Odroid Go


If inserting a resistor in the speaker wire works, maybe it would be possible to add an analogue volume wheel.

Is impedence matching an issue here? I never quite understood what that does for audio.
 
I want to put a headphone jack in it but I haven't been able to electrically picture how to do it without impacting the speaker or headphone volume short of using a physical switch instead of the built-in one on a headphone jack. There's not much room inside for an additional PCB.
Check out that video I posted earlier where the guy nearly drills his hand to solder on a headset socket. He's also made a solder less version too that goes on the header port
 
Check out that video I posted earlier where the guy nearly drills his hand to solder on a headset socket. He's also made a solder less version too that goes on the header port

I saw that one, but he essentially replaces the speaker with the headphone jack, so you can't use one or the other automatically, it has to be switched manually. The DAC hat would be nice, but it'd be cool if someone made a 3d printed shell to put around it so it's not exposed circuitry. Making a physically switched version isn't the worst thing, I can do that super easy. I was just thinking of something that automatically switched based on whether or not the headphones were plugged in like a real Gameboy does.
 
Disappointed. I've switched the device on after about a week, and it seems half the backlighting has died. At least I don't remember it looking like this when I last used it.

Edit: I've taken it to bits, reseated all the components, and put it back together, and it seems to look fine again now :)
 

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I had a chance to try one of these in person a while ago, but it didn't have any software installed so no comment on that. It has a solid case and a comfortable format which is pretty rare these days... At first I was going to pass on it because of the lack of headphone port and poor quality speaker, but then I rubbed my eyes... An open handheld from Korea with a 320x240 screen?! Is this the 2000s all over again? And for $40 too? :D
 
As I suspected!

https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?p=227459#p227459
Volume is controlled digitally by increasing or reducing the sample values sent to the speaker DAC. This is an 8bit DAC internal to the ESP32. Since there are only 8bits, a volume level of 12.5% produces 1bit sound while a level of 100% produces 8bit sound. The current minimum volume level is 15%. This was determined after testing various games on each emulator.

(Looks like this post was actually one day after mine, but I only noticed it now.)
 
I keep thinking I'm going to get one of these systems, this or the retrostone, but my Pandora does as much as these do and works fine. I'd rather just wait for the Pyra personally. I really like these systems built on single board computers though, it is kinda like the hacking community grew up.
 
I must admit, I would have preferred a FreePlayCM3 but I didn't like hacked on buttons (they seemed rather small, but that's a compromise given the case was a butchered GBA shell).

I haven't yet managed to build a .FW file for the Go, though I have everything set up in a VM.

Considering my fantasy machine only gets me approx 25fps on my desktop machines (with the weakest being an i5 laptop), I'm guessing I'm going to have to learn some amazing C skills or assume it won't be available on the Go. Not 100% sure why it seems to consume so much time, I don't think my CPU design is particularly complicated.

Would anyone be in hearing my escapades into fantasy machine development? I guess it's like working an emulator, but with custom specs
 
I have just received mine :D
I'll probably have my kid to assemble it tomorrow, he wanted to do it as soon as I explained to him what it was.
 
Emulation works pretty well on this. It is not recommended that you add every single rom you own on the SD card even if you can, as too many roms may cause some undesirable effects but honestly, how many games do you need on such a small device at any time? :)

There is a known issue with NES emulation where it seems to process an extra line horizontally when proceeding in vertical screens (Most easily visible when playing Chrysalis, for example), and there seems to be a bit of frameskipping going on (Eg in Gameboy and Gameboy Color). Sega Master System and Gamegear work perfectly fine, and Colecovision works well as long as you can start the game.

There is a forum for the Odroid Go specifically, which updates now and then with new releases on this and there's some pretty good documentation on much of it.

I would love to see how our Pandora programmers tackle this device and what they manage to make out of it!
 
Find a link on the forum to a gitub repo that builds fw using visualstudio code and platformio. Looked very promising as a build environment
 
Well done, that wasn't easy.

Now question is, are you going to paint your Odroid? I'm waiting to order some more shells so I can paint differently. Also, I had a bit of a rattle with the battery and speaker so I inserted a small bit of cardboard in there and now it sounds as solid as it feels. And you can't even tell because of the paint!
 
No, I'm not going to paint it. The thing that is bothering me the most now is the sound. The 8bit sound are not that great, and the lack of a volume wheel and proper hardware volume and headphone jack is the thing that I would like to improve/fix.
 
Sounds like a plan. I've been thinking about the headphone jack myself. Not that I really need it with 8 bit sound, but even the max volume is a bit high. There should be plenty space on the PCB to modify down to bare board to serve as a mount point for a volume wheel, and there is a bit of space for extra circuitry but not a whole lot. Some enterprising hacker might be able to figure where to cut on the board too.
 
I have just received mine :D
I'll probably have my kid to assemble it tomorrow, he wanted to do it as soon as I explained to him what it was.

You have kids, I didn't know :oops:

Is ED going to sell these?

I'm looking for something 'cheap' to play around with (hardware-wise), and was looking at the Arduboy as ED sells those.
 
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