Instructions for Picade PCB?

Support
1

I’m trying to build a mini arcade cabinet using a Raspberry Pi 3 and RetroPie. I heard about the Picade kit and it looked really awesome, but I wanted a slightly larger screen so I bought a Picade PCB off Amazon last week. They only thing I received was the PCB, no instructions or additional parts. I’ve been trying to piece together how things go together from the Pimoroni tutorial, customer builds, and forum posts here. Can someone help me with some really basic questions?

  1. I don’t see a way for the Picade PCB to mount on the Pi. I have some brass stand-offs I could use, but the photos in the Pimoroni tutorial don’t show anything like that. I was initially thinking there were some pins on the PCB that mated to the Pi, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

  2. Power. If I understand correctly, the Picade PCB is powered by the external power supply and not the Pi? So I hook the Picade to the Pi via a micro USB to USB A cable?

  3. What does the 1/4 with the black circle around it on the terminal do? Should that be hooked up to a button?

I just got started putting all my buttons and wires together so I might have more questions as I go. I know once everything is wired up correctly, I’ll have to download some new code for the Pi to interface with the PCB correctly. I appreciate any help you can provide.

2

1 you connect the (micro) USB port on the Picade PCB to one of the USB port on the Pi.

2 the Picade is powered by the Pi, over USB. So you get both power and data over USB.

3 all the terminals on the Picade PCB (except to specifically marked as speaker outputs) are there to receive push buttons / actuators. What you wire where does not strictly matter if you are not matching up a Picade rack.

3

A Picade rack? I’m not sure I understand what you mean. Are you referring to a Picade cabinet? I’m trying to recreate the Picade cabinet, just on a slightly larger scale. I would like the 1UP button, the soft power button, and the volume and down buttons. I bought 12 buttons and plan on wiring them up like the Picade kit.

4

yes, by rack I meant cabinet.

… there is no soft power function in the Picade PCB, are you sure you are not confusing what you bought with the Picade HAT?

either way, the labels on the input terminals for Picade have no great impact, you can map whatever function you wish to assign a button within RetropPie.

5

Sorry, going by what Amazon had listed. Here’s the link: http://a.co/gzGQCWe

I wanted something more than just an USB keyboard emulator/encoder. Again, terribly new to this, but does this item I bought not allow for soft power boot/shut down and control of the volume via buttons?

6

volume control - of external speakers wired to Picade PCB - yes. Soft shutdown, no.

… the description is accurate as far as I can tell.

7

It sounds a lot like you’ve got your wires crossed with Picade HAT? https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/picade-hat

Soft shutdown/startup is supported on the Picade HAT, since that’s Pi specific. But the Picade PCB is designed to work with anything that supports a USB keyboard/gamepad so it doesn’t have any Pi-only features.

We’re working on something that might do the trick for you, though, should you stick with the Picade PCB.

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8

Yup, I think you’re right. I didn’t realize there was a Picade HAT and a Picade PCB. I thought the terms were interchangeable. There were red and blue colored versions of the PCB so thought it was just an evolution of the same item. What are you working on for the PCB? Other than the audio amp on the PCB, it sounds like my PCB is just like an I-PAC, but without the options for a second player. Would I be better off with a HAT? I think I can still return the PCB through Amazon.

9

We’re working on something that might do the trick for you, though, should you stick with the Picade PCB.

I’ve just purchased the Picade PCB and I also got the HAT (included in my Picade cabinet kit). However, the one thing I dislike about the HAT is the lack of stereo speaker output (like the PCB) so at first, I wasn’t planning on using it in my cabinet. Instead, I was hoping to be able to use the PCB but clearly there are some differences.

Mainly, the lack of a soft power button and the LED connection for the on/off switch. So I’m thinking in perhaps combining both boards - using the PCB for the buttons + directional stick and stereo audio out, then the HAT for soft-shutdown and power switch LED connections. I’ll have a look at both installation scripts to see if it can be hacked in order to achieve that.

(Unless you’ve got something better in mind for using just the PCB?)