panel lamps on the top left - and top middle - are not fully pushed through the front panel.

[Charles Ess]

I'm the proud owner of rack kit #248 - and contrary to the good advice in the build instructions, I first built the console housing rather than the rack housing. (Good reasons: I needed to be finished with Space War in time for a grandson visiting from overseas.) The console build went well - and now with visitors gone, off to use the spare main panel as a replacement Otto panel for the rack housing build.

Also went well, including transferring the Pi 5 and PCB to the new housing without damage, i.e., all lights and switches passed with test.sh. 
But: as is suggested in one place in the build instructions, the LEDS in the upper left do not push through fully. (They did so perfectly in the console build, FWIW, but that was with the real Otto panel, if that makes any difference?) Yes, I can push from the back on the PCB and they come through as expected; and yes, there's a hack for that - a diode or wire soldered across the corner of the PCB to hold it down. Will try that in the morning with fresh eyes and hands.
BUT: the top middle lights could also use to come through a wee bit more.
I don't see an obvious hack for that - and I can certainly learn to live with the lights as they are: though, to quote the instructions, "Once you see it, you can't unsee it! Annoying." Yes.

So: has anyone found a good fix for helping push the upper middle LEDs a bit further through as well?

Many thanks in advance - 

[Charles Ess]

Answering my own questions - partly.

I was not able to make the diode wire hack in the instructions work for the rack case. I can see that it would work for the console case: but the rack case has a small lip that comes further in towards the PCB than does the console case. The upshot is that I wasn't able get a soldering iron down on the possible solder points without damaging either the PCB and/or the acrylic lip.

As has been kindly pointed out to me privately, the Otto panel has a nice little pad in its upper right corner (seen from the back) that is designed for soldering in a (diode) wire that then runs straight into a perfect little hole on the PCB that would make this prefabricated version of the hack a dream to solder up. Alas, and perhaps understandably enough, the little pad is not included on the two regular front panels. I did try to use it with a (diode) wire soldered to one set of the connecting solder pads running along the top of the case: but the resulting angle between the anchor on the top of the case and the little hole in the PCB made it impossible - for me, at least - to force down the PCB far enough before the solder solidified. An additional hand - or perhaps a C-clamp - to do the pushing while two hands control the soldering iron and solder application to the wire/hole might have worked a bit better: but I had neither of those available.

I did manage a good improvement by way of a simple, short, notched wooden dowel wedged between the PCB and the lip of the rack case. But the middle top row of lights remain partially swallowed up by the front panel that still bows out slightly. While there are certainly worse problems to have - the Otto panel worked perfectly with the console case, such that all the lights came through with exquisite uniformity. To paraphrase the instructions: the contrast is annoying, but at least less so now than a few days ago.

Simply as a suggestion for improving the instructions and documentation for future builders. Yes, if you have the rack version with two front panels, you can use one of the front panels as an ersatz Otto panel for the second case. But also yes: you should follow the advice to build the rack case first if at all possible. While not further explained there, you can apply the diode-wire hack to the console case build when using the second front panel as an ersatz Otto panel, should the hack be needed. Not so, at least so far as I was able, to the rack case.

I hope this doesn't come across as somehow snarky, overly obsessive-compulsive, nit-picky, etc. I am 99.99% ecstatic with the completed build - and only hope that a note like this will be helpful for future builders and/or enhancing the documentation. A thousand thanks again to Oscar, Jose, and all the other hands and minds that made this wonderful kit possible and available.

[sunnyboy010101]

I saw the same problem when building my rack unit. I too populated the console version first, but built the rack casing using the ottopanel and blue cover panel, and then the remaining white cover panel as the console ottopanel. I did all my LED and switch testing on the console version before going back and building the rest of the rack version. (speaker panel and paper tape panel being the most finicky for me). 

I noted the difference in how those top LEDs sat in the two cases, but didn't want to touch the console case as it was backup (and is now sitting in a box, safe). For the rack I noted the same things you did, plus was never all that interested in doing the diode hack.

Truth be told, mine sits beside my desk in a tilting rack-mount case (used for music gear) about 3 ft away from me as I type this, and for the life of me I can't actually see the problem when I look over. Yea - if I go really close and scrutinize the LEDs, I see the issue, but from 2+ft away I really can't see it. One of the benfits of getting old! :-D

I also didn't want to mess with any solder-wire fix to the control panel because I purposely built the two cases so I can swap the guts at any time. I tested this a few times during the build to ensure it was not that hard. Doing the fix would interfere with that for me, so again I didn't bother.

