Gameboys, PCB Designs, and much more

May 25, 2024 by Jack V

It’s been a while since I have made any updates on my site, but I have been pretty busy with all sorts of new adventures. I recently got into designing PCBs, learning even more about electronics and have been just messing around with even more Gameboy stuff.

I recently released multiple Gameboy power regulators into the wild, a few of them I have shared on PCBWay for people to order and I have a few that I sell exclusively on my Ko-Fi shop. These are a simple and fun way to customize your Gameboy Pocket or Color, if you want more information on them you can check my Github as well.

I also recently created and released a fun little PCB for the Flipper Zero which allows you to trade Pokemon between it and your Gameboy. It’s a super simple PCB board and there are other variations out there but I thought it would be fun to make my own. This can be freely downloaded and manufactured at any PCB manufacturer you want. More information is available here at my Github.

Please follow me on my Instagram if you aren’t already for more regular updates on what I have been up to. I am usually more active there or on the Gameboy Discord and if you have any questions, I will most likely be quicker to answer from there.

I hope everyone is doing well, catch you on the flippity flip.

Game Boys, Game Boys, Game Boys

December 16, 2022 by Jack V

I’m back with a few new things that I’ve been working on for the past few months. Recently I started picking up Game Boy modding again. I’ve done some tinkering and modding a while back and even sold some on eBay. It has been more of a hobby for me than a side hustle or anything. I just enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together and Game Boys have always been an interest of mine since my parents bought me a Game Boy color back in 2001.

I’ll be posting up some pictures and a review of a few builds that I’m working. One of them is something called the DMGC which is an original Game Boy that can play Game Boy Color games. It isn’t an easy thing to do and involves a lot of desoldering of both a Game Boy DMG and a Game Boy Color. Along with doing those things you also need a bunch of new components and a ton of soldering. I also have a Game Boy Pocket Color that I put together as well that I will review.

Anyway, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but I'm hoping to be able to get my site up and running again with new reviews and blog posts soon.

Long time no see

May 01, 2021 by Jack V

Hey all, I'm still here. I've been pretty busy these past few months and I keep on trying to put pen to paper, so to speak but just have not had the time to do it. Today I finally felt like I could.

Hobbies, hobbies, hobbies

November 16, 2020 by Jack V

It’s been about 8 months since the Pandemic went into effect. During these past 8 months of working from home I have had a bit more time than usual. Work is as busy as usual but without a commute and more time at home I have been delving into different hobbies. I have gotten deeper into lawn care, played and tinkered with my 3D printer more, fall deeper into the rabbit hole of mechanical keyboards, and recently I started leather crafting. I have been pretty interesting in leather crafting for a while. Like all hobbies there’s a lot to learn and I know I’m just scratching the surface. If I finish my wallet project I’m currently working on I’ll post a guide about it. I’m starting this hobby with the bare minimum tools you’d need and although I’m not an expert or a pro by any standard I hope it’ll help out anyone who stumbles on this site.

Work/Life Balance Update

August 14, 2020 by Jack V

It’s been a good while since I’ve last written anything personal on here. With COVID-19 still around work/life balance for me has significantly shifted and honestly I kind of like it. I feel less anxiety over having to go from point A to point B everyday. I’m getting more exercise and feel like I’m eating healthier, in large part due to my wife. Along with all these new changes I’ve found that I now also have more time to devote to hobbies and things that I enjoy doing. As of lately I’ve been doing more work out in the yard when I have down time. I have learned about sprinkler systems, lawn care, weed prevention, and so many other things that I just never had the time or energy to learn.

COVID-19 and life

March 20, 2020 by Jack V

I know I haven’t updated in a while but things have been pretty crazy with this whole COVID-19 situation here in the states. Currently my entire company has shifted to a Work From Home policy and I’ve been busy getting things in order. With people hoarding food, toilet paper, and everything else I have been putting my projects on hold until things calm down a bit more.

