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A project log for NeoGeo pi3

A modified Neo-Geo Pocket with a raspberry pi 3 and other clever hacks as its guts.

kevin-osunaKevin Osuna 08/17/2016 at 18:370 Comments

So, I've been playing around with different ideas for possible addition I could make to this thing, and well, there's a couple that interest me more then others. This is one of them...

I am basically an electronics scavenger, have always been one. I recently tore down a couple of old and broken laptops from which I am taking different components; all kinds of ports, wires, copper, screws and those metal screw-hole inserts that you can find on any device with a plastic construction.

A couple of weeks ago I took a Camera Module from one of these laptops but I couldn't really see any use for it. Until I saw some labels right next to the white connector. These labels detail the pin-out of the module itself and realized that there's no difference on this thing from any regular USB Device. I mean, this has a Ground, Power, D+ & D- and it was so obvious what I had to do with it, I had to turn it into an USB Webcam and see if it could fit inside the Neogeo pocket.

Apparently, it does fit. but for that I need to put the display a little lower than how I had previously planned, I'm talking just a couple of millimetres, nothing too scary. I'm not sure how many mega-pixels this camera has but the image quality it great, at least for video calls and stupid selfies.

in this picture you can see the original shape the port-hole (that sounds funny) has. in order for the USB port to fit, I must modify it a little with the engraving tool I'm using.

here it is already modified:

And here it is with the port in place (more less):

I'll be using a different cable for the USB, this one's too thick.

After this, I'll start working on the holes for all the other stuff like buttons, trackball and another one for the camera. By the way, this will have a little camera bump, a little more then a millimetre ... If high-end Smart-phones are allowed to have them why not this thing.

I'm sorry for the slow updates, I've been super busy lately, We have a tiny pizza restaurant and It is so time consuming.

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