Gameboy Advance SP in a TI-83

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:48 pm

I know this has been thrown around a few times here, but I couldn't find any evidence of anyone actually going through with it....

Basically I've got everything set, except for re-locating the buttons (I'm planning on making the calculator look as regular as possible). So I need ~10 tact switches (a few extras in case of soldering problems...), but so far I can't find any places locally that have anything that I'm looking for. Because of the tight space I'm working with, I can't use the few switches I found at Radioshack cause they're about an inch long or so, meaning I'll probably resort to buying online. So I need suggestions on reliable places I could buy from.

Also, any suggestions, praises, critizism, are welcome. Here are some pics of it so far:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a243/ ... G_0010.jpg - The innards of a Gameboy Advance SP
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a243/ ... G_0011.jpg - And the back...
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a243/ ... G_0012.jpg - "installed" inside the TI-83 calculator (relocated battery so the back casing would fit)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a243/ ... G_0013.jpg - playing Zelda, the best game ever

I'm planning on buying one of those flash carts, so I don't even need to deal with switching the cartridge after I put this together, but do any mac users out there know how compatible those are?

Thanks

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:52 pm

Sick! Keep all of the old buttons on though, and just wire up the needed SP buttons on to the existing ones, it'll look more like a calculator that way.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:53 pm

sniper_spike wrote:Sick! Keep all of the old buttons on though, and just wire up the needed SP buttons on to the existing ones, it'll look more like a calculator that way.

That's what I'm planning on doing, I just need suggestions on how to do that...

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:58 pm

Oh alright then, I suppose you could place small tact switches under the calc buttons, and have the tacts wired up to the button contacts.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:00 pm

Yeah, but where should I buy the tact switches? The only places I've found, you buy them by the 100 or so...

jeep · Post by **jeep** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:06 pm

Is the calculator you removed from it still works ? I could send you 10 tact switch for the inside if they work

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:10 pm

No the innards of the calculator don't work (I wouldn't have ruined an 80 dollar calculator if it still worked), but where'd you get the tact switches?

jeep · Post by **jeep** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:12 pm

I get mine at Maddison, a place near my home. I live in QuÃ©bec, Canada, so I guess this wouldn't be useful

Also glad to know you didn't destroy a working TI-83 for that

Looks nice though.

toby dawg · Post by **toby dawg** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:14 pm

OK go to a pawn shop.....buy a $5 vcr .....crack it open and desolder the tact swiches from the insides

......
PS: that is cool ...Great for math class

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:16 pm

Ok sweet, didn't think about that one, any other electronics that will most likely have them?

Thanks

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:19 pm

I made a cool button layout:

GBA/TI-83
Directional Pad/Arrow buttons
Start/Enter
Select/Clear
A/2nd
B/Alpha
R/Divide smbol (/)
L/Multiply stmbol (X)
Power switch/On

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:24 pm

That's basically the button layout I have planned, except I'm putting the L button on "Y=" and the R button on "graph". And the only real downside here is the weirdness of having the direction pad and the A and B buttons switched...

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:56 pm

I was going to do that too but then sadly I realized that the d pad was on the wrong side

I suppose that you could do a little cutting and relocation of the arrow pad on the case though.

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:38 pm

Ha! Thats great! The screen even fit perfect. Get the controlls in and you have something worth submitting to hackaday.

usbcd36 · Post by **usbcd36** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 7:21 pm

It 's amazing, but unfortunately teachers at my school know that calculators (even actual ones) can play games, so they confiscate them as well. Some even clear your RAM (and ARC) when they do (which would be a huge problem for me, since I have written over 50 legit programs on mine for math calculations).

Due to some data corruption, I don't even have games on mine anymoreâ€¦