How interchangeable: HAT or PCB within Picade Console?

Hi Folks, first post here!

I have in the post a Picade Console from Pimoroni towers, with an additional Picade HAT. Can anyone advise on the ability to swap in the HAT instead of using the PCB, in terms of connecting up the 12 buttons/joystick, as well as housing?

I quite like the sound of the soft power button which makes it sound like a more self-contained unit. I noticed in BilgeTank 70 mention of a possible future redesign of the console for the HAT so I’m guessing there might be problems, however in that video it looks like the console is just connected up as is.

Ta! Will

I don’t think there are particular concerns. The HAT was initially designed without volume control but we managed to hack software volume control via bcm 13 and bcm 26, though the silk screen does not mention them.

… so, technically I think all the control available on the Picade pcb are catered for out of the box (meaning no particular setup required besides the provided installer) on the HAT, just wire the vol +/- to pins mentioned above.

in fact I am in the process of making one such setup myself, although I don’t want to house the Pi itself in the Picade console housing (though I think it is no problem to do so)… I’ll try to post pics next week.

Great glad to hear. Got Monday booked off for this!

Hi, the build went well. Rather than using the Picade PCB that came with the console I went straight to using the HAT version. Images below.

I configured volume buttons on left panel on BCM13 and 26. Because of this using the HAT I then had an additional button space spare for power so fitted another couple of buttons along the front panel with one of these being used as power button, and a button 13 that is completely unused (any ideas?). I also had to adjust the placement holes for the raspberry pi inwards to give extra clearance for the utility buttons and wired, and drilled and squared up power socket for HAT. Overall pretty happy with the build and mod, had to be aware of extra buttons hitting joystick mount, and the rear door catch hitting the HAT.

Just got some questions now about the button mapping which I will ask elsewhere. Thanks for the pointer on volume!

Regards, Will

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nice… I vaguely remember setting mine to use the let and right hand side button as shoulder buttons, so re-purposing the existing setup, but there is no reason why you can’t add extra buttons tapping into the remaining gpio on the Picade HAT breakout (RX-TX probably the best if you plan to use some blinkies over I2C).

have a look at https://github.com/pimoroni/picade-hat/tree/master/gamepads

… I might try to knock an example of extended gamepad config to show how to use all the breakout pins to add an extra 4 (well - 6 if you count the vol +/- not marked on the silk screen) buttons.