My Pitendo

[samuelellis]

So we all know what the RaspberryPi is. I have started work on a another project. I am using a raspberry Pi as an emulation station for old consoles

Now i have a few goals for this

-Fits into an old game console case
-Can easily swap the SD card out so one board will do emulation and HTPC


Now i have been using a Pi board for a while as a HTPC so i already had the board and a fully working/configured SD card for HTPC so that is half of it done already

So first descision is the case, i looked around for an old console and came across a NES in good condition but electically broken



Strip it down, this is a NES stripped down incase you are interested



Then i left it to soak in some hot soapy water for a couple of days to make sure the plastic was nice and clean. The issue with re-using a old console case is the insides are built around the original hardware so trim out it all



then get a flat base



This was stuck down and left to dry, i will re-use the bits cut out to help give me a flat base under the console to make filling easier.

Now i took this time to build the software

First of all get a 2nd SD card and install the standard Linux OS

Once this is installed it is time to install the emulator software, someone wrote a script that does it all for you called RetroPie but i will step through what i did to get it installed and running

1. log into the console
2. Run Sudo apt-get update - this updates the repository
3. sudo apt-get upgrade -y git
4. sudo apt-get install -y git dialog - this installs the required software to download things from the GIT repository
5. Make sure you are in the Home Directory (if you type PWD it should show you are in \home\pi
6. Type the following - git clone --depth=0 git://github.com/petrockblog/RetroPie-Setup.git - this will connect to the GIT repository and download the bits it needs from the project, this will finish and drop you to a command prompt again
7. the next step is to type the following commands

cd RetroPie-Setup - this changes you to the directory \home\pi\RetroPie-Setup
chmod +x retropie_setup.sh - changes the permissions to allow the RetroPie script to run
sudo ./retropie_setup.sh - Runs the script

8.This screen you are looking at gives you two options, source or binary - Binary is quicker to install but it may not be the most up to date, i would suggest Source so select source and press enter
9. At this prompt it is best to leave everything as standard. so just press enter, this bit WILL take a long time to run. it took 9hrs+ for my install but you can just leave it running - the screen may turn off due to no input from the keyboard and mouse but it can be woken up agian by just pressing a key
10. When it has finished you will get a bluescreen saying how to run the emulators, this you can ignore and just press enter until you are back at the menu screen.
11. Select Setup from the menu
12. Select start EmulationStation on boot to start it automatically
13. now go back to the main menu and reboot the Pi - when it reboots it will ask for you to setup a controller, at this point just setup the up,down,left,right back and enter to keys on the keyboard.
14. Now you need to get ROMS onto the system, you either copy them to the SD card BUT this will chew through space or as i have done map a network location where the ROMS are stored

Now the software loads the ROMS from \home\pi\RetroPie\roms. This folder has subfolders for each system it can emulate, I copied this folder to my home server so its network adress was \\microserver\array\roms

On the RaspberryPi I deleted the \home\pi\RetroPie\roms directory and then remade it so it was an empty directory

I then edited the fstab file to mount the network location to \home\pi\RetroPie\roms so as far as the emulators are concerned the files are still local, then just a case of copying the ROm files to the server into the correct folders

Now a test, hook it up to my TV and see how it works




Now so far so good however i did notice the picture quality was poor but this link solved it - http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/top ... er-update/


That is where i am up to at the moment with this project as i am waiting for some more parts to arrive

[mrpi64]

Don't throw away the old motherboard,it may come in useful!

[samuelellis]

Yea i have not thrown anything away, i am intending to use the OEM power button to power it off and on and use the reset to drop me out of the emulator back to the select screen

[forenbenutzer]

I am sorry, but your project's name is already taken.

http://edv-huber.com/index.php/probleml ... 12-pitendo

[samuelellis]

So i got some more work done on it

First thing was to buy a Pi hub, the reason for this is it will power the Pi and give me more USB ports, this cuts down on the power supplies needed



Next things are Ethernet and HDMI extension cables so i can put the connectors on the back/side of the NES



Make a slit for the fan, it is not really needed but i am intending to overclock the Pi so wanted to make sure it will run cool



Mark out on the MDF where the Pi and Pi hub will sit, as both my Pi's are the earlier models i dont have mounting holes so i will have to secure it another



Now tack the ports inplace



and the good news is the case goes back on with no issues

[mgoulart]

Will you try to use NES controller connectors on RPi or will use NES USB gamepads?
Awesome project indeed!

