Sota's build for flashpc (Completed!)

[sotasystems]

Apart from my 2nd build that I am also doing, I decided to have another build as well.
As I am willing to help other users on this forum with their builds, this build is for another user that has asked for their help.

This build is dedicated to [mention]flashpc[/mention]. It will be a pretty standard GBZ build, with my DIY battery indicator with safe shutdown included. He allowed me to document the build here, so that I can show to you what I am doing.

Status: Package delivered by FedEx on 07.12.2016

[Sundays]

Will this be the first time you have put up your diy safe shutdown? I am very interested in how it's made.

[sotasystems]

Will this be the first time you have put up your diy safe shutdown? I am very interested in how it's made.

I actualy use it in my 1st build, but never really got into detail on how it was made because the idea just came to me out of a sudden while I was building, but I will document it in my 2nd build. So if you are interested, stay tuned

[sotasystems]

The package arrived well packaged and in good condition this morning





So what do we have we can work with?

We have a 3.5" BW screen:



and a neat box full of goodies:



let's have a look inside, shall we?



Aaaah , so inside we have:

• Aftermarket Gameboy shell
• Gameboy Speaker
• Set of buttons (2x)
• Set of conductive rubber pads (2x)
• Custom GBZ gorilla glass screen surround from [mention]day[/mention]
• [mention]Wermy[/mention]'s full 3d printed GBZ support set
• Screws
• Adafruit powerboost 1000C
• Aftermarket empty cartridge
• Raspberry Pi Zero v1.3
• 2000mAh LiPo battery with JST-connector
• Power switch
• Volume wheel
• Micro USB breakout
• Spare USB port
• Spare Gameboy cartridge slot
• 32GB Sandisk micro SD card
• Spare JST cable
• Spare JST connector
• [mention]Helder[/mention]'s GBZ AIO v2.2 (finaly I get to see one of these IRL! )

I noticed it doesn't include the custom SD card reader to put inside the empty cartridge shell, but I should still be getting most of the things done anyway.

Apart from these parts, I am going to add the following:

• Arduino nano for battery monitoring with needed resistors
• Safe-shutdown tactile switch button with needed resistors
• LED's

[sotasystems]

ok, so it looks like the screen is a BW variant 7, which seems to be pretty common. Easy enough to make it work on 5V, but I'll do that later, screen itself is working fine.





I have noticed that this aftermarket case is not made very accurately. You can see an example as to why here:


Original screen cover that came with it


Gorilla glass screen cover

It'll still look fine if I align it accordingly as good as possible, though.

I then started doing all the modifications needed to the case:


Removing unneeded screw posts and preparing to drill X and Y button holes


Removing a chunk of the battery compartment, because the battery coincidentaly fits really well otherwise:





If it all fits like that, I will leave the compartment like that. If not, I will come back to remove more.


Drilled X and Y button holes and roughly cut off the screen area with a saw.


Removing more material


Testing look of the gorilla glass screen surround

[Hoverfly]

cool! the second ones are always better, you do not make that stupid mistakes (at least in my case).

[sotasystems]

Glued in the button wells and screen




This is how it's gonna look like with the gorilla glass later:



Put in the buttons and cunductive pads (one of them had to be cut a little bit to fit, but it doesn't affect function):



Then test fitted the AIO:



I desoldered the Pi's USB port to make it fit better:



Trimmed the µUSB breakout to make it fit:



..and glued it in place:



After making the AIO's position definite and making sure nothing is wrong there, I glued the Pi on top:



..making it reveal it's HDMI port :



Added the powerboost and converted the screen to 5V:



Made a JST extension cable:



And soldered the first properly gauged power wire:



..some other wires and it was time for a quick test:





The controller works and is being detected in Retropie.

[sotasystems]

Drilled a hole for the tactile safe-shutdown switch



Also drilled a few holes for the screen control PCB:

[sotasystems]

Today my resistors and LED's arrived for my alternative build. I have enough left over, so I also planned to use them in this build for the battery monitor, safe shutdown etc. so I will start working on that soon.

[sotasystems]

Now after resolving USB problems I ran into with [mention]Helder[/mention]'s AIO board (thanks @[mention]Helder[/mention] for helping! ), I can finaly go ahead with further assembly.

I started soldering 3 LEDS to a perfboard which will be visible from the front face.

Green LED means battery is good
Red LED means battery is low
Orange is charging



Trimmed power switch and glued it in


For the battery monitoring and LED indication, I am going to use this ATmega328P-PU chip (Arduino Uno):


Here I will soon glue in the safe shutdown switch and wire it up