The Sport Boy Digicam hit the market in 1998 and was the primary alternative many individuals needed to expertise digital images. Although the standard was very poor — even by the digital images requirements of the time — the $49.95 price ticket made this very accessible. There was a renewed curiosity within the Sport Boy Digicam lately as right now’s photographers search novel experiences, which has made one challenge fairly obvious: the Sport Boy Digicam is cumbersome. To duplicate the expertise in a extra pocketable kind, Little Mod Store constructed this Sport Boy Digicam Mini.
That is a design created by Christopher Graves, who makes a speciality of Sport Boy Digicam images and mods. However whereas Graves did wonderful work on the engineering and even revealed some nice written guides, they haven’t made any movies in regards to the Sport Boy Digicam Mini. So Little Mod Store carried out the mod (with assist from Graves) and recorded the entire course of.
The Sport Boy Digicam Mini has nearly all the similar {hardware} as the usual Sport Boy Digicam, however with a hard and fast (as a substitute of pivoting) lens. That eliminates the necessity for the chunky protruding lens, so the complete Sport Boy Digicam Mini is identical dimension as a daily cartridge. Taking pictures with this can be a lot like taking a photograph with the rear-facing digicam on a smartphone, so it’s a acquainted expertise.
As Little Mod Store demonstrates, this challenge requires a practical donor Sport Boy Digicam. The Sport Boy Digicam Mini has its personal redesigned PCB, however the consumer has to populate that with among the authentic elements, such because the CMOS picture sensor. After rigorously desoldering these, they are often soldered onto the brand new PCB.
The brand new PCB does comprise a 2MB flash chip and 1MB FRAM chip, which give some new performance. First, the Sport Boy Digicam Mini can settle for customized ROMs which have further options. Little Mod Store used a GBxCart RW to flash a ROM that offers the consumer full guide management over the digicam and even alternate colour palettes. There’s additionally further storage for extra images and even a change to swap between ROMs on the fly. Captured images will be copied to a PC (with out the necessity for a Sport Boy Printer) utilizing the identical GBxCart RW.
The ultimate step is to 3D-print the enclosure. Little Mod Store recommends resin printing if doable, however FDM printing will work in a pinch. The latter permits for the usage of heat-set inserts, so it’d even be extra fascinating for some. And Graves gives a printable label to shine issues off.
If you need a extra compact Sport Boy Digicam that pairs completely with a Sport Boy Shade, that is the challenge for you.