RetroPie in a Dreamcast VMU!
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@moosepr do you have a link on how to wire it directly?
Edit: Nm. The page didnt load all the posts. I see it now
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Hi. Checking in from the other vmu build thread on sudomod ;)
One of the pieces of my puzzle arrived which was a tiny charge/boost board. I'll be doing a bit more of mine soon,but will probably end up doing a custom pcb for it something like @moosepr's PiCB-tft board. -
just a dump of info for anyone venturing down this rabbithole. the screen will run as a st7735, but the driver is trying to do 128x160, so its not ideal!!
it will also run as an ili9163. the resolution is correct at 128x128, but the driver is behaving weird!! it technically runs upside down (chip at the top) and the rotation chops off some of the screen at 180 and 270
if your interested, if you follow my guide in my signature, but replace the contents of
/etc/modprobe.d/fbtft.confwith
options fbtft_device name=fb_ili9163 gpios=reset:25,dc:24 speed=40000000 bgr=1 rotate=0 custom=1 fps=60then you will have a working screen!!!!!1
want to get a tft into your project, look no further than here https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7464/ili9341-tft-screen-guide
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Imagine if the VMU itself could be configured to be fit inside a Dreamcast controller and it would be able to recognize the controller.
Wouldn't that be cool? -
@itsnitro since it doesnt have a select button on the controller you couldnt play super nintendo games. But you could play genesis games.
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@moosepr I think for the VMU having the cable come out the top will work better (0 rotation) anyway since the buttons will bump right against the screen. Here's an image of the VMU from a teardown on iFixit.
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I started a build thread to contain the discussion in one spot as I work on this.
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@obsidianspider and your signature got another icon! :)
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@ABrugsch Which charge/boost board did you end up getting?
I really need to learn how to make a PCB…
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PCB making is easy, if you have the chemicals and materials. You can use either a laser jet printer, or an inkjet printer and use a developer and pcb etchant and make your own using EagleCAD software or something to print the board out.
The guy doing this went a bit overboard with the UV lamp and etc, you can do the same thing by sticking the PCB in front of a window during the day:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-Printed-Circuit-Boards-with-a-INKJET-Prin/
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@obsidianspider said in RetroPie in a Dreamcast VMU!:
@ABrugsch Which charge/boost board did you end up getting?
Uhhhh... A random ebay one that someone in the sudo discord pointed me to. I'll get a link for you but I haven't been able to find a similar one on aliexpress or other shops since.
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@obsidianspider
here you go: came in about 2 weeks
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252442590514
I haven't hooked it up yet as it only came the other day, but I reckon once the USB A socket has been removed and I replace the 3.0uH inductor with a flat one, then it'll be good to go -
@ABrugsch Thanks! I'm curious as to how it'll work out. I'll keep an eye on your build over at sudomod, and thanks for being one of the first to attempt this.
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If you are interested in doing it, I actually need to make a few custom PCBs myself. Perhaps I could make a prototype one for you to start off with and see how you like it.
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@masteryoer It's just a general "I want to learn how to do this one day" kind of thing. I am more curious about how to design them. I'd probably have someone like OSH Park actually make them for me, but I appreciate it. Etching one myself is something I can see me tinkering with at some point in the future.
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@obsidianspider etching them yourself is overrated now that it's so cheap to get them made by OSHP/PCBway etc.
however for a keyboard PCB I have planned, self etching might be the only way to go for the prototype phase ;) -
$5 a square inch for a prototype board is hardly cheap. Etchant can be made with 'mostly' household materials and costs a lot less when prototyping, and also has the ability for rapid prototyping as you don't have to design, wait 12-14 days to find out it doesn't work, waste the $20-30 it cost to produce it, design another one, spend another 20-30 to find out it's still wrong, etc. I would definitely suggest getting one printed the right way after design is tested and working, but for prototyping it's rather expensive.
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yeah the PCB fab option isnt really really cheap, but i guess you will know for sure that any problems you have are from bad design rather than a bad etch
some of the Chinese ones are reasonable. got 5 of my PiCB boards made for $10 over on "pcb way" but the postage stung me $12
the same boards from OSHpark would have been $42.05 for 3 boards, but no shipping costs
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@masteryoer it depends on how complex and how fine your design is. If you're doing stuff with big through hole components then sure. if you've got fine pitch SMD IC's then good luck getting results first time.
also by the time I've farted about with the noxious chemicals, set everything up in a safe environment, and also disposed of the chemicals in an environmentally safe way, then yeah sure, $5 per sq. in. (x3) is of the more pricy, but PCBway is $10 plus shipping for 10 copies of a 10cm x 10cm board. sure there are pros and cons to both methods, and if ultimate cheap is your goal then self etching is the way to go. but it's now become "cheap enough" that I really am beyond caring to mess about with etchant. been there, done that, got chemical burns in the T-shirt (joke)
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@moosepr I have heard of PCBWay, but didn't think to use them for smaller boards as I had thought they had a minimum size requirement. I need a couple of custom small PCBs made for some xbox 360 components that I removed for use for another console I am building for a friend. $10 for 10 boards isn't bad, but would they allow me to make 10 different designs for that same price?
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