MiSTer FPGA Forum

wizzo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 06, 2022 6:28 am I'm using a heavily mangled version of viperman3's case on Thingiverse that I've added some extra space to and covered up all the ports I don't use.

Extras I've added: 2tb M.2 drive (what a waste over USB2), internal mt32-pi, 2 oled screens for the mt32 and i2c2oled, and USB C power supply (3A).

Very nice. I also just had Viperman3's standard case 3D case printed (after having my MiSTer uncased for a few years now still with its 5.5 IO board) and it looks pretty good, but yours definitely looks better.

Reed_Solomon wrote: ↑Sun May 01, 2022 11:18 pm Very nice. I also just had Viperman3's standard case 3D case printed (after having my MiSTer uncased for a few years now still with its 5.5 IO board) and it looks pretty good, but yours definitely looks better.

Thanks! I like the right angle usb that definitely improves it a lot. I also widened the holes on top so my screws would actually go inside them, and I'm using rubber feet on the bottom and screws to hold that in. I use the standoffs that came with the de10 inside the bottom of the case to make room for the ssd and USB C. I really like this viperman3's case though I think it's very well thought out.

I did make a change to it last month. I got some new PETG and did it in all black. I think it looks better and it totally hides the internal LEDs. I don't think it was ever going to be a problem but it feels a bit more safe using PETG near the hot SSD and pi.

I had an idea as well after seeing someone using them on reddit. If I got 2 x 1tb microsds, one in the nano and one in a mini sd adapter, I could get rid of the ssd. That way I could shave the extra 1cm off the bottom and make the front almost flush again like the original case. And also make the front USB accessible again. If I do end up doing that I might even release the files since I think the case could work with the mt32 pis that sit flush against the side. That's like $400 in sd card though so not right now lol

wizzo wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 1:53 am Thanks! I like the right angle usb that definitely improves it a lot. I also widened the holes on top so my screws would actually go inside them, and I'm using rubber feet on the bottom and screws to hold that in. I use the standoffs that came with the de10 inside the bottom of the case to make room for the ssd and USB C. I really like this viperman3's case though I think it's very well thought out.

The right angle USB adapters I bought a few off aliexpress since it always bothered me how much things sticked out when plugged in on each side. I was thinking of maybe expanding the thickness of the bottom portion of the USB/SNAC port side between the USB ports and then having an extra piece that snaps on top to give it more stability, since those right angle adapters are kind of loose and potentially unstable like that. But at the same time it works well enough for me and I don't really take it anywhere that often as I just leave it on my desk so it's not that big of an issue.

I had an idea as well after seeing someone using them on reddit. If I got 2 x 1tb microsds, one in the nano and one in a mini sd adapter, I could get rid of the ssd. That way I could shave the extra 1cm off the bottom and make the front almost flush again like the original case. And also make the front USB accessible again. If I do end up doing that I might even release the files since I think the case could work with the mt32 pis that sit flush against the side. That's like $400 in sd card though so not right now lol

Yeah it's easier to just wait for prices to go down. One day we'll be able to buy 4TB microSD cards for super cheap but until then there's SSD's and Retro NAS etc. I do like the idea of a case that incorporates an SSD extension adapter somewhere.

At one point I thought I'd take a cheap aliexpress ITX case, make a 3D printed replacement front panel bezel that looks like an old pizzabox style PC case, and have a MicroSD slot where the floppy slot would have been originally, I even remixed someone elses front panel to look like a Tandy RSX, but I never got around to finishing it by adding a decent power button and MicroSD or SD slot to it. Maybe some day. But at the end of the day I realized I didn't need such a big device when the default sandwich MiSTer is already so tiny.

Attached is a picture of my MiSter FPGA in front of my Steam Deck for scale

I did some upgrades to my MiSTer FPGA enclosure:

(1) I removed the unused VGA port and added two more USB ports.

(2) I added an i2c2oled using a "diymore 2.42" OLED 128X64 LCD".

(3) I painted the front of my MiSTer FPGA enclosure black, and used a laser engraver to add labels and logos.

