Loose fornt panel

[Jersey Bob]

My front panel is loose. if I tilt the top of the case forward, the panel falls out.

I hesitate to glue a magnet to the panel lest I ruin the paint. For the time being i wedged

a folded piece of paper to hold the panel in place. Suggestions appreciated.

Regards, Bob K3QPN

[Andrew Wasson]

Mine is tight and fits in without any need for fasteners but if it was loose as you've described, I'd use small magnets in all 4 corners. 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Oscar Vermeulen]

Bob,

Apologies, ignore the previous post. I thought you were referring to a PiDP-11.

For the PiDP-8, more to the point: what you describe is 'normal' (as in, poor design from me). Originally, I intended the panel to be fixed with the two 30mm screws, but that is a bit ugly. So nobody did it, relying on friction-fitting the panel instead.

The fix for wobbliness is a bit of black tape (or black paper for extra width) inside the inner ledge of the case, to friction-fit the panel into the case. It sounds amateurish (it is), but proved very effective, more so than some experiments I did with magnets etc. The Building Instructions page gives some more detail.

Kind regards,

Oscar.

On Sat, 26 Sep 2020 at 01:42, Oscar Vermeulen <vermeul...@gmail.com> wrote:

Bob,

On Fri, 25 Sep 2020 at 02:37, Jersey Bob <k2q...@gmail.com> wrote:

My front panel is loose. if I tilt the top of the case forward, the panel falls out.

I think you have the new 2mm-thick acrylic panel. I started sending those out last month.

See the Building Instructions (it is not in the Youtube video!), but the summary: the 2mm panel is thinner than the previous 4mm one, and you need to add one of the 5 extra nuts onto the brass spacer. That will fix things:

Let me know if this indeed unwobbles your PiDP.

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[Oscar Vermeulen]

Andrew,

On Fri, 25 Sep 2020 at 20:14, Andrew Wasson <awa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Mine is tight and fits in without any need for fasteners but if it was loose as you've described, I'd use small magnets in all 4 corners. 

I actually bought a whole range of small magnets (they are fun...) but the core question then becomes: how do you mount them into the case? You can't really use screws as the case is thin and I have not found magnets with suitably small holes either. And metal-on-wood glueing does not seem ideal. Tips are welcome! I'd love to add them to the kit if they can be mounted in a simple way by any moderately clumsy person (I am a good test case in fact). But so far, I found friction-fitting with tape or a tiny bit of black paper the easier solution.

I did find out you can use magnetic tape on the other side, on the acrylic panel, safely. I've had a test sample of that for over two years now and no dissolving of paint through the adhesive tape. It's just that I'd like to find out a hassle-free way of mounting the magnets.

Kind regards,

Oscar.

[emt377]

On Friday, September 25, 2020 at 7:49:58 PM UTC-4, Obsolescence wrote:

….

The fix for wobbliness is a bit of black tape (or black paper for extra width) inside the inner ledge of the case, to friction-fit the panel into the case. It sounds amateurish (it is), but proved very effective, more so than some experiments I did with magnets etc. The Building Instructions page gives some more detail.

….

 FWIW, I achieved an ok-ish result by using a couple of inches of heatshrink tubing squished flat.  The tubing I happened to have was black, non-slippery, etc.   The springiness of the tubing adds a little 'grip'.

(Cold, no heat applied at any point)

[Carlton Wilson]

When I finished my PiDP-8 kit I installed the front acrylic panel using  small strips of black Velcro.  

[Jersey Bob]

thanks for all the ideas. i used a piece of black heat shrink tubing placed between the top of the panel and the case. that did the trick.

regards, Bob K2QPN

[Thomas Runge]

The heat shrink is really a great trick! Just a centimeter on each top edge gives a remarkable result.

What I still find a little distracting is that the panel is pretty pliable in the midst above the switches. Has anybody found a solution for this? It doesn't actually matter when the PiDP is standing on the shelf or desk, but operating the switches it's a little annoying...

Cheers,

Thomas