Freeplay Zero finally done! Pictures and final thoughts

[Flavor]

Screwdrivers and Retromodding
Having no experience with GBA modding or third party shells previously, I didn't even know they used security screws. I bought the shell and parts from Retromodding since it was recommended and it didn't come with the screwdriver. Only later when I bought the exact same shell from an eBay seller, did I notice it was very common for sellers to include both a Tri--Wing and small Philips screwdriver. This leads me to my second bit of feedback which I am kind of dissatisfied with Retromodding as a vendor. They fulfilled my order just fine but there are some issues with them as a "preferred" vendor. First they are in Canada so slower shipping times and no tracking (though they are up front about this). You can pay extra if you want tracking. Processing took about 3 days before it even shipped. Then I had a problem with the d-pad and found their only support venue is through Facebook Messenger. No email; at least not an address they easily want you to find or use. They are supposedly sending me a replacement d-pad and silicone pad, so that's nice. And finally, like I mentioned - no screwdrivers for a shell that comes with these things "stock" from other sellers. Come to think of it, I had to buy pads separately from them too, which were also included in the shell I bought from the eBay seller.

I totally understand that you wouldn't know about the tri-wing screws, but it's something that I didn't even consider before. I knew it, and we had the screwdriver, so it was never an issue for me. Sorry about that!

I told our contact at RetroModding to check out this thread. I don't think they've ever posted here, so I doubt we'll see a reply. I do, however, hope that it'll be something they fix on their end. At least they should realize that they had the same problem I did. I do know that (before they partnered with us on this) they were really focused on GBA stuff. Those users would be really likely to know about the tools they need, because they would often be taking an existing GBA apart (instead of making a whole new console like you did).

I don't want to make any excuses for them, because it's not my company. It is a fine line, of course. As a company trying to launch this Kickstarter (and ultimately Freeplay Zero/CM3 product), we really don't want to worry about building consoles for people or stocking all sorts of different color shells and all that. If we try to sell something (like maybe the battery or WiFi dongle), it's a test thing and we don't want to have a bunch of options sitting around. Anyway, I feel like I'm getting a bit too deep into this discussion that wasn't meant to be about "business."

Let's just say that it works well for us to have a "partner" that can do those things. I agree that it's far less than ideal that they're in another country. I wish that weren't the case. I also agree that what they do reflects on us even if we don't want it to (like when it's negative of course).

X & Y Holes
I was only half joking about the template being off. I know you can get them working perfectly but for my second shell, even with double checking, the hole I drilled was immediately slightly off from the template, then got progressively worse. I think the real tough part is the X button since it's path goes straight through the walls near the right shoulder button and part of the top of the A button. Depending how you are cutting away at the plastic, your bit actually might walk or jerk since it's not a clean uniform edge. In other worse, when you get near those walls, you are hitting irregular terrain.

I honestly don't know how to improve this. I suspect if I were to see you do it in person, it would "just" work. I actually doubt you have some magical technique you haven't described in the doc. I think you must have good muscle memory or maybe a special talent to screw really straight or maybe eyeball it well.

You're right that the "wall" that's really close to the holes is an issue. It will push your drill bit off center if you're not ready for it. At any rate, we need to do a better job of getting the point across here. The X/Y holes aren't as straightforward as the rest of the mods, AND they are the one main mod that can be always be seen once it's all put together.

Sound
I haven't modified the config.txt entry so the suggested audio entry is still present. I can live with the sound and I can't think of anything else I can really do to fix it. I guess it's just a "thing" that audio out via the speaker is pretty bad for these small systems. Just curious - how is audio handled? Is there an onboard sound card? Does it take audio out from the 3.5mm out? 

I'm running out of time to type here. I gotta be somewhere real soon.

No. The Pi Zero has no 3.5mm audio out, but the CPU has the capability to put that same signal on the GPIO pins. That's what we use. The Pi 1/2/3 would have some additional circuitry paired with the 3.5mm jack. We have the same type of circuitry (plus an amplifier) on the FPZ/FPCM3 board.

Slowness
This one is an oddity since I didn't change a single thing except put it in a new shell. It was updated to Retropie 4.3 prior to the swap. Since then, it's just really glitchy and seems like it freezes at random points. For example, when you first start it up, if you press left or right to enter a console then press A to enter, then down to scroll, there's a noticeable delay. Like it just pauses for 2 seconds, then it finally moves. Or right now, it's been running for 10 mins, I am in SNES and I pressed up from Tetris to Super Mario Bros. Deluxe and a full 2 seconds passed before the Mario game was selected. Last night my gf was playing Tetris and she said it was slowly down, and you could actually hear the music  slowing down, like the opposite of a Turbo button on 486 days. If this is a Retropie config issue, that's on me but I am wondering if anything could have happened that would make the board act funny. For example, if I made a mistake somewhere and maybe the L button is being held down (not true but just go along), would that cause some kind of issue with the OS?

This is weird to me, and I want to do some more thinking/research on it. I wonder if it could be a RetroPie 4.3 thing. I don't know.

Screen
I just realized I never removed my front screen film so I just took it off and wow it looks a lot better, lol! But I noticed an issue with the screen. I can see that the display is sitting to the lower left corner. In other words, I can see a clear border all along the top and right of the screen. It's uniform. Is this true in your builds too? I assume I can probably adjust this in software, but I never noticed this before. Also, I should mention that in my second shell mod, I accidentally took off to much off the wall right below and next to the speaker slot. This wall previously acted as a physical part for the screen to rest against, to  prevent it from sliding down too much. I can't put the plastic back, obviously, so I just make sure that the screen is flush against the top edge of the LCD slot. Then with the board screwed on top of it, I figure it was sandwiched in there. Now I am wondering if it's shifting? Now I can't unsee this alignment issue. Any ideas?

I've included a photo, hopefully you can make it out (look to the top and right)

Quickly, yeah, I see the issue. If it were in my hands, I'd kinda slap it down on my hand to see if the LCD would shift into place. I don't know if that makes sense. I think the LCD could be loose/floating in there a bit. You could also pop off the lens cover and see if you could push it back into place. It just seems like it shifted.

GOTTA RUN