Collection of stupid mistakes

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Eccho
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Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by Eccho » Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:36 am

Hi Everybody,

I am certain every active forum member has a lot to share in terms of silly mistakes he made during the making of their Game Boy. It happens to everybody, at all skill level. Take off your masks, leave your pride aside and show us your human part.

I start:
1) I forgot the put in the SD card back in a Pi3 and have been in a dark mood for a solid 3 hours. I was stripping the USB ports from it and thought I destroyed my board.
2) I assumed red and black wires from a battery meant respectively 5V and GND. I was wrong. I have been working 2 full days on figuring out why my Powerboost wasn't working.
3) L and R buttons were never working properly because it took me too long to realize that they are switched when you look at it from the back side of the Game Boy.

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winnetouch
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by winnetouch » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:18 am

Then I'll continue. I've had a couple with my first build.

1) I cracked the first TFT screen (it was too laggy anyway :P)
2) I tried to remove the second BW screen from the case (I switched out the cases) and managed to separate the glass from the backside of the screen. The screen works but it has a weird black blob in the middle.
3) I managed to overheat a pad or two and detached it from the PCB
4) I drilled the holes on my first case of center and the buttons were aligned just a mm off. I had to change the case (see point 2 :P).

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Eccho
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by Eccho » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:27 am

winnetouch wrote:
Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:18 am
The screen works but it has a weird black blob in the middle.
Say no more :lol:

cowdog360
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by cowdog360 » Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:29 am

Let's see.. so far on first build:

Clipped the pin headers too close on the Pizero on a kite board, damaged the Pizero.
Detached a solder pad on the kite board removing the pizero.
Attached a dominator lens using superglue, which offgassed a little in the points where the glue was and now I have tiny cloudiness in those spots.

Overall, a little bummed, but for my first build I expected some turbulence and extra cost. I think I've only "wasted" about $15 worth of things.

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abrugsch
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by abrugsch » Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:40 am

Bought tons of things for like a dozen different projects...
have yet to finish a single one :lol:
[Pi Gameboy] delayed by GBCartSlurp and a zillion changes of direction
[GBCartslurp] delayed by well lack of mental capacity in the evenings ;) along with other stuff like PCB orders and a slight change in direction...
[Gameboy Macro] delayed by simply making fully working DSLites out of broken ones I keep getting off ebay
[CHIP Station Portable] mostly finished but haven't been able to get the final bit working
[Bartop Arcade cabinet] delayed by most of the above! :lol:

hoping mintyPi will be a quick build and can just get it out of the way and have something to take around with me all the time :)

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Eccho
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by Eccho » Tue Jul 18, 2017 9:07 am

abrugsch wrote:
Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:40 am
Bought tons of things for like a dozen different projects...
Ah man, I can relate, I am all the time tempted to buy everything from the forum. When I built my GBZ, it turned out to be the greatest gift for close friends and my brother. This means I have to focus on Game Boys ONLY thus reducing my expenses by so much. Also, I prefer right now investing in tools rather than components for extra projects :lol:

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abrugsch
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by abrugsch » Tue Jul 18, 2017 9:15 am

I forgot one...
[PRS SNES controller] delayed to me continually forgetting to order the extra bits (HDMI cable etc...) I have modded the controller to fit though.

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Lphillimore
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by Lphillimore » Tue Jul 18, 2017 9:23 pm

First GBZ i built i ripped two of the volume pot pads clean off the AIO. I was new to soldering and for some reason thought i could snap them off and then resolder. 😂

Looking back I can't even believe how ridiculous that was.

Good job my first project wasn't my Kite SAIO build 😎

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dryja123
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by dryja123 » Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:30 pm

I just ran into a silly one when building my MintyPi. I was troubleshooting my screen for a solid hour and I realized I put the masking tape on the wrong side of the frigging ribbon cable!

Thankfully I was able to gently peel it off without damaging anything.

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RogerX
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Re: Collection of stupid mistakes

Post by RogerX » Wed Jul 19, 2017 11:28 am

Thank you all for making me feel more human! Great stories, we all have them...
  • My first prototype GBZ I went way too far cutting out internal bits without planning for re-attachment (e.g. buying Wermy's screw bracket or leaving screw holes in battery compartment)... I think I used six sticks of glue when putting the two halves together.
  • I've blown two entire DMG-01 cases (thank goodness not original equipment, just the cheap chinese repros) so far just trying to fit an unmodified Pi 3 plus PiTFT inside :)
  • I have burned out two USB sound cards trying to desolder the mic port and/or attach leads to the headphone jack
  • Finally - Much like @abrugsch I have a real problem finishing projects. I built one GBZ using really shoddy quality and not-quite-perfect parts, so immediately decided to do it better and started trolling the forum for ideas. In the meantime (a year now) I got married, moved, and started a new job, and don't have my proper workshop put together in the new house... but nonetheless I have acquired:
    • A new Hakko FX-888D soldering iron and an array of soldering materials
    • An eBay lot of TWENTY DMG-01 cases and kitsch-bent square knockoffs (the latter of which I will likely never use because they aren't original and break the aesthetic of the GBZ, IMO)
    • A bag of 1000 screws to assemble gameboys
    • Eight sets of wermy's 3d parts - button wells, screen bracket, switch backer
    • Three broken Sega GameGear consoles
    • A couple dozen cheap DMG-01 games to use for blank cartidges
    • Twelve Pi Zeros, 5 Pi Zero Ws, Two Pi 3s and a Pi 2
    • Four orders from kitsch-bent for a dozen NES & DMG button sets of various colors and 8 glass GBZ screen covers
    • Five Helder AIO boards
    • A dozen various charger/DC booster boards and five PowerBoost 1000Cs
    • Eight Camble Safe Shutdowns
    • Screens - One PiTFT 3.5, Three WavePear 3.2", Five BW 3.5" screens from Amazon, Two 3.5" KoDei HDMI screens, and one 5" HDMI screen (why?!)
    • A dozen 18650 lithium cells and around 20 random LiPo batteries for testing
    • Four half-finished GamePieAdvance / FreeplayTech kits from Ed
    • Three USB sound cards and several OTG USB hubs
    • A huge array of orders direct from China - pushbuttons of various sizes, fifty switches, potentiometers, test leads, speakers, audio amps, etc
Someday I'm gonna sit down and finish these things!
-RogerX
Instagram & Twitter: @iamroot ( http://instagram.com/iamroot )
sudomod Discord: Roger the Bananaman

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