Welcome at petrockblock!
At petrockblock you can find various topics from the world of microelectronics, tinkering, software development, and other related topics. You find our popular Raspberry Pi add-on boards ControlBlock and PowerBlock here as well as the GamepadBlock, our multi-platform USB interface for arcade and original game controllers.
This site is also the birth-place of RetroPie, the popular retro-gaming project for the Raspberry Pi. You can find articles about the original idea and articles of the first years of the project here.
Enjoy your stay on our sites!
Recent Posts on petrockblock
Design Patterns with PlantUML: Decorator Pattern
This post gives a brief overview about the Decorator Pattern. The post is part of a series about software design patterns and their UML representations with the help of PlantUML. [...]
Design Patterns with PlantUML: Observer Pattern
This post gives a brief overview about the Observer Pattern. The post is part of a series about software design patterns and their UML representations with the help of PlantUML. [...]
Tutorial: ControlBlock with RetroPie and SNES or NES Controllers
Introduction This is a post as part of a tutorial series about getting to start with the ControlBlock with various images for the Raspberry Pi. In this tutorial we will learn how to use the [...]
All gadgets fully compatible with Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
Hi everyone! This is a short post about the compatibility of our boards with the new Raspberry Pi model. As you probably already have heard the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ was recently released. Compared [...]
GamepadBlock: New Firmware V1.2.0 Now Supports Amiga, C64, and Equal Joysticks
The GamepadBlock is an Arcade and Original Game Controller USB Interface for your computer. It lets you connect your favourite arcade and original game controllers to your PC via USB. With the release of the GamepadBlock a few [...]
GamepadBlock Updater: Updating the firmware of the GamepadBlock
The GamepadBlock is an Arcade and Original Game Controller USB Interface for your computer. It lets you connect your favourite arcade and original game controllers. The firmware of the GamepadBlock can be updated via USB with the tool [...]
Tutorial: Using the virtual COM port of the GamepadBlock
This tutorial explains the virtual COM port of the GamepadBlock. It can be used, for example, to switch the Controller Mode of the GamepadBlock. The Controller Mode itself is explained in more details and also [...]
GamepadBlock – Universal Game Controller USB Interface
Retro-Gaming is popular. And a lot of people are building their own arcade machines or gaming consoles as personal projects. Part of these projects is to decide which hardware to [...]