Updates on the SKR v1.4 and MK3S

February 24, 2020 by Jack V

It’s been a week or so that I installed. the SKR in my MK3S. I’ve done a few things since then. Chris Warkocki the person who started this project has been constantly updating his firmware over at his Github. I’ve been using his firmware as a foundation for my own. Not really adding too many different things or changing. much other than adding. a few features he hasn’t enabled yet although it will be coming down the pipes as he’s talked about them.

Prusa MK3S Running Marlin 2.0.3 on SKR v1.4 Turbo?!

February 15, 2020 by Jack V

Over the week I took some time to do something completely random and unplanned. I decided to disassemble my perfectly working MK3S Bear and remove the Einsy Rambo board. I replaced that with the newish BTT SKR v1.4 Turbo 32 bit board running TMC2209 stepper drivers. This was the first time I’ve done a board swap on my printer and the first time in a long time since I’ve messed with vanilla Marlin.

Useful 3D printing tools

February 11, 2020 by Jack V

I wanted to write a short post about some of my favorite tools that I use for working with my FDM 3D printer. This opinions are my own, I'm not sponsored by any of these brands and remember that what works for me may not always work for you. I'm not responsible for any damages you may inflict on yourself, others or your 3D printer. I've included affiliate links for some of the items. I hope some of you will find these tools as useful as I do.

MSLA Printer and Updates

February 07, 2020 by Jack V

I ordered an MSLA printer and will be receiving it in a few weeks. I decided to opt for one that I haven’t seen much about and there currently aren’t many reviews out on it. The price was right at about $640, so let’s see how it works out. I plan on doing just an initial impression on it and then eventually doing a full review of it. What I really want to do is open it up and look at the internals because it’s amazing how much cheaper MSLA printing is now in 2020. My thoughts are that it’ll go in the way of FDM printers, as parts become more abundant things will become even cheaper. As much as I’d like a Prusa SL1, it’s build volume is just too small and the cost is way too high, I like the way it functions but I can’t justify paying that much for a printer at the moment.

First Review Went live yesterday and future plans

January 29, 2020 by Jack V

Yesterday I posted the first of many reviews that will come in the near future. It was on the TriangleLabs MK3S and can be found in my Reviews. I have a few things I’m currently working on and will post in a few days if I get the time to finish. Here’s a short bullet point of things that I’ll post in the near future:

AliExpress MK3S Bear Kit Review
An awesome 3D printed project I’ve been working on
MSLA 3D Printer First Impressions
Other random thoughts and hobbies

More random stuff yet to come! Check out my DIY UV curing chamber I made for resin prints in the Guides section.

DIY Dry Aging Beef Fridge

January 27, 2020 by Jack V

Since I created this site to talk about all the random things that I do or am doing, I wanted to share that I one of my Instructables that I wrote has been featured! I am a man of many hobbies, and it was an honor to be featured for something that I really enjoy doing. In the coming months I'm hoping to get an opportunity to start posting about even more hobbies and things I enjoy doing. Beekeeping being one of them.

Brief Summary of my foray into 3D Printing

January 26, 2020 by Jack V

I've been prepping to get my Elegoo Mars Pro for about 2 months now. The journey into MSLA printing was started after I realized that my prints just weren't high enough in quality. I've been 3D printing for about 6 years now. My first 3D printer was from a Kickstarter by a now defunct company called New Matter. The idea of the 3D printer was supposed to make it easy for anyone to get started. The printer didn't require any leveling, only printed PLA, and had a super simple slicer. The printer worked well for a while but eventually gave up the ghost and I was left with no spare parts because the company had gone out of business.

Moving Forward, Looking Backwards

January 18, 2020 by Jack V

I’ve been itching to produce something tangible that would allow me to look back on projects and experiments I’ve done. The other day I realized that I don’t have any sort of documentation on personal hobbies or remember what I could have done differently. These thoughts were prompted the other day when I was trying to recall how I managed to do something that I at the moment was not able to replicate.