GamePi Zero

[srfrboybob]

Well, I just started my new Gameboy project. I have everything ready except my Pi Zero. I should be getting it in the next few days but here is the progress so far. I got the volume control, headphone jack, speaker and power switch working properly and all off the buttons tested out great. For audio out of the Zero I am going to use a usb sound card with a 1/8″ jack out. I hope it works… I will update this post after I find out.

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[srfrboybob]

Here is some update pics. I have everything working with a Pi 2. I am still waiting for my Pi zero to be delivered but I am really happy with the result so far

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[vwbuggsy]

This looks AWESOME! Please keep updating with build details. This is my next project. I started wanting to do this as soon as I saw the Zero and thought “hmm, I bet that would fit very cleanly into a gameboy case” :-)

[srfrboybob]

Thank you! I will keep posting when I have new up dates. I did manage to get the stock battery led to fit by sanding it flat and laying it sideways (a little case modding too). The green light you see is from the powerboost for charging he battery (turns red when almost dead, green when battery is fully charged on with power charger connected and yellow when battery is charging). I also have a pigrrl pocket from adafruit and the img of retropie worked perfectly. No setup really except a few minor adjustments.

[srfrboybob]

Oh I also had to change the trim around the rear buttons. When I would set the game Pi down the buttons would activate. I used part of the battery cover from the second gameboy I parted.

[srfrboybob]

Well… Here it is! GamePiZero and with AUDIO! A lot of work went into the image file (pocket Pigrrl image was not updated enough so I had to start from the beginning). The USB audio worked too! Did you know if there is not a USB connected to the Pi zero it will flash the green led twice and do nothing?! Well I know that now and that’s the big tip of the day! If people request it I will post the image (no roms, just a clean image with pitft setup, usb audio and retrogame.c) and here is the first GameBoyPiZero I know of and I have audio! Check back for a video link soon.

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[Anonymous]

that is awesome! great work there!

[InsecureSpike]

this looks awesome!
would this fit in a gameboy color?

[rdhanded2]

Awesome work!

[srfrboybob]

It would be tight but there are creative ways to make it fit I’m sure. The biggest issue would probably be finding the right size screen. I used a 3.2 pitft from adafruit (image attached below). I cut off both of the gpio mounts, shaved of the mounting holes and had to very carefully file down the sides a 1/16″ or so. It fits exactly in the dmg-01. Of course I had to adjust the overscale setting to keep the original look. The thickness of the screen with a board attached might be an issue too. I was also trying to use the original holes as much as possible. This limited my placement… Hmm different style battery and I could have moved the Pi to where the game slot is.

[InsecureSpike]

thanks for the reply, ok so I’ll rule out gameboy color, thank you

[herbfargus]

How did you get emulationstation to display on your screen? I can get mine up and running but emulationstation wont show up on the screen. I would be interested in your image if that’s possible.

[srfrboybob]

It will be a bit before I get an image up but I can tell you how I got it working.

First I did a fresh install of 3.2.1 retropie, and expanded the memory.

After that I followed Phil’s retropie pitft guide ( https://learn.adafruit.com/running-opengl-based-games-and-emulators-on-adafruit-pitft-displays/pitft-setup ). At the first step the code copy/paste did not work quite right (it would auto abort the bootloader install so just type in sudo apt-get install raspberrypi-bootloader and then the sudo apt-get Adafruit-pitft-helper if it aborts). So break these commands down to single command entry if need be

next I still installed the fpcp as the original guide states but the file location will default to another location (see the web link below). There are a few different issues that prevent this from working because of software file location changes but I found a forum post from Phil that solved my other issues ( https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=82865&p=421169&hilit=pitft+get_mode&sid=1b8c46db27ae88d31b319c69c57a36b9#p421169 )

Read both of these pages before you attempt the install. I fought this install for 5 or so hours until I found this forum post. Please let me know if you run into another problem with it. best of luck

Fyi-I got this 3.2.1 image to run on a pi 2, pi A+ and a Pi Zero.

