SN35 Mini Project Update #02
Bonus: scroll to the bottom for a chance to win!
Alright, so you probably want the good stuff first... well I have this lovely render of the top half of a case. I also just had to take advantage of the fact GIF's are useable here at the element14 community, along with Fusion 360's basic video rendering capability. Notice anything different from my original "intent and concept introduction" post – SN35 Mini Update #01 – Binary Ben intends to Hack Like Heck ?
And now, the spinning.. thank you for nothing, you useless GIF.
If you are some kind of visual perception genius who could detect, based on my incredibly rough drawing no less, that it is smaller – then you are correct! You may have also deduced it from the title of this update of course, which previously had the uninteresting working title of "Stage 2. Early Case Design." If you have no idea what I am talking about then fear not. I have a photo below of the original drawing, a 3D print that is roughly the same physical dimensions as the updated rendering above (sans joystick holes of course), and an original SNES controller for size reference. If you look hard, you may see that the new size is pretty much the same as the original controller with the exception of the elongation for the addition of a screen.
It's not how big it is that matters, but how you use it.
Besides, this one will be heaps easier to grip and play with.
So why the change? Originally I was counting on winning the BOM that Heckendorn used in his original build so that I could proceed with my own build. Thankfully I did win the BOM (check out the other nine contestants who you should definitely watch out for as well), however my future brother-in-law said that he'd probably develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from trying to reach the joysticks when I showed him the originally proposed design. I was also starting to think that the device was becoming larger than I'd like for it to be considered a realistically portable gaming device. Unfortunately that means it is ultimately the screen that will have to get smaller to make the device easier to play with.
Meet my new screen. The annoying board protruding from the bottom of
the LCD might get in the way of my super sleek design though.
If only there was something I could do about it.. stay tuned?
After reading about the different types of screens available, and unsuccessfully trying to get a screen for an Arduino working with the Pi (the wrong pins were broken out for that it seems), I ended up buying a 2.8-inch screen from Adafruit. As it won't arrive with enough time to breadboard and test as Felix did, before I design and order the PCB, I'll have to go the simple route and connect it to the Pi via SPI. Whilst I am bit disappointed I won't get to try the technique Heckendorn used in his latest MAME build, I am still grateful that Adafruit's documentation should be comprehensive and reliable enough for me to be able to make the schematic without having used the module in person, and that my partner is very supporting in terms of putting aside enough money from our budget to help me get the build done. Hopefully it will all result in some form of sponsorship from element14 
Also, rest assured that the next couple of posts at least should be a little more electronics focused, as I know these first two have been a little heavy on form over function. This is an electronics community after all.
Other News
In other news (geddit?), my shirt arrived which was it's own mini emotional rollercoaster. My partner asked if I was going to open my shirt.. ever so slightly ignoring the fact she forgot to mention it arrived a day and a half prior. I don't think I've ever had a package delivered by UPS before. The more you know, right? Anyway, I tore into the package, eager to try on my new shirt, only to discover it wasn't my size. Pretty heartbreaking.. I take new shirts very seriously apparently. Hopefully with a bit of hard work I'll become trim enough to fit it eventually. That, or my partner can wear it.
I'm not going to do an unboxing for a shirt. I take shirts seriously, but not that seriously. sorrynotsorry
Also the makerspace I basically live at is losing access to it's temporary facilities early next week where we had the 3D printers and soldering equipment set up, and the new one won't be ready for us to move into until the end of the first week of April. I was hopeful we'd at least be able to stay in the temporary space until the one was ready, so that's going to make finishing the build even more challenging that I expected. That said, it's a good chance to show future viewers that you can still get a lot done with a little space at home. Hopefully the green screen effect will still be appreciated again for the final video though...
Competition Announcement
Finally, thanks to a suggestion by rocits, I've decided to announce my own friendly competition. I created my personal icon a couple of years ago in the hope that I'd be able to use it to place my mark on many cool electronic projects in the future. Well I am incredibly excited that I'm now at a point in my life where I get to focus a bit more on that for a while, and this contest is a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on that. To celebrate, I'm planning on giving away up to five of the main PCB's for SN35 Mini that I will hopefully design and receive in time to use in the Hack Like Heck video entry.
An iconic icon! But what could it be? Wasn't it just some abstract design that is just supposed to look like a PCB trace?
Are you keen to win one so you can build your own SN35 Mini? All you have to do is send a private message to me here on element14 and correctly identify what existing "thing" I based the icon on (it is slightly stylised to make it my own design of course..). If 3-5 people guess correctly before my video entry goes live, I'll announce the winners in the video. If more than five people guess correctly before then, I'll do a randomly picked "live" draw for the video.
In the mean time and as always (well starting today anyway), you can stay up to date by bookmarking this post and checking in every couple of days or so (see the bottom of the before linked post for planned updates). I'll also start posting hints for the competition if it turns out they are needed.. but there are already some existing hints throughout my posts. Otherwise happy hacking for now! - BB
Blatant Attempt at Figuring Out How to Engage With You 
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