Rocket's First GBZ!

[RetroRocket]

Well, it's finally time I put all these parts to use. Progress will be sporadic while I polish off my masters in the next two weeks, but this project is my stress therapy. It should be known that this is my first real electronics project. Ever. I've been absorbing as much experience as I can from the forums here so we'll see what happens!
Parts List:

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Replacement DMG-01 case
Raspberry Pi Zero W
3.5" TFT Back-up Camera Monitor
Common Ground 4-Button PCB
Leonardo Pro Micro ATmega32U4
Salvaged/cast buttons
Arduino Powerboost 1000C
Radioshack 3500mAh Lithium Polymer 3.7V USB charging bank
PAM8302 Amplifier
Salvaged stereo 8 Ohm .5W speakers
Salvaged USB Hub 1 Input, 4 Output
Oshpark Power Strip
32GB Kingston microSD Class 10
Salvaged DS Lite Cartridge SlotScrapped GBC game (JPN Tomagotchi)
Assorted parts, wires, resistors, capacitors, etc

Time to get to work

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My screen was found in the typical way, but I haven't seen its control board anywhere on the forums; posted in the alt display thread and got drowned out. BUT good news! It runs native straight of the Pi, even with my horrid soldering.

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EDIT: For those curious, it looks like my screen does away with a couple of the 8 pin ICs I've seen on most of the other variants and instead has a single 4-pin regulator. Quite a bit of the right side can be trimmed.

The board itself has no markings on the back, "FY-3500" on the front, and identifies the voltage regulator IC as "LM2576-3.3" According to Texas Instruments Data sheet, the far left pin on the IC is the power input at 3.3v. I thought I might have to jump the hot wire from the Pi to that, but I was curious to see and tried it. No jump needed. One quirk though, like wermy's original, this one does require both yellow and white wires to be connected in the same way.

If you want to give it a shot, here's the eBay listing I ordered from:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/172541289908?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Being a designer with large hands, I was trying out different options for the shoulder buttons. I think I'll end up modifying these and casting them from scratch, but the L1/R1 buttons from Playstation controllers look promising with some modification.

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[muniosi]

Looking good!

[RetroRocket]

Just shaving down the shoulder buttons in a short work break. My goal is to use the cartridge reader and GB cart, but man, it'd be nice to be able to slice off those supports and give my buttons some breathing room!

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Word of warning...progress will likely be pretty slow for the next week or so. Too much to do to finish school...

[RetroRocket]

Took a study break and practiced my soldering! Love my new iron now that I've gotten used to it; made some pretty small connections I didn't think were possible.

- Wired PCB to Pro Micro controller (added two wires for L/R)
- Removed ICs from GB cart (By by Japanese Dragon Quest Monsters!)
- Wired Micro SD Adapter to GB cart
- Wired GB cart reader (Haven't shrunk the heat shrink yet)
- Removed ports on USB hub and trimmed board to neatly fit (using Pi0W so no need for 4 ports), keeping one attached to stick out the EXT hole
- Wired micro SD charging port (not pictured)
- Cleaned up housing around screen
- Played some Pokemon Red

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Next steps:
- Programming the Pro Micro
- Wiring up the audio
- Power boost and power strip

[RetroRocket]

Small progress, just checking functionality of the Powerboost and battery. This one is 2000 mAh, but I have a bigger one coming that should fit perfectly in the battery bay. While running from the battery, PB and battery were perfectly cool, the Pi was mildly warm and the screen was slightly warm. While the battery was charging on its own, PB was slightly warm.

But while charging and playing at the same time, the Powerboost was hot enough to probably cause burns! I've read that some heat is to be expected, but does anyone have any input?

I think I'll just refrain from charging while playing unless absolutely necessary. Looking into a small fan as well; I think I'll have a bit of space below the PCB.
I also glued the screen, cartridge reader, modified USB and micro USB charging port in place.

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[RetroRocket]

Alright! I've completed my masters degree and now it's time to get to work! I've been making incremental modifications to the case as I decide on the organization of the components. the fat capacitors for the screen control board are bugging me, but I should be able to get everything orderly by sliding the board slightly to the side, being careful of the ribbon cable, of course.

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I wired up my Powerboost and Safe Shutdown switch to the micro USB charging port and the pi, but will need to resolder the switch to the board as it cooled at a slight angle. As I lazily desolder components from a junk DS Lite, I jokingly wired up the charge port...but it looks like it could fit the original DMG charging port pretty nicely... So that's something that might be happening; would specialize an AC charger...for better or worse. Also pre-soldered the power strip and attached everything currently ready for it (still waiting on my USB sound card).

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In an effort to reduce excess wire, I went too far and the input wires for the screen ended up just a millimeter too short for where I want to place the pi, so I'll be redoing those.

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I'm having some trouble getting my pro micro clone to be detected by my computer so I can program it, but haven't found any help online... We'll see if I can figure it out, otherwise I may just opt for GPIO controller input.

Next steps:
Audio
Controller input
Custom cast buttons
Screen protector

[inches]

Nice build. Thanks for documenting your process. ^_^

Can I ask what was your Masters in?

[RetroRocket]

Nice build. Thanks for documenting your process. ^_^

Can I ask what was your Masters in?

Thanks! Kind of at a standstill right now... I'm having trouble with my micro USB input; neither the port nor the pads are working...

My masters is in Industrial Design, so I hope to put it to good use in future game handhelds! Already working on a ground-up build around an Orange Pi PC.

[RetroRocket]

Alright, lots of progress, but it went so fast, I didn't get a chance to document everything.

I had some issues with the USB input port but luckily I had a spare Pi! So I swapped out aaaaalll the connections to it and will save the first one for troubleshooting, hopefully it's still usable for GBA 2 (which is already shaping up).

As things started to come together I anchored what I knew was all finished.
- Finished making the button wells and glued them in place
- Glued down the screen
- Installed the speaker, headphone jack and amp
- Still messing around with wiring for the filter and pot, as the volume get distorted/won't lower beyond half
- Resoldered the DPDT switch to the safe shutdown and anchored it in place
- Wired and glued down the external USB port
- Received my perfect-fit 4000 mAh Li-Po and spliced the leads to a JST for the Powerboost
- Wired up L/R tactile switches and attached to protoboard

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Next I'll need to:
Finish audio circuit
Finish L/R button covers and glue in place
Program GPIO input
* Wire cartridge reader to Pi

and finally...button it up and play!

[muniosi]

Good progress. Is that the custom battery from Dextech or is it something different?