Picade Console Build Did Not Go Well

Picade
1

Hello all,

Let me preface by saying that I posted this in the Adafruit forums last night and didn’t receive any replies yet. So I contacted Adafruit this morning and they responded immediately by forwarding my concerns directly to Pimoroni support. I haven’t heard anything back yet so I thought I would post in the official Picade forum in the meantime to get some input.

I ordered a Picade Console from Adafruit and received it via two-day air on Wednesday. I laid everything out and was thrilled with the quality of the kit. I sat down to put it together last night.

The first thing I had trouble with was the colored buttons on the top of the plexi. All six of them pushed in but wouldn’t stay put. They easily pushed back out. I fiddled with the placement/orientation, tried rotating them in the socket, etc. and saw no difference. So I decided to try one of the ones that seemed to fit a little tighter than the others in another socket. Since that one was a little tighter, it took a little bit of effort to push out and in the process, I split the plexi in one of the narrow spots between the buttons.

I decided to move on and started wiring everything up. The buttons and joystick wiring were no problem. The speaker wires, however, were problematic. I followed the instructions to gently press the clips on the speaker terminals on the hat as I pushed the wires in and even so, the plastic on the positive speaker terminal split in half.

I finished the wiring and then powered it up and everything except the speaker appears to be working but I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed…a bit in myself for the split speaker terminal clip, and of course, the cracked plexi but also in the product due to the colored buttons not sitting (and staying) flush on the lid. The two retaining tabs on each side of the buttons appear to be made for mounting to a thinner medium. This works fine for the black buttons but the colored ones have to mount to the plexi-MDF sandwich and this is why I believe they are not holding in place. It appears that a button with a screw-on collar would have been a better choice for the colored buttons.

Even without the speaker functionality, the fitment of the colored buttons and the cracked plexi are an issue for me. So, a few questions…

  1. Is there an issue with the kit I received that causing the buttons to not sit flush and stay put or are these buttons the same for every kit?

  2. Is it possible for me to order a replacement piece of plexi and hat?

I will own the fact that some of this is my fault for not being more careful with the assembly/disassembly of the parts but I’d rather not have to buy a whole new kit - especially with the concerns about the fitment of the buttons.

Thank you for any input and suggestions.

-Steve

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  1. Having built 4 picades, yes, the buttons don’t always sit down nicely. This is a byproduct of the combination of acrylic and MDF being cut with enough tolerance to fit them at all. I have found a small dab of hot glue down the back of each tab to be the best.

  2. Contact support@pimoroni.com re the replacement panel. You may have to foot the bill for a replacement picadeX HAT: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/picade-x-hat
    The audio connector is delicate and only requires minimal force to actuate.

(not a Pimoroni employee, merely an enthusiast)

3

On my custom build I also struggled to get my speaker wires into the terminal on the X HAT. I didn’t have a clue how hard I needed to push down on the clip, so after several failed attempts to secure a wire in a terminal, I looked down the wire hole as I pushed the clip down. It actually needed quite a bit of force before I could see the crimp thing inside the terminal open up. Knowing how much force was needed, I then got the wires in successfully.

Just to add, I did this before I installed the X HAT on the Pi, so the circuit board of the X HAT was sitting on a solid surface as I was pushing down on the clips. Even so, I was still a bit nervous about the force needed, and I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to do it with the X HAT installed on top of the Pi.