Miniaturizing the Recreation Boy Digital camera

The Recreation Boy Digital camera 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 Recreation Boy Digital camera lately as at this time’s photographers search novel experiences, which has made one challenge fairly obvious: the Recreation Boy Digital camera is cumbersome. To copy the expertise in a extra pocketable type, Little Mod Store constructed this Recreation Boy Digital camera Mini.

That is a design created by Christopher Graves, who makes a speciality of Recreation Boy Digital camera 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 Recreation Boy Digital camera Mini. So Little Mod Store carried out the mod (with assist from Graves) and recorded the entire course of.

The Recreation Boy Digital camera Mini has nearly all the similar {hardware} as the usual Recreation Boy Digital camera, however with a hard and fast (as an alternative of pivoting) lens. That eliminates the necessity for the chunky protruding lens, so all the Recreation Boy Digital camera Mini is identical dimension as a daily cartridge. Taking pictures with this can be a lot like taking a photograph with the rear-facing digital camera on a smartphone, so it’s a acquainted expertise.

As Little Mod Store demonstrates, this mission requires a useful donor Recreation Boy Digital camera. The Recreation Boy Digital camera 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 include a 2MB flash chip and 1MB FRAM chip, which offer some new performance. First, the Recreation Boy Digital camera Mini can settle for customized ROMs which have extra options. Little Mod Store used a GBxCart RW to flash a ROM that provides the consumer full guide management over the digital camera and even alternate colour palettes. There may be additionally extra storage for extra photographs and even a swap to swap between ROMs on the fly. Captured photographs could be copied to a PC (with out the necessity for a Recreation Boy Printer) utilizing the identical GBxCart RW.

The ultimate step is to 3D-print the enclosure. Little Mod Store recommends resin printing if attainable, however FDM printing will work in a pinch. The latter permits for using heat-set inserts, so it would even be extra fascinating for some. And Graves supplies a printable label to shine issues off.