PicoGamePad

Description

This project contains the development log, instructions, source files, and additional information about a gamepad designed utilizing the Raspberry Pico's focal microcontroller, the RP2040.

The gamepad was originally designed as a board to teach reflow soldering at my university makerspaces, but also contains a second variant of the design that I made for myself.

The gamepad was originally intended to be a microcontroller breakout board, students taking the soldering practice exercise get given a useful microcontroller that they can utilize in their projects after being inducted into the makerspace. After its initial revisions, I expanded the scope of the project to allow for something I would want to use (The type A version, made for students, is limited).

If you're interested in a low-cost gamepad, Picopad-A is for you. It costs roughly $2.5 in scale to produce, otherwise, type-B is pricey, but does a whole lot more.

Details

Variants:

Type A: Designed for the UNSW Makerspaces, as a soldering induction board. Low cost (literal bare minimum), intended for large scale manufacture.
Type B: Designed for a general audience (and myself), larger board, better quality components, better firmware, higher performance.

Features (A):

Raspberry Pi compatible* 2x20 Pinheader
Functional D-Pad (4-button) & A+B controls
Functions as a NES style game controller over USB-C
Can be programmed to perform as a microcontroller for general purpose applications
16Mbit Flash Memory
Firmware has been designed for minimal user interaction (less configuration)

Features (B, not yet released):

Breakout I2C, SPI header
OLED display connector (16-Pin)
2x Joysticks, 4x D-pad (4-button) & A+B+C+D controls
Better performance GPIO lines
Battery Charger & Protection Circuitry
128Mbit Flash Memory
Bluetooth wireless functionality (Optional DNP pads)
Configurable button mappings
High quality buttons, large form factor switches w/ Low latency IO buffer registration

Files

GERBER-SolderingInduction.zip

Zip Archive - 2.91 MB - 09/07/2022 at 20:17

Download

BOM-SolderingInduction.csv

Comma-Separated Values - 789.00 bytes - 09/07/2022 at 20:17

Download

POS-SolderingInduction.csv

Comma-Separated Values - 3.11 kB - 09/07/2022 at 20:17

Download

Project Logs

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25/09/22 - Extension Board Interface & Abstraction
micl • 09/25/2022 at 00:45 • 0 comments

The board assignment subschematic, a chosen symbol representing the source of mappings is unwrapped, and then only the interfaces are exposed to the rest of your design.

I'm not sure how familiar the general public is with hierarchical schematics in KiCAD, but they're powerful if you use them the right way. To make these boards easy to extend, the way that students design extensions for them should be clean.
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24/09/22 - v3.5.0-A: Layout adjustments & Improvement leads
micl • 09/23/2022 at 21:10 • 0 comments

I'm starting to think about changes to make to the design. I don't consider this version to be the next release, it's a subversion and extension of the previous v3.0.0 design.

This log is going to be updated later today, so I'm providing some pictures and will check back in later. Sorry :)
22/09/22 - Assembly! ...and some mistakes
micl • 09/22/2022 at 07:25 • 0 comments

Check. It. Out!

The first board has been assembled! I placed the buttons on the opposite side (Intentional, and a great demonstration of one of the assembly of the board; Placing the through-hole components on either side has zero effect on functionality. Students always screw that one up.)
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v3.0.0 is ordered, future changes
micl • 09/07/2022 at 22:22 • 0 comments

Revision A of v3 of the board has gone out in an order. Hopefully they arrive soon so that I can post an update and show a working board. In the meantime...
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v3.0.0 - Final Layout, Components & Order
micl • 09/06/2022 at 11:24 • 0 comments

The board is pretty much done for its first release.

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v2.5.0 - Some general design notes, trace layout rework
micl • 09/03/2022 at 14:50 • 0 comments

I started from scratch with the routing.

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v2.0.0 - A smaller, cheaper, better thought out attempt
micl • 09/03/2022 at 14:35 • 0 comments

My latest attempt at the board involved shrinking the board dimensions by about half, actually complying with the cheaper JLC via options, swapping out components, and making it easier to manufacture.
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v1.0.0 - The first design, that I didn't use
micl • 09/03/2022 at 14:17 • 0 comments

The first version of the board (pictured below) was made to satisfy JLCPCB's tighter standard 4-layer via tolerances. This turned out to be an issue, and there were a few other reasons I moved to later designs.

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