CAUTIONS for when assembling the DevKit

Es gibt 10 Antworten in diesem Thema, welches 2.005 mal aufgerufen wurde. Der letzte Beitrag (29. November 2020 um 22:42) ist von Richard Hallas.

  • Hello everyone!

    My MEGA65 DevKit arrived on 27th November – one day later than UPS had scheduled! :( – and I had a lot of fun assembling it. I ended up with machine number 00248 – a very pleasing number!

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Anhang zu sehen.

    HOWEVER, having put it together by following the official assembly video quite closely, I encountered a number of problems, and I thought it might be helpful to write about them here for the benefit of people who haven't yet assembled their DevKits. NB I'm not experienced at doing things like this, so although I did enjoy the process overall, perhaps my inexperience led me to fall into traps that others might have foreseen. Anyway, assuming that a person is going to do what I did, and follow the official video closely to assemble the MEGA65 DevKit, here are the problems that I ran into, plus some other observations…

    1. Attaching the motherboard to the base

    When attaching the motherboard to the bottom of the case with seven screws – one of the early steps – beware! What you receive in the DevKit pack is NOT what you see in the video. The JTAG programmer board is prefitted to the motherboard and – unlike the version shown in the video – is screwed to the motherboard by means of a Philips screw that goes into a pillar. I.e. there's a pillar fixing the programmer to the motherboard, with a screw at each end, and this is not shown in the video. If you're like me, you'll screw the first couple of screws through the bottom of the case and the motherboard, and then suddenly discover that where the screw at the top-right corner (looking from above) should go, there's already a Philips screw occupying the place you're supposed to screw into! And since you've already put a spacer in this position, you'll find that the Philips screwhead is causing the motherboard to be distorted, which clearly you can't live with long term.

    So, before starting to attach the motherboard to the base, REMOVE that Philips screw attaching the base of the JTAG programmer's pillar to the motherboard. Happily, the pillar and the long screw that you should be inserting have compatible threads, so you can still use the correct screw. You'll just be screwing it into the JTAG's support pillar rather than into a nut, as shown in the video. In other words, at the end, you'll have a spare nut and a Philips screw left over.

    2. Attaching spacers to the floppy drive pillars

    Eight clear plastic washers/spacers are supplied, which are to be used at both ends of the pillars supporting the floppy drive. In the video, they appear to go on the pillars/screws very easily, and there's a comment to the effect that not much force should be necessary.

    On the contrary, I found that these eight spacers are an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE to deal with. They're RIDICULOUSLY tight on the screws, and can't just be pushed over the screw threads easily. I'm not sure whether they're pre-threaded (like nuts) or are simply free, unthreaded collars (like washers), but they really do seem to have to be screwed down, rather than pushed, over the screw threads. Also, unless they're absolutely perpendicular to the screws, they won't go on at all.

    I really hurt my fingers trying to screw these spacers onto the screw threads, and in two of the eight instances, it simply wasn't possible to do it by hand; I had to use a pair of pliers to hold the spacer firmly while I screwed the screw into it. Particularly in the later stage, when inserting screws into the bottom case for the pillars to screw onto, this was very awkward to do. Anyway, my advice is simply to have a pair of pliers at the ready from the outset for this job. It may prove impossible without them, and your fingers will thank you for it either way.

    It's also worth noting that the spacers seem to have a 'right way' and a 'wrong way'. Both ways are extremely difficult to deal with, but if you put them onto the screw in the 'right way' to start with, the screw will reach right through the spacer and start to show at the other side before you need to start screwing. This is helpful, as it does at least let you get a better start at positioning the spacer on the screw. (If you do it the 'wrong way' it'll probably still work, but the screw won't go as far into the spacer initially.)

    3. The Reset button cap really does stay on!

    When attaching the Reset button to the switch on the motherboard, beware that you need to push it on with a surprising amount of force. I was initially afraid of breaking something, as they only appear to be a fairly flimsy type of plastic. Support the reset switch from behind with a finger and push against it quite hard: the supplied button cap will just click onto it.

    4. Be VERY CAREFUL of the On/Off switch when fitting the left side panel

    This one's IMPORTANT. If you don't take heed of this, you may break your case – as, unfortunately, I did. :(

    Inserting the side panels looks really easy in the video. But the back and left panels are actually quite a tight fit because of the ports that go through them. With the back panel, I had to angle the panel quite steeply against the ports and push to snap it into position vertically.

