Assembling Picade Max (4/4)
This tutorial will help you assemble Picade Max. This is a bit of a mammoth guide, so we'll be splitting it into several parts.
Part 4 <- you are here
Plugging in the cables
For this section you'll need:
- 2x 50cm USB A to C cables for connecting the Audio and Controller boards
- 30cm barrel jack to barrel jack cable for connecting the Power HAT to the display driver board
- 30cm micro HDMI to HDMI cable for connecting the Pi to the display driver board
- 1x black 24mm arcade button (small)
- 1x DuPont pin to spade connectors cable (from the wiring loom)
Installing the hotkey button in the side of the cabinet
Tear off one of the pairs of wires from the wiring loom - it should have two DuPont pin connectors on one end and two spade connectors on the other. Push the spade connectors onto the terminals on the 24mm arcade button.
Thread the wires and the button through the hole in panel D, from the outside.
Then plug the DuPont pins on the other end of the wire into the HOT terminal on the Picade Max USB Controller board.
Plugging in the USB cables
Plug the USB-C ends of the USB A to C cables into the USB-C connectors on the Picade Max USB Controller and USB Audio boards.
Then plug the other ends into your Pi's USB ports.
Plugging in the HDMI cable and display power cable
Plug the big end of the HDMI cable into the connector marked HDMI INPUT on the display driver board. While you're here, you can also plug one end of the barrel jack cable into the connector marked 12V IN.
Plug the other end of the barrel jack cable into 12V OUT on the Picade Max Power HAT. Then connect the small end of the HDMI cable to one of the micro-HDMI ports on your Pi (we'd suggest using HDMI-0 as it's the default display in Raspberry Pi OS - that's the one that's nearest the USB-C power input).
Fitting the joysticks
We're building the two player console assembly, but if you want to use the 1 player layout then the console is assembled in the same way - just use the 1 player wooden and acrylic pieces (and fewer joysticks/buttons!)
For this part you'll need:
- Wooden panel L (two player) or panel M (one player)
- 2x joysticks (or 1x for one player)
- 2x 5 pin joystick cables from the wiring loom (or 1x for one player)
- 4x M4 12mm screws (or 2x for one player)
- 4x M4 nuts (or 2x for one player)
You'll also need the acrylic panel and the artwork that matches your chosen console layout.
Flip over the wooden panel so that the label side is facing you. There are some markings to show you where to position the joysticks. If you're looking at the panel with the letter L the correct way up, the 5 pin connectors should be pointing out of the left hand side of the joysticks.
Use the M4 screws and nuts to secure the joysticks to the panel. Note that we're only using two of the four mounting holes for each joystick.
Split the joystick cable into two seperate cables.
Use the chunky beige connectors to attach the cables to both joysticks.
The 5 pin connectors on the joysticks are made of quite soft metal and can sometimes get a little squashed during transit. You might need to bend the pins slightly to straighten them out if you're having trouble plugging in the connectors.
Position the console panel in front of the cabinet and poke the joystick cables into the cabinet from the front.
Feed the joystick cables up over the top of panel K and plug them into the connectors on top of the Picade Max USB Controller board. The connectors on the joystick cable have a little moulded arrow to show you where the ground wire is - match this up to the - marking on the board. You can also check that the printed grey markings on the joystick cables are facing towards you.
(If you find that only the 'up' direction is working on your joystick, you've probably got the connector orientation wrong - try unplugging the connector at the Picade Max USB Controller end, flipping it 180° and plugging it in again).
Now that the joysticks are attached, flip the console assembly over and place it in its final position on the front of the Picade. We're not fastening it down yet though, you might find it useful to be able to flip it upside down whilst wiring up the buttons.
Next, place your cardboard console artwork on top of the console assembly, art side up and with the holes matching up . The artwork wasn't ready when we assembled our Picade, so you'll have to imagine this part :)
Take your acrylic panel and identify the underside (the underside of the two player one looks like this):
Remove the protective coating from the underside of the acrylic.
Then flip the acrylic piece over and place it on top of the console assembly, so that the freshly peeled side is touching the art.
