Thank you once again for all of your work on the Interceptor & also for taking the time to do this guide. I've never ordered anything like this before & the only soldering I've ever done is on my G3 Powerbook power adapter board many, many years ago, which is a full tear down just to get to that board. My 1st tear down too! I think I'll order 10x and hopefully I'll make at least one that works lol. Oh I was such a novice solderer back then that I didn't know about flux. Years later I discovered Ben Heck hacks & went ahhhh flux, that makes things so much easier! I can't thank you enough for your service to the DMG Tetris lovers of the World. I can't be the only one who has brothers who still require evidence of scores & levels complete. Photographs are no good as I studied B&W Art photography back in the 1990's & my fakes are so good that I can provide a (fake) negative along with the print. Live streaming &/or capture using your amazing Interceptor will not only provide the evidence I need but has actually inspired me to go after my holy grail once again... ...B-Type level 9 heart 5 will be mine!
Got my boards from JLCPCB Today! Just waiting on the 32 Pin Connector. Cant wait to build this! Thanks again for such a great, in-depth video. The whole process was quick and painless.
Wow, really excited to see others building my project. I hope you won't run into too many early bumps. If you do, please let me know, so I can fix stuff or add details to the instructions.
@@ThereOughtaBe Will Do! I already plugged one up to my PC and can load the firmware on it! I just wish the place I bought the 32 pin connectors from shipped as fast as JLCPCB!
I know this was made for the Tetris community, but I am so looking forward to utilizing this for video capture on other games straight from the Game Boy itself. There's something cathartic about using the original hardware without the need to modify it to get what you're looking for. Thank you so much for your investment of time and effort, it's greatly appreciated more than I can properly express!
Is it possible for JLCPCB to still include all of the components without assembling them if I didn't mind soldering them on myself? Or should I just get the board from them, and source the components elsewhere? Thanks!!
I would think that you should probably get them elsewhere, but you would have to ask their support to be sure. But it should be no problem to get everything from a different supplier. There is nothing exotic on the BOM. Some generic components might be a Chinese brand that is not found everywhere, but there should have identical variants. If you feel confident to solder the rp2040, then you probably have more experience with this than me anyway :)
I had an email from them after ordering asking if I needed 45 degree chamfering on the pins, despite selecting "No" in the order process. I've replied that I don't need it, so fingers crossed it all shows up and works.
To be honest, I was unsure myself whether chamfering would be a good idea or not, but came to the conclusion that it does not matter. The PCB's edge connector is behind an edge of the case anyway, so I think that chamfering neither hurts nor helps. But it makes sense that JLCPCB asks about this if they notice it, I guess. I wonder at which point their engineers realize that they are getting many orders for the exact same PCB and just keep the prepared production files around without asking anymore :)
I have an order for 5 PCBs ready to go for later this week. Saved in my cart. Would not have been able to do this without you. This is great, I'll have a use for 3 of them, and I can give the other 2 away to some friends. Appreciate the detailed steps, this kind of stuff is not my expertise, but was easy to follow. When it comes to soldering the cartridge slot to the PCB, you said not to use too much solder. Does it matter if the solder runs across multiple gold connectors, or does there require a gap between each small pin? I can solder, but the tiny stuff is a bit tricky for me.
There has to be a gap. This is where flux helps a lot as it "magically" keeps the solder where it should go. Using as little solder as necessary also helps because the solder mask of the PCB also prevents the solder from going between the pins as long as there is not so much solder as to bridge it anyway. If you are unsure, I just realize that ordering a few more cartridge slots might help as you can train on the extension board before soldering the main PCB. They usually are not that expensive.
I see what you mean, when you say it doesn't make sense to order fewer quantities. I just added 50 to the cart and they're now $8 per product shipped. That's insane. Wish I knew people in this community, because I just need 1. Group buy, anyone? :P
Jepp, it really is mostly a $5 rPi Pico on a differently shaped board plus a few extra components that in total are not more expensive than $2. It is only expensive when someone has to set up all machines just to build a single one of them.
14:25 Ok, on the 3D Print Case, how i am able to get the skrew on top in? i have M2,5x4 skrews, but the head is to big for this hole. Can't find any other 4mm types on Amazon DE. 4mm is quite short, will 5 or 6mm fit too?
