Jeremy W. Langston

Personal Website

Portable Console Emulator using a Raspberry Pi

Here’s a couple pictures from my last project:  tablet-based teleprompter with 15mm support rods and a quick disconnect camera system.  It turned out very well.  One of these days I’ll post up some more detail.

image image

 

But that project’s over and my shop is missing me.  This time I’m getting back to electronics.  Lately I’ve been playing the old NES games.  Well, when I say playing, I mean with my original NES.  I left a cartridge in the console the last time I played it and all of the pins got stressed, resulting in the blinking display.  This is typical when the pins connecting to the cartridge don’t make a good connection.  Bending them back was an easy fix, and didn’t even require the removal of the security chip.

Anyways, now I’m trying to make a portable system based on a Raspberry Pi.  Having installed the RetroPie distribution, running NES/SNES/Genesis/etc. emulators are a breeze.  I bought a few other components to make sure everything would work, and then started designing.

Portable Console v3 - 1Portable Console v3 - 2

Here’s what I’ve come up with.  I went through several revisions, trying to maximize space and portability.  At the same time, I tried to keep ergonomics in mind.  The size is a bit chunky, but feels good in the hand so far.  The enclosure is made of two pieces of polypropylene.  Originally I wanted it all milled out of solid aluminum.  Not wanting to spend 500 hrs making billions of passes milling, I chickened out for something much easier to machine (set RPMs low and make heavy cuts).

The parts I’m using are, mostly, shown below:  a Raspberry Pi, a 12V-5V switching regulator from eBay, a 4.3″ TFT car monitor from Amazon, a 12V LiPo battery with integrated charging and power switch components from eBay, and the little silicon pads from a Logitech Gravis Gamepad Pro that doesn’t work.  Oh, and a Teensy v3 to make the gamepad portion.

image

 

Since I’m splitting up the buttons from a traditional gamepad with the monitor in the middle, I needed some custom PCBs.  Gamepads work by closing circuits to ground via silicon pads with bits of carbon in it.  I could use some pushbuttons, but wanted to retain the nice action of a gamepad button.  Once I got the dimensions and button positions from Inventor, I made the PCB layout in DipTrace.  Then I used the tried and true laser toner, copper clad PC board, and ferric chloride PCB solution.  It took a few tries, but I like the results.

image  image

The 4.3″ TFT monitor is a great deal for $18.  I just need to make some changes to get it how I wanted.  First was to remove the case and hardwire the power to the battery and to the regulator.  Next I needed to remove the pushbuttons on the back of the monitor.  Eventually I’d like to control them via my Teensy microcontroller because they bring up the menu for setting things like brightness, etc.

image  image

When I first got the regulator I was a bit suspicious since it looked like there was a big glob of solder bridging a couple nodes.  Metering it all out it appears OK.

image  image

 

I then hardwired power and NTSC video directly to the Raspberry Pi.  The main regulator pads were the best place to supply 5V and bypass the USB port.

image  image

Lastly I started fabricating the front of the enclosure.  I’ve got about 8 hrs into it now and haven’t made any mistakes – yay!  Unfortunately I ran out of polypropylene and had to put in a new order.  In the meantime, I am going to make the buttons.  Well, that’s all for now…

 

55 Comments

  1. Great project, playing old schools NES games on the Raspberry Pi is awesome.

  2. Thank you very much. Do you have the version of this article in arduino? is it possible to build one using arduino?

    Thank you

    • It seems you have worked hard in this project of tablet-based teleprompter with 15mm support rods and a quick disconnect camera system

    • It seems you have worked hard in this project of tablet-based teleprompter with 15mm support rods and a quick disconnect camera system.

      Regards,
      CV Folks – A leading CV writing help providing consultancy.

  3. Thank you very much for taking the time to write up this. Can I do this in arduino? any tutorial please…

    Thank you

  4. Very innovative. It reminded me of my childhood days.
    Am looking forward to its completion…:)

  5. Thank you so much for your contribution.I enjoyed a lot and i am very happy to see this kind of article.You can share more informative article.

  6. Student learning takes a lot of time and effort, especially for writing essays. However, you can turn to professionals for writing essays and they execute it very quickly and efficiently! Think about it, because it can make your learning easier and your life in general! I also have done!http://www.perfectessaysonline.com

  7. Student learning takes a lot of time and effort, especially for writing essays. However, you can turn to professionals for writing essays and they execute it very quickly and efficiently! Think about it, because it can make your learning easier and your life in general! I also have done!http://www.perfectessaysonline.com

  8. I guide the students that how they can pass the exams and how can they get the certification for the latest knowledge this certification exam students click at exam or visit its certification its better for your bright future and will helpful to attain the IT certification 

  9. Here we can read information about the portable console emulator, that uses raspberry pi. I want to say, that this portable console is really useful thing! And if you need essay go to this website http://best-essays-writers.com/. these guys are essay experts!

