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My first GBZ build, I learned a lot! SNES themed, huge mess inside.

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 6:52 am
by jgreen624
Pics below! Thanks to this community for all your work - I spent hours and hours combing these forums during this build process. A special thanks to Goosewerks for putting together a kit and a build guide for noobs like me. The kit was great, and the piecemeal nature of everything really taught me a LOT about what's going on with these things. Next time, I'd love to try an AIO or at least a Tinkerboy PCB, but this was an invaluable experience.

I used usb audio but did not include a full usb hub. Hopefully that won't come back to bite me later. I went through two controller boards for the screen, and had to get a second screen after stupidly accidentally slicing right through the ribbon. I also had a slight issue with the B and Start buttons not functioning correctly at first, this seemed to be due to some errant solder for both connections on the Pi that bridged the two. Quick removal and resolder, and everything worked perfectly.

I already have a need to open it up and make a few changes. For one, I feel like I should wrap all wires that are in contact with the TV/composite wire to the screen to minimize slight interference. Secondly, I want to turn the potentiometer up a slight tad to see if I can get a slight volume boost (that is what would happen, right?).

I'm still getting "mixer elements not found" error no matter how many times I try every fix available on the internet short of altering and recompiling emulationstation on my own, which I'm not too comfortable with. Purely an aesthetic thing, but it *is* annoying.

I wish I'd gotten a label for my cart before modifying and gluing it in, but not a big deal.

I'm pretty new to all of this handheld building, although I've built several retropie consoles and a picade. But this was my first handheld. I'm sure there's mistakes, and I don't *really* know everything I need to still, and may sound a bit confused lol. But it was a fantastic experience! Thanks again to everyone who has contributed in any way to the GBZ project, this is one of the best reasons for the Internet existing.

Re: My first GBZ build, I learned a lot! SNES themed, huge mess inside.

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 9:18 am
by rodocop
that looks really nice for a first build, and it isn't that bad on the inside. It's really hard to keep them clean! I love the purple SNES buttons, and those rear buttons actually look pretty nice (I like the color).

As for the label, easy enough to buy one, cut it to size and just stick it on the exposed portion of the cart!

As for volume, from the looks of the pics, I see a USB sound card, and a little mono amp on the side there? If so, that little amp will have a small screw pot that you can adjust up or down with a screw driver. It will help to adjust that. I usually set the emulationstation volume to 100%, and then turn the thumb wheel pot up to full, and adjust the screw pot on the amp to get a desired full volume.

This will also amplify the headphone quite a bit too. Have you considered running the usb sound card to the headphones only, and then the output from the headphones to the amp, then to the speaker? I've never done a set up like that, but it seems like it might work decent. But I guess it all depends on how the headphones sound now. I typically just use the usb sound card, and not an extra amp.

Re: My first GBZ build, I learned a lot! SNES themed, huge mess inside.

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2018 8:17 pm
by NimbleJoshua
Looks good! The inside isn't bad at all btw. Also, where'd you get that USB sound card?

Re: My first GBZ build, I learned a lot! SNES themed, huge mess inside.

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2018 8:19 pm
by Italian77
Nice Job!I think rodocop is right on the label. You could cut it to size and slide it right in. YaYa sells a good assortment of cartridge and shell labels.