Gameboy Cartridge based keyboard with expansion slot and breakout board

[kinifi]

Introduction:
This kind of started out as a joke. I was testing so many different things in QMK that I needed a way to hotswap Arduino Micro Pro's. I looked into what it would take to make a cartridge based micro controller. It is way easier than you think it is.

This is still an experiment and I'm just retrofitting all of this to work with a 68% pcb

*Update Dec 11th 2019

Break out board for the Gameboy cartridge and expansion slot came in the mail from china





That terrifying moment when you get something from china after waiting weeks and it fits perfect <3!





* First Post

Pics:


I accidently broke this one... You can see the traces in the PCB and how I just made something as quickly as possible to see if this was even possible


Trying to figure out the best way to solder this micro controller as flat as possible to the PCB



The PCB inside the Gameboy Expansion Slot. The PCB is only 0.4mm so it fits super loose without the gameboy cartridge plastic piece that holds it into place.



The gameboy plastic cart with the PCB. Notice how the plastic from the cart makes the PCB fit perfectly inside so the pins connect.



you can see here the pin out of the expansion slot and the 68% PCB pin out above the arrow keys. I just have to solder some wires to connect these up.


The case I'm using to prototype this


What is next?
Solder the pin out of the expansion slot to the 68% PCB. Do some testing to make sure everything works correctly then mount everything inside the sandwich case I made with acrylic.

Future
1. Get rid of the Arduino Pro Micro and just make my own microcontroller on the gameboy cartridge. Power is the only thing I haven't figured out here.
2. Make a PCB that supports the Gameboy Expansion Slot
3. Decide if the Gameboy plastic piece is required or if I should just order 1.0mm and make the PCB fit without the plastic inside the expansion slot

[fpazos]

That's just freaking amazing!! It would be nice to a rev2 version to include some pins and traces for random use such as displays, rgb leds and/or analog dials.

Maybe even could be use for different layouts/OSs that has almost unlimited posibilities

[kinifi]

That's just freaking amazing!! It would be nice to a rev2 version to include some pins and traces for random use such as displays, rgb leds and/or analog dials.

Yeah I think all of this is possible and easy to do. There are a lot of micro controllers out there that offer this type of stuff but I think having the power to do whatever you want with your keyboard by just plugging in a microcontroller is a big deal.

Imagine having a Rama with an expansion slot like this. No longer bound to the chip it is embedded with.

[kinifi]

One issue with this build is that the PCB doesn't fit exactly in the cartridge and I need someway to guide the cartridge into the expansion slot. I made the two holes at the top of the PCB in case I needed to make my own case with acrylic and I think I might do that instead of using the default gameboy cartridge


You can see that here:

[fpazos]

You can also use a 3D printer to make a piece that fits everything in place!! I thought about this idea and that would allow that a pcb never becomes old. Thing about the old keebs where you need to use a converter. You just replace the controller and it's done. Sad that lately this thread is so lonely but you had a great idea.

Enviado desde mi Redmi Note 7 mediante Tapatalk