-R

[Kim Colwell]

I used one of the spare metal spring clips at a 45 degree angle on the corners to hold the board in - it comes close to the pin of the last LED in the line but doesn't touch .. and I plan to insulate it since that solution seems to work well.

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[Malcolm Ray]

That's probably better than my "solution" of wedging a rubber eraser between the PCB and the panel overhang. But at least an eraser isn't conductive (yes, I checked mine with a multimeter!)

[Charles Ess]

Thanks for this. Yeah, I was hesitant with the diode-wire fix for exactly the same reason, i.e., it would complicate transferring the PCB, etc. back to the console case.

And, right, from that distance, nothing to notice. Mine is closer on my desk, FWIW, so the disparity is more noticeable - but after a point, including the clever fix mentioned below with a spare spring, there's just nothing more to be done but move on and enjoy the device for all it's worth. Which is a lot!

Thanks again and enjoy!

[Charles Ess]

What a clever hack!

Here's my first effort:

It's an improvement over the notched wooden dowel - but not quite perfect yet. At the same time, I'm hesitant to increase the pressure on the PCB by inserting the spring (upper left) into the lower slot instead. Any thoughts or suggestions on this point?
And/or: perhaps you could post a photo of what yours looks like?
In all events, many thanks!

[Kim Colwell]

Unfortunately, mine is still packed away as a result of a recent move, but it looks exactly like your version -- minus the red board or cardboard that you have under the spring.  My spring doesn't seem to be putting that much pressure on the PCB so I am not worried about it.  I also used the same slot that you did.  I was initially worried about it springing loose, but it seems pretty stable with the amount of jostling I have done with the rack.

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[Charles Ess]

thanks again - good to know that I'm on the right track - and my experience with the spring matches yours, i.e., it's quite stable, fortunately.

On we go ...

[Oscar Vermeulen]

Charles et all,

Problem: LEDS at the top left not being pushed through sufficiently.

Solution: already in the Building instructions, click open the 'A fix that some builders may need'. See below. this also works well when moving the PCB set from Rack to Console cases and back again!

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[Charles Ess]

Right - thanks much for the reminder!

But in my case, the problems were:

1) instead of using the Ottopanel with its nice little soldering pad for the wire built in as illustrated for the second batch / after 2025 kits - I was using a front panel as an ersatz Ottopanel on the rack case.  So no nice soldering pad, and

2) unlike the console case, the rack case has a lip on the sides that extends in towards the PCB. So using the diode-wire hack for the first batch of kits wasn't an option, at least not with my soldering iron and skills - i.e., there wasn't enough space to get to a soldering point on the side without damaging either the lip and/or the PCB.

(I did try soldering a diode-wire to a connecting pad at the top of the case and then pulling it through the little hole on the PCB - but I wasn't able to pull forcefully enough on the protruding wire while also holding the solder iron and trying to press down the PCB.)

As discussed above, the spring hack suggested by Kim Colwell worked somewhat better, but still not as well as I would have liked - i.e., with the same more or less perfect uniformity that resulted with the console case build.

Fortunately, the real magic came from Oscar as well in a recent email: just try not using another front panel to make the "sandwich" with the first panel being used as an ersatz Ottopanel. Et voila!

As Oscar and José know, I had asked about special ordering a new set panel parts - both the real Ottopanels + the panels needed for the rack case: I thought that using real Ottopanels would give me the same excellent results I enjoyed with the console case build (lights and switches poking through in more or less perfect uniformity). And much to their credit, (a) they were happy to comply - but (b) Oscar kindly asked if I was really sure I needed to go that route - and suggested the possibility of just using the single front panel instead.

Again, with splendid results. Along the way, I looked back through the instructions referred to here - and it seems clear that the problem of variable uniformity can happen with both a real Ottopanel as well as with an ersatz one.  That is, my assumption / misinterpretation of the instructions that somehow the same excellent results from using the Ottopanel on the console case would be repeated with the ersatz one on the rack case: but this was simply mistaken. Perhaps this is obvious to others reading the instructions. In all seriousness, Oscar is not the only one struggling with brain fog and it only gradually became clear to me after working through all of this the long, hard way.

But very much worth it. 

Indeed: one additional benefit of not using the second panel is that the rack, at least with all the attachments I have on the back (including a Raspberry Pi USB 3 hub and a second micro-HDMI cable out to a second display), now balances rather nicely on its own footprint, rather than wanting to fall forward. This makes for much more flexible placement on my very limited desk space.

Again, a thousand thanks to Oscar, José, and the several folk in this thread who made such helpful suggestions. I couldn't be more pleased with the results.