The screw on the top is supposed to go all the way in and then it should go into the thread about as far as the other ones. Tbh, I am not sure if screw heads are normed and if yours might be wider. Different printing tolerances or some remains from supports might also be messing with the fit. If it is so tight that the head absolutely dies not go in, you could of course use a long screw and keep the head flush with the case, but I have never tried that.
@@ThereOughtaBe Oh sorry with the length I have caused confusion. The other length I asked only to have a higher selection. Because there are hardly 4mm screws on Amazon, but there are 5mm (only 1mm, I think that also fits). Thanks for the mega quick answer. exactly, I also understood that, the screw goes all the way through to the level of the other screws, but mine are just too wide for the channel, they do not go in. Your Idea with the Werry long Screw is maye a good one too. thx
Ah, I see. I think that 5mm screws should also work. I am a bit conservative with the length because of the heat-set inserts. The holes for them are a bit deeper then the length of the inserts, so there is a bit of room for the molten PLA to do into, but I was a bit worried that some might still flow back into the thread, reducing the room available for the screw. But this is my first design with such inserts, so these design choices are mostly based on what I read and not on experience.
Zwei Fragen hätte ich: Erstens: GB Color Module werden - in einem GB Color natürlich - auch farbig auf dem Monitor angezeigt? Zweitens: GB Advance geht damit ja wohl nicht, oder? Aber: heftig geile Sache :)
Erstens: Nope, der Interceptor unterstützt nur klassische Spiele. Bei Modulen, die beides können funktioniert es dann nur wenn diese "klassisch" betrieben werden. Zweitens: Der Interceptor funktioniert im GBA, aber auch nur mit klassischen Spielen. Also im Sinne ob GBA-Spiele damit gehen ist das ein klares nein. Beim Game Boy Color ist die Geschwindigkeit des rp2040 nicht ausreichend - lässt sich vielleicht noch optimieren. GBA-Spiele funktionieren aber grundsätzlich anders, sind nichtmal elektrisch kompatibel (im GBA ist ein kleiner Schalter, der im Grunde einen integrierten Game Boy Color einschaltet wenn ein altes Modul drin ist) und vermutlich lässt sich das Konzept des Interceptor hier gar nicht anwenden, da der GBA (wie alle moderneren Geräte) den Code erst in den RAM lädt und nicht direkt vom ROM ausführt (nur "vermutlich" da ich kein GBA-Experte bin, aber von den Specs bin ich mir da ziemlich sicher).
@@ThereOughtaBe Danke für die Antwort :) Ich hab nach meiner Fragestellung (und Aboknopf drücken ;) ) dein anderes Video zum Interceptor gesehen, da wurde die Colorfrage schon beantwortet. Aber ich find das richtig geil...im Endeffekt könnte sich damit ja ein Nachbau-Kiosk realisieren lassen...die Original-Teile aus den Kaufhäusern der 90er sind ja mittlerweile unerschwinglich teuer.
This is done with a little motorized camera dolly. Mine is an Andoer L4 Pro, but I think that the same device is sold under different budget brand names, too.
Hello, I am from South America and I was interested in your video, however I see that the device does not play with the native monochrome colors of the gameboy
Do you mean the controller input or the bus data that I use as an input for the emulator on the rp2040? The controller input from the player is not visible on the bus, so that won't work (besides some desynchronization problems) and the data on the bus is way too much for the rp2040's USB. To reconstruct the game at least the address (16bit) and the data (8bit) pins are required. At a clock rate of roughly 1MHz that sums up to 3MB/s - about two to three times of what the rp2040's USB 1.1 can handle. Interestingly, the rendered image is smaller and it would be even smaller if there was a common format for 2bit colors. But that's the final argument for emulating on the device itself: Anyone can use it without additional software.
Sorry, my original answer did not fit because I thought your question was referring to the short video about the wooden Game Boy cartridge. However, in case of the GB Interceptor it is similar: I do not produce or sell them myself. You can build one following the instructions here or look for a shop that produces them using my files.
Of course. If you know what your doing and have a preferred one, just go ahead. I am not only offering the Gerber files, but of course the KiCad file so you can export it for any service. This video is a click guide for those who have no idea what all these terms on the order page mean and who cannot match a BOM to the components offered by their PCBA service.
Ok I just wanted to make sure before I did anything I think well see alot of these online on the future. This is an amazing creation and can be quite useful.
