GamePi43
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Notice
Please take care of the direction of poles when mounting the batteries. It may damage the charge circuit if you reverse the batteries. And please use the same types of batteries, different types/brands of batteries may cause charging issue.
Features
- Raspberry Pi controller, available options:
- PI3B+, 64-bit 1.4G frequency quad-core CPU, 1G RAM.
- PI4B-2GB, 64-bit 1.5G frequency quad-core CPU, 2G RAM.
- 60 fps smooth gaming experience.
- Compatible with Raspberry Pi A+/B+/2B/3B/3B+4B (external HDMI adapter is required for Pi Zero/Zero W/Zerao WH).
- Integrates battery charge circuitry, powered from 18650 lithium batteries (NOT included), plays anywhere anytime.
- Battery life indicator.
- Onboard speaker and earphone jack, listen to the familiar BGM from the old days.
- Volume and backlight adjustment keys, adjust the device status according to a specific game, better experience.
User Guides
Hardware connection
- Insert the GPIO of Raspberry Pi into GamePi43.
- Connect the HDMI port of GamePi43 to Raspberry Pi by HDMI connector.
- If you use Raspberry Pi Zero/Raspberry Pi Zero W, you should use an HDMI cable.
- Turn the power switch to OFF and mount 18650 batteries.
You can use GamePi43 in two ways: Method 1, using the pre-installed driver image. Method 2: Install the driver for the system.
Method 1: Use pre-configured Image
1) The image of the pre-installed driver is provided here, decompress and write the image to the TF card (open the Win32DiskImager.exe, select the .img file, and click "write" to program the image).
OS | Revision | Raspberry Pi | User name/Password | Link |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retropie | V4.8 | Raspberry Pi 4B | pi / raspberry | Google Drive |
Retropie | V4.6 | Raspberry Pi 4B | pi / raspberry | Google Drive |
Retropie | v4.4 | Raspberry Pi 2/3/3B+ | pi / raspberry | Google Drive |
Retropie | v4.4 | Raspberry Pi 1/Zero/Zero W | pi / raspberry | Google Drive |
Recalbox | 6.0-DragonBlaze | Raspberry Pi 2/3/3B+ | root / recalboxroot | Google Drive |
Recalbox | 6.0-DragonBlaze | Raspberry Pi 1/Zero/Zero W | root / recalboxroot | Google Drive |
Recalbox | 7.1-DragonBlaze | Raspberry Pi 2/3/Pi 3B+ | root / recalboxroot | One Drive |
Recalbox | 7.1-DragonBlaze | Raspberry Pi 4 | root / recalboxroot | One Drive |
2) Write the image to the Micro SD card. Then insert the SD card into Raspberry Pi. Turning the Power switch ON to start Raspberry Pi.
- If batteries are low, Raspberry Pi is failed to booting. In this case, you can connect a 5V 3A power adapter to the Power interface for charging. Indicators are flashing when charging. (You can play when charging, however, Raspberry Pi will reboot when inserting/disconnecting the power adapter.)
- If batteries are enough, Raspberry Pi is started and indicators are on.
3) After booting, you can select emulators. In Retropie, button "A" is OK, and "B" is the return. In Recalbox, button "B" is OK and "A" is the return.
4) You can press "Start" to start games.
5) If you want to exit games, press "HK" and "Select" or "Select" and "Start" at the same time.
6) To adjust the volume and backlight of the LCD, you can use the buttons on the bottom of GamePi43.
Method 2: Install driver manually
- Download the driver of GamePi43: GamePi43-210127 Driver-Support Retropie-v4.7
Install driver on retropie
Download Retropie image from Retropie website.
1) Write the image to the SD card.
2) Copy the driver (Do not unzip it) to the root directory of the SD card (BOOT directory of the Raspbian).
3) Then open the config.txt file in the root directory of the TF card, add the following code at the end of config.txt, then save and quit the TF card safely.
max_usb_current=1 hdmi_force_hotplug=1 hdmi_group=2 hdmi_mode=87 hdmi_cvt 800 480 60 6 0 0 0
4) Connect the SD card, keyboard, and HDMI display to Raspberry Pi, Turn the switch on the ON side to power on Raspberry Pi. Press F4 (Keyboard) after booting.
5) After entering the terminal, there are two methods to install the driver, you can choose one of them to install:
- Method 1: Install the remote sensing driver that comes with the system.
【Note】: The Raspberry Pi must be connected to the network, or else the driver won't be successfully installed.
Enter the following command to enter the configuration interface of RetroPie-Setup:
cd RetroPie-Setup/ sudo ./retropie_setup.sh
Select the Manage Packages option in the following interface, and then press "Enter".
