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- Jun 25, 2021
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Hello all,
For this year's contest, I decided to take another swing at a previous project submission I had: The GBA XL SP!
I have completely restarted from the ground up with this project.
The idea behind this project is to leverage the FunnyPlaying ITA screen kit for the GBA to output GBA video to the DSi XL screen.
This will be different from my previous attempt in that I won’t be reusing the main board from the GBA SP. Instead, I’ll be designing a custom board that will use real GBA CPU and RAM chips (not chips from the GBA SP, just because of convenience).
This will allow me to make a no compromise extra large GBA SP that has all the features I want.
Planned features include:
The shell will be 3D printed and modeled to have similar design notes as the GBA SP, much like how the DSi and DSi XL have a similar design language.
Below are some screenshots of the prototype CAD models I have.
Here’s a size comparison with the GBA SP (which I reverse engineered for this project)
I was also toying around with a version of the shell that takes design cues from the DSi XL, here’s a quick preview of what I started for that, which (hopefully) conveys the vision:
On the custom board side of the project, I began replicating the GBA’s core schematic and adding on my custom circuitry for battery management, power regulation, and audio.
My next update should include my progress with testing the custom parts of the design before completing the main board.
Until then, thanks for reading!
For this year's contest, I decided to take another swing at a previous project submission I had: The GBA XL SP!
I have completely restarted from the ground up with this project.
The idea behind this project is to leverage the FunnyPlaying ITA screen kit for the GBA to output GBA video to the DSi XL screen.
This will be different from my previous attempt in that I won’t be reusing the main board from the GBA SP. Instead, I’ll be designing a custom board that will use real GBA CPU and RAM chips (not chips from the GBA SP, just because of convenience).
This will allow me to make a no compromise extra large GBA SP that has all the features I want.
Planned features include:
- Rear Face Cartridge Slot
- Front Face EXT Port
- Dedicated Headphone Port
- Identical thickness to GBA SP
- USB-C Charging
- Improved Audio Quality
- DS Lite Style Shoulder Buttons
- Larger Battery
- Dockable Video Output and Controller Input (Via RP2350 and MelonHD)
- Stereo Speakers (Depending on which audio components I can find)
The shell will be 3D printed and modeled to have similar design notes as the GBA SP, much like how the DSi and DSi XL have a similar design language.
Below are some screenshots of the prototype CAD models I have.
Here’s a size comparison with the GBA SP (which I reverse engineered for this project)
I was also toying around with a version of the shell that takes design cues from the DSi XL, here’s a quick preview of what I started for that, which (hopefully) conveys the vision:
On the custom board side of the project, I began replicating the GBA’s core schematic and adding on my custom circuitry for battery management, power regulation, and audio.
My next update should include my progress with testing the custom parts of the design before completing the main board.
Until then, thanks for reading!