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- Oct 21, 2024
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Im no stranger to making RetroPi Handhelds, however my favorite form to make them in Is definitely OG GBA Style If you've been around Shank's Discord a bit i put a RPi 3B+ into a GBA Form Factor, well recently when i heard about this contest ive been thinking about making a new handheld and i saw the Pokedex, specifically the Gen VI Hoenn Pokedex which is semi shaped like a GBA, However this project has been done before mainly by Madmorda who made both a GBA SP Shell and a RetroPi Build as well, however I found one i can barley find any projects of or even much information about, and thats the Gen VII Kanto pokedex it seems to be about the size of a 3DS XL (I dont actually Know, that's just off speculation and what im planning the relative size of mine to be), but with only one screen, im gonna try to keep the thickness of it just the same while also trying to keep the inside wiring clean and while this isnt a software contest I wanna try to make a custom RetroPi them to give a Pokedex UI, as theres tons of "Pokedex like" Themes but non like any of the ones we see definitively in the anime
TLDR -
A RetroPi Handheld with a Gen 7 Kanto Pokedex case, roughly the Size of a 3DS XL
Clean wiring
Maintain Thiccness
Stretch Goals -
Custom Podex Retro pi Theme
Working aesthetic Lighting
Ultimate goal -
It not exploding once i power it on
Beginning
I Sourced the Parts i wanted for this, Due to size constraints there was really only one option for which SBC To use and that was the Pi Zero, so i choose the Pi Zero 2 W, Next was the display, since i wanted to go for a N2/3DSXL Form factor a screen the same size as them was only fitting, however this is where the first compromise i had to make was the 2DS screen size is actually 4.88 Inches, which dosnt come in a consumer LCD size, technically 5 inches would be closer however they dont really make TFT Lcds over 4 inches (SPI limitations i suppose ive been told even 4 inches pushes it) and would require an HDMI Connection however HDMI is super bulky and a bit beyond my capabilities to make something custom for it, so while it can be done ill stick with what i can do right now, so i went with a 4 Inch TFT LCD, however getting the pi and the Display to work together boasted some problems
Display + Pi
After an all nighter 3 versions of raspbian and 2 versions of retropie and an endless amount of ILI libraries tried, it turns out my LCDs listing was wrong, it was not an ILI It was an ST77, which is a completely different and fairly old standard, thus most libraries for it were gone or deprecated, luckily i found one that works on modern raspberry pi and after about 15 hours of trial and error i had Retropie booting on it
Case Design:
okay before i say this gotta say MAJOR DESIGN CHANGE!! i thought the pokedex would need to be bigger hence why i tried to do an XL DS rather than a normal one however for component references i was using a DS lite and found out i may actually be able to fit all this into that formfactor and the screen still look like the Bigger screen that the pokedex reference image has so moving forward im gonna use that Now: back to our regularly scheduled design -
After Taking measurements of a DS Lite and pluging them into a sketch in Fusion 360 I ended up with!... A filleted rectangle....
I then took more measurments and split the body in the exact way the top and bottom lid of the DS lite are, now this pokedex has a neat feature in that, un like a DS the top and bottom (Or the screen and controls) are not attached Via a hinge instead its like a Tablet with a Keyboard stand
So i designed it to have such a feature (And really makes my life easier since i dont have to design a hinge) So i cut off a top section of the lites bottom shell and replace it with a groove where the Top half can rest
TLDR -
A RetroPi Handheld with a Gen 7 Kanto Pokedex case, roughly the Size of a 3DS XL
The Essentials -
3DS XL SizeClean wiring
Maintain Thiccness
Stretch Goals -
Custom Podex Retro pi Theme
Working aesthetic Lighting
Ultimate goal -
It not exploding once i power it on
Beginning
I Sourced the Parts i wanted for this, Due to size constraints there was really only one option for which SBC To use and that was the Pi Zero, so i choose the Pi Zero 2 W, Next was the display, since i wanted to go for a N2/3DSXL Form factor a screen the same size as them was only fitting, however this is where the first compromise i had to make was the 2DS screen size is actually 4.88 Inches, which dosnt come in a consumer LCD size, technically 5 inches would be closer however they dont really make TFT Lcds over 4 inches (SPI limitations i suppose ive been told even 4 inches pushes it) and would require an HDMI Connection however HDMI is super bulky and a bit beyond my capabilities to make something custom for it, so while it can be done ill stick with what i can do right now, so i went with a 4 Inch TFT LCD, however getting the pi and the Display to work together boasted some problems
Display + Pi
After an all nighter 3 versions of raspbian and 2 versions of retropie and an endless amount of ILI libraries tried, it turns out my LCDs listing was wrong, it was not an ILI It was an ST77, which is a completely different and fairly old standard, thus most libraries for it were gone or deprecated, luckily i found one that works on modern raspberry pi and after about 15 hours of trial and error i had Retropie booting on it
Case Design:
okay before i say this gotta say MAJOR DESIGN CHANGE!! i thought the pokedex would need to be bigger hence why i tried to do an XL DS rather than a normal one however for component references i was using a DS lite and found out i may actually be able to fit all this into that formfactor and the screen still look like the Bigger screen that the pokedex reference image has so moving forward im gonna use that Now: back to our regularly scheduled design -
After Taking measurements of a DS Lite and pluging them into a sketch in Fusion 360 I ended up with!... A filleted rectangle....
I then took more measurments and split the body in the exact way the top and bottom lid of the DS lite are, now this pokedex has a neat feature in that, un like a DS the top and bottom (Or the screen and controls) are not attached Via a hinge instead its like a Tablet with a Keyboard stand
So i designed it to have such a feature (And really makes my life easier since i dont have to design a hinge) So i cut off a top section of the lites bottom shell and replace it with a groove where the Top half can rest
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