Pi in a Super Famicom Build
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Instead of dropping hints all over the forum and hijacking others' threads I'm going to use this thread to document my Pi in a Super Famicom build. I'm going to be learning a LOT as I go through this, so if you have any tips or can offer help, please do so. I've already learned a ton from this forum and I'm grateful. Hopefully this will help someone else or inspire someone to do something else bigger or better, or heck, to just give it a try, like I'm going to. Loading an image to an SD card and plugging in a USB controller is one thing, but messing with hardware is a whole other level of complexity and knowledge that a lot of people never even attempt. Heck, I had my Pi 2 for over a year before I decided to give this a shot.
Goals
- Raspberry Pi 3 Running RetroPie
- Functioning Controller Ports
- Ability to Use Bluetooth Controllers If I Don't Want to Use Wired Controllers
- Functional Power LED
- Functional Power Switch
- Functional Reset Button
- Cartridge Should Do Something
- No Hacked Up Holes For Ports
Raspberry Pi 3 Running RetroPie
I've had a Pi 2 for a little over a year and have been using RetroPie with an old USB Gravis Gamepad Pro and it's worked well. I plan to use the Pi 2 to do my testing and mocking up so if I blow something up it's not the new, faster Pi. I won't be able to do any Bluetooth stuff with it, but that's something I can tinker with once the wiring is set and I don't have to worry about shorting something out. I want to keep the Pi as a swappable component (no soldering or modifying the Pi itself) so when a new model comes out I can just unplug everything from the old Pi and plug it into the new one.
Functional Controller Ports
From what I've read, these can be wired directly to the GPIO. Even though the controllers are designed to run at 5V, the GPIO inputs are intended to operate at 3.3V, but apparently most controllers still work running at 3.3V. Super Famicom controller cables are notoriously short, so I will be using extensions, so I'm hoping the extra 2m of length won't be an issue.
Ability to Use Bluetooth Controllers If I Don't Want to Use Wired Controllers
Functioning wired controllers are not only cool, but there's just something about the real Nintendo hardware that just feels right when playing these old games that you just don't get out of an aftermarket controller. That said, sometimes cables are a pain, or you want a different style of controller (PS3, XBox, or even an 8bitdo) instead. I haven't been able to figure out how RetroPie handles Bluetooth and/or GPIO/USB controllers and my post on reddit and on this forum have gone unanswered. I'll have to mess around with this after I get everything else working and I get a Pi 3 that has Bluetooth.
Functional Power LED
This is pretty straightforward, but I want the power light to indicate when the Pi is powered on. I should be able to do this pretty easily with the Mausberry Circuit that I'll be using control to power to the Pi. Note: The picture of the use your own switch on the website is out of date and does not include the LED connection point. Here's a photo of the one they sent to me:
Functional Power Switch
I want the Super Famicom switch to turn the Pi on and off. I'll be using a Mausberry Circuit so I'm not just cutting power to the Pi when I turn the switch to off. This will also allow me to shut it down without going through the EmulationStation menu.
Functional Reset Button
I'm not 100% on what I want this to do. I'm torn between having it reboot the Pi or just exit the emulator and go back to EmulationStation. It looks like it's fairly straightforward to connect the momentary switch to a GPIO pin and then have that trigger a script. If anyone else has a suggestion on what would be a useful thing for the Reset switch to do, I'd love to hear it.