[herbfargus]

Wish I had found that forum post 3 hours ago :P but thats basically what I came up with as well in the end. a few things I did differently though. I’ll lay out my steps as my hardware is slightly different too (its basically exactly the same process though)

My hardware is Odroid-W

http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=g140610189490

With the docking board with a 2.2″ screen

http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G140618854370

Steps:

Install RetroPie (in my case 3.2.1 for the rpi 1)

Raspi-Config

sudo raspi-config

expand filesystem

disable overscan

force audio to 3.5mm 

advanced options >> enable Device Tree

advanced options >> enable SPI >> load SPI kernel module by default

sudo reboot

(I may have also needed this but I cant remember)

Console at boot: Add kernel argument to the end file /boot/cmdline.txt – make sure it is all on the same line or it will break the boot sequence and require a reimage)

fbcon=map:10

Adafruit Helpers

cd
curl -SLs https://apt.adafruit.com/add-pin | sudo bash
sudo apt-get install raspberrypi-bootloader
y
sudo apt-get -y install adafruit-pitft-helper
sudo adafruit-pitft-helper -t 22
console on display? no
gpio 23 as on off button? 

FBCP

sudo apt-get install cmake
git clone https://github.com/tasanakorn/rpi-fbcp
cd rpi-fbcp/
mkdir build
cd build/
cmake ..
make
sudo mkdir /usr/local/bin
sudo install fbcp /usr/local/bin/fbcp

Instead of using the asplashscreen fix I added the boot function for fbcp to

/etc/profile.d/10-emulationstation.sh

on its own on the second line before emulationstation is called.

/usr/local/bin/fbcp &

/boot/config.txt

sudo nano /boot/config.txt
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_cvt=320 240 60 1 0 0 0 
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87
dtoverlay=pitft22,rotate=90,speed=80000000,fps=60

I also ignored the runcommand fix as it worked better without it.

I found that putty doesn’t work when fbcp is running so I just exit to the terminal and type killall fbcp

and then to restart emulationstation I created a bash script to call fbcp before emulationstation

sudo nano /home/pi/emulationstation.sh

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/local/fbcp &
emulationstation

sudo chmod +x emulationstation.sh

then to run it just type ./emulationstation

It’s still a bit rudimentary and definitely has room for improvement (I’m also trying to figure out a way to get rid of the annoying blinking cursor from the terminal as it keeps showing up on top of my games) but it is working, so I am happy.

I would still be interested in checking out your image though to compare and see what methods work best for optimisation.

[srfrboybob]

I’m working on getting an image to post up but I may have to start a fresh one to post. The image is 32 gig due to expanding my micro sd. Also it has all of my roms and other items I cannot share. Please share if you have any ideas on how to create an image in its smallest form with out the additional memory and roms/bios. It is much easier to post a file that is 4 gigs instead of 32.

[herbfargus]

yeah the simplest may be a fresh image, there is also a way to unexpand the card as well… I haven’t done it yet myself but I know its possible.

[srfrboybob]

Here is a quick video tour of my GamePi Zero. I show game play and the inside too. http://youtu.be/x4_cERnSKVw

[srfrboybob]

I was afraid of that oh well. I’ll have to create a new image just to upload. It probably won’t be until after the new year. I didn’t have any problems with putty but like I stated before (and in the video link you can hear) I have audio issues.

[ivanretrobit]

have you managed to solve the audio issues? im having the same problem even with a usb sound adapter. i have the pi at full blast with a wheel potentiometer to minimise the static and volume is controlled through the buttons :/ i would like to get rid of it completely is anyone can help me out…

[srfrboybob]

Well I have two different sound issues. I have a slight buzzing noise and a different issue with some graphic intense games. To cut the buzzing noises I had to check all my soldier connections. I also had to connect a ground to the audio amplifier from the power in side to the headphone jack ground. Try with a test wire carefully. Just touch the test wire to the amplifier ground or power source ground to the potentiometer and or the headphone jack. Do not ground out these wires! You can also try heavier gauge wires as well. This insignificantly decreased the audio buzz noise. I also went in to alsamixer And reduced the audio to about 50% (where the meter showed green and no white). Remember to also sudo alsactl store And sudo reboot I truly believe it is a amplifier ground leak through the soldiers.