You can see how my MiSTer FPGA enclosure looked before the upgrades, over at:

viewtopic.php?p=23856#p23856

I had been thinking about adding another USB port to my MiSTer FPGA enclosure, and back when I first put together my MiSTer FPGA enclosure I had the extra parts, and I had a place already marked for an extra USB port on the case itself, but for some reason I never installed it, so I finally decided to add that extra USB port.

And back when I first made my MiSTer FPGA enclosure I had added a VGA port for retro computer stuff, but it's just easier for me to use the HDMI port, so I removed the unused VGA connector and replaced it with a USB 3.0 connector that I will use with an external USB hard drive, to do this I enlarged the hole of a large metal washer to fit over the USB 3.0 connector, I used the washer to cover over the holes left by removing the VGA connector, and it looks nice like that, I used the same "sand paper twists/swirls" on the metal washer has I did the metal case, so it all looks the same, and now all 7 USB ports are usable, BTW I used the USB 3.0 connector and a short male to male USB 3.0 cable to connect to the MiSTer FPGA USB hub in hopes that the cables and connectors would allow for better hard drive speeds, however I think that is unlikely given that the MiSTer FPGA USB hub is USB 2.0, but at least the extra USB port is a nice shade of blue, LOL.

I got the USB 3.0 panel mount socket from:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07PJ4G412

And I used a USB 3.0 (L) shape angle adapter from:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K8B45HC
I had been wanting a small information display for my MiSTer FPGA enclosure, I like the one on my mt32-pi, but I think it's to small, and unfortunately tty2oled was too large for my enclosure, and I would have to order some parts from China, but after reading up on i2c2oled and the added support for the larger "SSD1309" LCDs I decided to go with i2c2oled.

You can see how I got the "diymore 2.42" OLED 128X64 LCD" working with i2c2oled over at:

viewtopic.php?p=49809#p49809

And here is a link to the LCD on Amazon

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XR8FNP8

To add the i2c2oled to my MiSTer FPGA enclosure, I made a template of the "diymore 2.42" OLED 128X64 LCD" using my laser engraver and the software that I use with it, and I cut the LCD template out of an old cereal box using the laser engraver, I then used the template to mark on the MiSTer FPGA enclosure were I will later cut and drill for the LCD, I used a drill press to drill the holes, and I cut a hole for the LCD using a hand nibbler, unfortunately the LCD was too close to the "MT-32 PI" and it's USB 3.0 cable.
The mt32-pi that I am using has a USB 3.0 connector on it's side, and when in use, that USB connector, and the cable that plugs into it, was blocking the "diymore 2.42" OLED 128X64 LCD", however the mt32-pi PCB board has a place for a second USB 3.0 connector on it's top, the USB 3.0 connector on the side is labeled "USB1" and the place for a second USB 3.0 connector on the top is labeled "USB2", and has far has I can tell they are both connected to the same places on the PCB board, so I just soldered a second USB 3.0 connector to "USB2" on the PCB board and it works just fine.

I used a solder on USB 3.0 jack from:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y546YX7

And I used this USB 3.0 cable to connect the mt32-pi to the MiSTer FPGA:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DVLQ6JD
When I was at it, and to make it easier to do future modifications, I re-soldered all three of the light-up user buttons so that they can be easily removed from the enclosure has needed, I used "4pin Dupont 2.54mm" male and female connectors for each switch and this time I used heat-shrink on each solder joint.
When I had first made my MiSTer FPGA enclosure I had wanted to paint it, and I had wanted to paint it black, but the enclosure was made from aluminum and I was worried that the paint would come off easily, so I just made lots of "sand paper twists/swirls" on the case and it turned out pretty good, but I never liked the plain aluminum color of the case, but now I have a 10w laser engraver, so now I can add text and graphics to things, and my MiSTer FPGA enclosure seemed like a perfect use of that, LOL.

