the forum for a solution to use one RGB led to show battery statuses - low, full, charging. And finally, decided to buy all parts for all found solution and then choose the best one! Also I ordered optical fiber cable to connect it to powerboost's leds, if my skill will be too low for building any other smart board

Here is the photo of basic components (taken by my wife - the most hipster pic of GBZ details!)

The cutting of case was unfinished at that moment...

GeneralShow

...and this is final version (almost). Must cut the hole for charging port. Not sure that I can fit all parts inside, but also don't want to remove the battery section, at least for now.

CaseShow

Me and my wife are mostly users of Apple's tech, and have many lightning cables - and only one micro usb cable. So I've also ordered different lightning connectors from various devices for test, but they look much bigger than micro usb. Will see!

Have wired two jst-cables and tested the battery.

BatteryShow

That's it for now! Some parts are on the way to me, especially the screen - unfortunately, I damaged the previous one

But will try to continue my work using the details I already have.

rodocop · Post by **rodocop** » Fri May 26, 2017 2:47 pm

I look forward to your updates!

silentjames · Post by **silentjames** » Fri Jun 30, 2017 1:33 pm

Hey guys, here is the small update of my build, finally!

After a long waiting I've got the second screen (from Ali, but it looks identical to the gearbest one), and it works with 5v without any modifications. Woo-hoo!
And I also got the gorilla glass screen made by @day. Nice and clear glass, but my case now has some little gaps. Will think what to do with them.

ScreenShow

As mentioned before, I was going to use Apple's lightning port for charging instead of classical microUSB. So I've also ordered few lightning connectors from Ali. Not all of them are real lightning, it's just 8pin connectors (which fit perfectly anyway). Just first from the right side is used in iPod Nano 7.

Lightning portsShow

Unfortunatelly, my soldering skills (and maybe general understanding about how lightning pins work) can't give me a chance to create fully functional breakout board for charging =\ And btw, this ports and especially connectors are quite small, about 0.5mm or even less.

Failed wiringShow

So I decided to order something like cable or adapter from male lightning to USB. God bless Apple Pen, because most of these adapters are created for it's charging. And after another round of waiting...

AdapterShow

Inside boardShow

Was thinking to use stock wires from this cable for charging, but they are really thin, so I changed my mind and re-soldered the board with my own wires. But i'm afraid that even my wires aren't really good enough - the charging process is really slow for 4000 mAh battery, It can't be fully charged for about 8-9 hours.

SpoilerShow

Also I had the problem with @prerunnerseth's board - description here: http://www.sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 150#p33420. So I've ordered bunch of cartridge sockets from Ali and from HHL, just to be sure to get one working model

Now both orders are here, and the slots are identical! All the details, even the texture of the material.
Now I think that the root of my problem wasn't the length of wires, but the old slot itself - as you can see (the old slot is behind), few of connectors are not in the row, so they just haven't provided good connection with the cartridge board. HHL's and Ali's cartridges have plastic walls which hold the connectors from both sides.

Cartridge slotsShow

I wired and glued everything around, and it finally works!

GluuuueShow

reipet · Post by **reipet** » Sat Jul 01, 2017 1:14 am

silentjames · Post by **silentjames** » Sun Jul 02, 2017 3:57 pm

Still having the problem with my lightning connector and charging time =\
As mentioned above, it takes sooo long to charge the battery, even one night and half of a day aren't enough.
My first idea was to replace wires with new ones, with lower awg. Did this, but without any effect.
I left the battery charging for all night, and was using the built-in microUSB port, and - hoorah! - now my battery is full of energy, powerboost shows green light. If I unplug the microUSB cable and plug it back then, green led comes back too; but if plug lightning cable, there is yellow (=charging) led instead.
What do I do wrong?
Here is the pictures of my wiring.

Built-in microUSB connectionShow

Lightning connectionShow

PowerboostShow

Lightning boardShow

Just a small note - on the second pic both cables, usb and lightning are connected; but my usb cable has on/off switch, and it was off in this case.

YaYa · Post by **YaYa** » Thu Jul 06, 2017 11:39 am

Taking some popcorn, sitting, and waiting for the rest

Chrisagu28 · Post by **Chrisagu28** » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:40 am

I like where this is going! Going to keep a close eye on this build and curious what you will do to fit day's screen cover. I am in the same situation since I got his cover as well.

silentjames · Post by **silentjames** » Fri Jul 07, 2017 5:28 am

Chrisagu28 wrote: ↑
Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:40 am
I like where this is going! Going to keep a close eye on this build and curious what you will do to fit day's screen cover. I am in the same situation since I got his cover as well.

Thanks mate!
I was thinking to use my glue gun to fill the gaps, but it creates incredibly fat glue drops, so I afraid I can spoil the screen =\
Now I ordered two new cases, also white, but with black letters (instead of blue). First reason to do this was my idea to create GBZ which will look as close as possible to Play it Loud! version. Second reason - I've made some holes for two joysticks, and only after that faced the very emotional post by @Helder about gbz's joysticks in general. So I decided to use only one joystick and save place inside for battery level board, for example. Also ordered psp1000 stick, because it's smaller.
So I also hope that new case will have better screen size for my new gorilla glass

In parallel i'm slowly looking for another solution to fill the gaps, don't want to collect a dust it there.

silentjames · Post by **silentjames** » Wed Aug 23, 2017 8:30 am

Another round of waiting is finished, I'm back from hiatus, and here is what I did within last few days.
Week ago I've got new case, with black letters instead of blue. The plastic is also different - it's softer and has different texture. I decided to skip joysticks for this build, so just drilled button holes and modified screen and battery areas.

SpoilerShow

Already attached: the screen (from gearbest, works without any modifications); 3d-printed parts for buttons and for cartridge slot; and screw bracket with fullsize HDMI holder. Unfortunately, I don't remember a forum member who created this, but thank you mate!

SpoilerShow

Modified holes for HDMI and lightning charging port. Will use some sugru to close the part of original power hole.

SpoilerShow

Aaaaand back to lightning connector. With the case I've also got some 20AWG wires to solder them to lightning pcb, but without any success for charging time. As I understood, simply connected pins don't work, then I disassembled another lightning adapters I've mentioned before, and one of them (its pcb contains few chips and resistors) works flawlessly.

SpoilerShow

And here is fully functional part - powerboost with attached lightning adapter and @Camble's safe shutdown board.

SpoilerShow

I was thinking to use leds for battery statuses, but this is a little bit complicated for me now) And they are usually so bright, don't want to blind everyone around me when playing. I'm going to use optical fiber cables, stretch them from powerboost leds to outer side of the case. I drilled few tiny holes on my test case just to check how it looks like. The light on the photo seems also very bright, but it's not.

SpoilerShow

Now I'm experimenting with sugru, wanna cover a part of original hole, fixate the lightning connector and keep it as close as possible to the hole.

Eccho · Post by **Eccho** » Wed Aug 23, 2017 9:03 am

Awesome work, very curious about that light bit =)

(WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

(WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

Re: (WIP) From Russia with love - Andrey's first GBZ

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