    I then attempted to do the same thing with the side panel… and there was a sharp crack as I did so, and a piece of plastic flew up into my hair, nearly taking out my left eye. It was impossible to see that this was going to happen, and the video contained no warning about the possibility. However, I believe the problem was that I had the On/Off switch in the UP position – i.e. the 'chunky' sticking-out bit was at the bottom. Before attempting to fit the side panel, ensure the switch is in the DOWN position, with the chunky part at the top.

    It seems that if the chunky part of the switch is protruding at the bottom, then there isn't quite enough clearance at the bottom of the hole for the side of the case to snap into position around the switch. And the material is so brittle that rather than bending, it just shatters.

    I very much regret that this has happened to my case, although I was actually quite lucky, in that only a small and fairly inconsequential piece broke away, and I was actually able to glue it back into position – so now I have a couple of visible cracks if I look for them, but it could be much worse.

    I'm attaching a photo of this broken and repaired area so you can see exactly what I'm talking about.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Anhang zu sehen.

    (I still wish it wasn't broken, though. I wonder if it might be possible to obtain a replacement side panel…?)

    5. Keyboard face plate (black)

    It's not immediately obvious in the video, but this part is NOT involved in the screwing operation; you just screw the clear face plate onto the keyboard, and then the black plate simply sits on top of it. I found, though, that the presence of the screws made it quite difficult to get the black plate into place. So just be aware that BOTH of the wide, rectangular LEDs at the top of the keyboard should push through to the front of the black face plate and sit flush with the top surface of it. I found my black plate to be a bit like a seesaw: I could get either one or other of the LEDs through it, but getting both through at the same time was a little tricky. But it does fit…

    6. Fitting the top cover

    In the video, it looks as though you can simply plop the top cover down on the machine and immediately screw it down with no problems. Don't you believe it! Getting the cover on, and all the loose, flappy side panels correctly plugged into it, requires about fifteen hands. It was certainly one of the most awkward, time-consuming and frustrating parts of the assembly process in my experience.

    Having suffered greatly for my art, my advice with hindsight would be not to even consider trying to put the cover straight down on the machine (it simply won't work like that), but instead, start at the back, with the two separate back panels, and work your way forward. Even when everything's correctly in position, you'll almost certainly find that some of the flanges in the angled keyboard area don't fit as well into the lid as you'd expect them to. There's likely to be a slight gap towards the front.

    When fitting the lid, also try your best to hold the side panels at all times, because they have a tendency to rock outwards, and the horizontal flanges on the keyboard itself aren't very long. They're fine for holding the keyboard in place once everything's assembled, but during the fitting of the lid, it's incredibly easy to let one of the sides move enough for the keyboard flanges to drop out. And then you've got a keyboard inside a mostly assembled case, sitting below the holes it's supposed to be inserted into, with no easy way to retrieve it without taking the lid off again.

    As I say, in the end I found it best to work from the back of the machine to the front, doing my best to squeeze the side panels at all times so that the keyboard didn't drop down. I also found it to be a good idea to insert the back three screws – though without tightening them firmly yet! – to help hold things in place while I dealt with the front part of the case, which is the most awkward bit. Once everything's screwed together, it's great! But getting there can be a little frustrating.

    7. The USB lead

    The video is very cunning and careful to NEVER show you what you're supposed to do with the USB lead that goes to the internal JTAG programmer. And there's good reason for that: it's incredibly unwieldy!

    For a start, the lead is almost ludicrously long. And though it's doubtless very useful when you need it, what about the rest of the time?! Removing it isn't a good idea as it'd be virtually impossible to attach it again – or, at least, pretty difficult without a fair amount of disassembly.

    I'd hoped, also, that the feet underneath the machine would be deep enough to allow a little clearance for the cable when it's fed out from the hole on the underside. But no. The cable, predictably enough, is marginally fatter than the height of the feet.

    As for storing the cable away neatly when not needed, I found that it's possible to tuck it all away – with some care – inside the machine, mostly underneath the keyboard. But it's hardly an elegant solution, and there must surely be a better way…

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Anhang zu sehen.

    8. Other annoyances

    I loved how everything needed was included in the pack (well, except for printed assembly instructions!) – right down to the splendidly neat little screwdriver. Given how every last screw and nut is accounted for, therefore, I was pretty surprised and disappointed to find that there was no battery to go in the socket on the motherboard that's very obviously waiting for one. I know manufacturers always put "BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED" on their packaging, but this is a bit different…! And we're talking about just one measly coin cell!

