ESP32 Gaming Console - Homemade Emulator Less Than 20$

do you also want to make an old Nintendo console for less than 20 dollars you could play thousands of old nest games and get the same Nostalgia that I had when I've played them once again all we need are a few components make some simple connections for some buttons and other modules download and upload the next games to an SD card upload the Arduino code and play the games and obviously have some fun I've been testing this project for a long time because I wasn't able to make the code work but I finally did it by trial and error by the way this project was made by the user called natalis on GitHub but for some reason his profile is not active anymore but anyway a huge thank you to natalies for his great work and please consider checking his YouTube channel anyway that being said let's see what we need how to adjust the code how to get the next games for free and make a crude and homemade Nintendo console so guys let's get started [Music] thank you foreign [Music] T was requiring some flexible pcbs and PCB way was the right solution for that and the older process is so simple just go to pcba.com and select flexible pcbs upload your Gerber files as always and select your settings directly on their website you also have the option for rigid Flex pcbs if you want and other settings for the color the thickness the gold immersion and so on I received my pcbs in just a couple of days and they look amazing the tracks are very small but even so PCB way did a great job and they have capabilities that go even lower than that and you could check them on their website so try yourself their services for flexible pcbs like mine and like that you can complete your awesome project and check more for other services for prototyping pcbs automatic assembly SMD stencil and much more on pcbway.com what's up my friends welcome back I've made this project on a breadboard because it was a total headache to make so I had to make a lot of trial and error but don't worry I'm working on a PCB as well so it will look a lot better and be easier to assemble anyway let's start and see what we need the main part running the code is an esp32 microcontroller but to make it easier to program and so on we use a development board with a USB connector like this one this will cost you only three to four dollars on AliExpress next we need a TFT display and this costs you around three dollars I will use this one that is based on the sd7789 IC and here is where the problem started because all these screens are based on the same IC and they look kind of the same as you can see on the back they use the Sim IC but sometimes it's a second version but from all these the only one that works is this one here and it took me a while to realize and I was already getting frustrated some displays have the cheap select pin and some others don't some will have 240 resolution and others will have 280 and so on so have in mind that this is the one that worked for me so make sure that you order the same the links are below next we need an SD card reader like this one and this will cost you around two dollars it could be both the micro SD card reader or the normal SD card because the pins are the same and together with this we also need an empty SD card to put the games on it and then for the sounds we need this decoder that is based on the PCM 5102ic and I bought this with five dollars and to this module we can add some headphones or even better we can solder a small amplifier with a speaker like this one so you should also order this as well and finally we need 7 push buttons seven pinky resistors a 100 nanofarad capacitor some wires and a breadboard to make the connections on it but if you want you could also solder everything on a prototyping PCB like this one and make it more permanent remember that you could get the design for such a prototyping PCB from my website and order it at PCB way okay so now we have everything that we need so let's assemble it the original schematic was something like these two circuits but this one didn't work for me and it was very difficult to follow the lines where each connection will go so finally the connections that I've used are this one here for some reason if you use any other pin for the push buttons for example the code won't work and I don't know why but after weeks of trial and error and getting frustrated it finally works also if I remove the 100 nanofarad capacitor between ground and the Cs pin the screen will get crazy and even stop working and another error that I've noticed is that sometimes the start button does the same as the left button and I don't know why neither anyway connect everything on the breadboard or on the PCB like in this schematic the Miso and the most pins for the display must be the ones that I've used otherwise it won't communicate with the spa port okay so now let's take a look at the code if you scroll down you will see that first we need to install these two libraries and you can download this from Below on netflix.com in order to make sure that use the same that I've used then in the Arduino IDE you go to sketch include Library add the zip library and select one by one the downloaded libraries in a zip format and now the libraries are installed then if you don't have them you need to install the esp32 boards so in the Arduino IDE you go to preferences in the additional URLs you have to copy and paste this link you can copy this link from the tutorial website now you can go to tools to boards and select boards manager and here you search for the esp32 select this board and click install and as you can see I already have them installed and now if you go once again to tools to boards you'll see that now we have a bunch of esp32 baseboards select the esp32 dev module board and make sure that you have this configuration as well as you can see here so click compile if it compiles we upload it to the esp32 board so click upload and press the boot Button and keep it pressed till you can see the connecting message on the Arduino IDE and then release the button and the code will be uploaded if you pour on the console at this point you'll get the SD card fill message and that's because we have no games inserted so for that we go to this website and search for any game that you want download The Nest file then insert the SD card into your PC and make sure that it's empty create a new folder and you have to call it Nest like this now copy all the nest files that you want inside of this folder now get the SD card and insert it into the card reader and restart the esp32 and now it works now use the buttons to select any game and press start and now play and enjoy in my case I select one of my favorites from my childhood that is called battle City now let's try the old school Mario game you could also play Tetris Contra or any other game from this website so guys that's how you could make your own nest console and play any game that you want and obviously this could go better with a custom-made PCB some better push buttons and also a 3D printed case but that will probably be for a future update and by the way this project also has an AV video output so you could connect it to an old TV as we head back in the day with the yellow connector and again a huge thank you to natalis for sharing such a project with the community his work is amazing and brings me a lot of happy memories so thanks again and see you later guys hey guys so that was the video for this week I hope that you like it and as always the most important part for me is that you have learned something new and I would like to thank you to all of you who are supporting me on patreon because that for me is huge and by the way if you would like to support my project you have all my links below for this patreon page for my social media for my shop and so on so thanks again and see you later guys

Channel: Electronoobs

Views: 73,363

Keywords: Arduino, ESP32, NES, games, nintendo, console, emulator, AV, TV, homemade, DIY, PCB, TFT, SD card, nesCAT

Id: oT2H8a1SB2k

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 15 2023