Kordar's First Gaboze

[kordar99]

Alright, so I decided that one of the first things I should build shouldn't be something simple. So, in what I am calling a series of horrible mistakes and errors, I decided to build a Gaboze Pocaio. Lets run through it.

First, purchase a Gaboze board and a Pi Zero W. Then buy a Gameboy Color shell instead of a Gameboy Pocket shell. Mistake Number 1. Purchase extra sets of Pocket buttons however, because you will need them. Make sure that case and buttons are clear to showcase mistakes.

Next, purchase a 2.8 inch SPI screen, which will not fit unless you remove most of the shell interior and require you to trim and drill the board for it to screw closed. Also add an additional screw hole near the top to provide security. Cut out the sides of the shell to make it fit the SD card slot, USB Slot and Volume wheel. Cut out a 2.8inch hole in the front of the case, place the SPI screen in it and have it stay in place with pressure, pressing against the modified screen protector (from a back up camera, another GB0 build coming soon!) Since the power on the Gaboze is on the top, but the Color case has the hole on the side, I used the COMM hole; this required gluing two Pocket power switched together, extending the legs and trimming the case and the supports down. Trim the supports on all holes to make it fit and close without difficulty.

Then, wire a bunch of wires into the SPI ribbon cable and attach them to the board. Also, wire and glue the headphone jack on the back of the board, as it will not fit normally. While attaching the Pi Zero accidentally remove some of the mounting pins; realize you do not need them all, and run jumpers to the ones you do need.

After this, add the battery (the one Wermy suggests for the Kite Circuit Shield) into the cartridge, and decide that small tactile buttons won't work. So build mounts and put tactile switches into the battery case which you cut in half.

Next, realize that the preloaded image of retropie doesn't work. Use Pocketadventures guide to set up SPI screen and PWM audio. Use his guide for retrogame controls, but check the traces on all the buttons to see where they attach to the GPIO pins. I included this so that you don't have to!

Finally, close it all up and make it as pretty as possible, considering you had some superglue overspray and the case is mangled. The buttons work --Decently-- enough but I might have to add some aluminum foil or something to make them more conductive / better fit the Gaboze board.

OVERALL: I am actually pretty happy with it. Rather challenging, but fun to figure out the problems. I assume that a Circuit Shield could fit into a Gameboy color case, and that a Circuit Shield could have large back buttons (as I did here) instead of tactile switches.

Thanks for reading, any comments or criticisms? Pictures attached using the forum attachment manager, let me know if they don't load or are out of order.

[Spyder]

Looks fun and frustrating all in one. Never thought about using the 2.8 for the round one board. That's a fantastic idea since the 2.6" 51 pin screen for the round 2 is NLA

[kordar99]

Definitely frustrating. The 2.8" screen fits well, I just had to remove most of the material from around the screen, including removing the inner lip material so that the screen sits flush against the screen protector. I even had to remove some of the SPI screen material (the plastic near the ribbon cable) to center it well.

I think the overall thing looks pretty good though.

I actually can't find any of the 51 pin screens, even looking on aliexpress.