mintyPi 2.0 News & Updates

[obsidianspider]

would people care if they didn't have letters on their buttons?

I'm going to attempt to paint mine the Super Famicom action button colors. I don't need letters on the buttons. 25 years of playing SNES has those button names committed to memory.

[Helder]

Well good news! the sockets are on their way along with the new lcd boards including the 2.2 addon board and the custom 2.4 board around Tuesday so expect things finalized by the end of next week.

[VeteranGamer]

Wonder if it'd be easy to remove the printed letters all together without screwing up the button feel...

Hmm, this is a really interesting idea actually. One thing I've been messing with while waiting on parts and stuff is tweaking/trying to perfect the tolerances in the button wells. If you have them tight, which you sort of need if you want the letters to stay upright, then the edges of the buttons (on the inside) can catch on the sides of the button wells if you don't press them straight down. If that makes sense. It's not a huge deal but it can be annoying for it to catch periodically if you're mashing the buttons. If you were to remove the letters from the buttons (which only apply if you're playing SNES anyway...) then you could widen the button wells and this issue goes away completely.

So the big question is: would people care if they didn't have letters on their buttons?

well seeing as i'm getting a replacement pair sent, i dont mind having a crack at that... the ones that are slightly faded i'm sure will rub off (it just depends how clean you can get them)

one thing is if you are able to clear the button markings, how viable is it to have the letters uncorportated into the 3d printed part (i know the lettering is small and the actual buttons and some fenesing might be needed for them to look good and legible)

[wermy]

well seeing as i'm getting a replacement pair sent, i dont mind having a crack at that... the ones that are slightly faded i'm sure will rub off (it just depends how clean you can get them)

one thing is if you are able to clear the button markings, how viable is it to have the letters uncorportated into the 3d printed part (i know the lettering is small and the actual buttons and some fenesing might be needed for them to look good and legible)

Hm, that is an interesting idea too. You can get pretty good results debossing letters and images into the bottom of a part (meaning the first layer, which is against the build plate).

I bet the lettering on the buttons comes of easily with some nail polish remover or isopropyl alcohol. I've got a couple extra sets - I'll give it a try this weekend. If people are ok with not having letters on the abxy buttons, it could make printing these parts much easier and more reliable, and require less post-printing finishing.

[ICMF]

You probably don't want to use nail polish remover. The buttons are likely ABS, and the acetone in the nail polish remover will melt the plastic. Unfortunately, there aren't any easy alternatives.

The simplest option is abrasion. Either an ultra-high grit sanding cloth (like Micromesh) or polishing compound to wear away the letters. Obvious down side being, the buttons will be smooth after, losing their texture.

Melamine foam (Mr. Clean Magic Eraser) might also work. It's a mild abrasive - so it would wear off the ink - but the chemicals may also help separate the ink from the plastic, which might help preserve the texture.

Isopropyl alcohol may work. It can be a solvent for some pad-printing inks. However you'll still need a lot of elbow grease - (if it works) it will soften the ink so you can scrape if off, but the ink won't just wash away. Also: while IPA won't melt ABS, it can break down the polymers and make it more brittle, so you don't want to leave them soaking for hours on end. Might leach out the colour from the plastic, too.

Tolulene can also be used as a solvent for pad printing inks. Same caveats as IPA though.

Ethyl Acetate is another possible solvent, though it's harder to find than IPA and tolulene.

It's also worth mentioning, depending on exactly how the buttons were made, it may not work at all. If you look at the back of the button and see two colours, the letters are probably two-shot molded, which means they're molded in, not ink. This is how the 3DS buttons are made.

TL;DR: it's worth trying to remove the lettering if you use the right chemicals and limit your expectations, but at the end of the day, it's probably simpler just to spend a few extra dollars to get higher quality buttons (full shell, or a junked DS).

[wermy]

Alright, I gave removing the letters a shot. On the nicer, original ones that are made of two different color plastics, it won't come off. The letters are actually part of the structure of the button (and their color corresponds to the second color on the bottom). For the cheaper knockoffs that use a single plastic piece that some people have been ending up with, the letters come off pretty easily with some non-acetone nail polish remover. As someone mentioned, don't use acetone-based nail polish remover (or straight up acetone) as it could melt your buttons, depending on what type of plastic they are made out of.

IMG_0052.JPG (70 KiB) Viewed 10931 times

I'm a little disappointed; I was hoping that everyone would be able to easily remove the lettering so I could adjust the button wells and fix the issues I mentioned before. :\ Oh well, back to tolerance-tweaking...

[FishtreeFarms]

Has anyone done testing on they battery life yet? It would be nice to know if someone has a finished model. Also it's my birthday!

[Danv97]

SD card will be inaccessible, unfortunately. As Helder said this is sort of a simple build by necessity. Not much space in there. That's why the Pi 0 W is so nice: we can use the wifi to reconfigure stuff, transfer roms/saves, etc.

Im still with the doubt sorry I have to ask.

Why will the SD card be inaccessible ?

So once the build is complete there is no way to take the sd card back?

[Helder]

SD card will be inaccessible, unfortunately. As Helder said this is sort of a simple build by necessity. Not much space in there. That's why the Pi 0 W is so nice: we can use the wifi to reconfigure stuff, transfer roms/saves, etc.

Im still with the doubt sorry I have to ask.

Why will the SD card be inaccessible ?

So once the build is complete there is no way to take the sd card back?

The SD card is right next to the Start/Select buttons and they are in the way, have you looked at the video and images of the Pi being already soldered onto the controller board? you will see it there that there is no way to access the SD card from outside once you put it in the tin unless you take it out from the tin to swap it out but you might have to unscrew things to have access to it.

Why is this a big deal anyways? buy a 64GB SD card and that is more than enough space for roms of all the major consoles you can play on the Pi.

[drafterITA]

Why is this a big deal anyways? buy a 64GB SD card and that is more than enough space for roms of all the major consoles you can play on the Pi.

Just to create a backup image of the card, corruption issues are frequent, at least for me