Hi there guys!

I decided to create my own SMD board for the project using a 2.42-inch screen, 16 MB memory chip so I can run the Arduboy Loader and original SNES controls (Dpad and buttons). I thought it would be cool to make after feeling how nice the SNES controls were and wanting a larger screen to program with. The aim is so more people can hack it and learn programming with it!

I really love arduboy and it is one of the platforms that really grew my love for retro i bit games. Props to Kevin and Mr. Blinky for developing a platform that allows users to get into retro gaming and game development. Wanted to share a few development challenges with one of my projects that runs Arduboy games.

The main challenge was breaking out the screen board, as well as the pro micro, as I had never actually completed an SMD board.

I started by creating my own SSD1309 screen here:

After testing this, I had some issues with the inductor not supplying the appropriate 13V but got that fixed as I was missing a resistor + the wiring was slightly wrong. After I got the screen working, I started to create the PCB:

As you can tell it's quite busy. I managed to reduce the number of vias used however, as you can tell, there are still quite alot! 

Currently, it just has the bare bones of what's needed to run Blinkys Home Made Arduboy package + loader and works! I got the prototypes created and assembled using JLCPCB:

Sadly JLCPCB missed out some major parts including the chip, a tiny resistor used for the screen and some other parts (as well as the speaker being the wrong way round!). Aside from the chip and tiny resistor, it was an easy fix.

The schematic can be found here:

I'd love to hear what you guys think. What you would like to see added and what you think needs to be improved. I'm aware that there are loads of adjustments that can be made to make it more efficient, as I got the chance to talk to some people in the Arduboy community and Blinky, so I'm in the process of adding those!

Right now I'm trying to design a case for it around the Nintendo controls and have a prototype below:

My main concern was on getting the Dpad sizes correct and they all worked amazingly!