How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the case?

[BlueLemming]

I'm almost at the point of cutting out the holes and such for the buttons on my portable. Yet, I still have no idea how I'm going to keep the circuit board up against the faceplate of my case. I guess I could use hot glue but what if I need to take it apart again? What methods do you guys use?

 

[carlifirio]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

Personally I used hot glue.


There are many methods to get hot glue out.

 

[superben51]

I use a little bit of hot glue to tack it in place then I epoxy the living daylights out of it. I always just hit the backing with a heat gun and it makes all the glue nice and malleable.

 

[Tchay]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

Using hot glue is a bad idea. The inside of the case will get very hot and your glue will melt apart over time.

The quickest, easiest method is to use a strong epoxy to hold the components in place. You can use hot glue to temporarily hold the components down, then after applying the epoxy and letting it dry for 24 hours, you can remove the hot glue. Then I would recommend coating the epoxy in super glue to act as a shield from high temperatures, and to give it more strength. This method sucks for repairs, however...

The most durable method is to install screw posts (you can cement the screw posts to the inside of your case using ABS cement), and then mount your PCB to the screw posts, by drilling holes into you PCB and then screwing in place. This method is fantastic for repairing any faulty components as you only have to unscrew the board to access the buttons and such.

That purple guck is ABS cement, bonding the screw posts to the inside of the case:

In this pic you can see how I hold all the PCB together with many screw posts.

 

[gman]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

Where'd you get the screw posts?

 

[zeldaxpro]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

Yeh Tchay that looks like a great idea. Like bugman said, where did you get those screw posts from?

 

[Tchay]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

Yeh Tchay that looks like a great idea. Like bugman said, where did you get those screw posts from?

The little screw posts holding down the PCB boards, I ripped out of a wii classic controller. You can really use any tiny screw posts from inside of a controller that you open, as long as you save the screws and the screw posts are long enough to keep your PCB level.

The 4 bigger screw posts seen in the pics are from the gamecube console itself. They are the four large screw posts that hold the entire gamecube case halves together. I ripped them out and then found some screws that would fit inside of the posts (I did have to forcefully screw into them, but now the grooves line up in the screw post).

 

[BlueLemming]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

That's a really good idea, taking screw posts from controllers & the GC. I definitely could do that. Where do you get your ABS cement?

 

[superben51]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

I got mine at home depot.

 

[nuke]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

Tchay what kind of tacts do you use?

 

[Tchay]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

@BlueLemming, I make my own ABS cement at home using Acetone from home depot and throwing in broken bits of plastic into a hot sauce jar

@nuke, I use soft-push tacts for ABXY and start. Then I use a large, hard-press tact for the Z button and standard hard-press tacts for the screen control. Soft-push tactiles can be hard to find online sometimes. Sometimes they are on ebay, sometimes they aren't. You may have to spend a little bit of time digging around online to find them, but they are there.

 

[gman]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

You can get soft tactile switches at digikey. http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DKSearch ... 0240911168

 

[nuke]

Re: How do you guys keep the controller PCB up against the c

Tchay, I actually have a bunch of the mushy tacts from ebay, I just dont think they'll last too long, but if you use em they should be ok.