DIY: Super Nintendo Pi 2

The motivation to make this DIY came when the maker’s peer bought a gaming console kit to build a gaming device for his kid. That project was simple, it used a PI B+/2 case. Our maker here had bigger ambitions.

He uses a little device – that he luckily found in his parent’s basement – which sits between the Micro USB port on the Pi, and the main power source. You are supposed to solder it on some header pins for power and reset switches. If any switch is turned on, current flows to the pi in turn turning pi on. So a script is run that watches GPIO 23/24 and if someone/the maker presses the momentary switch, or turns off the always-on switch, a signal is dispatched to the GPIO pins, and the software script executes a shutdown. The circuit is vigilant also of signals coming back across the pins and, when the system takes a halt; it cuts the power going to the Pi.

As for the other parts, AdaFruit has a 5V 10A brick and a DC Female-to-USB A Female adapter. The Micro USB was arranged from a battery pack from Woot. And while 10A is a lot of power for the Pi, the maker wants to ensure that when he takes it to the next level there is enough fire power in the project.