[samuelellis]

So the issue of how do i use a controller, this is the plan so far

Bodging a NES controller to work was out because it does not have enough buttons so i decided on a SNES controller, i have ordered 2 snes controllers (not originals but SNES controllers)

Now i did not want to hack about the NES case on the front but this si where i am very lucky, the NES and the SNES use the same number of Pins in the controller plugs

Now to interface controllers with the Pi i have ordered one of these - http://blog.petrockblock.com/2012/10/21 ... o-adapter/ This as you can see gives me 2controller ports on the GPIO (Cuts down on the number of USB devices) and gives me a button, This button will be wired to the reset button on the NES and will act as an escape from the emulator back to the main screen.

What i am intending to do is on that board instead of wiring it to SNES sockets i will wire it to the original NES sockets. Then i will make a couple of converter cables to convert the NES socket to a SNES socket so i can plug my SNES controllers into the NES ports

[toxibunny]

I think you should make the snes gamepads have the nes gamepad colours somehow. and just replace the cable ends instead of using adaptors.

[Jessie]

I think you should make the snes gamepads have the nes gamepad colours somehow. and just replace the cable ends instead of using adaptors.

It isn't hard they have the same number of pins. The only difference between NES and SNES pads are the number of buttons and the number of offset registers. Nintendo just added a second 8bit offset register to the SNES controller and changed the connector to make them incompatible.

[samuelellis]

Yep the neater way would be just to replace the connectors on the SNES joypads for NES style connectors but i have two very good reasons to make a NES to SNES adapter

They are called bubble and squeak



My house bunnys that like seem to think any sort of cable is food, this way with the converter if (when) those two eat a controller cable i can just plug another SNES controller into the adapter and i can keep playing without having to mess around changing connectors agian

[samuelellis]

So the controllers i am using arrived, not Original SNES controllers but not bad for copys and not bad for around a fiver each

[mgoulart]

Nice gamepads!
I'm using SNES gamepads too. I'm still waiting my Arcade parts to build the cabinet.

[jdgabbard]

Nice work. I'm working on a similar project. However, I'll be using bluetooth dongles to connect to PS4 controllers. I also didn't wory about starting with a flat surface, and chose to use the little towers to anchor my various elements down. I also decided that 12v would be the most accessible type of interface, so I wired a 12v barrel jack to a 12v to 5v 3amp converter, to a PCB with two USB power ports for use with a external powered hub if I need it later. Power button is wired to interrupt power to the usb ports, and the reset button is wired to the GPIO now as a way to run a shutdown script. The controller ports were removed, and I cut some black ABS to fit the slots, blacking out the front. HDMI is installed in the back, and while not looking SUPER professional, it still looks pretty good.

At this point, I'm down to getting controllers, and will boot it up and test it after I get some. Until then it's on the back burner, as I don't have the extra cash for purchasing several Sony controllers at this time.

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[samuelellis]

So a quick video of the system emulating NES, SNES master system and Mega drive. The games you see playing are pulled from my server not stored locally

I think i need to overclock it slightly to improve the audio but as you can see its working

http://youtu.be/aqSZvqYzIhU

BTW dont laugh at my crap playing, i was using one hand to hold the camera and the other to operate the keyboard

[samuelellis]

So a couple more things delivered for the Pitendo



SD card extenders

[dan3008]

mmm, do the SD extenders work well? looks like youre progressing well

[samuelellis]

One way to find out how well they work, testing

To try and push it as far as i can i have plugged one into another, put my SD card in the end and then plugged it into my Raspbmc board.

My plan is to run it for a week like this and see if i get any issues

[dan3008]

Thats cool I've been looking at some for a while, so i can mount my pi in a custom case, but still have access to my os sd card. But i've been worried about the increased wireage causing delays and interference, leading to corruptions. If they work, I might just have to get hold of a few

[samuelellis]

Well it seems to be running fine with the both of them connected together with no issues but that is why i have it on test at the moment.

One of the things i may end up doing is the trick of running the OS off USB as well just for the speed boost

[samuelellis]

And more bits

This once built will act as an interface between the SNES controllers and the GPIO pins on the Pi

[samuelellis]

And my google-fu has found someone who has provided the pin out to put a NES plug on a SNES pad - http://www.igorkromin.net/?x=entry:entry130215-145850

Should make my life easy