GBZ with Raspberry Pi 3 A+ Help

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Josh_E
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GBZ with Raspberry Pi 3 A+ Help

Post by Josh_E » Sun Jun 16, 2019 11:46 am

Hi,
I am quite new to the idea of Game Boy Zero's however I have chosen to have a shot at it as a side project when I have time.
I was originally going to try and follow the guide by Wermy to the letter however have decided to have a go at making it my own. I would love to be able to play Playstation games on the GBZ however I know the Pi Zero is incapable of doing this where as the Pi 3 A+ is.

So I was wondering what I would need to change other than the Pi used to make this work?

I have also read forums where people have said that a heat sink is required for build such as this and wondered if anyone could confirm this or if this isn't true?

Thanks in advance for all your help :D

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infinitLoop
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Re: GBZ with Raspberry Pi 3 A+ Help

Post by infinitLoop » Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:54 am

Josh_E wrote:
Sun Jun 16, 2019 11:46 am
Hi,
I am quite new to the idea of Game Boy Zero's however I have chosen to have a shot at it as a side project when I have time.
I was originally going to try and follow the guide by Wermy to the letter however have decided to have a go at making it my own. I would love to be able to play Playstation games on the GBZ however I know the Pi Zero is incapable of doing this where as the Pi 3 A+ is.

So I was wondering what I would need to change other than the Pi used to make this work?

I have also read forums where people have said that a heat sink is required for build such as this and wondered if anyone could confirm this or if this isn't true?

Thanks in advance for all your help :D
you wouldn't really have to change much of anything, as far as the build guide. they can hook up essentially the same way, but the pins/pads may be in different spots (particularly the audio and video).

The power requirement is a lot more for the a+, so you should use something that can handle the load (look for Helder's PSU in the market, for instance). You'll also probably have to do some hardware hacking to trim the bits off of the 3a+ that you won't use, so that it can fit in the case, where the zero can fit pretty easily without cutting it up.

heatsink (at least) and a fan are highly recommended, but not strictly required. it should turn on and run without that, but you're much more likely to kill your build or cause it to shutdown and limit its life, with too high heat levels if you do nothing to mitigate the heat. especially if you are planning to try and run psx games on it.

lastly, there are different Retropie version for the Zero vs the 3, so make sure you load the right image.

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tinkerBOY
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Re: GBZ with Raspberry Pi 3 A+ Help

Post by tinkerBOY » Mon Jul 01, 2019 4:19 am

Josh_E wrote:
Sun Jun 16, 2019 11:46 am
Hi,
I am quite new to the idea of Game Boy Zero's however I have chosen to have a shot at it as a side project when I have time.
I was originally going to try and follow the guide by Wermy to the letter however have decided to have a go at making it my own. I would love to be able to play Playstation games on the GBZ however I know the Pi Zero is incapable of doing this where as the Pi 3 A+ is.

So I was wondering what I would need to change other than the Pi used to make this work?

I have also read forums where people have said that a heat sink is required for build such as this and wondered if anyone could confirm this or if this isn't true?

Thanks in advance for all your help :D
This picture by Een Gambo should tell a lot.
Image

He used a Pi 3 model b+ but you can easily use a model a+ along with my v3 and dpi adapter.
New! tinkerBOY PowerSwitch v1.0 with Safe Shutdown
Game Boy Zero Controllers available @ tinkerBOY.xyz * Support
tinkerBOY Controller v3.0 - built-in usb controller, usb audio, and usb hub
tinkerBOY Controller v2.0 - GPIO buttons and builtin PWM Audio and Amplifier
tinkerBOY Controller v1.1 - simple pcb button
* DPI Adapter - better display for GBZ
* keyboard converters - IBM XT/AT Soarer's Converter | ADB to USB Converter

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