Hi guys,

Bit of a silly one. Basically I want to make a life size gameboy costume which actually works. From what I've looked up so far the best way to do it would be to use a Rasberry Pi as the emulator which should be fine running off of a fairly big USB power bank.

My problem is when it comes to the screen. I am not sure how to get a decently sized one, say 15" to be run off of a battery and for said to battery to give me at least a few hours, preferably more,of play time. I am looking at possibly getting a laptop lcd screen and controller board to do it but am not confident on how to get it powered as the boards seems to take 12v and about 3-4A depending on the one you need.

So from what I know my options would be like a Lead Acid Battery, but really that would be too heavy for my liking.
Or to use a very big power bank, then use a step up transformer to 12v with a transistor to get the right amps. I don't know if this would work however or how safe it would be.

Or if any of you have any suggestions on other ways I could do this please let me know. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

Do you mean a backlit GameBoy? Backlighting will consume quite a bit of juice. My kids' GameBoys were never backlit, if I recall correctly.

 

not silly at all! having the ome. help us please!

Hi guys,

Bit of a silly one. Basically I want to make a life size gameboy costume which actually works. From what I've looked up so far the best way to do it would be to use a Rasberry Pi as the emulator which should be fine running off of a fairly big USB power bank.

My problem is when it comes to the screen. I am not sure how to get a decently sized one, say 15" to be run off of a battery and for said to battery to give me at least a few hours, preferably more,of play time. I am looking at possibly getting a laptop lcd screen and controller board to do it but am not confident on how to get it powered as the boards seems to take 12v and about 3-4A depending on the one you need.

So from what I know my options would be like a Lead Acid Battery, but really that would be too heavy for my liking.
Or to use a very big power bank, then use a step up transformer to 12v with a transistor to get the right amps. I don't know if this would work however or how safe it would be.

Or if any of you have any suggestions on other ways I could do this please let me know. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

I would need it back lit ideally. But yeah as you said I'd imagine that a screen of that size would take a fair bit of power so not quite sure how to do it without it dying constantly.

 

You're going to need lithium ion batteries, just like a laptop. They cost more than lead acid but have more power per weight and per volume. That's why they're ubiquitous in mobile devices these days. I think you might find a laptop replacement battery pack with enough juice. If you need to go cheap, I'd pick an old 17" laptop model that you can use as a fancy charger, and a fresh replacement battery pack for it. The computer should be nearly free if it has other problems, and will work for you as long as it can charge a battery.

Maybe there are other options, like an e-bike battery? Skateboard battery? RC plane? Not sure.