To get the front cover of the the MiSTer FPGA enclosure ready for the laser engraver, I started with a light sanding, and a good cleaning with 70% alcohol, I then painted the front cover with black automotive primer that I lightly sanded after it had dried for about 30 minutes, and then a coat of "Gloss Black Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Ultra Cover" that I let dry for about an hour and then did another light sanding, the last coat of "Gloss Black Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Ultra Cover" I let it set overnight, and then I used the laser engraver on the MiSTer FPGA enclosure cover.
I decided to super glue a small sheet of lexan to the inside of the MiSTer FPGA enclosure front cover to protect both the LCD screens, that was the last thing I did before re-installing all the parts on the MiSTer FPGA enclosure front cover.
And here is what it looks powered on with the top removed.

UPDATE

I had wanted to use an external hard drive with the MiSTer FPGA, but the "USB Hub v2.1" will not power my external hard drive, and when I tried using a USB "Y" splitter power cable, or powered external USB hub, the external power supply would back feed into the "USB Hub v2.1" and keep the wireless USB dongles I use for my game pads powered on, even with MiSTer FPGA turned off, so to fix that, I decided to use the power supply I use to power the MiSTer FPGA, so here is what I did:

Male to Dual USB Female Power Cable
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01EL7INUG

USB to DC Power Cord with 5.5 x 2.1mm plug
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07Q5PHHFK

5.5mm x 2.1mm DC Power Connector Adapter Female to Female
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B081Z7H444

Female to 3 Male 5.5mm X 2.1mm DC Power Supply Splitter Cable
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01MG6T9XP

Left & Right Angle USB 3.0 A Cable 90 Degree
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08SLVYR67

Here are the adapters I ordered:
And here are all the adapters connected to each other:
Basically the two USB ends go to the "USB Hub v2.1" and "USB 3.0 Panel Mount" connector, the two "Male 5.5mm X 2.1mm" connectors go to the "USB Hub v2.1" and "DE10 Nano", and the "Female 5.5mm X 2.1mm" connector goes to the power supply.

I've decided to stick mine in a wooden box that has the same footprint as my JVC 9" PVM. Looks neat and tidy on my desk and is a simple matter to change the screen orientation when needed.

The first MiSTeR I "built" myself. Ironclad Plus in a small Mini ITX case...

Another "newbie" Ironclad build. First MiSTer I ever built and it was smooth and painless. It's easily my favorite system I've owned.

The names Dolch, MiSTer Dolch

Greetings, I collect Dolch Pac Luggables and in the process had aquired an empty shell (its pretty scratched, I think it was pulled from the bottom of a recycle bin), so when it came time to build myself a consolized MiSTer, I figured I'd kit it out inside a Dolch Pac. You can see the soon to be doner on the bottom left: Here is the final product, everthing fits in a factory Dolch carry case: But unpacked, it's my teen (oh whom I kidding, my adults) selfs wildest retro gaming setup: The keyboard doubles as a screen protector, and there are fold out legs under the main body and keyboard to set it at a better, ready to game angle: And fired up and ready to rock, I was happy to find out you can change the default background: I extended all the ports I thought I'd need via the expansion slots, I have 5 USB 2.0 ports (two are used internally for the 1TB SSD and keyboard), the USER I/O (for SNAC), Ethernet, Analog (YPbPr/RBG) using old expansion card faceplates whenever possible. I left one plate for future expension, such as if I ever find a need for the audio in or the likes. And yes the stickers for port identification don't line up, I'll either remove them, or print new ones. I also intergrated a 10w 12v Amplifier with external audio bypass (so when you plug external speakers in the internal speakers shut off) and a set of old re-purposed laptop speakers, with an on/off/volume knob. This gives me internal speakers for when I don't feel like lugging around a set of external's, they sound pretty good actually. The external analog audio output works just like the factory Dolch Pac's, the LCD and external video are on both simutaniously, and with the use of the SNAC, It allows use of the lightguns, which was important to me: Heres how the shell started, empty inside: I upgraded the factory case fan to a Noctura, as well as the AT power supply to a Noctura, both move more air but a much quiter than the factory units, I used my laser to cut an acrylic mounting plate that clips into the factory AT motherboard mounts, that insulates everthing from the chassis as well as give me a nice building platform for mounting all the components, yellow, because that's what I had scraps of: All fitted, I really have to find a shorter VGA cable: I used the AT power suppy's 5v to power the MiSTer, it has plenty of juice, and the 12v leads to power the replacment 10.4" LCD, Noctura fans, and audio amplifier, and I can turn the entire setup on/off with the factory rear power switch.

