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Raspberry Pi Console

Simple RPi 3 console running Retropie.

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A little Raspberry Pi 3 console running RetroPie i made because i was bored, and i hadn't tried the new RPi3 yet. It's a fun thing to build in a few days. It could also be used as mediaplayer, desktop, server and probably more.

First i made an arcade cabinet, which is awesome but let's be honest, most games are not meant to be played with arcade controls.
After that i made a gameboy, but it has some issues that makes it too unreliable to seriously play games on.
Both these projects were also only able to be played by 1 player.

So now, for the third time making the same thing but in a different form factor : The Raspberry Pi 3 Console.
Unlike the previous two projects, this little guy can support up to 4 players over bluetooth or 2 players over USB. I chose to use PS3 controllers because i already own one and it's wireless.

This time i used the Raspberry Pi 3, it is ofcourse much better than it's predecessors and it has built-in Wi-fi and bluetooth, all these things are great for this project. I'm also happy to finally be able to play N64 games.

So... Nothing spectacular, it's been done a million times but it looks cool, so there's that :D

  • 1 × Raspberry Pi 3 B
  • 1 × Momentary switch with blue LED
  • 2 × USB port

  • Some extra info about the build

    Lumor09/25/2016 at 21:02 0 comments

    I made this in a few days. I didn't really plan it like my previous projects(which can be seen by the many unused holes in the PVC on the inside) because this is a fairly simple project.

    I made the case from PVC and clear polycarbonate i got leftover from my gameboy project. The clear polycarbonate is used to light up the edge of the case, there are 4 bright blue leds inside to illuminate the clear plastic.

    The LEDS turn on at the same time as the LED inside the button.

    The entire insides can be removed from the case in one pull, this allows me to easily fix or replace things (like when there's a new RPi) if needed.

    That's all there's to say about this project, like i said; it's nothing spectacular but it's really nice to have.
    It's not just a console, i can swap the SD card and instantly make it into a mediaplayer, small desktop computer or maybe even a server of some kind.

View project log

  • 1
    Step 1

    Make the button activate the Raspberry Pi

    I haven't found a perfect solution for this where i can turn on the raspberry pi and soft-shut it off with 1 momentary switch. Right now i have connected the switch to the reset points on the RPi, so it will turn on when it is shutdown and it will shutdown (but not softly) when it is turned on.

  • 2
    Step 2

    Make the LEDS light up on boot

    I connected a transistor to GPIO4 which turns on the LEDS when it's base is LOW. When the RPi is powered but halted, the LEDS will be off. When the RPi is powered and booting, the LEDS will be on.

    First, edit rc.local file :

    sudo nano /etc/rc.local

    Add the following :
    python /home/pi/MYSCRIPT.py &

    Make custom script to set GPIO4 to LOW :

    sudo nano /home/pi/MYSCRIPT.py

    Add the following :
    #!usr/bin/python
    import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
    from time import sleep

    #USE GPIO NUMBERS INSTEAD OF PIN NUMBERS
    GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

    #SET PIN 4 AS OUTPUT
    GPIO.setup(4, GPIO.OUT)

    #SET PIN 4 TO LOW
    GPIO.output(4, 0)

    I think you also have to change the permissions (not really sure, but it doesn't hurt to do it i guess) :
    sudo chmod +x /home/pi/MYSCRIPT.py

  • 3
    Step 3

    Setup PS3 controller

    I'm not gonna explain this because i'm really not sure how i got it working, just like anyone else who tries to connect PS3 controllers to a RPi3. But, once it works, it works.

View all 3 instructions

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