The controller mod kit comes with a panel mount 9-pin D-SUB connector, but mine came without screws. I don't know if it's common for it to come with or without screws. But other panel mount jacks that I've purchased in the past have come with screws. Luckily, it seems the common #6-32 machine screw threads into this perfectly. My backup plan would have been to simply use nuts on the backside of the connector.
I'm not sure if it's the way it's designed or the way it was printed or what, but I've noticed that this 3D printed enclosure is fairly weak. When I was dry fitting the controller port, I actually had the shell slightly crack and I tightened one of the screws. The thing is, I really didn't over tighten it. Just as I was approaching snug, I got a hairline crack. Horizontally, along the lines that you can see in there, between the left screen on the cart slot. It wasn't too bad, and I've already repaired it. A little bit of super glue, making sure it wicked into the crack, and then clamped it until the glue set.
You can see in that last pic, those horizontal lines. It seems like the case could crack very easily along these lines. I'll have to be careful with everything going forward. I'm not sure if this is a design flaw or something with the printer, but I've worked with other 3D printed things before and haven't ran across this kind of issue before. I know 3D printed parts aren't especially strong, but this one is the most fragile 3D printed part I've come across.
Another thing is general fitment issues. Things don't fit 100% as you'd expect. It's probably something that you would keep tweaking until it's good enough, but this is where the author left it. So for example, the audio board...
I actually had to do some trimming to those holes for the 3.5mm jack and volume wheel to get the board to fit in there. And even still, it's not a perfect fit. You can see in the above pic, there's two mounting holes. The one on the bottom-left is lined up, but the one on the top-right is not.
And also with the audio board, the volume wheel is a little too recessed. Which might be intentional. I just realized that the GGTV (the video output mod) does not grab audio, it just handles video. So you would need to hijack the audio from this board. It will be like the Genesis model 1, where you use the headphones port for stereo output and just set the slighter to about 75% (because headphones output is not line out). Not ideal, but it will work fine. And after you adjust the volume wheel, you can "set it and forget it."
If anyone knows of an existing audio line out mod for the GG, let me know! I've looked around and couldn't find anything.
Speaking about the GGTV mod, there's some problems to fix with that as well. For one, the mini-DIN connector that it comes with is meant to be mounted on a PCB. It comes with a little PCB that you solder the connector to, but that's not a panel mount part. Also, this kit wasn't designed for a console, it was designed for a handheld. So I'm not sure how it was intended to be mounted in an actual Game Gear, but for this project, there's a little shelf for it. I can't make out exactly how the author of this console shell mounted it because the only pic I could find (posted above in an earlier post of mine) is too low rez to make out. I know with the NESRGB mod kit (which is made by the same guy as this GGTV mod kit) you're suppose to just glue this jack onto the case. But I'm really not a fan of that. Connectors take a lot of strain, I just don't see that glue holding. Also, this mini-DIN PCB doesn't even seem to fit the shelf.
And I'm not sure what the idea is here, but it's a square cutout in the case. This is what it looks like from the back.
My solution will be to use a proper panel mount mini-DIN connector. And I actually have some on hand, because it's what I was going to use for my own NES RGB mod (until I changed my mind).
Look like there's enough meat on either side of the square cutout for me to drill holes for the mounting screws. I've learned my lesson from the controller port, so I'll have to be extra careful when mounting it. Even then, the mini-DIN plug puts a lot of strain on the connector. I'll do some testing, and if I don't feel like the case material is strong enough, I may reinforce it.
Another annoying this I just noticed is the type of mini-DIN connector this comes with. I took one look and assumed it was a Genesis model 2/3 style connector, which has been adopted by many projects. But another standard some people were using was the Framemiester mini-DIN pinout. Which looks like the Genesis connector, but it not the same. The reason this is annoying is because you can easily buy all sorts of Genesis AV cables (composite, S-Video, RGB) but if you want to use the Framemeister plug then you have to buy or build a custom cable. And I don't have any Framemeister AV cables on hand. So I'll either have to build a custom one, or see if the owner of this would rather me use a Genesis style mini-DIN connector. I think the Genesis style AV connector is a smarter choice because they are so much more readily available if you ever need a replacement or different type.
In the above pic, you can see that the case has a sort of slot below that shelf. It must be for the GGTV board to slip into. I had to clean it out a bit with an X-Acto knife, there was lots of stringy junk in there from the print job.
And I'm guess that short screw post is made for a screw head to hold the GGTV board in place.
And yet another annoyance I've just discovered about the GGTV... I should have read the details about it more thoroughly at first. But I just discovered that it has two voltage regulators on board. A quote from the following link...
https://etim.net.au/ggtv/ggtv.htm
This new design is superior to the previous in all cases with the exception of power consumption. Two voltage regulators supply +3.3V for the CPLD (programmable logic) and +5V for the video encoder. The former is regulated from the main +5V rail and the latter takes its power directly from the battery. The reason for this is that I was worried that I may overload the main +5v rail if I tried to pull an extra 100mA (worst case) from it. This is quite an inefficient setup but the Game Gear itself is hardly famous for battery life so I don't think anybody will mind.
So from the above quoted text, I read that as the GGTV requires power from the regulated 5v rail as well as unregulated power directly from the batteries. Well, obviously that is a problem since this is being turned into a console, I don't think the owner will want to use batteries with it! The problem is that the GGTV doesn't use a fixed voltage regulator for the 5v rail. It uses a MIC5295YD which has an adjustable voltage output. So the way it is setup to make 5v is because it's expecting a certain voltage from the batteries. So I guess I have two choices here. I suppose I could mod the GGTV board to bypass the MIC5295YD in inject 5v from the Game Gear mainboard. Or, I'll have to see that this checks out, take 9v from the DC input and use that. Assuming the six 1.5v batteries that the GG uses are all in series, that would make 9v. So this would be fine.
The GGTV instructions has you pull the unregulated power from a spot on the main board, not the power supply board. So I suppose I could just check to see if that spot gets 9v from the DC input as well. Because if that's the case, then I just overthunk the whole thing and can use the installation instructions as-is.
edit: OK, I definitely overthunk all of that. What threw me off is that he said "takes power directly from the battery" but that is not exactly true. I mean, it takes power from the batteries if you're using batteries. But the "unregulated power" could also be the AC adapter, if you're using one. I checked to confirm. The installation instructions say to tap the unregulated power from one side of R28 (on the single ASIC model). So I probed that side of R28 with the AC adapter powering the GG and it looks good. When he said "directly from the batteries" I took that literally, like tapping off of a battery terminal or somewhere else on the power board.
