MiSTer FPGA Forum

Cool project.
I was also developing a hand held version a few months ago. link here with video viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1876
Sadly my career took over the last few months so haven't have the time to pursue further. naybe if we all get together on this we might be able to pull it off. I was about 90 percent there with my design with a few successful prototypes built. although one thing that scared me at the time was the costs involved. I think it was somewhere in the 500 to 600 euro price range to build each prototype.
Anyways feel free to contact me with any questions. I worked out a lot of the electronics, custom buttons etc. tooling required etc.

dot-bob wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:36 am A vendor stopped by work and dropped off a few displays for me to try out... It's a bit overkill and I haven't measured the display lag of the provided hdmi to mipi board but here are some pics of MiSTer with the 1440x1600 display. 1440x1600 Display.jpg 1440x1600 Mario.jpg

can you share your settings to make it work? i got the exact thing but can't have a display properly from mister. thanks

Handheld device isn't only size but usage scenario. Overall, without lengthy description, there is no point to use FPGA in small handheld device.
Anbernic RG351 already does great job.
FPGA is for big screen at home.

People just got their Analogue Pockets and are enjoying it greatly, including those inundated with those Chinese handheld emulators. How can you say there is no use scenario here?

I don't know that DE-10 nano will ever be practical for handhelds, but I also don't understand why people think it is OK to keep dumping on the very concept in this research thread. If such a thing ever becomes viable I guarantee there will be those who use it. It does not have to be for everyone. Maybe this is only on the same level as people hacking together portable Wii but its still a neat thing if you can do it.

I personally, would LOVE a MiSTer handheld. I also would gladly pay the earlier estimated $500 for it.

Using a Switch style form factor makes sense as there is a plethora of controllers and accessories that could be adapted. Also, there are several adapters that allow you to attach the controllers in vertical or horizontal orientation.

Please continue work on this. I'm happy to help fund through patreon.

Things are moving but slow. I have been busy at work and do a couple PCBs a month so I really don't feel too motivated to do it at home, I would rather be playing games. Money is not an issue so a patreon is not needed.

I have the start of a schematic with basic battery management circuit, a DE-10 Nano footprint utilizing all connectors, and a start of a HDMI splitter to mirror video to external display. I still haven't found what I would call a "good" display for a MiSTer portable. Perhaps when the switch OLED panel is generally available. The few I have tested are too small or just ok. The 5" is a bit small and the odd ball vita resolution doesn't scale well. The 7" is large but 1024x600 and scales a bit strange and has bad black levels. And the 3.5 1440x1600 (headset display) like in the Pocket is small and is native in a portrait format, so it will add lag to rotate (makes me wonder what the pocket does).

Controls are also another pain requiring numerous prototypes to get them to feel right. This is why I am leaning towards either integrating switch or mobile bluetooth or USB controllers. You know what you are getting out of the box with these. I may need to implement the joycon protocol with a microcontroller to be used with the hardware rails to bring the lag down but even then might still be high.

dot-bob wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:36 am A vendor stopped by work and dropped off a few displays for me to try out... It's a bit overkill and I haven't measured the display lag of the provided hdmi to mipi board but here are some pics of MiSTer with the 1440x1600 display. 1440x1600 Display.jpg 1440x1600 Mario.jpg

Hey. I don't know if you've now seen the reviews of the Analogue Pocket (especially Digital Foundry) but they are raving about that 1440x1600 display because it scales perfectly to the Gameboy. It's also high enough res to apply a decent Gameboy/GBC/Gamegear filter. Given the Pocket is now imposible to get unless you want to pay £1000 on eBay, it's starting to make the MiSTer with this screen seem very attractive!

I'm going to give it a go myself at some point but I was wondering if you could revisit this screen with a Gameboy game running and the screen rotated correctly, just to see what it's like.

Excerpt to the review:

I was looking at these DMG controller pcbs on tindie. How would one connect this to the de-10 nano? Is there some kind of usb chip that the MiSTer would recognize?

https://www.tindie.com/products/tinkerb ... oller-pcb/

https://www.tindie.com/products/tinkerb ... -boy-zero/

gestalt wrote: ↑Sat Jan 29, 2022 2:35 pm I was looking at these DMG controller pcbs on tindie. How would one connect this to the de-10 nano? Is there some kind of usb chip that the MiSTer would recognize?

https://www.tindie.com/products/tinkerb ... oller-pcb/

https://www.tindie.com/products/tinkerb ... -boy-zero/

Can't speak specifically for the de-10 but if you wanted it to be a hid compliant USB device you'd program an atmega:
https://www.tinkerboy.xyz/how-to-progra ... h-arduino/

I guess something based on the Daemonbite controller would do (Arduino Pro Micro).

I was recently thinking about my old Nvidia Shield portable that I enjoyed so much 8 years back, doesn't get much love these days. I wonder how difficult it would be to remove the Shields internals replace with a de10-nano and connect to the display. The dimensions seem somewhat comparable.