New build planning questions

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chrissantamaria
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New build planning questions

Post by chrissantamaria » Thu Mar 15, 2018 7:21 pm

Hi all,

I've been lurking on the forums for a while now and figured it's finally time to start my own build. This will be for a formal 10-week engineering class project so I'm looking to go as in-depth as possible rather than just following guides or using kits. Notably, I'm looking to 3D print my own case and custom design my own button PCB.

Does anyone have any advice regarding what the best PCB software would be to learn and how to implement button traces? For the buttons themselves, I'm assuming I can just use any rubber pad buttons from a spare controller, but are there any commonly used on the forums?

Here are the rest of my parts; feedback would be much appreciated :)

Pi Zero W (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400)
2500mAh Lipo Battery (https://www.adafruit.com/product/328)
JST Extension Cable (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1131)
3.5mm Headphone Jack (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1699)
8 ohm 0.5W Speaker (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1890)
I2S 3W Class D Amplifier (MAX98357A) (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3006)
PowerBoost 1000 Charging Board (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2465)
USB Type A Female Breakout (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12700)
Camble's Safe Shutdown Board (https://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2260)
Gearbest 3.5 inch TFT LCD Display (https://www.gearbest.com/development-bo ... 29447.html)

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tinkerBOY
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Re: New build planning questions

Post by tinkerBOY » Sat Mar 17, 2018 8:52 am

I started learning how to design PCB with the Eagle software because it has a large community where you can easily search any topic you want. Aftermarket buttons and silicon pads are easily available for the Game Boy DMG, Color, GBA, Pocket. You can buy them on eBay or AliExpress.
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

chrissantamaria
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Re: New build planning questions

Post by chrissantamaria » Mon Mar 19, 2018 3:46 am

tinkerBOY wrote:
Sat Mar 17, 2018 8:52 am
I started learning how to design PCB with the Eagle software because it has a large community where you can easily search any topic you want. Aftermarket buttons and silicon pads are easily available for the Game Boy DMG, Color, GBA, Pocket. You can buy them on eBay or AliExpress.
Awesome, any specific buttons or pads you recommend? The ones I used in the past weren't very reliable so I'd rather avoid that.

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tinkerBOY
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Re: New build planning questions

Post by tinkerBOY » Mon Mar 19, 2018 4:08 am

Never had any problem with those silicon pads for Game Boy DMG I bought on aliexpress.


https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3255150 ... 03740.html
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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