At the back of the Dolch there were 3 ports I knew I wasn't likely to use (but it's there if I ever need), a 25pin LPT and two COM ports, so I made a blank out panel to finish off the backend, figured I might as well toss the MiSTer logo on while I was at it: I also utilized the front LED's (two, red power and green disk) as well as front buttons for screen diming and wired them into the MiSTer's J5 and J7 ports to actuate the reset, as well as OSD menu's. Should I find a need for the "USER" button down the line I'll add it elsewhere, maybe in one of the expension slots via momentary button.

I put the LCD's screen controls in the floppy bay, and the hard drive (1TB SSD) sits where the Dolch's factory drive would have sat, albiet it would have been a mechanical SCSI drive of limited capacity. Everything works as it should, factory Cherry MX Mechanical keyboard is a joy to use with the MiSTer, once the AO468 Core is fired up it's just like using one of my other 486's.

Thats it, the rest is just game screenshots I took while testing. Daemonbite is from UltimateMister.com and works for using factory controllers when I don't feel like configureing the SNAC for each play session.

jawler wrote: ↑Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:48 pm Hello! here is my mister case
I'm really proud to fit everything inside this enclosure:

Hey jawler, I was wondering if you could help me out, I built a case very similar to yours, thanks for the inspiration! Can you tell me how you wired up the two highlighted items in the attached photo?

Got my rig "consolized" with attaching all the needed bits to a chunk of shelf. I keep my consoles in a dust free glass case and hook stuff up to my 27" CRT / sound system as needed. Took a while to finally settle on my full MiSTer set-up, but nice to have a single power inlet, main power switch along with video and audio outs mounted to same board.


good day.

My own - very simple, nothing very special, but I like it.


Sadly the Beeb keyboard isn't used - it's just there for decoration. Actual keyboard is a Keychron K2.

My MiSTer setup is finally complete:

I present to you Mr. Amiga
Perfect color match of the 3D printed parts (by complete accident)...
...except for this heavily discoloured part. Oh well, at least it's on a part of the case I hardly look at.
Inputs and outputs
A bit busy inside but it's got everything I need.
Although it wasn't planned, it turned out that every single port of the USB hub got occupied (it's a 7 ports hub).

Can you connect lights and buttons straight to the header or do you need any resistors?

WILL1384 wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 5:13 pm I did some upgrades to my MiSTer FPGA enclosure:

(1) I removed the unused VGA port and added two more USB ports.

(2) I added an i2c2oled using a "diymore 2.42" OLED 128X64 LCD".

(3) I painted the front of my MiSTer FPGA enclosure black, and used a laser engraver to add labels and logos.

You have to use resistors for the LEDs. His wiring diagram is very good to show where they need to go. Buttons are momentary and just need to close the circuit.

Sartis wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 7:10 pm

jawler wrote: ↑Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:48 pm

Hello! here is my mister case
I'm really proud to fit everything inside this enclosure:

Hey jawler, I was wondering if you could help me out, I built a case very similar to yours, thanks for the inspiration! Can you tell me how you wired up the two highlighted items in the attached photo?

Hello!! i share the whole project photos hoping it can help you.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Finally put it together.

capacitive touch screen tft, no need for IO buttons anymore.
Hopefully someday there will be enough io left over for a dedicated mt32pi connection without tying up the user port.
Remote SD card extensions.

Looks great!
And yes, touch is really helpful.
Could you please share your touch button settings in the tft thread?

they are going to be changing with the new multi page swiping update.

Hey, I just built mine with the red version of that case. I love it!

