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Portable Handheld Gaming Device

AKA

Pokedex

Project Overview

August 2017 - Ongoing

This was a for fun project that was initially going to be a present. It ended up becoming a little more involved because i wanted to make it a little more customized and stream lined. Its still in progress, and advancing as time goes on. 

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Electronics:

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Initially the plan was to use a Pi 3 as the main board because it would be more powerful (able to emulate more game systems), however upon realizing most people (including the person the present was for) wouldn't be using those higher end systems then it was switched to a Pi Zero. Doing so required a bit of changes to the PiTFT display board in order to make the profile smaller. The female headers on the board were desoldered and the other sit of male pins were snipped. this bright the thickness of the Pi Zero + TFT screen from approximately an inch down to about half an inch. 

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After this was done, in an attempt to make the programming a bit easier as well as make the system more modular, it was decided that using the Teensy 2.0 board would be more effective than wiring directly to the GPIO pins of the pi.  This allows for the buttons and joystick to be programmed there and when plugged into the pi, seen as a programmable controller. Also note that since the buttosn on the TFT board were not programmed to the GPIO, they were jumped to the Teensy as well. Use of the Teensy allows for removal of parts in a simpler manner if need for replacement were to ever arise.

 

The final challenge was sound and getting sound from the PI Zero which can really only be done 3 ways, GPIO (the way i chose) I2S or usb. I chose GPIO because it was only 1 pin connected to a simple low pass filter circuit versus multiple for I2S and usb was already being used by the Teensy. 

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CAD:

 

The case was custom designed and CAD went through multiple iterations. It was actually inspired by the Pokedex from my favorite Pokemon game as a kid. There were 4 major iterations of the design and some smaller changes made as time went on to make things fit nicer as well as be more aesthetically pleasing. 

Parts List: 

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  • Raspberry Pi Zero (initially started with a Pi3 and later changed to a PiZero after figuring out how to get a smaller overall body thickness)

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  • 2.8" PiTFT Plus 320 x 240

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  • 2000 mAh 3.7V Li-Po Battery & PowerBoost 1000 Charger

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  • Analog Thumbstick breakout board & Mini 2 Axis Analog Thumbstick

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  • Mini Metal Speaker & Adafruit Class D Amplifier 

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  • PiGrrl custom gamepad

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  • Teensy 2.0 

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  • Low pass audio filter

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  • Tactile switches 6mm

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  • Custom designed 3D Printed Parts

 

Future Upgrades: 

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Currently the system is in working order with a few bugs in the software here and there. Most of these are just finding time to tune in some settings. Another thing I'd like to add in is a Battery indicator overlay that is always present so it doesn't just slow down and die on you. a few other upgrades would be some jumped out LEDs for charging indicators and such as well as a few ergonomic fixes in the case.

© 2023 by Chad Boodoo, Mechanical Engineering. Proudly created with Wix.com

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