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Wifi game boy cartridge

Staacks·wifi-game-boy-cartridge·pcb/wifi-gb-cart.kicad_pcb

Wifi game boy cartridge PCB layout, top view — open source ESP8266 board by Staacks

About the Wifi game boy cartridge PCB

Wifi game boy cartridge is an open source ESP8266 PCB design by Staacks, published on GitHub. It is a 2-layer board measuring 51.4 × 61 mm, with 28 components from 15 distinct parts.

Its main chip is the ESP-12F, from the ESP8266 family. Other key parts include the 74AHCT02D, 74AHCT30D, 28C256, NCP1117-3.3_SOT223 and SN74LV1T34DBV. By type, the board carries 10 ICs, 7 capacitors, 7 resistors and 1 diode.

It belongs with the iot & wireless and retro computing designs in this gallery.

From the project

A WiFi cartridge for the original Game Boy.

There are two known possible issues in this design, which you should be aware of when ordering or manufacturing this PCB: Some of the 3V3 lines in the top left corner are done es part of an auto-fill area. This works perfectly in KiCad, is properly exported to Gerber files and also passes bug tests with the net list. However, when I ordered from aisler.net where you upload the KiCad file instead of Gerber files, the smaller 3V3 connections were lost. Since this worked in KiCad itself, I think it is a bug in Aisler's renderer, but unfortunately, they did not reply to my questions about this…

Wifi game boy cartridge, from the project README
From the project README

Main components on the Wifi game boy cartridge

74AHCT02D74AHCT30D28C256ESP-12FNCP1117-3.3_SOT223SN74LV1T34DBVSN74LVC4245ADWRG4

Wifi game boy cartridge bill of materials (BOM)

28 components, 15 distinct parts — part numbers from the project's BOM.

QtyPartRefs
2
74AHCT02D
U1, U2
2
74AHCT30D
U3, U4
1
28C256
U5
1
ESP-12F
U6
1
NCP1117-3.3_SOT223
U7
2
SN74LV1T34DBV
U8, U9
1
SN74LVC4245ADWRG4
U10
3
TestPoint
+3V3, +5V, GPIO0
1
LED BLUE
D1
1
10uF
C1
4
100nF
C2, C4, C6, C7
1
100uF
C3
1
680uF
C5
6
12k
R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R7
1
330
R6

Wifi game boy cartridge design files

The KiCad project lives in the Staacks/wifi-game-boy-cartridge repository on GitHub; these links point at the commit this page was built from.

Wifi game boy cartridge: common questions

What microcontroller does the Wifi game boy cartridge use?

The Wifi game boy cartridge is built around the ESP-12F, from the ESP8266 family.

How big is the Wifi game boy cartridge PCB?

The Wifi game boy cartridge measures 51.4 × 61 mm, has 2 copper layers and is 1.6 mm thick.

How many components are on the Wifi game boy cartridge?

28 components, from 15 distinct parts, with part numbers taken from the project's own BOM. The full bill of materials is listed on this page.

Where can I download the Wifi game boy cartridge design files?

From the Staacks/wifi-game-boy-cartridge repository on GitHub, which has the KiCad layout and the BOM; the links under Design files point to each one.

Can I use the Wifi game boy cartridge design in my own project?

The repository has no license, so all rights stay with Staacks. Use it as a reference, and ask the author before reusing the design.

Can I test firmware for the Wifi game boy cartridge without the hardware?

Yes. HardLabs builds a simulation of the board from its netlist and BOM, so you can run and debug ESP8266 firmware against it before you order a PCB.

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