Creating a mini NES with a Raspberry Pi

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It all started with the Nintendo Classic craze. I had a friend that was rambling about one the other day. I mentioned that I could totally make him one but better because it would emulate more than just Nintendo. Enter RetroPie. I was looking at putting the bill of materials together and thinking of cases for the mini NES, then I realized why not just print one! So BAM and BAM.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1887826
then this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2011955

Then this for giggles
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1710104

Here’s what we are doing

Flashing RetroPie to an SD card for a Raspberry Pi
Soldering header pins to the RUN pin holes on the RPi
Soldering wires to some push buttons
Soldering some wires to an LED
3D Printing a mini NES case for the RPi
3D Printing a bracket for the NES case
Glueing push buttons, LED and bracket into the printed case
Wiring the LED and buttons to the RPi
Testing it all

Here’s what you need

Raspberry Pi (save yourself a headache, get a RPi 3!)
RPi power supply MINIMUM of 2.5A!
SD card 8gb+ class 10
HDMI cable
USB keyboard
Network cable (even though the RPi 3 has wifi you will at least need to do the initial wifi setup with a LAN connection)
A 3D Printer to print the case and the bracket
(2) push buttons
(2) male header pins
Super glue and hot glue
(1) red LED
(1) 100 ohm resistor
(6) pieces of jumper wire with connections (you can cut some in half if long enough)

Whats Up

I will assume you have a network connection (non wifi) a USB keyboard a TV or Monitor or tv with an HDMI connection and that you have active internet. You will need to know how to solder, and be somewhat comfortable with a terminal and hopefully the Linux environment. I also assume you have and know how to use a 3D printer. I will also assume that you know and are comfortable with Raspberry Pies. Lots of ASSumptions.

This post is not designed as a how to install RetroPie but more of a how to get RetroPie installed and create the scripts for shutdown the Pi and lighting the LED, then you can follow the first install guide by RetroPie to get you going with the actual RetroPie software.

If you want to use WiFi

With a keyboard and TV/Monitor connected follow this https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Wifi, otherwise…

Let’s Get Started

3D print the case and button/LED bracket. Solder up some of the jumper wires to the push buttons and then solder the resistor to the LED and some wires. Glue this all together in the bottom of the case). Check the Thingiverse page for more information on all this as well.

Go download the newest version of RetroPie. Once that is downloaded you need to flash the image to an SD card, preferably 8gb or higher, class 10. There are a few ways to get the image on the SD card. Apple-Pi Baker, Etcher, or use the dd command or Win32DiskImager.

RetroPie first installation

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/windows.md
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/mac.md
https://etcher.io/
https://www.tweaking4all.com/downloads/#Raspberrypi

Once you got the image on the SD slap it in the RPi and boot. You will need to have the unit connected to a TV/Monitor and you will need a controller. A keyboard connected to the Pi is required (at least momentarily). Once the unit boots it will want you to map the keyboard keys to the buttons. Just hit F4 or Shift+F4 to get a terminal. From there we need to set up some defaults and turn on auto login on the Pi so the script runs on boot.

sudo raspi-config

How do I change the default password

Select option “1. Change User Password”
Follow the prompts to set the new password. The default password is raspberry.

How do user auto login

Select option “3. Boot Options”
Select option “B1. Desktop / CLI”
Select option “B2. Desktop Auto login”
Don’t quit or reboot yet, go back to the main menu

How do I extend the available space when upgrading to a larger SD card

Select option “7. Advanced Options”
Select option “A1. Expand Filesystem”
Reboot your Raspberry Pi (or do the optional SSH)

How do I enable SSH on RetroPie?

Select option “5. Interfacing Options”
Select option “P2. SSH”
Select YES
Reboot your Raspberry Pi

Once it reboots you can then SSH into the Pi or continue to use the keyboard attached.

See RetroPie first installation for more info on installing RetroPie. See https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FAQ/ for more answers to questions.

Check out the directions on https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2011955, they are pretty decent and should get you most of the way through as well. Most if not all of this information is compiled from there. First things first, from the terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

1 2	sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade

Install wiringPi

Taken from http://wiringpi.com/download-and-install/

Let’s check to make sure you don’t have wiringPi already (if you used the RetroPie image you do NOT). If it spits back a version number, you do. If you do then (we need to purge it, to update to the newest):

sudo apt-get purge wiringpi
hash -r

1 2	sudo apt-get purge wiringpi hash -r

You will need GIT installed to install wiringPi. If you are using the RetroPie image you already have it. To install GIT:

sudo apt-get install git-core

Then pull a copy of wiringPi:

git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi

Check to see if you have the most recent version of wiringPi (which you should):

cd ~/wiringPi
git pull origin

1 2	cd ~/wiringPi git pull origin

Now build:

sudo ./build

You should have wiringPi, to check:

gpio -v

Reboot.

Wiring example

Making the LED work, and run on boot

Check here for more information. From a terminal:

cd ~/
sudo mkdir Scripts
sudo nano Scripts/LEDon.py

cd ~/

sudo mkdir Scripts

sudo nano Scripts/LEDon.py

Paste this into the new file:

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setwarnings(False)
GPIO.setup(18,GPIO.OUT)
print "LED on"
GPIO.output(18,GPIO.HIGH)

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

import time

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

GPIO.setwarnings(False)

GPIO.setup(18,GPIO.OUT)

print "LED on"

GPIO.output(18,GPIO.HIGH)

ctrl+o to save ctrl+x to quit, then let’s create another file to turn off the LED:

sudo nano Scripts/LEDoff.py

Paste this into the new file:

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setwarnings(False)
GPIO.setup(18,GPIO.OUT)
print "LED off"
GPIO.output(18,GPIO.LOW)

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

import time

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

GPIO.setwarnings(False)

GPIO.setup(18,GPIO.OUT)

print "LED off"

GPIO.output(18,GPIO.LOW)

Of course change the pin (18 in this example) to whatever GPIO you are using. You can test the scripts by using:

sudo python ~/Scripts/LEDon.py or sudo python ~/Scripts/LEDoff.py . Now let’s make it turn on when the Pi boots.

