Today turned out to be a very productive day for the project. I recently decided to make a base station that plugs into the GPIO header.

It would add an upward facing card edge connector, as well as some additional features. Additional features might include a USB hub for connecting extra controllers and peripherals, possibly a headphone jack to add audio output to the Pi 400, a status light, and "Eject" and "Reset" buttons. The base station would extend out to the right edge of the Pi 400 to allow a place to hold down the base for pulling up on the cartridge for removal. Feet on the bottom would give support to the base for inserting carts to avoid damaging the GPIO header pins.

I will start testing software with the MMC Pi Hat from PiShop. The final carts will use SD memory chips on a custom board, but the hat will allow me to test out the PiCart management software. This software would run in the background and allow loading of data from the carts and saving data back to them. The goal is to automate the experience as much as possible for end users. Plug in a cart, software opens, enjoy.

This winter has been rough for me so far, but this project gives me something to look forward, and keep me busy.

I ended up designing a very basic rendering of the base station an a cart in Inkscape. I've been very frustrated using Inkscape until today, but pushing past some of the initial learning curve has given me much more confidence in myself and this project.