GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Show off your completed Game Boy Zero, or post your build logs here!
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rlcmtzc12
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GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by rlcmtzc12 » Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:44 am

Hi, I´m on my way to build my first Gameboy Zero Mod. I decided to use a Raspberry pi 3 B for this. My goal is that i want to leave the Raspberry pi as complete as possible means I don´t desolder any ports. Also I want to have accsess to the HDMI port so I can use it as a Retrostation. I also want that I can easily remove the Pi so I don´t want to use a lot of hotglue and no hotglue to fix the Raspberry at all.

Since I´m quite practiced in PCB designe I created my own custom Button PCB with integreated Battery charger, boost Circuit, overdischarge, overcurrent and overcharge Protection. The PCB has also place for a PAM audimodule, an aux port, volume wheel pins, pins for a speaker (also stereo Speaker) and an USB-C connector to charge the battery.
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Top Side of the PCB
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Bottom Side of the PCB
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The PCBs are ordered and until now I wait for them.
To get the design-files look here

Until now I have modded the case to fit the raspberry pi, added the screen and set the pi up. Down bellow some first Images.
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front.jpg
Front of the Gameboy
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back.jpg
Back of the mod
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pi_side.jpg
Side of the Gameboy with the ports
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on.jpg
The Gameboy turned on
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hdmi.jpg
hdmi and aux of the pi
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Inside It looks like:
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inside_empty.jpg
Inside what i modded
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inside_pi.jpg
inside with the pi in place
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pi_screws.jpg
how the pi is screwed in
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The closing is until now not that straight forward but I have ideas for that ;)
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closing.jpg
When closing the Gameboy
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What I plan to do is to add an acrylic screenglass and of course ad an X/Y/R1/R2 Button and a speaker. I also will use the original Battery compartment with 4 15400 1200mAh lipos in parallel so I can charge them with my PCB. Also I want to add a part of a gamecartridge to hide the part of the display controllboard and the button board of the Display.

I´m also working on a V2 of the PCB with a safe turn off circuit maby you have some ideas I can add to the PCB?

I will update you when I´m recive the PCBs and test them. And if you have any suggestions/ tips and tricks for my build I would be very glad if you share them with me.
Last edited by rlcmtzc12 on Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by ABH » Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:05 pm

rlcmtzc12 wrote:
Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:44 am
Image
Very nice design I love it
But I want to advise you something
Name the polygon GND so do not disturb yourself in connecting all GND one by one and to save more space in PCB, sorry my English not very will but I hope you get my point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRrKirNMuqk&app=desktop
Wish you luck .

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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by rlcmtzc12 » Wed Aug 01, 2018 3:16 pm

Thanks, yhea I realized to late that this is a thing in the editor I used and so I already connected all grounds with another. But in V2 I will do this :D
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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by Moonsword » Wed Aug 01, 2018 7:15 pm

I did have a design in my head that was going to be similar to this. I am going to be watching this build as I like the look of it already.

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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by 1emerson1 » Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:43 pm

Hey!

Awesome stuff. I really enjoying seeing people creating custom parts for their build. Creating PCBs is definitely out of my league but I’ve been 3D printing custom components and it’s been working out great so far. I only have this image on my phone right now.
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I will add more recent images tomorrow.

May I ask why you want the RPi3 to be removable? If you don’t need the ports, I would remove them and add a single USB in the ext. connector port. You can always use a USB hub. I also recommend using a Pro Micro for the controls. Very minimal wiring to the RPi3.
I really like the HDMI and headphone jack placement. What did you use to cut the holes?

Adding the display controller board in the cartridge is smart. I’m driving my display via DPI so I am using a voltage booster to power the display. It has a small control knob to adjust the voltage so I’m thinking of creating a 3D piece to turn the knob from outside the case to create a makeshift adjustable backlight control.

Definitely check out previous RPi3 builds. It provides great insight. I’m basing my build off of Tinkerboy’s. I am looking forward to seeing your build progress. Best of luck!
"Since I was 15 I've felt kinda like... an old man" - M. Cera

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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by Dividion » Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:59 pm

Love how you integrated your own power board. I took a stab at that a while back, using the GreatScott board as a template (which it looks like you might've also), but I did something wrong, because there was a huge voltage drop on the front end somewhere near the TP4056. I think my boost part would've worked if it had received the correct voltage initially. I'm guessing one of the capacitors or resistors was switched, or the FS8205 or DW01+G might've been reversed. I haven't had time to figure that one out yet. My LEDs were pretty though. :)
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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by rlcmtzc12 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:55 am

1emerson1 wrote:
Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:43 pm
Awesome stuff. I really enjoying seeing people creating custom parts for their build. Creating PCBs is definitely out of my league but I’ve been 3D printing custom components and it’s been working out great so far. I only have this image on my phone right now.

