{"id":30014,"date":"2021-02-07T11:07:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T09:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/?p=30014"},"modified":"2021-02-07T11:07:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-07T09:07:49","slug":"gba-gets-homebrew-usb-c-charging-upgrade-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/2021\/02\/07\/gba-gets-homebrew-usb-c-charging-upgrade-2\/","title":{"rendered":"GBA Gets Homebrew USB-C Charging Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sure there are pre-made kits to add a rechargeable battery and USB-C compatibility to Nintendo&#8217;s venerable Game Boy Advance, but <a href=\"https:\/\/lektiondestages.art.blog\/2021\/02\/02\/simple-game-boy-advance-micro-usb-usb-c-li-ion-battery-power-supply-aka-the-cheapjuice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">[HorstBaerbel] thought he could throw together something similar for a fraction of the price<\/a>. Plus, he wouldn&#8217;t have to wait on shipping. The end result might not be quite as polished, but it&#8217;s certainly impressive for what&#8217;s essentially a junk bin build.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/5_gbabatt_detail.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"460136\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2021\/02\/06\/gba-gets-homebrew-usb-c-charging-upgrade\/gbabatt_detail\/\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/5_gbabatt_detail.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1024,816\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"gbabatt_detail\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/4_gbabatt_detail.jpg\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/5_gbabatt_detail.jpg?w=784\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-460136 lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/4_gbabatt_detail.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"319\" data-srcset=\"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/5_gbabatt_detail.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/5_gbabatt_detail.jpg?resize=250,199 250w, http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/5_gbabatt_detail.jpg?resize=400,319 400w, http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/5_gbabatt_detail.jpg?resize=784,625 784w\" data-sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 400px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 400\/319;\" \/><\/a>The star of the show is a USB-C variant of the popular TP4056 lithium-ion charger module, which fits nicely inside the original battery compartment while still leaving room for a 1,000 mAh pouch cell. The 4.2 V output of the fully charged battery is a bit too high for the Game Boy&#8217;s liking, so [HorstBaerbel] used the forward voltage drop of a diode to bring it down to a more acceptable 3.5 V.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally this does waste a good deal of energy, especially compared to the DC-DC converters used in commercial offerings like the <a href=\"https:\/\/handheldlegend.com\/products\/cleanjuice-game-boy-advance-li-ion-rechargeable-battery-module\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CleanJuice<\/a>, but it still delivers a respectable seven hours of runtime. The only issue with this modification seems to be that you&#8217;ve got just five minutes to save your progress and shut down when the GBA&#8217;s low-battery light goes on; but what&#8217;s life without a little excitement?<\/p>\n<p>While not nearly extreme as <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2016\/11\/03\/emulating-a-gameboy-advance-inside-of-a-gameboy-advance\/\">some of the other GBA modifications we&#8217;ve seen over the years<\/a>, this project is yet another example of the <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2020\/08\/05\/the-game-boy-as-a-midi-synthesiser\/\">seemingly unlimited hacking potential<\/a> of Nintendo&#8217;s iconic Game Boy line.<\/p>\n<p>source <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2021\/02\/06\/gba-gets-homebrew-usb-c-charging-upgrade\/\">https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2021\/02\/06\/gba-gets-homebrew-usb-c-charging-upgrade\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sure there are pre-made kits to add a rechargeable battery and USB-C compatibility to Nintendo&#8217;s venerable Game Boy Advance, but [HorstBaerbel] thought he could throw together something similar for a fraction of the price. Plus, he wouldn&#8217;t have to wait<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/2021\/02\/07\/gba-gets-homebrew-usb-c-charging-upgrade-2\/\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">GBA Gets Homebrew USB-C Charging Upgrade<\/span><span class=\"meta-nav\"> &#8250;<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30017,"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30014\/revisions\/30017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cornay.co.za\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}