Order list mistake?

[BenoitCaron]

I recently purchased all the items on the list, assembled my cart reader, and realized those long male pin headers are actually too long?

Male pin headers:
two 1x40 2.54mm 20mm long(total length) 

The PCB can't sit flush with the 18mm spacers, because male pin headers + female pin header combined are 18.5mm. I triple checked, I did order according to the list, my male pin headers are indeed 20mm long.

At that point, I would advise either to change the list to 19mm long spacers, or 19mm long male pin headers :)

[Ancyker]

Mine is like that too, I just screwed it down anyway 🤷‍♀️

[sanni]

Thanks for the feedback, I changed the spacers to 19mm in the What to Order list.

[BenoitCaron]

@Ancyker I really don't think that's a good option, as it puts unnecessary pressure on the PCBs :s

The way I see it, there are really 2 options if you have 20mm pins:

• trim the pins 1mm (what I did)
• use small spacers to compensate

[Ancyker]

I think it's fine, but I also didn't wrench them down super tight; I just made them snug on both sides; there's still a tiny gap.

[Ancyker]

@sanni I checked a few, and with the variance, I think decreasing it more might lead to being too short at 19mm. I don't think that will affect usage, but I'm not sure. Since washers are on the list, anyone concerned could just add washers between the PCB and standoffs...

[BenoitCaron]

Huh, that's strange, I had the feeling that it could be shortened even more, like 18mm pins wouldn't be an issue :o

[Ancyker]

If you are super concerned, you can just put a washer between the top PCB and standoff. I just didn't tighten them all the way, but if you are worried about it, then it's an option. If you bought everything on the list, you likely have a huge pack of washers sitting around doing nothing anyway, lol.

[Ancyker]

Also, by increasing them to 19mm, I think the washers might not work well. The washers are 1mm, and the tolerances on everything are not exact. If they vary in opposite directions, there might still be a gap, but now the gap is small enough that the washers won't fit without lifting the pins. 18mm + filling any gaps with washers is probably best. Though it's honestly unlikely to matter either way.

Edit: I suppose if that happens, you could sand/file the washers down some.

[BenoitCaron]

Maybe we misunderstand each other. My only concern is the flex. I'm not concerned about shortening the pins (which I did) nor using washers. I'm designing a shell that I might release. If people use my shell, I'll need them to have the exact same height as I do, and the more reliable way to have the same height, in my opinion, is to use shorter pins, as different washer might vary in height. Either way, both solutions are perfectly valid I think :)

[Ancyker]

The washers are nice because of the material they are made of, they do compress a little unlike metal. This means you can get a pretty reliable height out of them. None of these things are super high tolerance, though. These are cheap parts from China. I'd expect a 0.1-1mm variance on both the standoffs and headers. Hell, I've accidentally pushed the header pins through their plastic holder.

1-2mm shouldn't affect your housing as long as you design it for the max height/worst case, as either way, the cutouts for the slots need to allow the entire cart to pass through. You shouldn't design it so that the housing is touching the PCB. There's a reason no consoles (that I know of, at least) do that. Even the GBA isn't completely flush.

[BenoitCaron]

You have a point.

[Ancyker]

Also, what is your housing doing differently? There's already a full-enclosure available if that's what you wanted.

I'd like to see one for SLA, as I don't have an FDM printer, and I'll be getting an SLA printer soon. But resin doesn't melt; it burns, so it will need a different design for mounting the LCD.

[BenoitCaron]

My printer's bed is 150mm long, so I can't print the ones that I have found so far, which are a tad too long. Plus, I'm often not satisfied with the models I find, and try to make my own both as practice and to get better results than current offerings :)

[Ancyker]

Ah, that's fair. The one someone posted a few weeks ago (#723) is a bit larger @ ~162mm. The printer I'm looking at is 250x123x219mm (HWD, supposedly, but I'm pretty sure they meant WDH or HDW, though I'm not totally sure).

The OSCR has seemed a bit chunky looking when it has fully enclosed housing on it. I'm interested in seeing what you come up with. ☺

[Ancyker]

I saw a cart reader with this housing on eBay:

It looks smaller like it would fit on your printer, but as far as I know, the creator did not make the files available. Still, could be used for inspiration, perhaps.

[BenoitCaron]

Yep, this one would most definitely fit ! But I'm almost done, so I don't think I will draw much inspiration from it :/ At first glance I though "oh the 3V and 5V labels are a smart addition", but then remembered that the software actually tells you which cartridges are 3V. Thanks for sharing this!

[Ancyker]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was listed/created before the software said that. Also, if you use Vselect, you don't even have a voltage switch, lol.

I put my N64 controller port in a different place as well.

[BenoitCaron]

I wanted to put it in the back near the GBA port, on the site. I was almost perfect, but ultimately just too tight.

[Ancyker]

I put mine on the side under the six-slot, lol.

Also, now that you mentioned the flex, I can't unsee it 😅

Edit: ... might be because of that spacer, though, since that's the only side flexing ...

[BenoitCaron]

Yeah that's exactly what I wanted to do, but on the opposite side ;) Hope you still have those spacers somewhere :D