I thought I would share a couple of small improvements I’ve made to my Gameshell
External reset button
I described the process for this in a reply to a relevant thread but it’s quite a simple mod. A small amount of case modding needed but it doesn’t mess with the case too much!
Easier to access microSD slot
This is one of my biggest complaints about the Gameshell – the fact that you have to basically fully disassemble everything to get to the microSD card. I bought a small flat ribbon cable microSD extender to move the microSD to a more accessible location.
I’ve been playing with my Gameshell a bit lately (in anticipation of the DevTerm shipping!) and found the Gameshell’s 1200mAh battery to be insufficient… so I upgraded the battery!
Big Fat Battery mod
I had a 4000mAh 3.7v LiPo kicking around in my parts bin – I’m not sure what this came from, but the dimensions are:
Width: 65mm
Height: 55mm
Thickness: 9mm
That’s pretty close to the size of the entire battery module that comes in the Gameshell.
To install it, I had to jam it in to the case, shim it to the right thickness with some pieces of cardboard, and then hook up the 5v/GND wires from the battery to the Gameshell battery cable. I couldn’t find the polarity of this documented anywhere, so I had to determine this (and mark the white cable for future reference) based on looking at the JST connector on the battery module.
Love it. Once I get a rotary tool, I will probably be doing a lot of minor ease of use / quality of life mods like this. Definitely will be routing the SD card slot to somewhere accessible.
That microSD extension cable looks super useful. I’ve been tinkering around with the OS and had to constantly swap microSDs. Opening up the device every time is a real pain in the neck.
How long is that cable? 10cm? Can you access the the card through the GPIO output slot of the lego shell?
The only thing I did to improve the hardware was adding some flat lego tiles to the Back because the bumps made longer pay-sessions really uncomfortable.
Yeah I have a couple of those in my parts bin here, but found the male end stuck out too far to fit in the Gameshell case. Did you have to make any modifications to get yours to fit?
Same here re: flat pieces. Also some curved pieces to make the light keys feel a little bit more secure, ie so you can really go to town playing street fighter etc games.
Truth be told though, I prefer it with the stock smooth back. I don’t use the light keys enough to justify having the extra bulk.
