Portable project budget - how to make it cheaper?

diegzumillo

Hi there!
I'm really excited to get started working on a portable videogame. I did some research and my first shopping cart is about 92 dollars. Which I find it a bit pricey. I'm trying to come up with alternatives to make it cheaper. I mean, I paid 99 for my nintendo 2DS, it should be possible to make something cheaper.

Anyone has suggestions on cheaper alternative parts? Here's the list I made:

rearview car monitor screen. 15
generic usb gamepad : 4
powerboost usb (to connect the charger and the battery to the board) 14
-LiPo battery 15
and, of course, raspberry pi 3

Cole_48

I have a similar question, want to see the responses, I am using similar parts just a pitft which is a little more expensive but I have many of the others parts already

diegzumillo

I guess there won't be many more replies. But I believe this is about the minimum budget we can go. I just realized that it's almost exactly the same parts as the PiGRRL build.
You can cut a few dollars here and there but doesn't amount to much and I have to lose quite a few features I want, like being able to use it while it's recharging.

Pifan

Hi diegzumillo / Cole_48,

I have to say that $92 sounds quite reasonable for a portable, especially for a first build. I recently finished my first Pi portable and it ended up costing me a little over £200 here in the UK, so about 300 Dollars if I include shipping for the parts (which I do). You probably think that sounds crazy, the worst part is it only plays MAME and NES at the moment because I used an early Cupcade build for the OS. I chose to use Cupcade because I didn't want to tinker with the software to get my Adafruit tft up and running on Retropie at the time.

When I first set out on my project I didn't budget for mistakes. I completely messed a Powerboost 500 up by desoldering the charge and battery LEDs for relocation purposes. When I soldered new wires onto the pads I accidentally ripped the traces up with careless handling. I also fried a couple of those cheap rearview car displays through experimentation. I think perhaps I am a bit wiser and better at it now, having spent 6 months building, researching and purchasing parts.

Another cost I didn't factor in here was for new tools. Many of them weren't essential, but they definitely helped. I would say that the minimum you could get away with is a soldering iron, solder, a screwdriver kit and possibly a pair of wire strippers. Other items I purchased specifically for this project were a budget multimeter, hot glue gun (with which I try to avoid where possible), precision tweezers (a very under rated tool), helping hands, flux - helped a lot, side cutters and a Dupont crimping tool.

I think the single most expensive item was the LiPo battery because they are hard to get hold of in the UK. I got a 2000 mAh battery for £40 !! half of that £40 was shipping expenses because it was couriered as a dangerous item. I have since found a supplier that sells them for 1/4 of the price. Still, I'm not bitter though. The whole thing was worth it and I'm now on with my second (& third) portables.

Sorry, my post didn't help you shave any money off your build cost, but like I said $92 is what I would consider to be good price for something that will hopefully result in a unique and fun to play console.

Hope it all works out for you.

diegzumillo

Thanks, Pifan. I suspected my budget was realistically as low as it gets and you confirmed it.

I think it's still worth it though. DIY projects are fun by themselves, and after that I'll have a hand held that'll last forever and it's a unique item made by me for me. At least until it breaks and I have to fix it. haha.

kris964

I have to agree with Pifan. $92 isn't much of an investment for something that is almost every game system created. Keep in mind you get what you pay for. The better quality parts are going to last much longer and function better.