sudomod

I definitely prefer the aesthetic/layout of the (original) GBA over any other option, and I'm going to try to make this as simple as I possibly can. I'm completely omitting all of the cartridge/microSD stuff, and skipping the speaker in favor of the audio jack, since 95% of the time that's what I use. Nothing's arrived yet, but the stuff I ordered from Adafruit should come today.

Stuff:
-2000 mAh battery
-switch (to use w/ powerboost)
-knockoff SNES controller (to tear apart for the pcb)

And then a bunch of other stuff is coming from Amazon:
-powerboost 1000C
-BW monitor (from a seller called GoodWill Sky- anyone know what version they sell?)
-GBA replacement shell (which is shipping from China and won't be here till the end of the month)
-audio jack

Any other parts (volume control, maybe tactile buttons for x/y to put behind the l/r buttons?) and the actual pi zero itself (looking to get the zero w) I will be buying locally sometime this week.
The shell I bought is black and I'm hoping to paint it, either with some sort of design or so it looks two-toned. I have experience with soldering and so my main concern is correctly understanding the wiring of things, rather than the actual putting-together aspect of this. I have a RetroPie setup with a pi 3 already, but I've always been a fan of portable gaming. Really looking forward to this project!
Let me know if you think I'm missing anything or if you have any advice.

Update #1:
I have almost all of my parts except the actual shell. The screen I got was variant 8, which was easy enough to modify and get working, except for the fact that I tore the ribbon cable while trying to cut through the ridiculous amount of adhesive holding everything together. The new one comes tomorrow and is from another seller (BW Group, I think?), so I'm hoping for the best. Controls have been wired to the GPIO pins, but I have no idea if they worked because the half of the screen that displayed an image was too flicker-y to be readable. That said, I'm pretty happy with my progress so far. I've also decided to do USB audio, since that seems to be simpler.
Update #2:
New screen (variant 9) is up and running, and my controls are working too. Only missing audio and the actual shell right now. Will post pictures soon. Loaded up my games, including The Minish Cap, which I was super excited to play on a handheld!

I bought two similar BW screens on Amazon that gets hot. Also there are users here who also bought these screens that will not work after a month or two. I tested mine using 12v, 5v, and 3.3v power supply and they get hot still. The BW screens i have also consumes more power than the one i bought from aliexpress. It seems like a design flaw of the board.

Agreed on the power consumption. I use a USB wattage meter and the BW screens have been pulling around 425-450 mA at 5V and the adafruit ones pull around 150mA. No idea how the disparity can be so great.

RogerX wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 12, 2017 10:31 am

Agreed on the power consumption. I use a USB wattage meter and the BW screens have been pulling around 425-450 mA at 5V and the adafruit ones pull around 150mA. No idea how the disparity can be so great.

Thanks for confirming! Do you have link for the Adafruit screen?

zeroboy wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 12, 2017 10:43 am

Thanks for confirming! Do you have link for the Adafruit screen?

Sure - I bought mine at Microcenter but it appears to be the same model as this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2441

Picture!