10" screen upgrade

Received the 10" screen upgrade at the weekend. It’s a perfect size and makes a real difference to the gaming experience. I’d definitely recommend it.

However, unlike the stock 8" screen, both the fittings and instructions seem poor.

The instructions mention that the screen shim is slightly different on the left and the right (6mm v 5mm). However, they don’t say which side is the top and which is the bottom. I had to work it out by trial and error.

Also there doesn’t appear to be an acrylic piece for the top of the screen (TOP1) and you can’t screw the driver board acrylic (TOP2) to the rest of the screen assembly because the screen itself is in the way of the top screw holes. This means that unlike the original, you have rely on the slots on the cabinet holding the whole thing together rather than screws.

I’m posting this partly to help anyone else who is struggling, partly to check whether I’ve understood correctly, and partly to help the Pimoroni team improve the instruction sheet.

Any comments appreciated!

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I too got the upgrade and it’s a little fiddly I agree. The only TOP acrylic piece is that which holds the driver board, I can’t see any mention of a second tape piece? And the includes instruction sheet does indicate which which way is up? I assume some compromise had to be made to accommodate the larger display which came a,OMG after the design was set in stone.

I just try to build Picade with 10 inch screen and everything else has gone well so far but I have problems connecting the ribbon cable between the driver board and the metal connector. Do you have photos how it should look when it’s connected?

Thank you in advance!

I don’t have a photo at the moment, but the metal end goes into the bottom of the connector on the screen (not the top as I first assumed) and the other end of the cable goes into the driver board with the blue side facing towards you. Pull the black clip away from the driver board with your finger nail to unlock and then press back in to secure the cable.

Thank you - works now!

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I received my upgrade kit however there wasn’t a screen acrylic in the kit. If I use the screen acrylic that cane with the 8” then the holes won’t line up and there is no where to screw the top piece holding the driver board in place (as @njp pointed out)

The directions made it sound as if there was a screen acrylic, but it wasn’t in the box. I sent a note to Pimoroni support via the web form but haven’t heard from them yet.

If you mean the large rectangular screen acrylic, then I didn’t get a new one in my kit either, but I don’t think it would help as I can’t see where they could put the top screw holes anyway - the screen pretty much reaches the top of the acrylic.

I’d expect the top portion of the plastic to be extended to move the holes. Then the piece with the driver board connects to that, sandwiching the screen.

Yes. That would work, but if they’d done that, the new cardboard screen shim would presumably be bigger to match the acrylic, and it isn’t.

I think the upgrade kit should have been better planned and have better instructions.

Let me know if you hear anything. I was originally hoping Pimoroni would respond on this thread.

They responded… Here is the updated instructions:

You were correct, there is no new screen acrylic. It is left together by the slots in the Picade sides…

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Thanks. Good to see they’ve updated the instructions.

It appears that I installed my shim upside down so that 2 or 3 rows of pixels are covered at the top of the screen. I didn’t realize that until the whole thing was assembled. It looks as if I’ll have to disassemble partially to fix it. :(

Is there a way to set a default brightness for the screen? Now it’s always 100% when powering up the system, and I need to manually adjust it down with keypad.

Armas, I had the same problem as you connecting the ribbon cable to the screen, until I read this thread. For anyone else who needs help, here’s a pic of the connected cable.

I also had a problem with my screen repeatedly going off for a few seconds, then coming back on for a moment, then going off again, etc. I was using an old 1A charger, so I switched to a 2A charger and that fixed the problem, so the old charger clearly wasn’t up to the job.

I’ve not tested the brightness setting yet, when I have I’ll report back.