54. Retropie laptop

To start this project with the raspberry pi, we need to utilize a portable DVD player, which has the screen built-in, and the anticipated driver board and tray. Since a raspberry pi is going to be used only, we need to gut out the DVD tray/ motor, and other cables that are not necessary for this project to work.

<Retropie>

The DVD player should also have an input port so that the video can be displayed through the composite output from the raspberry pi. The composite signal, in general, doesn't produce the same video quality as the HDMI output, but it provides the crisp signal needed for the DVD player.

This particular DVD player, it uses a 7.4-volt Li-ion battery, which is good for the driver, but it will be excessive for the Raspberry Pi.

<Before gutting>

Since the Pi uses 5.2 volts maximum, any input voltage higher than the max will most likely damage the board. To make sure it doesn't happen, we need a buck converter that steps down the 7.4 volts from the batter into the usable 5.1 volts for the raspberry pi.

The way the circuit is made is that the battery is connected to the driver board and the inputs of the buck converter, where the outputs of the buck converter are connected to the Pi. In short, it's basically like a parallel circuit.

<Internals>

Double-check to make sure the composite output connects match to the inputs of the DVD drive. Once the display is shown, simply secure the Raspberry Pi to space where the DVD mechanism was, and get the micro sd card ready for the os.

Download the latest Retropie image, and format the sd card to FAT32.

There, you can use your own image-burning software, and burn the image to the SD card. It will take moments before it's done.

<Testing>

Once that is done, insert the SD card into the slot from the Pi, and boot it up. If it all goes successfully, you should see the boot-up of Retropie, and then, the controller configuration.

At this point, configure your USB controller, load up the retro games, and start playing!

<Earthbound>