Assembly Guide for PYXA
June 1, 2019 | Creoqode Team
The assembly guide will help you how to build your Pyxa and get it working. Let's start by looking at the components that come with the kit.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX
- Creoqode Pyxa
- D Pad and X, Y, A, B Buttons
- Conductive Rubber Pads for Buttons
- LiPo Battery
- Casing Parts
- Button Guides
- Mini USB Cable
- M3 8 mm Screws x 4
- M3 6 mm Screws x 4
- M3 8 mm Spacers x 4
- M3 Allen Key
HARDWARE
Let’s begin with a look at the circuit board of Creoqode Pyxa. Examining the purpose of these electronic components will help us understand the following chapters better.
FRONT FACE OF PYXA
1. Direction buttons which consist of up, down, left and right. As you would notice, for each button, there are two golden pads integrated into each other with a small gap between them. One of these pads is connected to a signal pin of the processor, and the other is connected to ground. When you press a button, the conductive rubber will connect these two pads and the signal pin of that button will be grounded. In other terms, Pyxa will know that the button is pressed.
2. Command buttons which consist of X, Y, A and B. The working principle of these buttons are exactly the same as directions buttons, which is explained above.
3. Display of Pyxa. It has 1.8 inch diagonal size and 128 x 160 pixels of resolution.
4. LED's to indicate a situation. ON is illuminated when Pyxa is turned on. L is connected to pin 13 of Pyxa, which you can illuminate as you wish by programming it. L also shares the same pin which is used for the clock pin of the display, and it will be lit every time the screen is refreshed. RX stands for receiving data and TX for transmitting data. When you connect Pyxa to your PC, upload a new code or communicate with Pyxa over your PC, these LED's will be illuminated to indicate that a data transmission is in place.
BACK FACE OF PYXA
1. Mini USB port for data transfer. This port will be used when connecting Pyxa to your PC for programming or communication purposes.
2. Reset button to reset Pyxa. You will not need this button in most cases.
3. Buzzer. You can add 8 bit sound effects and melodies to your video games.
4. ICSP pins. These pins are used together to burn a bootloader to the processor. In simple terms, this makes Pyxa recognisable to your PC and makes it programmable over a USB port. Your Pyxa comes with the necessary bootloader already installed, so you can use these pins to add new gadgets to your Pyxa. VCC can be used to supply 5V and GND for ground. SCK, MISO and MOSI can be used as signal pins.
5. Another indication LED which is illuminated when Pyxa is turned on.
6. ON / OFF switch to turn Pyxa on and off.
7. Connection port for the battery. This port allows only one way of connection, so you do not need to worry about connecting the battery in the opposite polarity.
8. Mini USB port for charging the battery.
9. Indication LED's for battery. CHRG is illuminated when the battery is being charged. DONE is illuminated when the battery is fully charged. LOW is illuminated when the battery is about to die.
10. SD card socket. You can upload images to a micro SD card and display them on Pyxa.
MAIN COMPONENTS OF PYXA
1. Circuitry to charge the battery. It receives 5V power supply from the mini USB charging port and sends it securely to charge the 3.7V lithium-ion polymer battery.
2. FTDI chip. This chip allows communication between Pyxa and your PC over the mini USB port.
3. Processor of Pyxa. This is where everything happens. All your video games are uploaded to this chip and computed here. All the buttons, the buzzer and of course the display is connected to it too. The processor is Atmega328. It has 32 KB of program memory and 2 KB of RAM.
4. This chip regulates the signals coming from processor and makes them suitable for the display. It also provides 3.3V power supply to the display.
5. Circuitry to supply power to Pyxa. It receives 3.7V power from the battery and boosts it up to 5V to run Pyxa.
STEP 01
First of all, remove the protective layers from all acrylic casing parts.
Then, take the two casing parts designed to hold the buttons in place, and put them on the front face of Pyxa as shown in the below image. Pay extra attention to the inner size of these parts. You should notice one has a larger inner size. This larger one will go the right, where X, Y, A, B buttons will be placed later.
STEP 02
Take the conductive rubber pads and place them inside the casing parts as shown in the below images. Make sure the rubber pad with a hole in the middle goes to the left.
STEP 03
Now, we will place the button guides on the conductive rubber pads.
Guide for the direction buttons does not have any orientation, so you can place them in any direction. This guide will go on the rubber pad on left.
However, guide for the X, Y, A and B buttons has a specific orientation, as each of these buttons has teeth in different angles. Therefore, you should place this one in the correct orientation shown in the below illustration. This guide will go on the rubber pad on right.
STEP 04
Take the buttons and place them on the rubber pad and in the button guides. As mentioned in the previous step, direction button (D-pad) does not have any specific orientation, so you can place it as you wish. For the X, Y, A and B buttons, guide will help you find the correct location and orientation. Please follow the images below.
STEP 05
Take the top casing part shown in the below image, and carefully place it on Pyxa.
STEP 06
Now, we will need M3 8 mm screws x 4 and M3 8 mm spacers x 4. Place the screws in the holes from top, then mount them tightly with the spacers from the other side. Make sure no buttons come out of its location during this step. You can use the allen key to tighten the screws.
STEP 07
Take the battery and connect it to the white socket on Pyxa next to the + sign. This sign indicates the positive terminal of the battery. However, you should not worry about the polarity as the connector type used can only fit in one orientation.
STEP 08
Now, place the back panel on Pyxa and mount it using the M3 6 mm screws that are provided with the kit. However, before this step, you might want to fix the battery to the back panel to prevent it from moving around. Even a small piece of Blu Tack or some tape can do this job.
YOU'VE MADE IT!
Well done! Now, turn on your Pyxa from the slide switch on the bottom and enjoy the demo game that is already installed.
You can then continue with the Educational Guide to Pyxa to learn how to create your own video games, or you can go to the Template Video Games we have created, download them and play!
Click here to go back to the Pyxa's main menu.