Where'd you get that mister badge?

Xaxius wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 8:59 pm Another "newbie" Ironclad build. First MiSTer I ever built and it was smooth and painless. It's easily my favorite system I've owned.

This is about my 7th round of designing a case, but I'm finally getting something together. Four controller ports up front, with OSD/Menu/Reset buttons, and a nice little cutout for an i2c OLED screen (so I can see the title art that I've spent waaaaaay to much time making!). The back has ports for ethernet, HDMI, additional USB, power-in and a power switch. There will also be a cutout for accessing the SD card extension.

I designed it so that, hopefully, it'll look something like a real console when it's done. I'm not a fan of the 3D print look, and the ITX solutions are more than I want to spend and come with features I'm not going to use. Not counting the money I've spent prototyping and testing supplies, the actual parts used in this build cost about $100.

Still a lot of work to be done, but this is the closest I've been to actually finishing anything in a long time haha. I think it's looking good so far.

aeronius wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:37 am a nice little cutout for an i2c OLED screen (so I can see the title art that I've spent waaaaaay to much time making!)

Is there a guide for how to do this? Thats really cool.

New guy here, Man there are a lot of impressive custom cases in here.

First thing I did after setting up my MiSTer was to start desigining and 3d printing a custom case for it. I wanted something that looked a bit more console like that had usb and snac (SNAX) ports in front with the power, ethernet, and HDMI in the back. I'm pretty happy with how it looks when it's all put together, but if I was starting over I'd make some design changes to make it a bit easier to put togther. It might help if I got some shorter cabled for the internal runs instead of coiling longer ones. I might actually start over to incorporate some of the things I've seen in this thread

aeronius wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:37 am ..
and a nice little cutout for an i2c OLED screen (so I can see the title art that I've spent waaaaaay to much time making!).
...

..but your i2c2oled Pictures are really really Great!
I hope for more

McFunkerson wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 3:50 pm New guy here,….

Nice build
I like your integration of the existing Buttons and LED‘s.
Which SNAC/SNAX Adapter do you use and how big is the case in total?

McFunkerson wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 3:18 pm

aeronius wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:37 am a nice little cutout for an i2c OLED screen (so I can see the title art that I've spent waaaaaay to much time making!)

Is there a guide for how to do this? Thats really cool.

No guide per se. I just took careful measurements of my screen and plotted it out in Illustrator. I did my best to verify my drawings before sending the parts to be cut, and luckily everything worked out. I used the HiLetgo SSH1106 screens available on Amazon. There are a few other versions out there so I can't say these measurements would work for anything else.

Couple things to consider:

• the screen is not centered on the PCB, so its mounting position has been adjusted so that the screen will line up with whatever your centerline is

• the screen mounts with M2.5 hardware; the thru-holes in the bracket are 2.7mm in diameter

• outside dimensions are oversized by about .5mm to allow for variations in screen manufacturing (these screens aren't made with the highest tolerances)

• I had to mount my screen to the back of the bracket. If you're doing that, use something that's about 2mm thick. I used 3.175mm aluminum and it pushes the screen really far back. A better option would be to mount it to the front of the bracket, but recess the area around the thru-holes so the PCB sits flush with the bracket surface.

• If you mount from the back of the bracket, there's very little clearance on the PCB between the mounting holes and the OLED screen. I used a 1.15mm wall thickness for the inside boundaries of the thru-holes, and that worked out well.

MISTER FPGA JAMMA

kconger wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 7:27 pm Here is my MiSTer build.

My Retro Computer MyVic20 Mini-ITX Case

This inspired me to do the same (though honestly, not that much of a choice out there if you want an integrated keyboard in your build)...
I got recommended this PSU first, but it did not work! Had to get this, slightly more expensive option instead. The brick which comes with that last one is huge, though, so got a smaller one which also worked fine.

Oh, and I did dremel out the inside of the case a little bit to be able to fit a larger Noctua PWM fan in there (not that it was needed at all)...

Btw, the TAC-2 joystick is USB modded so it works well with this setup!