Initial Research suggests that using pogo pins, mated to gold plated pads should provide a good electrical connection between cartridge and GPIO pins. Pogo pins are far more expensive than typical header pins, but eliminating the wear and tear on the Pi GPIO pins is the primary concern. I'd planned on waiting until I had a working board design, then adding pogo pins, but I have less time to work on this porject and work out PCB bugs, so I'll likely design a simple prototyping board that simply breaks out all GPIO pins to traces, connected to pogo pins. Essentially a PiHAT breadboard with pogo pins instead of pin headers. The adapter that connects to the Pi should be fairly simple as well, and at least allow me to start testing the hardware concepts immediately. Strong magnets in both the board and adapter would hold the two together, with the pogo pins providing electrical connection. Once I get some experience with KiCAD, I'll design both boards and get some prototypes made for testing. After finalizing the physical connection between boards, I can start on the case, which will also be PCB. The cases will need to be hand assembled, which will add to the cost of production. The extra cost is acceptable as these boards are meant to be used in educational environments, by children. I work with children and know how destructive they can be. I also work in industrial food production, so I know the value of quality, durability, and good design of equipment.

This is still a top priority project for me, and the most exciting one o have going on. I hope to have the prototype boards ordered in the next month or so. Funding is no longer an issue, but time and energy are severely limited. I may pay someone to design the prototype board for me just to get it done even faster. I'd normally never consider such a thing, but I will break my DIY rules for things that I already have a good understanding of. I will not outsource essential code design until I'm a good enough programmer to disect and check other coder's work. This is still a learning project for me, but it has stalled due to lack of time and skills.