I've just released what I think is a stable version of a Esp32-S3 based serial bridge for the Retrotink4K. This is separate from the recently released "Retro-Bridge". The biggest difference right now between our projects is mine is fully local and open source, theirs has much more advanced controls. I'm hoping once they release their specifications I can update my project to act as an interface for their tools.

If you have a esp32-s3 devkitc and a retrotink 4k, I would love to have some feedback.

I'm currently in the process of creating a Zaparoo integration for home assistant and I'm looking for some feedback. If you're not familiar with the project, Zaparoo is the open source universal loading system that lets you launch games and media instantly using physical objects.

What this integration allows you to do from home assistant is launch and stop games, query currently running media, and listen to Zaparoo notifications to trigger automations (eg. if I launch Point Blank on the Mister, turn of the Christmas tree).

As of right now there is no branding (pull request is open to the brands project) and requires installing as a custom repository or manual installation.

Highlights: Tilt, Gyroid, and Solar Sensors. Save states and cheat support.

So after the volume was fixed I discovered the board . Turns out there were multiple issues. First the charge led was dead (tested with multimeter in diode mode) so that is swapped out with a blue one. Then EM8 needed a reflow to get a good connection across. The final issue was a bad trace under the cartridge slot from F2 to D1. For that I added the bodge wire seen in the photo.

Picked up a fairly cheap sp that had lots of corrosion on metal parts (power switch, charge port, and volume slider). After cleaning it all up and replacing the volume slider and audio cap, it still had low volume.Turns out there was a broken trace between the volume pad and the U6 (There should be continuity from the via I solder to, over to the via right next to the s in SW11). Adding the bodge fix the issue.

I am currently in season 8, and had to build up one of these.

All the soldering was straight forward on this one. Just used j-tip iron with leaded plus lots of flux. The one pin that was partially corroded had enough left, so it only has to be bent back.

Definitely a donor board, the other side was worse (you can see the power switch to the right, it just fell off).

Had to replace this ribbon connector to get the drive working reliability again. It probably could have used a little more solder but everything is solid so I'm not messing with it further.

Some background, I originally removed the chips from the board on the left for a Pocket Color Build. It's original fault was no power, which turned out to be a dirty power switch and corroded battery contacts.

The new board had signs of corrosion under the solder mask and previous work (bent ram pins and bridges on the cpu). I decided to move the chips on the other instead of trying to restore the traces. Soldering all went well, until my hand slipped while testing if the connections were solid. One of the pins (bottom left) is pretty bent and the pad on the end was partially lifted.

I was able to heat all those back up and confirm no bridges and the pads are connected. Booted up a quick game to test a screen, sounds and all the buttons. Everything is working.

Moral of the story, be careful and don't put too much pressure on those pins.

This was my first attempt doing a trace repair on a HDMI port. Seems like everything seems to be working after replacing those caps as well. Played through the tutorial of gears 5 with no issues.

What I've tested:

1. Playing downloaded game
2. Playing a Blu-ray
3. Playing on a 4k TV and 1440 monitor. This one the auto detect preferred 120hz 1080p but manually selecting resolution works great.

What I've learned:

1. Wired all the pads before soldering the port. I attached the front wires after the port was soldered. Should have just done them all.
2. A cheap grinding pen is so much easier to use than a knife to expose the traces.
3. 0201 are very hard to work with.

Picked up this Series X to do a trace repair for the hdmi, turns out 2 caps were ripped off the board as well. The one was still partially connected and easy to bodge. The second circled is missing. I'm curious if anyone knows the replacement value.

The similar caps in the area all read between 18.6 to 19.6 uf when out of circuit, so it could be a few values (though no guarantee this cap wasn't unique and completely different).