Cartridge Should Do Something
I've seen a lot of "Pi in a console" builds where it's just the console, and that's cool, but as a kid I always left the last game I was playing plugged in, and it just looks neat. I want the cartridge slot to be functional in some way, including the pins. Originally I was thinking of doing the "SD Card in the Cartridge" mod that sudomod did on their GameBoy Zero (Does anyone know what the proper name is for those alligator clips with the plastic protectors on the ends? I can't find them anywhere.) and using a Super Mario World game shell with a different game's board as a donor (I just can't bring myself to take a working "good" game totally out of commission) . After reading around a bit, including on the build blog, apparently SD cards can be a bit touchy when it comes to noise, so I thought this may not be a great option. I thought about [putting a hard drive in the shell] which could be neat, and USB seems to be more tolerant of weird connectors, but after seeing this fantastic bartop and Danik's Retro G I knew I needed to put a screen in a cartridge. I was going to use the same Adafruit ST7565 that /u/jenkinl1302 used, because it looked cool with the animation and the programming didn't seem too tough, but that screen is discontinued. I saw the 2.2" screen on moosepr's Pi Zero Portable and decided that full color would be the way to go and that I would display game art on the cartridge, so it would essentially be like having the cartridge plugged in for each game you're playing. The screen isn't as wide as the cartridge label, but it's about the same height, and a lot of PAL Super Nintendo cartridges have game art as a section in the middle, so I'm hoping that I can replicate that feel and either get a custom label printed (not sure where) or just paint the label area on the cartridge that I end up using. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle displaying images to it yet (it looks like at least part of this will be with
runcommand-onstart.shandruncommand-onend.sh), as the programming doesn't seem as straightforward as the GLCD used on /u/jenkinl1302's bartop, but it looks like fim can display images from a script, so if I can tell it which display to use, that may work. I was also thinking about putting text on the screen, but I have no idea how to go about that. Text is a bit of scope creep from just displaying game art, but if I can get that to work, maybe I could have the reset button toggle the display to show game art, system stats, or turn it off? I dunno.No Hacked Up Holes For Ports
In just about every "Pi in a Console" build I've seen the builder takes a lot of time to figure out things like how to wire up controllers, get switches working, and then they just whack some holes in the back for cables to connect to. I'm not sure why that is, but for this build I want to make as few external modifications as possible. Since the Super Famicom's power port is a separate piece from the rest of the bottom plastic, I'm hoping that I can use it as a model and then either make a replacement piece out of fiberglass or model it for a 3D printer and then use keystone jacks so I can swap out ports as needed if some new thing becomes available that I want to plug into the Pi. I don't have a 3D printer (but a friend does) but I don't know how to go about the modeling part.
Parts
With ideas pretty much mapped out, I've ordered a bunch of parts, but the main piece, the Super Famicom, is still on its way from Japan. It was $30 including shipping and should be here by early September. Hopefully it looks as good as it did in the pictures on eBay.
Parts that I've ordered that are here:
- Super Mario World Super Famicom game ($15, including shipping) for the now abandoned hard drive idea (Maybe I'll display it or maybe I'll use different pins and do the hard drive idea, I'm not sure, as a person who grew up with the bland American game art, the Japanese cartridge is so much cooler)
- J.League Excite Stage '96 ($4, including shipping) to use as a donor for the board and putting the screen into
- 2 Super Famicom controllers ($21, including shipping)
- 2 Super Nintendo extension cables ($7, including shipping)
- Mausberry Circuit to control power to the Pi ($20, including shipping)
I will be using my existing Pi 2 as well as a T-board for mocking things up.
Yesterday I ordered a 2.2'' SPI TFT LCD Display Module Board 240x320 For ILI9341 ($9, including shipping, Chinese sellers were less expensive but had a shipping time of around a month) and it should be here on Tuesday.
I'm going to need to figure out ribbon cables, HDMI patches, Micro USB extensions and I'm sure some other miscellaneous stuff, but I can't map out too much more until the Super Famicom arrives. In the mean time I think my next steps will be to continue reading and to try to figure out how to get the second screen working once it arrives next week.
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I've built a few Pi3s in old SuperFamicom. Used the mausberry circuits board to retain the original power and reset buttons. And a USB hub for the controllers
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Hi there. One solution for powering the pi could be a power source like that.
The PRSA-AC1A for Sony EBooks reader. It provides real 1,5A by 5,1V ist very stable and looks very smooth :) -
@cyperghost I'm probably going to get one of the Pi kits on Amazon that includes a 2.5A power supply. From what I've heard, the Pi 3 is pretty power hungry.
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@cyperghost That power supply is barely enough to power the Pi2, definetely not enough amperage for the Pi3. I use a 2.5a power supply and still get the low power "rainbow box" from time to time when using 4 controllers.
obsidianspider: I'd get a 2.5a or even a 3amp power adapter if I were you. If you decided to use a Mausberry Circuits power adapter, make sure is a direct plug in style
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I have a super famicom body coming in the mail soon. I'll be doing a similar build but using original controllers.
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@demesauce said in Pi in a Super Famicom Build:
obsidianspider: I'd get a 2.5a or even a 3amp power adapter if I were you. If you decided to use a Mausberry Circuits power adapter, make sure is a direct plug in style
This is the one I got which I believe is what you meant. I'm not going to power it by GPIO.
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@Rookervik said in Pi in a Super Famicom Build:
I have a super famicom body coming in the mail soon. I'll be doing a similar build but using original controllers.
I'll be using Super Famicom controllers too. I look forward to seeing your build!
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@obsidianspider that's the one. I had one that requires a separate USB cable and it didn't allow enough amperage between the Pi and the Mayberry circuits board.
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I did mine like a year ago. Never got around to making a dedicated thread.
