Hi All,
I wanted to share my designs for a Kite's Circuit Sword lite build, using absolutely
no hot glue, and
no tape to hold things in place. It's all screws and bolts from here on in..! The drawback of this approach, of course has to be some extra fasteners, but I think these are quite unobtrusive in the final build, and I never have to worry about the glue wearing out in a year or so.
I wanted to keep my build as low-key as possible, so I went for a simple SNES theme. Here's the finished look:
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Front view
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Top fasteners. I should have countersunk these a little more, but I lost my nerve.
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Back view. I'm still waiting for my YaYa design stickers to arrive
Build steps
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Nothing particularly special, just some extra holes and countersinks where the screws that hold the bracket (and consequently the whole case) will go.
The screen and back buttons are held in by these brackets, which I designed in Fusion 360. The main difference in the screen bracket to others I have seen is the extra strength at the top of the bracket so stop it from bending, as the back of the case is held on by the bracket. You can also see the cut-outs for the nuts that my hex bolts will fit into.
I also paid a
lot of attention to the button well design, so the pegs and support ridges match the original wells exactly.
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Brackets and drill guides for best button placement.
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Captive nuts hide behind screen, and provide a secure hold.
Behind the screen fit captive nuts, which the hex bolts screw down into, to hold the entire case together. The screw posts on the left are specially designed to pass through the CS back board, so that it is supported at the correct height and held in place. The post itself continues through to mate perfectly with the back of the case. The back board is held in place by a single screw into the back button bracket, and these locator posts.
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No need to cut the connective pads, they fit perfectly.
The back button bracket comes in two parts. The button well slots into place, and is a perfect press fit into the Deadpan Robot case. Again this has got pins to locate the buttons, as well as 5 pins that match up with Kite's back board to locate it in exactly the right place. The second bracket screws down onto the normal case posts, and that keeps everything firmly in place.
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First bracket holds the buttons.
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Second bracket clamps down. The back board is held in place too, and will be secured in place by the screen bracket.
Above you can also see the final bracket that holds the power switch in place. It has posts to hold the power switch board at a jaunty angle so that the board doesn't contact with the USB power connection on the CS lite. This is a picture of a slightly older version that didn't fit perfectly. The new version fits snugly around the screw post.
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Now it's just a case of screwing in the hex bolts.
I used M2 countersunk hex bolts, which I got a in a set of a hundred or so from Amazon. Luckily there were a number of lengths in the pack. I used...
- Four 6mm bolts to hold the screen bracket.
Two 10mm bolts for the top screws
Two 12mm bolts for the middle screws
And normal DMG screws for the battery compartment (although 8mm bolts seemed to also work)
Well that's just about it!
If anyone wants to use the Fusion 360 files or STLs, I'm sharing them here for free
Please let me know if you find them useful.
The Fusion 360 files are in the thread below.