After entering the following interface, select the Manage driver Packages option and press "Enter".
Select mkarcadejoystick in the following interface and press "Enter".
After entering the next interface, select install from the source. After the driver is installed, Ctrl+C can exit the RetroPie-Setup configuration interface.
Then enter the following command in the terminal to modify the configuration.
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/mk_arcade_joystick_rpi.conf
Modify the statement in the file to
options mk_arcade_joystick_rpi map=1
After saving the file and restarting the system, the keys can be mapped normally.
- Method 2: Use the driver provided by us and install it in the following way.
Download driver of GamePi43: GamePi43-210127 Driver-Support Retropie-v4.7
Download the GamePi43 driver and copy it to the /boot directory of the TF card (you can also use a U disk or network to copy the driver file to the RetroPie system), and perform the following operations:
After opening the folder where the driver is located.
tar xzvf /boot/GamePi43-210127.tar.gz cd GamePi43/ sudo ./GamePi43
After restarting, you can enter the system normally.
6) Long-press the "A" button (GamePi43) to enter the configuration page and configure by pressing related buttons (GamePi43), you can also long-press to skip any button.
After configuring, you can press "A" (GamePi43) to save configured and exit, or press "B" or "Start" (GamePi43) to exit without saving.
Save and reboot the system then you can play games normally.
Install driver on Recalbox
Download the latest image from Recalbox website.
1) Unzip the files download to get the .img file
2) Write the .img file to SD card
3) Copy the GamePi43 driver to the root directory of SD card
4) Then open the config.txt file in the root directory of the TF card, add the following code at the end of config.txt, then save and quit the TF card safely.
hdmi_force_hotplug=1 hdmi_group=2 hdmi_mode=1 hdmi_mode=87 hdmi_cvt 800 600 60 6 0 0 0 hdmi_drive=2 display_rotate=0 avoid_warnings=1
5) Connect the TF card and USB keyboard to the Raspberry Pi, turn on the power switch, start the Raspberry Pi, press F4 on the keyboard after entering the system, press Alt+F2, enter the account: root, password: recalboxroot, and enter the terminal (also You can log in to the terminal control interface through the network).
6) Enter the following commands in the terminal to configure the gamepad
mount -o remount,rw / mount -o remount,rw /boot
Edit the recalbox.conf file
nano /recalbox/share/system/recalbox.conf
Modify the line controllers.gpio.enabled=0 in the file to
controllers.gpio.enabled=1
After modification, save the file and exit the editing. After entering reboot to restart the system, you can use the buttons normally.
Interface
【Note】 NC: not connected
PIN | Symbol | Description |
---|---|---|
1 | 3.3V | 3.3V power input |
2 | 5V | 5V Power input |
3 | HOTKEY | BCM=2, WPI=8 |
4 | 5V | 5V Power input |
5 | NC | NC |
6 | GND | Ground |
7 | UP | BCM=4,WPI=7 |
8 | TL | BCM=14, WPI=15 |
9 | GND | Ground |
10 | X | BCM=15, WPI=16 |
11 | DOWN | BCM=17, WPI=0 |
12 | Y | BCM=18, WPI=1 |
13 | LEFT | BCM=27, WPI=2 |
14 | GND | Ground |
15 | RIGHT | BCM=22, WPI=3 |
16 | TR | BCM=23, WPI=4 |
17 | 3.3V Power input | |
18 | B | BCM=24, WPI=5 |
19 | START | BCM=10, WPI=12 |
20 | GND | Ground |
21 | SELECT | BCM=9, WPI=13 |
22 | A | BCM=25, WPI=6 |
23 | NC | NC |
24 | NC | NC |
25 | GND | Ground |
26 | NC | NC |
27 | NC | NC |
28 | NC | NC |
29 | NC | NC |
30 | GND | Ground |
31 | NC | NC |
32 | NC | NC |
33 | NC | NC |
34 | GND | Ground |
35 | NC | NC |
36 | NC | NC |
37 | NC | NC |
38 | NC | NC |
39 | GND | Ground |
40 | NC | NC |
Resources
- Panasonic_SDFormatter
- Win32DiskImager
- putty
- wiringPi & bcm2835 C LIB
- GamePi43-190717 Driver-Supports Retropie-v4.4 and Recalbox6.0-DragonBlaze
- GamePi43-200730 Driver-SupportRetropie-v4.6
- GamePi43 Assemble Manual
FAQ
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Support
If you require technical support, please go to the Support page and open a ticket.