I directly connected controller ports to gpio. Power led works without doing anything extra. Reset works. I had to replace original AC power port because I kept getting the rainbow box. I split a wire to power button. I shutdown on ES first, then shut power off. No issues so far. Audio port just in case.
I originally tried to put an sd card inside a cart but that was more trouble than it's worth. Sometimes it wouldn't read. In the end I went with usb and it's faster to do (4 wires), and very reliable.
For the yellowing i highly recommend you dip your sfc/snes in a mix of water and peroxide for a week. Both sides. Otherwise, it will start to chip and break. Mine was almost brown. The end results aren't perfect but hardly noticeable.
!
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@Darksavior This looks great!
Any tips on the peroxide thing? Did it make the console less brittle, or just remove some of the brown-ness? I've seen some people use just regular peroxide that you'd put on a wound and other people say to get high concentration stuff.
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@demesauce said in Pi in a Super Famicom Build:
@cyperghost That power supply is barely enough to power the Pi2, definetely not enough amperage for the Pi3. I use a 2.5a power supply and still get the low power "rainbow box" from time to time when using 4 controllers.
obsidianspider: I'd get a 2.5a or even a 3amp power adapter if I were you. If you decided to use a Mausberry Circuits power adapter, make sure is a direct plug in style
@demesauce said in Pi in a Super Famicom Build:
@cyperghost That power supply is barely enough to power the Pi2, definetely not enough amperage for the Pi3. I use a 2.5a power supply and still get the low power "rainbow box" from time to time when using 4 controllers.
obsidianspider: I'd get a 2.5a or even a 3amp power adapter if I were you. If you decided to use a Mausberry Circuits power adapter, make sure is a direct plug in style
Guys you are all right. If you use a 2,5a suppyl and get the rainbow box please check the length of your power USB cable. That's the advantage of the Sony power supply. You can use very short USB cable (maybe 5") and you get real 1,5A on 5,1 Voltage. I used this to power one USB controller, one USB stick, one Keyboard and two BT controllers and I never saw the rainbow nor the Pi gets underpowerd by playing PSX games :)
I got also a cheap 2,5A power supply, no chance - it lacks of relieable support of constant voltage and gets down :)
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@cyperghost I can definitely see an issue with a cheap power supply, but I'm still wondering about a 1.5A one being enough. That said, if it works for you, go with it. One thing I've seen with Raspberry Pis is that no one's setup is identical to anyone else's.
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Well two solutions:
Bye one from europa :)
Bye a newer one from the US, Japan or europa :)You might use some Hydrogenperoxid to bleach the case but the plastic (ABS) is in poor condition and lacks of UV stabilaziers or some other batch ingredents were not properly mixed :(
So some day you have to bleach it again and again. Check youtube there are some howtos :) -
@obsidianspider
Yes I know, but defintly the length of the USB power cord is also important. You can have a 5 amps power supply but you can't power the Pi with a 20m cord because it may lack of the right voltage. I think the Pi3 got a maximum power of 6W and this are 1,2 amps. And if you got a good power supply with stabilized voltage then 1,5A of supply + some extras are enough.So the advantage of this power supply is the very short USB cord :)
But I tested a portabel 2,5" drive It needs in peak 0,7A and in standby 0,3A I was able to get it started but on playing a PSP title the Pi got down :(
So with keyboards and controllers there seems no problem :) -
@cyperghost First off the PS3 requires a whole lot more power than 6W, more like 250-380 watts depending on the model. The number of watts is equal to amps multiplied by volts.
I agree that cheap quality cables cannot carry the "advertised" amperage, but according to Raspberry Pi, 1.5a is not sufficient power. Doesn't matter if the USB portion of the power supply is 1 mm, if you don't start with enough power, you'll never have it.
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@demesauce PS3?
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Oops, my bad. cyperghost was talking about a playstation power adapter. And then he brought up 6 watts and low amperage and something about your mom.... kidding.
Anyways, disregard the PS3
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@demesauce
Sorry I didn't get you. Where did I talked about a PS power adapter? PSP means Playstation portable so please ask yourself what are you telling.Well what else could I say. If you use power hungry USB devices than you need 2.5A but if you run just the Pi3 than 1.5A is more then enough. A 1mm power supply isn't possible because of the male and female plugs - you know. If the voltage is lower than 4.65V the rainbow square will appear and that's just a question of how stable your power supply is. Nothing more nothing less... But please don't get upset - just talk like a mature, okay? It's a great forum here and we no one wants to get this poisoned by a skirmish.
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