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Assembling Picade Max (1/4)

38

2024-12-26 | By Pimoroni

License: See Original Project Raspberry Pi SBC

Courtesy of Pimoroni

Guide by Pimoroni

This tutorial will help you assemble Picade Max. This is a bit of a mammoth ‎guide, so we'll be splitting it into several parts.‎

Part 1 <- you are here

Part 2‎

Part 3‎

Part 4‎

What you'll need

ESSENTIAL

You'll also need the following:‎

  • A Raspberry Pi 5. If you want to use an older Pi with this kit that's also ‎possible (as long as it is one of the ones with a 40 pin header).‎

  • A microSD card

NICE TO HAVE

  • An Active Cooler to keep your Pi nice and cool.‎

  • A NVMe Base if you want to add some super-fast solid-state storage.‎

  • A USB keyboard for configuring the software / connecting to wifi.‎

Preparation

It will probably take somewhere between two and four hours to build your ‎Picade Max (the current speedrun record is 1h 59m). It's a big build so we'd ‎encourage you to take your time, enjoy yourself and don't feel like you need ‎to rush through it all in one go. A large space, like a table or floor, with a soft ‎covering is an ideal build space. There's a couple of points where it's useful to ‎have an extra, friendly, pair of hands on standby. You’ll also need a ‎Phillips/crosshead screwdriver and a small flat blade screwdriver (2.5mm or ‎smaller). If you don't have those already, you might want to grab an ‎excellent iFixit driver kit.‎

Contents of the kit

Here's a complete list of everything included in the box! If you're missing ‎anything, please drop us an email at support@pimoroni.com .‎

IN THE MAIN BOX

  • ‎19 black powder coated wooden cabinet panels, labelled A to N‎

  • ‎4 acrylic panels (1 and 2 player console panels and two marquee ‎panels - one of these is translucent).‎

  • ‎3 pieces of cardboard artwork (1 and 2 player console pieces, and a ‎marquee piece)‎

  • Black cardboard screen surround

  • ‎19" display panel‎

FIXINGS AND SPEAKERS BOX

  • ‎15 plastic brackets (for attaching the panels together)‎

  • ‎2 3" speakers‎

  • A bundle of cable ties for tidying up the wires

  • Rubber feet

  • A Picade Max bolt pack containing many black metal screws, nuts, and ‎standoffs (you'll use M2.5, M3, and M4 sizes in this build).‎

  • A Diffuser Standoff Kit - this contains some tiny M2 fixings, which you'll ‎only need if you're planning on using a Galactic Unicorn as your ‎marquee.‎

ELECTRONICS AND GUBBINS BOX

  • Bag containing Display driver boards (with cables)‎

  • Picade Max display driver cover

  • Picade Max Audio board

  • Picade Max Controller board

  • Picade Max Power HAT

  • ‎9 pin JST-PH cable for connecting the LCD keypad

  • ‎20cm Qw/ST cable for connecting the Encoder board‎

  • Booster header for Power HAT

  • ‎12V barrel jack power supply‎

  • PICO-8 code‎

  • Stickers!‎

BUTTONS AND LOOMS BOX

  • ‎11 x 24mm arcade buttons‎

  • ‎14 X 30mm arcade buttons‎

  • Illuminated power button

  • Picade Max Encoder board

  • Black dial/knob

  • Picade Max LCD Keypad board with black keycaps

  • Keypad Legend (labels for the LCD Keypad board)‎

  • Picade Max wiring loom - this includes cables to connect buttons, ‎joysticks, and the power button

JOYSTICKS AND CABLES BOX

  • ‎2 arcade joysticks‎

  • ‎2 joystick balls‎

  • ‎2 black plastic collar/dust covers for joysticks‎

  • ‎30cm barrel jack to barrel jack cable for connecting the Power HAT to ‎the display driver board

  • ‎30cm micro-HDMI to HDMI cable for connecting the Pi to the display ‎driver board

  • ‎2 50cm USB A to C cables for connecting the Audio and Controller ‎boards

Cabinet assembly tips

First up, here's some general rules (more like guidelines, amirite) to keep in ‎mind throughout the build.‎

  • The wooden panels are laser cut from MDF by us and then powder ‎coated by a friendly, local Sheffield company. This process can result in ‎some textural variation on the back of the panels, and you might also ‎notice some holes on the inside that don't go all the way through - ‎these holes are where the panels are hung up to be powder coated. ‎There should be an obvious good side and a 'label' side with markings ‎and text on. The label side will always be on the inside of your Picade, ‎so any patchiness on this side won't show once your Picade is ‎assembled.‎

  • The wooden panels are labelled A - N so you can identify them easily, ‎and we'll be adding to them to the build in alphabetical order.‎

  • Some parts of the cabinet assembly need there to be a bit of give in ‎the cabinet, so it's a good idea not to tighten the screws and nuts that ‎go through the brackets to fasten the wooden panels together fully ‎until the end of the build.‎