Making the LED illuminate on boot

We need to edit rc.local:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add this to the file before the end of the loop:

sudo python /home/pi/Scripts/LEDon.py &

The “&” is important, don’t forget to have that there. For example:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

# Print the IP address
_IP=$(hostname -I) || true
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
  sudo python /home/pi/Scripts/LEDon.py &
fi

exit 0

#!/bin/sh -e

# rc.local

# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.

# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other

# value on error.

# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution

# bits.

# By default this script does nothing.

# Print the IP address

_IP=$(hostname -I) || true

if [ "$_IP" ]; then

printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"

sudo python /home/pi/Scripts/LEDon.py &

exit 0

ctrl+o to save, ctrl+x to quit. The LED should automatically turn off when the Pi shuts down (unknown what will happen if the Pi just freezes, I imagine it would stay lit).

Making the RUN (reset) pins work

Solder some male header pins to the empty spot marked RUN on the RPi board
Simply connect the reset button to the RUN pins and done.
Anytime you press the reset the Pi should, well, reset.

Making the shutdown button work

Check out https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-78055/l/adding-a-shutdown-button-to-the-raspberry-pi-b for more information on all this.

The python script

We need to create a new directory and a shutdown script:

cd ~/
sudo nano Scripts/shutdown.py

1 2	cd ~/ sudo nano Scripts/shutdown.py

Paste this in the new file you just created:

#!/bin/python
# Simple script for shutting down the raspberry Pi at the press of a button.
# by Inderpreet Singh

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
import os

# Use the Broadcom SOC Pin numbers
# Setup the Pin with Internal pullups enabled and PIN in reading mode.
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down = GPIO.PUD_UP)

# Our function on what to do when the button is pressed
def Shutdown(channel):
    os.system("sudo shutdown -h now")

# Add our function to execute when the button pressed event happens
GPIO.add_event_detect(18, GPIO.FALLING, callback = Shutdown, bouncetime = 2000)

# Now wait!
while 1:
    time.sleep(1)

#!/bin/python

# Simple script for shutting down the raspberry Pi at the press of a button.

# by Inderpreet Singh

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

import time

import os

# Use the Broadcom SOC Pin numbers

# Setup the Pin with Internal pullups enabled and PIN in reading mode.

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down = GPIO.PUD_UP)

# Our function on what to do when the button is pressed

def Shutdown(channel):

os.system("sudo shutdown -h now")

# Add our function to execute when the button pressed event happens

GPIO.add_event_detect(18, GPIO.FALLING, callback = Shutdown, bouncetime = 2000)

# Now wait!

while 1:

time.sleep(1)

Edit the above and change the GPIO (18 in the example) to whatever pin you are using. Then save (ctrl+o) and exit (ctrl+x). You can test the new script by running (it should shutdown, if you already did the reset/RUN pin then you can use that to reboot):

sudo python Scripts/shutdown.py

Making it run on start

We need to edit rc.local:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add this to the file before the end of the loop:

sudo python /home/pi/Scripts/shutdown.py &

The “&” is important, don’t forget to have that there. For example:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

# Print the IP address
_IP=$(hostname -I) || true
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
  sudo python /home/pi/Scripts/shutdown.py &
fi

exit 0

#!/bin/sh -e

# rc.local

# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.

# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other

# value on error.

# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution

# bits.

# By default this script does nothing.

# Print the IP address

_IP=$(hostname -I) || true

if [ "$_IP" ]; then

printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"

sudo python /home/pi/Scripts/shutdown.py &

exit 0

Then you are good to go, reboot for the changes to take effect. The script you created should start automatically upon reboot.

The LED should light on when RetroPie starts, the shutdown button should power down the RPi and kill the LED and the reset button should reboot the Pi from its shutdown state. Let me know if I missed anything.

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Creating a mini NES with a Raspberry Pi

Here’s what we are doing

Here’s what you need

Whats Up

If you want to use WiFi

Let’s Get Started

RetroPie first installation

How do I change the default password

How do user auto login

How do I extend the available space when upgrading to a larger SD card

How do I enable SSH on RetroPie?

Install wiringPi

Making the LED work, and run on boot

Making the LED illuminate on boot

Making the RUN (reset) pins work

Making the shutdown button work

The python script

Making it run on start

Discover more from Its_All.Lost

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

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Here’s what we are doing

Here’s what you need

Whats Up

If you want to use WiFi

Let’s Get Started

RetroPie first installation

How do I change the default password

How do user auto login

How do I extend the available space when upgrading to a larger SD card

How do I enable SSH on RetroPie?

Install wiringPi

Making the LED work, and run on boot

Making the LED illuminate on boot

Making the RUN (reset) pins work

Making the shutdown button work

The python script

Making it run on start

Discover more from Its_All.Lost

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

Adventures in Klipper

Wanhao i3 32bit upgrade

MPU6050 on an ESP8266-01 via MQTT

DIY CCTV – Raspberry Pi IP Cameras and NVR

UDM Pro and Comcast

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