Thinking about building a portable retropie console

AluLagoa

Hi all!

For some time now, I have been thinking about making a portable retropie build, but i still have some doubts.

For the display I am considering a 4.3" car tft with a 5v to 12v 2a dc-dc step-up converter.

For buttons I am thinking about tactile switches connected to the GPIO and use adafruits retrogame.

For power and charging, I am thinking about a 2a power bank that uses 2 18650 batteries.

For the pi, i can get a 1 model b cheap from a friend.

Total cost would be 35€, not including case.

Do you guys think this can work? I know it is going to be bulky, but as a first portable project, i don't want to go really small and then run in to problems fitting everything in a DMG-01 case.

Thanks.

EDIT:

Found this on a FB group i belong to: http://www.instructables.com/id/Breadboard-RetroPie/
Any experiences with this type of display?

mark1986

I found this tutorial handy when I first started out with my 1P mini bartop
http://www.cuddleburrito.com/blog/2015/5/31/connecting-raspberry-pi-arcade-buttons-to-gpio

Mine was full 6 button setup with 7' screen and the bartop was about 30x30 which may be a bit bulky for what you want it for.

Im not sure a pi 1 would fit into a gameboy case? Always thought it would only fit a pi 0

wstanek

Me too, after seeing a few things like this:

I have bought all the parts including a non-working lynx. Getting the tft to work with 5 volts can be done with some simple soldering depending on the display you get.

Just need to find the time to do it but it IS possible!

ws

obsidianspider

@wstanek Wow! I never realized how enormous a Lynx is!

AluLagoa

Edited the post with a link for a breadboard pi 0 build using a spi display.
Please tell me what you think.
Final price would go down a fourth, and final build would be smaller.