Custom button pcb gameboy SP

[moosepr]

so then i guess the only thing left is the thickness of the screen/pbc/pi

the zero is apparently 5mm thick, my pcb is 1.6mm thick, and the screen is apparently 3.15mm thick

so that makes a grand total of 9.75mm. i dont have access to an SP, and google isnt really helping

[abrugsch]

Ohhhh....
I have an SP shell in my car, but playt....err lunchtime is over so can't really go and get it and start dissecting at my desk at any rate I think 9.75 is less than the dimensions of the screen shell.

don't forget, you can order 0.8mm PCB from OSHPark and all the other PCB makers for no difference in cost, but I think the number of wires you send down the hinge is going to be a problem unless you use a FPC like the actual SP does.

[moosepr]

blooooooooooo toooooooooof!!!

[abrugsch]

blooooooooooo toooooooooof!!!

And now you have 2 batteries to maintain

[mrdude42]

I'm not a big fan of using bluetooth. When I have time I'd like to design a custom PCB to combine with a Raspberry Pi Zero W and a screen but this probably won't be easy or happen any time soon on my end tbh. Something like @Kite's AIO for the DMG is what I'm thinking but I know it's gonna be rather difficult to all fit in a Gameboy Advance SP case. Especially with the hinge.

[moosepr]

to be fair, bluetooth isnt ideal, but it does make the hinge easier to work round. You could run the pi and the controller off the same battery to keep it easier

making a custom board for the bottom wouldnt be too tricky. a good scan of the board could be dropped into eagle or something and scaled so the holes are the right dimensions, and your golden.

as much as i dont really like the reversing camera screens, using one would mean that you only need 3 wires from the base to the screen 5v, gnd, signal

[abrugsch]

Ok I've checked out the SP case.
It's small. Really small.
The screen part only has about 6mm of clearance.
Less than a lego stormtrooper minifig foot...

IMG_20170320_203039.jpg (3.75 MiB) Viewed 11225 times

And the lens fits under the lip there too... So that's another 3/4 mm gone

[moosepr]

awwww i dont have my calibrated stormtroper foot with me

how about 'eraserhead from the new lego batman film?'

[abrugsch]

Now we're getting somewhere...
So it seems pretty unlikely we'll get a screen and a carrier AND a PiZ in a space that only a screen went into. Looks like bare screen plus tiny breakout board in the top and a button carrier board in the bottom leaving the battery bay intact (using the existing battery?) and jamming the pi and charge circuit into the cartridge area (or incorporating charge/boost on the button PCB.)
Finally, the SP doesn't use carbon contacts like all the other gameboys (or NDS lite...) but foil domes like the old classic atari orange button joystick. So an ultra low profile switch is needed, and the buttons/dpad themselves may need modding to make the clearance. Or maybe the NDS silicones will fit...

[abrugsch]

Here's moosepr's carrier board for a 2.8" screen so you can see the outline:

IMG_20170320_231243.jpg (3.14 MiB) Viewed 11209 times

and the screen itself

IMG_20170320_231338.jpg (3.11 MiB) Viewed 11209 times

Screen compared to lens

IMG_20170320_231427.jpg (2.96 MiB) Viewed 11209 times

The ridge is essentially the top of the space we have to play with as it holds the lens into the frame

IMG_20170320_231815.jpg (4.36 MiB) Viewed 11209 times

So yeah, screen + 1 carrier PCB is about as much as we can get in there