Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

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BlooJooce
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Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

Post by BlooJooce » Thu Apr 15, 2021 4:11 pm

I'm Severely new to modding like this but im fairly electrically inclined but never worked with pcb and things like that.

That being said I purchased a 3.7v Lithium ion battery from retromodding because it was on sale and am thinking i can put it to use in a gameboy Zero.
Link: https://www.retromodding.com/products/l ... 5742868503

I am planning to get a few things to make it a bit simpler for me so i read up on tinkerboy. I am getting a powerswitch and the controller 2.01
Powerswitch: https://www.tinkerboy.xyz/product/tinke ... -shutdown/
Controller: https://www.tinkerboy.xyz/product/game- ... oy-zero-3/

I have a lot of it figured out but i have regularly been warned about using LiPo batteries and charging. Does the powerswitch charge LiPo's safely? or will i need a power boost circuit?... Thats what I have seen mentioned so i could be wrong or just looking in the wrong direction.
The two boards i was looking at was:
Adafruit 1000 Charger: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2465
Ebay Board: https://www.ebay.com/itm/5PCS-5V-Micro- ... SwoRBZuLKp

The orders take a while to ship so i just want to be sure i am getting everything at one time before it becomes too late and I am stuck waiting for a reorder.

Offnote: also hate micro usb would it be crazy hard to just put a usb c port on it instead? I noticed some people post the entire build but I am still deciding on some things if you want that i can give you what I have planned so far. I would appreciate any constructive criticism.

DScreech
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Re: Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

Post by DScreech » Tue Apr 20, 2021 2:02 pm

From what I understand, you shouldn't need a Powerboost if you are going to use the Tinkerboy power switch, as from what the description says, it is both a 5v boost and charger.
As for the use of a USB-C port, if you are planning on replacing the micro usb port that is built into the Tinkerboy power switch with USB-C, that is not possible as the pins are different.
If you go with the adafruit 1000c option, you can use a USB-C breakout board. You would just solder a wire from the USB labeled pin on the powerboost to the VBUS pin on the breakout board and then a wire from one of the ground pins on the powerboost to the ground on the breakout. (This is actually what I am currently doing in my GBZ build)
Lastly, your battery choice. I actually got my battery from Retromodding as well (the 2000mah battery) and it seems to work just fine. Something you should be aware of though is to check the positive and ground wires on the battery compared to the positive and ground connections on the powerboost (if you decide to go with the 1000c). It's common for LiPo batteries to have their wires in the opposite orientation (hopefully that makes sense). This was the case with my battery. I had to remove the wire pins from the JST connector and flop the around, so that when I plugged it into the powerboost, positive would plug into positive and negative into negative.
I will try to post pics later, but the 2000mah battery and the powerboost both fit into the battery compartment together. I actually 3d printed and holder/box for the powerboost to separate it from the battery (just for OCD safety reasons, lol).
FYI, I'm fairly new to the modding scene as well, so I'm not as experienced as probably the vast majority of others in the forum. I did just finish my GBZ build and am just working out audio issues now, so I do know at least all my wiring is good lol.
Hope I could be of some help

BlooJooce
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Re: Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

Post by BlooJooce » Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:11 am

Awesome! I actually was able to message TinkerBoy on his facebook and he did verify it would work. Since i got the adafruit breakout boards i may end up going ahead and ordering the 1000c. Tinkerboys stuff is very refined but a bit costly. I kind've want my first GBZ to be more of a piece together rather than combining products into a board. At the moment i'm waiting on shipping for most of my parts.

The only thing i may compromise on is tinkerboys control board with audio built in as thats gonna be the hardest part for me. I'll def be checking the battery so thank you for the heads up as for a quick check probably just throw a meter on it and check polarity (i believe thats the correct term.) Dc voltage would read negative if you run your leads properly. If i misunderstood your message feel free to correct but i'll be doing that to be safe.

