If you go by the 10000 write cycle rated life for program memory, uploading 100 times a day would give you 100 days or just over 3 months.
Hmmm I load a game up to 100 times a day when Iām testing things, but it will last at least a year Iām ok with that
Have you considered using emulation to test the code instead? You wonāt be able to test the sound nor EEPROM, but for game logic it works fine.
I honestly wouldnāt mind just buying a new one every 3 months, the joy I get out of this thing , Iād be willing to buy a new one monthly if I needed to
With such intense programming and testing. Youād better make an Ardunoy clone devkit (Probably a Leonardo shield) So you can replace the the ācoreā easily.
I donāt mind buying more Arduboys either. But the idea of a a dead Arduboy, makes me sad
well if it did die⦠id have ample parts to make a new one with, just need a new brain for it
Any news on that? I think it would make a perfect dock in combination with my streaming supported bootloader
With the custom bootloader it would be nice to alter the dock to add a LiPo and have it attached to the back of the Arduboy either by longer screws or some magic clips or sticky stuff. With this kind of expansion thereās a lot of possibilities some that may or may not be viable.
- Game Changing on the go
- Act as Small Power Bank
- Stream Larger RasPi games with the Arduboy supplying screen and input
- Use the Pi for hosting multiplayer
- Wireless Screen Casting
- Stream existing titles from the Pi preserving flash
I really need a dockā¦
You could get one of those DIY powerbanks that can hold up to 4 x 18650 Li cells. Cut out half the terminals and just put in two cells and a Pi zero in. Two cells will give you roughly 14.8W power (3,7V/4000mAh) I guess thatās good for about 6-8h of Pi zero usage.
I have a 6 cell version of the one below and itās quite neat. The 4 cell version is about 1cm wider then an Arduboy on each side. Only disadvantages it has is that it canāt be used when charged and once you close it itās hard to open it up again.
Another nice feature is that it has a flashlight on/off option by pressing the power button twice. by hooking up a MOSFET transistor to the LED you could als turn the pi on and off with it. Hmm Iit itches to hack my 6 cell now
Managed to open up my 6 cell. This is what I ment:
I just inserted a piece of paper to isolate the positive terminal. in inserted a Pi zero. the metal spring terminal would have to be cut. wBy removing the pastic supports at the bottom the USB and hdmi connectors could be made accessible
@eried Does the Capacitor have to piggyback the Piās or is the following image ok? as this is much simpler to solder.
The capacitor can be separate from the Pi but try to keep the wires between the capacitor and the board as short as possible (no more than a couple of centimetres).
Yeah, what @MLXXXp says is correct. Longer wires will add unwanted noise, but a few centimeters is OK.
Awesome stuff Iāve no experience in PCB development but I was thinking of something like this (extremely bad sketchup) and flipping the pi.
Possibly ditch the pogo pins for some solder connections like used on some modchips
I like the mockup. Iām wondering though about the 0.5 ohm resistor. Iām assuming it is used to reduce the current flow when Arduboy is hooked up and prevent the Pi zero from crashing. But why is it 0.5 ohm is it a common way of usb load ballancing ?
I know @eried had some issues with hot plugging and the cap solved that, I assumed a small resistor was used so it can pop like a fuse but then isnāt that where diodes are commonly used? Iām not too hot on this stuff so just followed what was proven to work.
The resistor, along with the capacitor, forms a first order RC circuit to reduce power supply noise. The small voltage drop created across the resistor doesnāt cause problems since the voltage has to be reduced down to 3.3V anyway.
I though the cap should be at Arduboyās side for that. But analog stuff isnāt really my thing.
Yeah, @bateske wanted to make something like that. I think it is a good idea to ditch the pogo pins
Is in the Arduboy side
Received a 3 cell powerbank case today. it can hold a Pi zero an one 18650 cell for a dock on the go. Unfortunately it cannot be used while being recharged. But it has a power button that turns the output on and really off so the battery doesnāt get drained when in off mode (some powerbanks have the battery voltage on the output for an auto on feature)