  10. Rena Tom | Flickr – Photo Sharing! – Flickr, a Yahoo …

  11. Thought-provoking discussion . Just to add my thoughts , if your business are looking for a service to merge are interested in merging of , my company encountered a service here http://www.altomerge.com/

  12. This console emulator is one of the great innovation in gaming industry indeed

  13. We offer a line of benefits to enhance your experience with our company. From essays, dissertations, reports and other custom writings.

  14. Whoa! This was read of the day. You should keep sharing these wonderful posts in future too. :D It will change the whole era!

  15. The Raspberry Pi is an awesome minimal smaller than expected PC for playing great computer games from your adolescence. However, because of its little size, it’s additionally conceivable to transform it into a versatile handheld amusement reassure that plays your most loved titles.

  16. Thank you for sharing this excellent information it’s really more helpful to me.

  17. nice post..this is very close to my heart..

  18. thank you for sharing, nice post !!!

  19. Pretty good post! I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
    Totally, the actual write-up is really the very best in that will worthwhile matter. I really fit in jointly with your results and certainly am going to keenly seem to be toward your own upcoming improvements. Just telling many thanks could not only be sufficient, for your exceptional readability as part of your composing.I’ll use this information to provide term papers for my friends.

  20. hi
    thank you
    very good

  21. Thanks for this valuable information which i was looking for.

  22. Thanks. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.

  23. This explains everything about emulator pretty well. I went through whole article and found its pretty well explained.
    https://www.iphone8tech.com/iphone-8-release-date-price-spec-features-rumors

  24. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.

  25. william kittrell

    July 11, 2017 at 2:29 pm

    This is true. I am ready to join with you. Great work.
    http://www.classessays.com/

  26. william kittrell

    July 12, 2017 at 2:08 pm

    Thanks for sharing this article with me. Great work. Amazing. http://www.classessays.com/

  27. This tutorial looks pretty interesting. I will follow it. Best Mechanical keyboard 2017

  28. Thanks for this. I would like to try this my home. Amazing. Buy Dissertations from Most Trusted Dissertation Writing Service http://www.dissertationtigers.com/

  29. Thanks for this. I would like to try this my home. Amazing. Buy Dissertations from Most Trusted Dissertation Writing Service http://www.dissertationtigers.com/

  30. Good way of telling, good post to take facts regarding my presentation subject matter, which i am going to deliver in my college.

  31. تابلو پلکسی گلاس سه بعدی
    پلکسی گلاس سه بعدی پلکسی گلاس سه بعدی نکته هایی مهم در تابلو سازی پلکسی گلاس پلکسی گلاس : با کناره دور حروف که به

  32. This article explains lots of doubts that I had been having. Thanks for writing such a great guide.
    https://www.tentaken.com/top-5-android-emulators-for-pc-and-mac/

  33. This is really great work. Thank you for sharing such a useful information here in the blog.

  34. Those who come to read your article will find lots of helpful and informative tips

  35. I am very glad to comment on this site with the excellent content of your site. Im very glad to meet your site. Please visit my site too.
    Thank.

  36. Much appreciated. I just unearthed your blog and needed to state that I have truly delighted in perusing your blog entries. I accept different people will be incapacitated to take a gander at this article! keep it up.

  37. Hi, it was an interesting idea. One of the best simulation techniques with this technique. Enjoy

  38. Ich hoffe sehr das dieses projekt fertiggestellt wurde. Wir haben hier einige Studien zu eigenen Computerarbeiten an der Travnik Uni vollenden können und haben dabei sehr viel mit dem Raspberry Pi gearbeitet, eine wunderbare Grundlage für solche Projekte

  39. this is exactly still a fabulous humungous task and the majority people always outsource your responsibilities to high quality commercial cleaners that include Precision Housecleaning Services. The company caters to customers near Ottertail, Perham, Fight against Lake, Henning, and additionally Vergas, combined with Pelican Rapids, Detroit Seas, Wadena, Texas Mills, Fergus Crumbles and Underwood.

  40. I have to admit that you have shared a post that is very interesting, and I can say that you have decided to give people the chance to get informed. I love the way you shared information is great. If you are in need of the best content writing services, you can always reach out to us at any given time.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

© 2024 Jeremy W. Langston

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