[ivanretrobit]

im not sure if it is a ground issue since i have a usb sound card in there, and the wires coming from the amp are soldered on to a 3.5 male jack connector, when i plug the 3.5 jack to my phone for testing it sounds perfectly fine it only gives me static once i plug it into the usb sound card. im starting to suspect a dirty power supply because i went from a cheap chinese 2amp power supply to a slightly better one that was 1.5amp and it seemed to bring down the static a bit

[ivanretrobit]

i have found this https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20866 i will give it a try when i get home tonight and let you know my results

[solman2]

I have bean trying to get RetroPie to load on my LCD but i cant get it to load. All i have gotern is the backlight. the screen dose work if i use the supplied image. i have a WaveShare 3.2″ LCD at 320×240 I have tried countless Methods. can someone help me?

[srfrboybob]

I have tried a lot of these methods but when I work on the ground wires it truly helped. I used a power boost 1000 c I think from adafruit and thier battery. I will have to try a few more things listed in this link you posted. I am using a USB audio I got from Amazon with a headphone jack I solder. It sounded clear before I plugged it into the USB sound card. The same issue happened with my pocket Pi grrl too. It all seemed to be contested to grounding issues and my potentiometer.

[srfrboybob]

I am not familiar with the wavesshare screens. I did a search and found this link on github that might help https://github.com/notro/rpi-firmware/issues/6 You can try the links I posted above from adafruit to help with fbcp but past that I am really not sure. I spent 5+ hours trying to get my adafruit pitft 3.2 functioning. The adafruit screens trick the system to think it is still using the hdmi output.

[solman2]

Thank you looks like it could work

[solman2]

I followed the instructions on the post but nothing. should i get a new screen?

[srfrboybob]

I can’t really tell you that you have to buy another screen. There is a way out there to get it working but I am not versed enough in this issue to help with this brand. I highly recommend Adafruit products. They have a great community of support as well. I have had great results with their pitft screens. They also have access to the gpio pins (26 count) that are relocated.

[cruelcynic]

Did you ever finish the base sd image? I started with the 3.5″ tft + a pi2 and I am now switching to the 3.2″ + Zero and it would be amazing to jump start that with the image.

[ivanretrobit]

hi would you mind sharing how you got retrogame to work i have had no luck with it :/

[srfrboybob]

I have not gotten the image created yet. I should be able to start working on it by the end of this week. I will be posting it in the near future.

[srfrboybob]

Retrogame worked great for me. I followed the instructions on adafruit. https://learn.adafruit.com/retro-gaming-with-raspberry-pi/buttons

Then I used the pocket pigrrl software setup page for the four button setup after I followed the basic install of retrogame. I soldered my buttons to the same gpio pins as the pocket pigrrl. It was also important to not use gpio 24 and 25 if I remember correctly. If you use these pins the buttons just won’t respond. I would definitely read this adafruit guide and solder to the same gpio pins. https://learn.adafruit.com/pocket-pigrrl/software-1

[srfrboybob]

I have completed an 3.2.1 image to upload and will be posting a link today or tomorrow morning. The image is almost the same as I first created but I did not setup the USB audio (simple) and resize the screen. I wanted to make the image more compatible for other non Pi zero builds. Also the Vulcan pinch settings were not working exactly the same. I have my first one using start and select but this image only seems to use start and b (keyboard keys: space, alt). It’s weird but it works.

[srfrboybob]

Also be aware I left the over clock setting at high not turbo like I use.

*no bios or games were added. That is up to you and please respect the rules of the forum provided by petrockblock

[srfrboybob]

Here is the image. I hope it works and let me know if you improve it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3fj4s1ndry3u7g/gamepizero.1.16.zip?dl=0

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