It's easiest to remove the protective layer from the top side of the acrylic now, though it is possible to leave it on until later if you want to. If you leave it until after you've fitted the buttons, you'll probably need to remove it in pieces.
Add the collars and screw on the joystick balls.
Fitting the buttons
For this section you'll need:
- The 24 and 30mm arcade buttons
- The rest of the DuPont pin to spade connectors cables (from the wiring loom)
For the 2 player layout, we're using:
- 6x 30mm black button
- 4x 30mm blue button
- 4x 30mm red button
- 4x 24mm black button
- 1x 24mm blue button
- 1x 24mm red button
- 4x 24mm white button
- 24x DuPont pin to spade connectors cables (from the wiring loom)
If you're installing the 1 player console you'll need fewer buttons:
- 3x 30mm black button
- 4x 30mm blue button
- 3x 24mm black button
- 1x 24mm blue button
- 2x 24mm white button
- 13x DuPont pin to spade connectors cables (from the wiring loom)
Seperate the cables from the wiring loom into pairs of wires as before, and connect the spade connectors to each button.
Before you start adding the buttons, unpeel the protective coating from the upper side of the acrylic console.
Here's a diagram of the button layout we're using. It has the A, B, X and Y buttons within easy reach, but also maps the L and R 1-3 buttons so you can play both retro and newer games:
First we're adding player one's Start, A, B, X and Y buttons - poke the buttons (and the wires) through the holes in the console:
Thread the wires over the top of panel K and plug them into the appropriate connectors on the USB Controller board. We used cable ties as we went along to secure the cables to panel K in groups of 10.
Next we added the Select, and L and R buttons:
And player 2's buttons:
Final cabinet assembly
For this section you'll need:
- Wooden panel N (the back piece)
- 2x long M3 18mm screws
- 2x M3 nuts
Fix the console assembly in place using the long M3 18mm screws and the side brackets.
Unpeel the protective plastic from the marquee.
Slot the tabs in the back panel into the slots on the base and back. The wooden tabs at the top should hold it in place securely.
We are done with the assembly! Take a moment to step back and admire your work. Then connect the PSU to the cabinet and see if it works!
Software
A seperate guide is coming soon to show you how to set up the software on your Picade Max.
In the meantime, here are some quick tips for getting started!
Flashing your OS
We'd recommend flashing your chosen OS to your SD card using Raspberry Pi Imager, which is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can also use this tool to flash an OS to an NVMe drive - see our NVMe Base learn guide for more info on how to do that.
If you're going down the Pi OS route, we've had good results running this installation script to install Retropie/Emulation Station.
Remapping the controllers
As the USB controller board doesn't emulate any known controller, you may need to remap the buttons from within Emulation Station (or your chosen software) once you fire it up.
Selecting the correct audio device
If you don't hear noise, you may need to select the Picade Max USB Audio board as your preferred audio device from within the audio settings of your chosen OS. If you encounter problems with the mute / encoder button not behaving as it should double check that your audio device is set to 'Digital' (or 'Digital SPDIF' in Recalbox), not 'Analog'.
Safe shutdown
To get the power button to trigger a safe shutdown of your Raspberry Pi, you'll need to add the following lines to the end of your /boot/firmware/config.txt (or /recalbox-user-config.txt if you're using Recalbox):
dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=17,active_low
dtoverlay=gpio-poweroff,gpiopin=4,active_low
Override USB power limits
You'll probably also want to add this line to your config.txt (or /recalbox-user-config.txt) to make sure that the devices connected up to your Pi's USB ports get MAX POWER:
usb_max_current_enable=1
How to upgrade the USB Controller and USB Audio board firmware
The USB Controller and USB Audio boards come with firmware pre-flashed, but we'd recommend flashing the most recent firmware for best results. Instructions on how to do this can be found at the links below:
Beta Feedback
We hope you enjoyed building your Picade! We'd love to know if you encountered any issues during the build and if you have any suggestions for how we can improve the kit and this guide. We'd also really like to hear about it if you make any cool modifications to your Picade Max. You can drop us an email at picademaxbeta@pimoroni.com - many thanks to everybody who's sent in their feedback so far!
You can also discuss all things Picade Max on our Discord!
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