Portable 7" game console from old/cheap car display. Full tutorial and free design.

Hi all,

In this video i show you step by step how i turned a cheap car display into a game console for the kids. There was a lot before the Nintendo switch haha.
The game console is using a ESP32 wroom (D1 mini) as a microprocessor.
The ESP32 is running a slightly modified version of the esp_8_bit code on GitHub (Rossumur)
original:
https://github.com/rossumur/esp_8_bit
This code can run Sega, Nes and Atari games/roms.
The roms are not included in the download link i will supply due to copyright issues. you need to choose and download your own game roms.
Example source:
https://www.emulatorgames.net/roms/sega-master-system/

As a display i use a 7" car screen. sold online for about 15 euro's
The display runs on 12v.

3 lipo batteries (old toy drone battery's) are used to to power the device.
the 11.1(12.6)v will power the screen directly.
The 3 lipo's are connected to a 3S BMS to protect the cells against over and undercharge and will balance the cells.
A second module, sold as 3S USB charger is used to step up the 5v USB voltage to a stable 12.6v to charge the cells.

A LM2596 step down converter is used to reduce the 12.6v to a stable 3.3v
The ESP32 is powered by 3.3v only.
If your ESP32 does only on USB power, see the end of the video.
Here i will show you a workaround to get the ESP running with only 3.3v.

For the audio amplifier i used a 30 cents PAM8403 amplifier module.
This module can drive 2x3w speakers but only connecting a 0.25W speaker.
I've gone a bit rude on the audio setup. since i only wanna use a fixed volume so my kids cant give me a headache.
By using a potentiometer as a variable voltage divider on the audio signal wire i can internally adjust the maximum volume.

Originally the firmware code is written to use an original NES controller.
For this project i wanted to use build in buttons.
The original NES controller is using a cd4021b shift register to read the buttons and communicate this to the NES itself.

I use the same shift register in this project. the 8 shift register inputs are connected to the buttons and added a 1k pull up register.
the other side of the button is connected to GND.
This wat the buttons work like a Original NES controller.
Only 3 wires need to be connected to the ESP.

The 3D STL models used in this project can be downloaded for free.
Be creative in your color use. in my case i used a lavender/blue PLA filament with glow in the dark buttons.

The code can output PAL and NTSC video signal. my screen supports both.
Both have pro's and cons.
PAL signal has slightly better colors, but not using the whole screen, also the game speed and FPS are slightly reduced.

NTSC is using the whole screen, the game runs smooth and at full speed.
The only drawback is the very sensitive video timing.
Most of the time the console has about 80% color.
once in a while the image is perfectly colorful, once in a while its only black and white. a reboot of the console solves this problem. doesnt change while playing. most likely this is caused by the used cheap screen and not not ESP32.

If you have any questions or comments. feel free to share them.
Mm also very curious where viewers are from :D
DId you build your own? please share the results :D

The file bundle can be downloaded here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pg1zmxemg3b6asux0vvd9/sega-console.rar?rlkey=yvxcdsl703gtqf9n66tpaj6an&dl=0

0:00 Display and 3d print
0:48 buttons
1:05 firmware
2:14 prepare ESP32
2:42 LM2596
3:10 audio
3:43 buttons
4:14 batteries
5:06 enjoy!
5:19 bugfix

Видео Portable 7" game console from old/cheap car display. Full tutorial and free design. канала Robbert DIY projects