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    Yet another SNES Controller

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    snes snes controller retropie build
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    • G
      Geaz
      last edited by

      Hi all!

      After seeing so many cool retro gaming stations, I decided to try to build one on my own.
      This was my first project of this kind and I am a noob at soldering and electronics, but I love learning new things.

      I wanted a small gaming system which I could take with me and plug and play in any TV with HDMI & USB.
      So I decided to take a USB SNES Controller and to build a Pi Zero into it.

      The controller should expose the ports of the Pi to the outside. This way the controller wouldn't have any cables hanging out of it. Because of the forces during the process of plugging in any cables to the Pi, it was necessary to attach the Pi in any way to the controller shell. After some tests with double sided foam tape I tried to glue some screw nuts to the controller. First, I attached them to the correct spots with superglue and then secured them with dual-component adhesive.
      This seems to be a good way to attach the Pi (I am open for other suggestions for future projects :) )

      Furthermore, I removed some plastic parts from the shell.
      Because the controller hasn't enough space at the bottom for all three ports I added an additional port at the top of the controller for the power supply.

      0_1512824267489_IMG_20171209_112256.jpg

      To the fun part. Soldering the controller to the Pi.
      My first try was to solder the USB Controller directly to the USB Pads of the Pi. It was working, but I didn't know, that this would disable the USB Port of the Pi! This wasn't an option for me. I wanted to use the USB port. For example, to plug in a second controller for an additional player.

      The only option left was to solder each single button of the controller to one of the GPIOs of the PI. What a cumbersome work....but after some hours it really worked (mapped the buttons with retrogame in retropie)! I was so happy :D
      I also added a power led to "fill" the old cable hole at the top of the controller.

      0_1512824393125_IMG_20171209_115503.jpg

      0_1512824404821_IMG_20171209_113059.jpg

      Putting everything together and .... finished! I am very happy with my first result. There are plenty of things I could do better, but this won't be my last project :)

      0_1512824423286_IMG_20171209_134554.jpg

      0_1512824438346_IMG_20171209_134602.jpg

      0_1512824444380_IMG_20171209_134637.jpg

      Best regards!

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      • DorkVonWaterfallD
        DorkVonWaterfall
        last edited by

        HDMI port on the bottom of the controller?

        not so good i think.....

        01001110 01101111 01100010 01101111 01100100 01111001 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 01110011 00100000 01101001 01100000 01101101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110011 01100010 01101001 01100001 01101110 00100001

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • G
          Geaz
          last edited by Geaz

          Its quite ok, if you ask me. I use a three meters long HDMI cable and it does not bug me while playing :)
          At first I wanted all ports at the top, but it didn't fit :(

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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