Jumping Fritzing

Published on 2023-08-09 in µGame 22.

There hasn’t been much activity here, mostly because I didn’t really know where to take this project. I don’t want it to become my second job, designing, supporting and selling a shiny product, ready to use for people who don’t want to contribute anything themselves, but I don’t really have any better idea about how to get it into the hands of those who want to be creative with it. So I kinda let it float in limbo until I figure this out.

The USB-C version worked very well, I’m going to keep that. But I think there is room for improvement in the power circuit, and the sound could use some work as well. So those are the things I need to work on next. I already have an I2S amplifier chip tested in a different project that I can use here, and I got the MOSFETs for doing the “ideal diode” circuit, and maybe also for the backlight control. Maybe I will even use the boost converter chips I got for testing, to make it run longer on the same batteries.

As for distribution, I have decided to move the design from Fritzing to EasyEDA, so that you can order the PCB with assembly from JLCPCB with a single click. Hopefully this will let the people who want it to get it easily, while freeing me from having to sell it.

So I’m basically re-doing the whole thing in EasyEDA now, also picking more easily sourced parts as I go. So far I only needed one custom footprint, for the display itself, but I think I will need to also modify the button footprint to make the pads a little bit shorter. Otherwise it’s going well – a few more sleepless nights, and it should be finished.

Oh, and as a bonus, there is a 3D render!