My finalized picade, and feedback on the build

Picade
1

I thought I would share a bit on my experience of the Picade build, and also give you a preview of the result

IMG_20191129_184558
IMG_20191129_1845582358×4032 1.42 MB

so 1st of all, it was really fun building it, but I am a hobbyist and love to build things, so I might be a bit biased. it took about an afternoon to get everything together, and then I concentrated another half day on setting up the software.

things to improve:

  • I purchased the 10-inch screen, and the instructions are not so good for it, there are many unused panels which are supposed to be used for the 8-inch, so I ended up starting to set up those, and only after a while I realized both the 8 and 10 inch panels were in the box, and I had to figure out by myself which ones to use. furthermore, of course there is nothing to tighten the screen in place besides the other parts around it.
  • the stickers which are provided don’t stick to the cabinet. you would think that’s precisely what they are here for, they only stick to the acrylic parts.
  • I would recommend to add the hdmi_force_hotplug=1 in the config.txt before actually booting for the first time. once the retropie image burned, we can change the config.txt file at the root, so no need to boot once, and then edit the file, because the screen will remain blank.
  • I didn’t understand what the the keypad component is for, the thing connected to the video driver.

the good stuff: the gameplay is really good, enjoy very much the quality of the joystick, the materials, the screens, and buttons are exactly right in placement. since I was already playing with retropie before this build, the software setup was simple. it’s a really cute little toy, and I have already spent hours of gameplay on it.

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The keypad part of the display is the buttons you usually find on the front of your PC monitor. The menu for contrast brightness etc. Thats my understanding anyway.

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yeah, I figured it out, but it’s not stated anywhere in the guide what it’s for (or maybe I skipped it).

4

Its mentioned on the product page for the display.
Keypad and controllable backlight brightness, contrast, and saturation
But it sounds like they or somebody needs to do up a new build video. I do believe the original one was done by the MagPi Magazine group? And likely was the original first version of the Picade cabinet. Which may not have had that extra button card on the display? Just for the record I don’t have a Picade. It is on my wish list though.