    So, not only will I have to go hunting for one myself (without as yet knowing the spec – though presumably it'll say in the manual somewhere), it'll mean that in order to fit it I'll have to remove and reattach that infuriating case lid that gave me so much trouble in point 6! Aargh!

    Another small negative is the laughable inequality of lead lengths. It really is a case of the sublime and the ridiculous! It's virtually always better to have a lead that's too long rather than one that's too short, but that USB lead to the JTAG programmer really is remarkably long (which presents problems in terms of where to put it, given that one end is attached to the MEGA65). But in stark contrast to this, the lead from the power pack is LUDICROUSLY SHORT! I put together my DevKit on the dining room table. When plugging it in, I had a mains cord extension that came right to the edge of the table, and with the computer plugged in near the edge of the table, there wasn't enough length of cord from the PSU to reach down to the mains socket directly below the table! It really is an excessively short lead; I feel it should have been twice as long.

    So, my few criticisms are:

    • No battery supplied (get one before you assemble the machine if possible!)

    • PSU lead far too short

    • USB cable impractically long (though that's better than being too short)

    • No warning about how easy it is to break your case if the power switch happens to be in the wrong position…

    • Floppy drive spacers ridiculously tight over their screws; pliers essential for fitting them

    I don't mean these to sound like major criticisms, because they're not. On the contrary, this is a fantastic kit and I actually really enjoyed putting it together. I'm just mentioning these things in the hope that they'll alert people about cautions to be aware of, and hopefully maybe prevent the odd person from damaging their case.

    In the end, I find the assembled machine extremely attractive – it looks even better in real life than in the photos – and I absolutely love the feel and sound of the keyboard. So, now to learn all about it…

  • Thank you for your detailed description of the assembly of your devkit! :thumbup:

    (I still wish it wasn't broken, though. I wonder if it might be possible to obtain a replacement side panel…?)

    That's a point that really amazes me. You're not the only one reporting about broken case pieces. I think that Plexilaser, as the manufacturer of the cases, will certainly offer an uncomplicated replacement.

  • Thank you for your detailed description of the assembly of your devkit! :thumbup:

    (I still wish it wasn't broken, though. I wonder if it might be possible to obtain a replacement side panel…?)

    That's a point that really amazes me. You're not the only one reporting about broken case pieces. I think that Plexilaser, as the manufacturer of the cases, will certainly offer an uncomplicated replacement.

    Who should I approach to ask about this? Is there a particular email address for such enquiries? I've just seen another reference on Discord to the manufacturers being willing to replace broken case pieces, but again, no information about who to contact.

  • Richard Hallas

    Thanks for your very detailed report, i'll try to answer as good as possible:

    - The USB cable is best led through the trapdoor, since it is the main communication cable from PC to MEGA65 (and believ me you'll find ir very helpfull once you start using m65connect :smile: )

    - that the case is so fragile is something we didn't encounter when we've build our test machine, but since more and more reports came in, we've contacted Plexilaser and they are absolutely supportive, so please drop plexilaser an email together with your serial number, they will help you : info@plexilaser.de & serialnumber.

    - the RESET button is supposed to be hard to attach, it will not come loose again in the near future :wink:

    - we HAD to leave the batteries out. the reason is, that if you want to have them included, there are ALOT of regulations that you have to comply (danger transport stickers, etc.)

    but we offer every DevKit owner, to drop us a note (you can even send me a PM here in Forum64, with your adress and we are happy to send you the battery extra. (we have more than 200 of them lying around here...) So please contact us ! It was just not worth the hassle to get them included officially. Sorry !

    - the length of the PSU lead was out of our control, we only wanted to ensure, that the PSU will work in every country worldwide, that's why we ensured, that fitting socket adapters are in for all different countries. (but we will forward your comment to our partner Trenz).

    - tja... the floppy drive spacers... as soon as we heard the reports, we contacted Plexilaser and they confirmed, that they, by mistake, mixed up an old (to tight set) of spacers with the new ones. Here they replied in the same way as above with broken parts: please drop them an email @ info@plexilaser.de with your case serial number and they will help

    - that the programmer was allready mounted on the PCB was something we didn't know either and it looks like, that some people did receive the mainboard with the programmer attached while others received it seperately.

    And no worries, we are happy to hear all your reports. The case, once it's assembled it is very sturdy, only the process to get it there is tricky. Still it's mainly the DevKit case

    and the final MEGA65 case will be as good, if not even better than the original cases made by commodore.

