Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

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smoki86
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Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

Post by smoki86 » Tue Mar 05, 2019 11:35 am

Luckily I had everything around to build the first VMU.

This time its going to be a slower process. Waiting for parts and finding another spot away from wife and work to build it :)

As its kinda hard to get good special edition VMUs, I settled on the Godzilla one for now. I would love to get the carbon or the 8bit design eventually though. The Godzilla one has nice dark gray buttons and when I get my hands on another I would like to put those into the original VMU as well instead of the purple ones. I do have one more spare gem if I ever get one of those.

Parts:
- Circuit Gem, stocked up on those :)
- Ordered a few 482953 850mAh a while ago, should arrive soon
- Pi Zero with all ports removed, used up the last one for the other VMU
- 2 buttons for L/R that will go into the lid, ready
- Small magnet to keep lid closed, ready
All side by sideShow
godzilla1.jpg
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Godzilla!Show
godzilla2.jpg
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Any ideas what else I could do to change it up a bit?
Last edited by smoki86 on Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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kite
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Re: Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

Post by kite » Wed Mar 06, 2019 1:11 am

Not a suggestion, but perhaps some information that if you were keen that i could accommodate for.. there are a couple of components missing from the gem (near the USB solder points) which are for a P FET switch on 3.3v (a digital switch controlled by the pi to toggle 3.3v on or off). If you can find a use for that I can tell you the bits you'd need to make it work (e.g. maybe some LEDs?). You also have the Serial connections and I2C bus available (unused completely) so again perhaps something with those (can't really think of anything). If you wanted MORE buttons I could enable the I2C pins to be L2/R2..

Anyway, not particularly helpful I know, but i'd like to think they might trigger an idea :) interested to hear what others and you suggest!

It probably won't fit, but inductive charging would be nuts! There's a guy on Instagram that made an inductive charging Tamagotchi!
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smoki86
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Re: Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

Post by smoki86 » Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:54 am

Thanks Kite - yes please let me know which switch would fit :) Would then love to control the switch from the menu. I did solder a few surface parts by now, so that should work :)

I love the QI idea, got me a module from adafruit which seems trivial to integrate. I have more batteries here to fit in if I cant get that in with the 850mAH one. Also got some simple green LEDs.

Only other thing I could think of would be an easier way to toggle the menu and/or toggle the X/Y switch. I will look into replacing it with a proximity switch. That would need some code changes though (or do you know of any that act like a toggle switch directly?) for the switch logic and to use a second one and use one of the i2c pins to toggle one option (X/Y for example).

EDIT:
Dimensions of the charger, seems like a perfect fit:
Back Panel: 48mm x 32mm x 0.5mm / 1.9" x 1.3" x 0.02"
Chip: 11.5mm x 36mm x 0.3mm / 0.5" x 1.4" x 0.01"
Copper Coil: 41mm x 29mm / 1.6" x 1.1"
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Re: Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

Post by kite » Wed Mar 06, 2019 4:35 am

Nice :) the fet is "IRLML6402", the resistor is "10k 0402" and the capacitor is "4.7uF 0603"

I've got quite a few features that need adding and only the one spare button.. i might need to re-think how the menu works.. for example i might have to change it so that left/right selects what the up/down button does (e.g. "VOLUME" means U/D does vol, changing selection to something else could enable/disable other things..)

I can do the things like that, but would need a little time to think over how to implement (and then the time to implement, which i'm not really going to have for a couple of months to be honest!)

I can fairly easily make the I2C pins act as buttons, which might give more scope.. you could very easily have a switch to toggle the L/R buttons between their current pads and the I2C ones (using a DPDT switch). As for the built in buttons, would def need software changes to work. Something like a button that will toggle the mode could work..
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smoki86
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Re: Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

Post by smoki86 » Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:45 am

No worries, I want to think that I have time to play around with these things but life might have other plans :)
And it feels like the VMU market isnt really that big, so while all these things are cool - will anybody ever use them? If you feel comfortable sharing the source eventually on github, I could do my own fork to mess around in.

smoki86
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Re: Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

Post by smoki86 » Tue Mar 12, 2019 2:03 pm

Parts arrived!

The Qi module is pretty much the perfect size, just needs a little extra plastic removed at the top of the VMU and it sits completely flat.
LEDs are nice too, small enough to put anywhere and big enough to solder still.

I hope I can find some time soon to put it together :)
And still looking where to buy the surface mount parts, I made an order that was cancelled because the supplier doesnt ship to private persons :(
Parts!Show
parts.jpg
parts.jpg (281.2 KiB) Viewed 9676 times
Like it was made for thisShow
qi1.jpg
qi1.jpg (201.4 KiB) Viewed 9676 times
It looks extremely cool on a transparent case tooShow
qi2.jpg
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Doums44
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Re: Godzilla VMU [In Progress]

Post by Doums44 » Sat Jun 01, 2019 5:38 am

smoki86 wrote:
Tue Mar 05, 2019 11:35 am
Luckily I had everything around to build the first VMU.

This time its going to be a slower process. Waiting for parts and finding another spot away from wife and work to build it :)

As its kinda hard to get good special edition VMUs, I settled on the Godzilla one for now. I would love to get the carbon or the 8bit design eventually though. The Godzilla one has nice dark gray buttons and when I get my hands on another I would like to put those into the original VMU as well instead of the purple ones. I do have one more spare gem if I ever get one of those.

Parts:
- Circuit Gem, stocked up on those :)
- Ordered a few 482953 850mAh a while ago, should arrive soon
- Pi Zero with all ports removed, used up the last one for the other VMU
- 2 buttons for L/R that will go into the lid, ready
- Small magnet to keep lid closed, ready
Rachat prêt
All side by sideShow
godzilla1.jpg
Godzilla!Show
godzilla2.jpg
Any ideas what else I could do to change it up a bit?
You're so lucky man!

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