What TFT shields are compatible?

[leumasmacgmail-com]

I’m looking into finding a good LCD touchscreen to make my retropie portable and have a way to react to the touch of a finger than a styles pen. I don’t want it to be too small and I don’t want it to be too expensive. Do any of you know of what screen(s) that will work or are the demands too big. Please let me know.

[garyw536]

Hope i’m not too late to the party!

Many of the 5″ or 7″ HDMI displays on Ebay work great out of the box with RetroPie. If you need something smaller though you want either the 2.8″ or 3.2″ SPI TFT’s with a maximum resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. You will have to do some work though getting it to function. I can recommend either the AdaFruit TFT28, AdaFruit TFT32 or the AdaFruit compatible LCD’s from http://www.squirrel-labs.co.uk and the fantastic tutorial by Phillip Burgess on the AdaFruit Website – https://learn.adafruit.com/running-opengl-based-games-and-emulators-on-adafruit-pitft-displays/pitft-setup

It has recently been updated for RetroPie 3.6, but it does not mention how to get the touchscreen functioning.

I am using a Squirrel-Labs TFT28r with RetroPie 3.6 running on a Pi Zero fitted inside an original Nintendo Gameboy enclosure. Works great. I am just trying to get the touchscreen functioning though.

Enjoy!

[effe]

will the tutorial by Phillip Burgess work for the 2.8″ sold by squirrel labs?
And does it fit inside the gameboy case, or did you have to cut the PCB?

I have this at home (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nextion-2-8-HMI-TFT-Touch-Screen-LCD-Display-Module-for-Arduino-Raspberry-Pi-/151888100615?rmvSB=true) but I am not sure if I can use it as a monitor, i.e. I’m trying to find info online if it can work as a standard monitor, or if it’s only to create +/- static GUIs in some programming language..

[garyw536]

The Squirrel Labs 2.8″ display is AdaFruit compatible and works great with both the AdaFruit drivers and the tutorial by Phillip Burgess. The display needs a little filing and fitting, but does just squeeze in a GameBoy case. I had to carefully file about 0.5mm-1.0mm off each side making sure I did not file through any tracks. Then I drilled out and elongated the mounting holes to make it fit over 3 of the support posts in the GameBoy plastics. The 4th post had to be removed from the plastics as it is over the displays header.

The Nextion looks just like a generic SPI screen to me. If you can get Pi compatible drivers for it then it should work OK with the fbcp program required to duplicate the display output. However, it looks a little expensive for a screen of that type, particularly as it is from China. The Squirrel Labs display is roughly the same price, but that has proper Pi connections and known working drivers.

Hope this helps?

[effe]

nice, thanks a lot for your suggestion. I’m going to order it and give it a try.
Apparently the Nextion is just a HMI screen and it would be too slow for ca. 25fps.

How much play time can you squeeze out of the pimped-up gameboy? Once I’ll mount all the PCBs, I will try to find the biggest possible battery that fits in the case :)

[garyw536]

I am still in the process of setting up the emulators and games on RetroPie so have not really done any battery life tests. However, I am using a 2000mAh Li-ion battery removed from a faulty DS-Lite console and as the whole system draws about 500mA I would expect to get 3-4 hours of gameplay IF the battery is still good.

During the setup I have found the following;
1. The GameBoy, GameBoy Color, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx and PC Engine emulators run perfectly.
2. The GBA and NES emulators work OK but have slight sound issues. This is probably due to way I have extracted audio from the Pi Zero and the known bugs in the Alsa driver.
3. The default Sega Game Gear emulator runs slightly slow, but the alternative one runs OK. However, I cannot get the alternative gg emulator to run full-screen.
4. The SNES, Genesis, WonderSwan and NeoGeo Pocket emulators run too slowly to play.
5. When using a Pi Zero through the HDMI only then all the above emulators, except Genesis, run OK. I can only put this down to the extra CPU load of the “fbcp” program driving the SPI display.

As my original intention for the Pi powered Gameboy was to only run the GameBoy, GameBoy Color and GBA emulators I consider my project to be successful. I was also surprised how well the PC Engine emulator runs which is a bonus as it has some of my favourite games. However, I might try a second one using a Pi 2 despite the potential poor battery life.

I am currently searching Ebay for another faulty GameBoy!

[effe]

I’m waiting for a RPi zero, which I never used but I hope it’s fast enough, and the power consumption should be much lower than the RPi B I’m currently testing.
Also, it will probably fit into a game cartridge.

What did you do for the monitor? did you leave the 2.8″ exposed or did you put a glass in front of it? I’m considering enlarging the hole for the monitor so to fit a 2.8″, and going for a laser-cut plexiglass to replace the original GB glass.

For the case – I know it’s not as cute as the original one, but if you can’t find one: http://www.ebay.de/itm/OEM-Full-Housing-Shell-for-Nintendo-Gameboy-Classic-GB-DMG-Console-/401071468866?hash=item5d61b8f142:g:7yYAAOSwDuJWv8fs

[garyw536]

The Pi Zero is a tiny bit faster than the original Pi, but you cannot over-clock it. It’s a great little unit though. The extra RAM makes it more useful than the model A/A+. I have used 2 already and are awaiting stocks to get my hands on another. I will try a Pi2 in my next model which has quite a bit more grunt.

I have left the display exposed as I want to get the touchscreen working. That way I can select the emulator and game using a stylus. I have a printed and laminated surround to tidy the screen up.

Those Gameboy cases are nice, thanks, but obviously you don’t get the circuit boards. I modified the original front circuit board for the button contacts and used the LCD contrast control for a volume control. I also used the original speaker. On the next one I will probably use the headphone socket PCB also.

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