MY first Minty Pi... pretty cool project!

[KristKaT]

A HUGE thank you to everyone in the forums that shared their process and pictures, and of course Helder and Wermy! <hugs!>

SO my son (10) found a video of the minty pi last fall, and I thought it was maybe something I could do to show him how a project comes together, the trouble-shooting, and parts collecting, and get a cool set of tools and skills in the process (I usually quilt and cross-stitch, so this totally goes with that ). I have a little prior electronics experience from the Navy, but nothing as fine as this, so...why not?
SO, acquired parts and tools... (thanks to every one who showed off their workspaces , and especially a certain soldering thread )

I had the first screen problems with the ribbon cables everyone else seemed to have... I bought stuff to solder them, so left them for later and bought the newest set of board and screen to proceed.

The soldering went pretty smoothly, after some prep work learning how to solder so tiny (I built an LED christmas tree and a radio kit, and bought my son one of the trees to work on too...he got pretty good for a 10 year old on some of the LEDs, but there are sooo many)

At the troubleshooting phase, when I first tried to power up the pi and board to a monitor, I learned that my image was corrupted, and could not get it to recognize the wifi. I was stuck there for about a month (short on time to read for more ideas). Someone mentioned somewhere that the SD card slots on Win10 machines did not take the card in quite right... so I bought an adapter. No luck, still a problem. Then I realized I had another laptop with an older style SD slot...and success!

SO, on my way again, finished soldering (again troubleshooting for ground and continuity) and assembling. FINALLY got the set of the newest board (teal color) and board-attached monitor to work! games worked! I was able to show it off at Christmas, and my son was able to take it to school before the holiday break.

I still have two of the red board minty pi to finish assembling, after I get the screens attached (hopefully the soldering will look nice and pretty...reading up on hints for that).

TL;DR: I did it! Read <all> the forums for help. Find ground and keep continuity, and get a good image on the microSD.

The pics are from various parts of the process. I am pretty happy with my soldering (and keeping the grounds!). My son was pretty happy with the games showing up.

I have two more to finish (added the headphone port to them). Optimistic!

You guys Rock!

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[Helder]

Nice Work! The soldering look pretty good too, I hope to see the others finished soon.

[rodocop]

looking good, nice job! Its a great project to do with your son!

[Lphillimore]

I love seeing posts like this where someone gets wind of a project online, goes about their business utilising the info, buys the tools and parts and produces a top notch product.

Very nicely done

I'm sure your son learned a lot and hopefully it will inspire him to do and create more.

Regards

[dryja123]

Man, you sound like an awesome dad! I wouldn't (and still don't) trust my father with tools. Thank you for sharing your builds and your story. I really look forward to seeing the rest of the builds completed and maybe some other projects.

[KristKaT]

Man, you sound like an awesome dad! I wouldn't (and still don't) trust my father with tools. Thank you for sharing your builds and your story. I really look forward to seeing the rest of the builds completed and maybe some other projects.

Thanks... we don’t trust dad with tools like this either (there have been exacto knife incidents). That’s why this was a Mom/son project. Lol

[dryja123]

Man, you sound like an awesome dad! I wouldn't (and still don't) trust my father with tools. Thank you for sharing your builds and your story. I really look forward to seeing the rest of the builds completed and maybe some other projects.

Thanks... we don’t trust dad with tools like this either (there have been exacto knife incidents). That’s why this was a Mom/son project. Lol

This is what happens when you assume gender these days, you get embarrassed

You're an awesome mom!

[wermy]

Great job, and thanks for sharing!