Cartridge idea

[skrapps914]

You have to create a vector file first using illustrator or inkscape (free for personal use). The vector is pretty much the picture that you use to place everything on.

Then you open that vector in your chosen program to make a PCB (you're using Eagle).

And that is where my knowledge bottoms out

There a few people who are really good at making pcb's on the sight. @Helder and @prerunnerseth both do it for a living. @Cannikin also dabbles in it, and at least knows how to do the vectors. @kite also is knowledgeable. You can ask them about it more, but I suggest first watching some youtube tutorials to know which questions to ask first.

thanks for your help! def going to be watching some tutorials tonight. i'm thinking this is a decent enough idea to follow through with

[Kilren]

thanks for your help! def going to be watching some tutorials tonight. i'm thinking this is a decent enough idea to follow through with

Another thought of caution: the teensy probably fits in there fine, but as soon as you add either pins or wires to connect the teensy, you eat up space and fast! Make sure you measure, remeasure, resolder it twelve times, and then measure again before placing a pcb order. Dealing with the cartridge, you have no mercy space if it is off, even slightly.

[Oxodao]

I don't think the teensy inside is a good idea. My best bet is to not use the removable cartdrige function, break one and keep just the upper part to make the gameboy look likes it is having one, that what I made and it frees a lot of space, you don't even need the connector

[Helder]

The cartridge idea isn't too bad an idea but I don't know about it for the teensy as you want that thing in there all the time. I can see having it as a hub like I have on my pcb or have one of the usb ports connect to the hub inside the GBZ case and have a usb port on the cart connected to one of the hub ports, basically an extension but then again you can use one on the case like Wermy did in his tutorials.

[skrapps914]

The cartridge idea isn't too bad an idea but I don't know about it for the teensy as you want that thing in there all the time. I can see having it as a hub like I have on my pcb or have one of the usb ports connect to the hub inside the GBZ case and have a usb port on the cart connected to one of the hub ports, basically an extension but then again you can use one on the case like Wermy did in his tutorials.

well, im thinking since it has to be in there all the time, since retropie will be running off the sd card in there, having the teensy in there would be ok.

[Oxodao]

It would take an insane amount of space because of wires + cartdrige reader, though if you plan to use it why not

[Helder]

So basically you want the sd card slot and the teensy solder spots since rebuilding a teensy is not something I'm keen on since that takes time and there is an arduino solution. Now keep in mind you will need 7-9 pins for the SD and around 12-14 for the teensy, do you feel you can solder that many wires to the Cart Reader slot pins?

[skrapps914]

So basically you want the sd card slot and the teensy solder spots since rebuilding a teensy is not something I'm keen on since that takes time and there is an arduino solution. Now keep in mind you will need 7-9 pins for the SD and around 12-14 for the teensy, do you feel you can solder that many wires to the Cart Reader slot pins?

i was thinking, the sd slot on board, and have the traces for the teensy's connections be holes, this way the teensy can connect via pins, or pin header, so no soldering is needed on the board itself.

[Helder]

Right that's what I was thinking but you will need to solder wires to the Cart Reader though.

[skrapps914]

Right that's what I was thinking but you will need to solder wires to the Cart Reader though.

yeah, shouldn't be that much of an issue. i soldered the teensy direct to your audio pcb, that was about 11 wires.