Rodocop's Circuit Gem

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rodocop
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Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by rodocop » Thu Feb 28, 2019 10:29 am

So, I grabbed one Circut Gem from Kite. This thing is pretty cool, I did not take much pictures of the internals, or the case modding that was done. Very minor mods of the front of the case, essentially two small posts below the screen were snipped down. But, pretty much the entirety of the back half the case needed to be hollowed out to fit the components.

I ran into the problem, that the speaker that came with the kit was a dud, I ordered some replacements, but did not want to wait, so I just used a small 20mm speaker I had on hand (this is the same one the minty pi uses, I had a lot on hand from previous orders). It did not fit in the front like the original, so I had to place it in the back, which worked fine, considering I used the small 450mah battery. If I used the 800mah one, it would not have fit.

Either way, cool little project, very easy build, soldering the pi was a breeze (results will vary based on experience). The case mods were not too bad. If the shell was a solid one, it would have been easier to just pull out the dremel, but I opted to use a knife and cutters, to try and make it look as clean as possible, since it's clear. You can still see the white pressure marks where I made some modification, but since it is all on the back, I am not too concerned.

I may put some shoulder buttons on the little lid, but at the moment I will likely leave it as is, and not plan to plan any games that need more buttons.

On to the pics:
the whole kitShow
Image
first bootShow
Image
all doneShow
Image
back viewShow
Image
close up of the backShow
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the screen is greatShow
Image
FYI, if you have a dud speaker, here is a link for the ones used in the Gem:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/JCD-New ... 4c4dRMDGUA

smoki86
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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by smoki86 » Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:52 pm

That looks great!
We need more love for the VMU :)

For the transparent case: I prepared a black transparent one but opted for the default gray in the end. But a heat gun works wonders on those pressure marks, just be sure to not overheat and deform the case.

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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by rodocop » Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:58 pm

smoki86 wrote:
Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:52 pm
That looks great!
We need more love for the VMU :)

For the transparent case: I prepared a black transparent one but opted for the default gray in the end. But a heat gun works wonders on those pressure marks, just be sure to not overheat and deform the case.
hmm, thanks for the tips on the heat gun. i'll have to test that out and see how it work! I checked out your post in before I built mine, thanks for the post!

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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by sygyzy » Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:13 pm

Thanks for posting this. Can you please tell us exactly what battery you opted to use?

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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by rodocop » Thu Feb 28, 2019 6:02 pm

This was the exact one i bought.

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/U3CfbCk

But it's looking like the shipping is now crazy expensive, usually indicates they have no more stock and just expect people not to buy.

Just search 3.7V 400mAh 403035 to find more options like this:

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/Gs65jvQ

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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by sygyzy » Sat Mar 02, 2019 3:35 pm

Thank you very much!

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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by spider2k » Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:31 pm

smoki86 wrote:
Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:52 pm
That looks great!
We need more love for the VMU :)

For the transparent case: I prepared a black transparent one but opted for the default gray in the end. But a heat gun works wonders on those pressure marks, just be sure to not overheat and deform the case.
this. i use my hot air station set to the lowest temp and it works well for this.

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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by Rhinom2 » Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:18 pm

Hi, nice gem there, could you please explain how to load ROMs to the gem, that will be the last step on my build.
Thanks a lot

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rodocop
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Re: Rodocop's Circuit Gem

Post by rodocop » Wed May 01, 2019 6:35 pm

Rhinom2 wrote:
Tue Apr 30, 2019 11:18 pm
Hi, nice gem there, could you please explain how to load ROMs to the gem, that will be the last step on my build.
Thanks a lot
I always use the sftp method seen here. Connect the pi to your network and download winscp. And go from there.

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Se ... rring-Roms

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