mintyPi Frequently Asked Questions **READ THIS**

[Helder]

How does the screen connect to pcb? The ribbon seems too wide

It is and you need to snip a little bit of the ribbon on each end. When Wermy posts his guide any day now this will be shown along with the tape added to the ribbon to thicken it up.

[Kyran]

How does the screen connect to pcb? The ribbon seems too wide

It is and you need to snip a little bit of the ribbon on each end. When Wermy posts his guide any day now this will be shown along with the tape added to the ribbon to thicken it up.

Thanks bro. I haven't started putting it together yet just thought I would see how things kind of fit and I noticed that...patiently waiting on the guide, I don't want to mess anything up

[MrDowntempo]

I've not soldered before, so I'm going to take it nice and easy and wait for the guide. I'm also not 100% sure I've got all the parts I'm going to need. It sounds like a lot of people here are REALLY budget conscious. I can definitely understand that, as I'm pretty broke generally, but I am also really excited about this project, as I love retro gaming, raspberry pi's (i have a number of them for different purposes) and a bit of an altoid addiction too. I love the tins. I say all this just to point out that I'm willing to splurge on higher quality components if it makes sense too.

I got the adafruit lipo charger because it was said that it gives more battery life than the powerboost. Is there any solid reasons to get the powerboost 500c instead? It's more expensive but less effective? I think it detects low battery, but does that info get sent to the OS in any useful way? Does it have any features that maybe protect the electronics from surges or ... hell I dunno. I'm willing to buy it, but it's bigger and has a lower battery life so it seems the worst choice. And then there's the 1000c which it sounds like may be too big but a few people are going to try? I'd love it if the pros and cons of each option could be spelled out a little clearer for an electronic dufus like myself.

I've got a power switch which I think has to be added manually, the select and start are already on the board but... do I need anything extra for the shoulder buttons? It doesn't look like they're included at all, I'm not even certain I see where the connect to the board.

I got the usb audio card mentioned in the first post. I know it gives better quality audio than than the onboard, but that's mainly because the pi's onboard audio is pretty trashy. I read a post in here somewhere about there being a fit issue with it and perhaps an even smaller board would be better. I'd be willing to get a different one to experiment, but I know it needs to be in a sweetspot of powerful enough to run the speaker without needing an amp. It would be nice if I could find a board that also supported higher than the 16-bit 48 kHz that this one does though. Since some emulators actually synthesize the sounds, 24-bit 96khz DAC could actually be utilized. Admittedly, that's likely overkill for the puny speaker in this thing though. I'd be willing to splurge and disassemble something like this

The speaker is the only audio on this too, isn't it? There's no way to integrate a headphone jack?

Has anyone got photos of a complete build but while it's being assembled. I'm not really sure how tight a fit we're dealing with and if there's room for much more. I'd love to squeeze a 9DOF chip in somehow if possible to act as an analog input. That might make FPSs more playable but I have no idea if that's impossible or REALLY impossible

[wermy]

Hi,
If this is your first experience with this kind of thing, my advice would be to keep it simple.

There's really no benefit to using the Powerboost over the microLipo. Honestly the only reason I didn't use it the first time around was because I didn't realize the USB sound card would work fine running off less than 5V. You'll get better battery life without the powerboost anyway. Yes there is a low-voltage pin you can use on the PB, but that doesn't get used in this build anyway.

As far as the L/R buttons, check out the wiki - it has exact dimensions for the L/R buttons (sudomod.com/wiki).

The alternate USB sound card you mention is actually the same chip, just with a smaller crystal (meaning it fits without removing/moving it). So if you can find that one it should save you a step.

The 9DOF chip you mention... Again, I'd say keep it simple this time around. Besides, the app we're using for button presses just translates the GPIO input into keyboard presses, which would not translate well into any kind of analog input (joystick, accelerometer, etc).

No headphone jack on this one, but don't be surprised if someone adds it to their build. I suspect we'll see a lot of variation between builds as people put their own spin on it.

Have fun! Guide should HOPEFULLY be up this week some time.

[mmacneill30]

In order to set up the mintyPi will we need to connect a usb keyboard and mouse and a screen? Or will it be able to run by itself without that.
If anybody knows this or has any information on it please post a reply.

[Helder]

Yet another new topic to merge

As it has been mentioned by Wermy you need to set things up on the Pi BEFORE closing it up in the tin so it will be all set to go including wifi.

[wermy]

In order to set up the mintyPi will we need to connect a usb keyboard and mouse and a screen? Or will it be able to run by itself without that.
If anybody knows this or has any information on it please post a reply.

There will be two options for setting it up: a pre-made RetroPie image (no games included, of course), and a setup script (the pre-made image will just be a fresh RetroPie install with the setup script already run for you). From there you'll still need a way to give keyboard input in order to connect to your wifi (which is how you'll transfer games). Bluetooth is the easiest way to do this (and you can pair a keyboard using just the gamepad). If you don't have a BT keyboard you can just connect a USB keyboard using an OTG adaptor before you connect the USB sound card and put everything inside the tin.
So to summarize: you'll need a BT keyboard (my preferred option) or a USB OTG adaptor (often sold with the Pi Zero as part of a bundle).
Hope this helps!

[alphatoanant]

From there you'll still need a way to give keyboard input in order to connect to your wifi (which is how you'll transfer games). Bluetooth is the easiest way to do this (and you can pair a keyboard using just the gamepad). If you don't have a BT keyboard you can just connect a USB keyboard using an OTG adaptor before you connect the USB sound card and put everything inside the tin.

Another option for setting up wifi is through adding a wpa_supplicant.conf file in the /boot directory on the SD card. I have done a few headless setups for the pi-zero-w and this method has worked well so it might be an alternative.

Steps (after your base image is flashed to the SD Card)
1) Mount your SD Card on your computer and navigate to the /boot directory
2) In the /boot directory create a new text document and name it wpa_supplicant
3) Edit the file in your preferred text editor, add the following:

Code: Select all

network={
    ssid="SSID"
    psk="password"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

And change "SSID" to the name of your network and "password" to its password.
4) Save your changes
5) Change the extenstion of the file to .conf - so its final full name is wpa_supplicant.conf
6) Eject the SD card and boot

Full details on how this works are here:
https://core-electronics.com.au/tutoria ... setup.html

[Harvmck]

What wires are required for this build? I'm going on holiday and kinda need to buy them today. Thank you
(I have read through everything on this forum and can't find an answer so sorry if I missed something)

[mmacneill30]

Hello!
I'm wondering why it still says pre order the parts when I know people have already received there parts. So how long will it take to ship? Maybe it is out of the pre order phase and I am just missing something?