    The DevKit is the tesrun towards the final MEGA65 and that's why we are happy to hear all your experiences . Thank you !

    Thanks that you like the look of the DevKit and we wish you alot of fun with the machine. To get you started, have look in my signature, here you find links to the most important MEGA65 related sites, for infos, software and our Discord server.

    Nice to have you on board !

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- here you can find all MEGA65 related files, games, etc.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- MEGA65 main Homepage. links to all important MEGA65 sites (links on top of the page to Files, Forum, GitHub, Manual,etc.)

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <-Pauls Blog - constant updates about current tasks, project status, etc.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen.,Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- All Open-Source information regarding MEGA65. Found Bugs ? create an issue there please!

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- Join for live chat support and more --- The Future is 8-bit !!!

  • Who should I approach to ask about this? Is there a particular email address for such enquiries? I've just seen another reference on Discord to the manufacturers being willing to replace broken case pieces, but again, no information about who to contact.

    As adtbm mentioned above, here you find the mail address of Plexilaser: Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen.

  • Richard Hallas

    Thanks for your very detailed report, i'll try to answer as good as possible:

    Thank you VERY much for such a detailed reply! It was really interesting to read what you had to say about the various issues.

    I do want to be clear, by the way, that I didn't mean my report to seem like a complaint. On the contrary, I'm very happy with the DevKit, and I also really enjoyed building it. I just wanted to warn people in particular about the danger of breaking the side wall of the case if the On/Off switch happens to be in the ON position, and I thought that my other feedback might possibly be useful too.

    But it's easy to sound as though one is complaining, and/or dissatisfied, and that's not the case; I'm very happy with what I've received.

    Thanks for the explanation about the battery. I hadn't realised that the inclusion of a tiny coin cell would cause such inconvenient overheads! I thought they only applied to batteries of a significant size.

    Anyway, I'll pursue the matters of the battery and the broken case wall. Thanks again for your help!

  • You're very welcome ! And no worries your post was 100% OK :smile:

    Like i said, if you need a CR1220 battery, drop me a PM with your adress and we'll send you one.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- here you can find all MEGA65 related files, games, etc.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- MEGA65 main Homepage. links to all important MEGA65 sites (links on top of the page to Files, Forum, GitHub, Manual,etc.)

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <-Pauls Blog - constant updates about current tasks, project status, etc.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen.,Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- All Open-Source information regarding MEGA65. Found Bugs ? create an issue there please!

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- Join for live chat support and more --- The Future is 8-bit !!!

  • Email received. Thanks, Battery goes to the post office tomorrow.

    One more hint, regarding the USB cable, we wanted the cable to be that long, that you can have some space between the PC and the MEGA65.

    Some people just let the one backplane out and fed the cable through there. It's a matter of personal taste but an option too :smile:

    In the end it's a DevKit case, so i would not wonder, if some owner goes ahead and just drills an extra hole :biggrin:

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- here you can find all MEGA65 related files, games, etc.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- MEGA65 main Homepage. links to all important MEGA65 sites (links on top of the page to Files, Forum, GitHub, Manual,etc.)

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <-Pauls Blog - constant updates about current tasks, project status, etc.

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen.,Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- All Open-Source information regarding MEGA65. Found Bugs ? create an issue there please!

    Bitte melde dich an, um diesen Link zu sehen. <- Join for live chat support and more --- The Future is 8-bit !!!

  • I noticed that the plug of the floppy cable does not go in properly. Because the hole in the plexiglass is a bit too small. I have tried two different cables and both of them are only loose in the socket.

    Pusti64

  • Email received. Thanks, Battery goes to the post office tomorrow.

    One more hint, regarding the USB cable, we wanted the cable to be that long, that you can have some space between the PC and the MEGA65.

    Some people just let the one backplane out and fed the cable through there. It's a matter of personal taste but an option too :smile:

    In the end it's a DevKit case, so i would not wonder, if some owner goes ahead and just drills an extra hole :biggrin:

    Wonderful! Thanks very much indeed.

    And with hindsight… I probably shouldn't have mentioned the length of the USB cable! It just struck me at the time of assembly as being very unwieldy to deal with while constructing the machine, and then it was awkward to deal with in terms of storing it when not in use! But in reality, it is of course far better to have a cable that's too long than one that's too short. (As with the power supply!) It's probably a sensible length given its intended purpose.