Customized PCB for the gaming console primarily based on RP2040
On this weblog put up, we delve additional into the fascinating journey of crafting a retro-style game console entirely from the ground up—an extension of my earlier article.
The preliminary model was constructed utilizing the RPi Pico as the principle board, with further modules built-in round it. However, for the upcoming iteration, I aimed to raise the intrigue additional and opted to create a customized printed circuit board (PCB) particularly tailor-made for the console.
Studying KiCad:
After dabbling with a bunch of design instruments, free and fancy ones included, I lastly discovered my groove with KiCad. It may not be the famous person of design instruments, nevertheless it’s bought the fundamentals and a killer group to again it up. Leaping into open supply instruments is at all times a little bit of a rollercoaster firstly, with the educational curve feeling like a mountain. Wrangling the PCB design in KiCad took me a superb few months—about 10 iterations’ price—to get it good and cozy. Shoutout to the myriad open supply RP2040 boards, particularly those from Adafruit, for educating me the nitty-gritty of PCB design.
PCB Design and Fabrication Journey:
So, as a beginner PCB designer, I used to be on the sting when my design was virtually prepared. I stored going over it for what felt just like the gazillionth time, fearing one thing would possibly go south. After a number of months of this insanity, I lastly determined that my design was good to go for fabrication.
Now, the true problem kicked in – choosing a fabrication vendor and selecting elements primarily based on what’s out there. I performed round with modifications for various distributors, which meant going again to the drafting board a number of occasions. Ultimately, I settled on this fab firm in China that is fairly well-known. They did an superior job, and the customs costs have been surprisingly simple on the pockets.
Enjoying with Gadget Drivers:
So, when the PCBs lastly rolled in, my first transfer was checking if the system performed good in each boot mode and common mode. To my shock, I managed to slap on a hiya world code with out a hitch. A bunch of oldsters diving into customized PCB designs for the primary time have been griping about units not getting detected or struggling to add code. Fortunate for me, every thing labored like a attraction, although I did goof up on the SPI pins for the SD Card.
I picked pins for each the LCD and SD Card that danced to the identical SPI controller. That meant I might solely use one after the other. Not a biggie for me, although, since I had no plans to provide SD Card some love within the close to future. Even when I modify my thoughts, I can nonetheless resort to PIO programming to make it occur. I tinkered with Micropython and managed to juggle each the LCD and SD Card with out breaking a sweat on the efficiency entrance. For the reason that LCD is a kind of units that is a bandwidth hog, I could not afford any dips in efficiency there.
Attaining a Totally Operational OS:
After a number of extra months of grappling with challenges, I triumphed in getting all of the units on the customized PCB up and operating, mirroring the performance of the earlier system model with none compromises. Witnessing the video games come to life on the brand new system introduced an enormous smile to my face. It has been fairly a journey!
Open Supply:
The mission stays true to its roots, with each the {hardware} and software program being absolutely open supply and accessible within the repository GameTiger Console source.