May I ask why you want the RPi3 to be removable? If you don’t need the ports, I would remove them and add a single USB in the ext. connector port. You can always use a USB hub. I also recommend using a Pro Micro for the controls. Very minimal wiring to the RPi3.
I really like the HDMI and headphone jack placement. What did you use to cut the holes?

Adding the display controller board in the cartridge is smart. I’m driving my display via DPI so I am using a voltage booster to power the display. It has a small control knob to adjust the voltage so I’m thinking of creating a 3D piece to turn the knob from outside the case to create a makeshift adjustable backlight control.
Thanks a lot. Yes I definitly looking forward to do also some 3D printing on this Build since I have a printer laying around ;)
Looking good so far I definitely check your build out.

I think for a lot of People the desoldering part is quit difficult and I wanted to chalange me to make it completely without desoldering and "destroying" nice hardware. It should be easy to remove (Also would be easy to update for a 3B+ or another raspberry3 layout Board or even a rp4 in the future or an Odroid C2 which hasn´t that more powerconsumption but a big performance improvment) because you can than easily use the pi for something else.

Thats right a Pro micro for the controls would be very nice maby I add some. And maby on V2 of the PCB I include one don´t know yet. With the Pro micro it would be also very easy to implement an analog stic which I realy looking forward to do but I think not on this build. I actually just used a shear and sanding paper. My rommate has a rotary tool but he wasn´t at home last week so I think the future mods on the case I will do with the rotary tool.

Yhea im not sure how good the idea is because the flexcabel of the screen is quit short and so the assembly isn´t that straight forward so I´m planing to use some female header Pins on the bottom shell of the case which are connected to the Display controller and some male header Pins on the top shell connected to the screen so you just have to put the two parts together and the pins will join each other and make a connection. But I´m not sure how good this attempt work because of the ammount of the pins (I think not all pins of the flex cable are important to work with the pi) and of the noise introduced with the rewiring. (For the PCB i try to use the same/similar attempt but I have to look if this work well with the spacing, I didn´t plan that part so well :lol: )
Yes I also use a small DC-DC Boost (5 to 12V) converter with a small nob to power the screen because my 5V Mod didnt worked that well and there was a lot of noise and flickering (With around 6V it worked fine so maby I change a few Resistors on the PCB to power the whole system with 6V so the screen mod works and the Pi also works fine with 6V)
Last edited by rlcmtzc12 on Fri Aug 03, 2018 3:15 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by rlcmtzc12 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:06 am

Dividion wrote:
Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:59 pm
Love how you integrated your own power board. I took a stab at that a while back, using the GreatScott board as a template (which it looks like you might've also), but I did something wrong, because there was a huge voltage drop on the front end somewhere near the TP4056. I think my boost part would've worked if it had received the correct voltage initially. I'm guessing one of the capacitors or resistors was switched, or the FS8205 or DW01+G might've been reversed. I haven't had time to figure that one out yet. My LEDs were pretty though. :)
Yes it is also based on GreatScotts board. Oh ok sad to hear this, did you resolder the parts? What Voltage did you got after the Battery charging/protection partion of the circuit? If DW01-G was soldered in reverse that could cause some issiuse with the voltage, I don´t think the FS8205 is in reverse because than you wouldn´t get any voltage. Yhea you will figure this out.
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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by Dividion » Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:24 am

rlcmtzc12 wrote:
Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:06 am
Yes it is also based on GreatScotts board. Oh ok sad to hear this, did you resolder the parts? What Voltage did you got after the Battery charging/protection partion of the circuit? If DW01-G was soldered in reverse that could cause some issiuse with the voltage, I don´t think the FS8205 is in reverse because than you wouldn´t get any voltage. Yhea you will figure this out.
If I remember right, I think it had dropped down to .25V, but the boost part pushed it up to .6V. It could be that when I rearranged the components I may have messed up one of the traces, but I couldn't find anything wrong with those. I look forward to giving it another try.
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Re: GameBoy Zero with RP3 (unmodded) and custom designed PCB with USB-C charging

Post by rlcmtzc12 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:33 am

Dividion wrote:
Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:24 am
rlcmtzc12 wrote:
Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:06 am
Yes it is also based on GreatScotts board. Oh ok sad to hear this, did you resolder the parts? What Voltage did you got after the Battery charging/protection partion of the circuit? If DW01-G was soldered in reverse that could cause some issiuse with the voltage, I don´t think the FS8205 is in reverse because than you wouldn´t get any voltage. Yhea you will figure this out.
If I remember right, I think it had dropped down to .25V, but the boost part pushed it up to .6V. It could be that when I rearranged the components I may have messed up one of the traces, but I couldn't find anything wrong with those. I look forward to giving it another try.
Ok thats strange because its quite a big drop. And there wasn´t any bad components? It could also be a problem with your Battery I had once a similar problem because the Battery I had couldn´t handle more than a few 100mAs the whole voltage of the circuit broke in with a bigger load because it wasnt supplied anymore with enough current and did some unpredictable stuff.
Leave an update if you find out whats the problem.
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