Hackster Badge Plus GameBoy

Relive retro gaming on the go with this wearable badge! It can aact as badge for HAckster and Open Hardware Summit plus also You can play retro Game and ast as mini small Game BOY . Powered by ESP12F, it plays classics on an OLED display, with buttons for control—all in a sleek, portable design perfect for tech enthusiasts.

it features a dual-layer PCB with buttons for gameplay, crafted with Autodesk Eagle 360 and PCBWay's SMT and manufacturing services.

PCB Design

Using Autodesk Eagle 360, I created the PCB for the badge. The ESP12F chip connects to the SSD1306 OLED via I2C (SDA to GPIO4, SCL to GPIO5). Three tactile buttons are wired to ADC , GPIO12, GPIO13, and GPIO14, with to ensure stable input.

The PCB layout was designed as a dual-layer board to optimize space for the wearable badge. The Whole PCB is designed In Circular Compact formfactr to make it look Cool. The front layer houses the SSD1306 OLED display and three four buttons, arranged for ergonomic use. The OLED is positioned top , with buttons below it for left, right, and jump/select actions. The back layer contains the ESP12F chip, Traces were routed to minimize interference, with vias connecting the layers. The board dimensions were kept small (approximately 40mm x 40mm) to fit the wearable badge form factor, and mounting holes were added for attaching a lanyard.

After finalizing the PCB layout, I exported the Gerber files from Autodesk Eagle 360, ensuring all layers (top copper, bottom copper, silkscreen, solder mask, and drill files) were included. I submitted the Gerber files to PCBWay for manufacturing, selecting a 1.6mm thick FR4 board with a white solder mask and black silkscreen for aesthetics. PCBWay's manufacturing service was chosen for its reliability and support for the Hackster contest, offering bonus points for their color printing capabilities.

Utilize PCBWay's SMT Service for Assembly

To streamline assembly, I used PCBWay's SMT service for populating the PCB. I uploaded the Bill of Materials (BOM) and pick-and-place files generated from Eagle, specifying the placement of the ESP12F chip, OLED display, tactile buttons, and passive components (resistors, capacitors, and the 3.3V regulator). PCBWay handled the surface-mount soldering of the ESP12F on the back layer and other SMD components, ensuring precision and quality. I manually soldered the through-hole components (e.g., programming header) after receiving the assembled boards.

PCB

I ordered 2 PCB with SMT 5 without SMT for doing SMT own however i suggest use their SMT to lower your work effort in SMT

The Pin are provided in the PCB for Programming , Using FTDI adapter program for CIP with OTA firmware so you can next time change the game program the badge wirelessly form laptop