About: Just an Army IT guy trying out some cool projects and trying to give back to the community. I'm not a professional modder, I'm not a professional 3D modeler, but with enough time on YouTube and Google I believ…

Everyone loves the RetroFlag GPi Case and for good cause, it's a well built platform with an amazing screen, great build quality, and a hell of a community behind it. But, since the GPi is based on a Pi Zero W, sometimes it can come up a bit short in the horsepower department. You could always tear it apart and hack something inside of it but what if you wanted something you could just slot in and out?



Enter the Super GPi Cart. What started as a passing thought turned quickly into an idea that may work, but the problem was I haven't done any 3D work since college and that was almost 13 years ago. I came up with a prototype cart used by a few for testing and then the idea went back on the back-burner. A few custom shoulder buttons later and one enlightening reveal on Discord and I jumped back into this project. I'm still not great at 3D design but I've got a working unit now and it's time to spread it to the masses so you guys can tweak it in ways I hadn't thought of, or just make one yourself, that works too.Along with not being a modeler, I'm also not a writer so hang in there with me and we'll make it through this.

So, without wasting more time, on to the supplies.

Supplies:

GPi Case. Obviously. More importantly, the PCB that's from inside the cart.If you can get your hands on a spare cart that's even better as while this won't destroy your PCB it will occupy it in a way that's not quick to get back. People say they are already selling spares in China so hopefully they will be online soon. I have 2 cases so I had another cart to use for this.

Soldering Station and supplies. There is some soldering here as well as a chunk of desoldering required for this mod. I'm not going into detail on this as it is it's own huge skill and many others already have great videos like this on YT. But you will need the tools and know how to do it.

3D Printer. If you can print reliably and accurately at at-least .15 mm layer height then you should be good. I did all my test carts you see in the pictures in Hatchbox grey PLA, I would suggest doing your cart in PETG or something else that handles heat better, this is just for testing easier and cheaper on my end. I used a Prusa i3 MK3S. If you can't get accurate prints then things won't line up and could look bad or you end up with odd layer shifts. Also no two printers are the same, so while this was designed with my use in mind if your printer is pretty sloppy some things might now fit where they should.

Pi3 A+. You'll need one of these that you will essentially be destroying for this project.

Micro SD Card. 16 GB is about the smallest you can get on Amazon these days so that or anything bigger.

Hardware and tools. I used 2x 8mm long m2 hex head machine screws, 2x 10mm long m2 hex head machine scews, and two nuts for the same size. In addition, you'll need the normal stuff for doing mods, snips, pliers, exacto knife, things like that, and a driver for the m2 hex heads.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FCDL2SY/ref=p...

That's the exact set I have for various projects around here and all holes and measurements were done of screws from that kit. I'm sure you can use whatever you've got on hand and probably make it work but that's the hardware that design was based on.



Small wire for the USB connection. I used an old IDE ribbon cable since its small and connected. You only need to connect two points so and it's just the data channel of the USB port so it doesn't have to be anything load rated.