  • The heads of the screws should always be on the outside of your ‎Picade cabinet, and the nuts/threaded ends of the screws should be on ‎on the inside.‎

Screw sizes help

There are four sizes of nuts, screws, and spacers in this build, M2, M2.5, M3 ‎and M4. These are all metric bolt sizes, and the number indicates the outer ‎diameter of the screw thread in mm (and the diameter of the hole it will fit ‎through) - so M2 has the smallest diameter and M4 has the largest.‎

The bags of nuts and bolts are labelled 1 to 6 to help you identify which ones ‎you need for each step (you can thank the Picade Max beta testers for this ‎convenience).‎

Here is a handy cheat sheet that will help you identify all the screws, nuts ‎and standoffs that are included. A print copy will also be included with your ‎Picade Max!‎

Attaching the feet to the base

For this section you'll need:‎

  • Wooden panel A

  • Rubber feet

To start, you'll need to find the big black wooden panel marked A - this will ‎become the base of your Picade.‎

base_1

You'll also need the rubber feet. They look like this:‎

feet_2

Flip panel A over so the 'good' side without the labels is facing you. Then peel ‎the feet off their backing and stick one near each of the four corners, ‎avoiding the mounting holes.‎

holes_3

If you'd like to add more support to the middle of the cabinet or need to ‎account for particularly uneven terrain (hi EMF) you can add more feet, we ‎included extras.‎

extra_4

Now the base won't scratch your desk whilst you carry out the rest of the ‎assembly!‎

Attaching cabinet panel A

Locate the bags of M3 screws and nuts, they should look something like this.‎

bag_5

Note that there's two lengths of M3 screws here, 12mm and 18mm. You'll be ‎using the shorter 12mm ones for most of the cabinet assembly, set the ‎longer ones aside until later.‎

For this section, you'll need:‎

  • ‎1x L-shaped plastic bracket

  • ‎1x M3 12mm screw‎

  • ‎1x M3 nut‎

need_6

Use a M3 screw and nut through the centre hole to attach a bracket to the ‎centre of panel A. Note that the single holes in the plastic brackets are quite ‎a tight fit, this may require a bit of determined rotation with your driver.‎

driver_7

Attaching cabinet panel B

Next, you'll need:‎

  • Wooden panel B

  • ‎1x L-shaped plastic bracket

  • ‎3x M3 12mm screw‎

  • ‎3x M3 nut‎

next_8

Attach a bracket to it (again using the centre hole).‎

attach_9

Use two more screws and nuts to secure panel B to panel A, using the two ‎remaining holes in the first bracket.‎

secure_10

Here's what it looks like from the other side.

side_11

Attaching cabinet panel C

Next, we'll be attaching panel C to the other long edge of panel A - this will ‎become the front edge of your cabinet. For this part you'll need:‎

  • Wooden panel C

  • ‎2x L-shaped plastic bracket

  • ‎6x M3 12mm screw‎

  • ‎6x M3 nut‎=

attaching_12

First attach the brackets to panel C, using the central holes:‎

brackets_13

Then use the remaining holes to attach panel C to panel A. You should now ‎have something like this:‎

panel_14

Here it is viewed from the front.‎

front_15

Attaching side panel D (and speaker)‎

Now we'll be adding panel D (that's the right-side panel, if you're looking at ‎Picade Max from the front). For this part you'll need:‎

  • Wooden panel D

  • ‎4x L-shaped plastic bracket

  • ‎1x speaker‎

  • ‎9x M3 12mm screw‎

  • ‎9x M3 nut‎

  • ‎2x M4 screws‎

  • ‎2x M4 nuts‎

adding_16

‎(all the chunky M4 nuts and bolts should be in bag 1).

bag2_17

First add four brackets to panel D. Note that with the middle bracket, we're ‎attaching the side of the brackets with two holes first.‎

brackets_18

Next bolt the speaker over the grille using the M4 nuts and screws, you only ‎need to put bolts through two of the four mounting holes on the speaker. ‎We'd suggest orienting the side where the wires attach towards the front of ‎the cabinet for tidiness of wiring.‎

brackets_19

Use M3 nuts and screws to attach side panel D to the rest of your cabinet ‎assembly. The wooden tabs should slot together at the front corner to keep ‎everything nice and square.‎

panel_20

Attaching side panel E (and speaker)‎

Next, we'll be assembling the other side panel! You'll need:‎

  • Wooden panel E

  • ‎5x L-shaped plastic bracket

  • ‎1x speaker‎

  • ‎10x M3 12mm screw‎

  • ‎10x M3 nut‎

  • ‎2x M4 screws‎

  • ‎2x M4 nuts‎

parts_20

Attach 5 brackets to the inside of panel E as shown.‎

speaker_21

Then attach the speaker over the grille using the M4 nuts and screws, as we ‎did with the other side panel.‎

grille_22

Once that's done, you can attach panel E to the rest of your cabinet. Your ‎cabinet should now look something like this:‎

done_23

Time for a well-earned break! When you're ready, progress to part 2 of our ‎guide.‎

That's all folks!‎

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