My GBZ will be a slower build as i don't have much time outside of work and travel but i want to do a build log of some kind to document the journey

DScreech
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Re: Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

Post by DScreech » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:00 pm

Glad to hear you got things figured out! :D
I agree about TinkerBoy's products, they are very refined and a little bit more costly. I bought a couple of items from him (the v1.1 controller board and the 4O2W speaker) and it took about 3-4 weeks to arrive to the US.
I held off on ordering anything from him until shipping prices dropped though, because when COVID hit his shipping prices jumped up to a flat rate of $27!!
Also, completely understand about having a slower build. I've been working on mine since January
I was spending a lot of time designing (and redesigning) 3d parts though for my build, so that is mainly what caused my build to get hung up

Not sure if you have looked at these 2 websites for GBZ parts, but if not you might want to take a look into them
www.pocketadventures.com
www.glitchdgaming.com

Pocket Adventures has a lot of good stuff and his pricing is cheap!!
I bought a lot of my parts from there. One part I would stay away from though is his USB hub backplate
It's a great idea and would save some space in your build, but I bought 2 of them and could not get either of them to work
His other USB hub though is what I am using and works great and is really small

I kind of took the harder route with my build in that instead of buying an all-in-one board and so on I bought individual parts and did a lot of soldering, so I could get a challenge and a better understanding of how to do certain things (if that makes sense, lol)
Pretty much did things how Wermy did in his original, other than I didn't chop up a GB controller board or anything like that, didn't use a insertable game cartridge and limited my use of a hot glue gun lol! I do have wires everywhere though and surprisingly was able to get everything to fit

Anyways, best of luck with your build! I'll still post some pics up of how I have the powerboost and battery mounted
Also if you have a 3d printer I would be happy to share with you my STL files for you to use if interested?

BlooJooce
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Re: Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

Post by BlooJooce » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:43 pm

Thank you for the resources! Pocket adventures has a lot of the things ive been trying to source. I am building mine similar to you. I don't have a 3d printer but i have a hackerspace near me and some people there offer their services so the files would be of great help! Thanks for the warning on the backplate ill def be stopping in to share updates when i can.

DScreech
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Re: Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

Post by DScreech » Tue Apr 27, 2021 11:16 am

I apologize this took so long, but here are some pictures of my GBZ build :)
Notice the USB-C port ;)
Might be hard to tell how I ran the wires, but I'll do my best to explain
The red and black wires at the bottom of the powerboost I actually ran underneath the 3D compartment box I designed to hold the powerboost and are wired to the Pi Zero
The wires for the battery are run out through that center hole in the top of the battery compartment and then come back into the side where the powerboost JST connector is. (had to cut a hole in the battery compartment to do this)
The battery compartment cover you have to trim those two lines on the inside on the side that has the battery in it, to get the cover to sit perfectly flush. If you don't, the battery cover will close, but it will be a little bowed

Still working on the 3D print STL files, there are some revisions I am needing to make to them
I will post them in here though when I am finished, just haven't had a chance to work on them yet
Attachments
GBZ7.jpg
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GBZ5.jpg
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GBZ4.jpg
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GBZ3.jpg
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GBZ2.jpg
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GBZ1.jpg
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GBZ BATTERY COVER.jpg
GBZ BATTERY COVER.jpg (72.01 KiB) Viewed 3425 times

JethTran
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Joined: Fri May 28, 2021 12:43 am

Re: Using a Lithium Ion battery with tinkerBOY Power Switch?

Post by JethTran » Fri May 28, 2021 1:00 am

Hi....What you are going to need to do is structure yourself some XT 90 connectors and patch, on the off chance that you can, or pleat, the female to your exposed finishes there. I would arrange the xt 90's from Luna with the ponytails previously bound to them with wires as of now tone coded. Dark to dark, red to red. Ideally your battery accompanied the fitting charger? Additionally does your battery have a more modest wire falling off like the one you envisioned? Before your first ride try to charge your battery as far as possible up. Which carries me to my next question, where did you get this unit, what sort of engine and so forth? Not certain about where every one of the wires you showed are associated. What's more, to the extent power goes, doesn't make any difference if it's fixed lead corrosive or lithium particle, as long as it is the correct voltage. somewhat difficult to prompt not knowing ALL the subtleties, so when asking kindly let us have a deep understanding of your arrangement, that way perhaps we can assist you with beginning. Best of luck and let us know how it turns out for you.

https://www.7pcb.com/

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