Avoid Breaking Your Screen

[jblanked]

Well, if you’re like me, you may have damaged your screen during assembly (or disassembly).

There’s been a handful of tips in different forums to prevent your screen from breaking, but I couldn’t find any videos or a forum dedicated to this issue. In this video, I took the top two community recommendations and displayed how to do them.

Check it out!

Pico Calc Tips & Tricks (Avoid Breaking Your Screen)

[Questarian]

The display panels are exceptionally delicate, and beyond the tape, from what I’ve seen so far, I’d add these additional precautions:

1. Physically handle screen as little as possible.
2. If you are changing the Pico, disconnect the display, remove the board, and then replace it.
3. Store the PicoCalc in a padded sleeve, or case.

I always highly recommend placing the PicoCalc on a padded surface, such as good microfiber cloth, when assembling or disassembling it.

[DigitalDreams]

An old post of mine but still helpful for new users…

First thoughts on arrival and BEGINNERS TUTORIAL

It’s here ! [20250428_113831] First thoughts, will update as I go along… Issue 2.0 board ? (CPI 2.0) Unable to shine hi lumen light through the board to see possible clear areas for spi device mounting posts. Due to black finish and filling all unused areas with copper (saves acid during production process and increases heat spreading, improves electrical noise issues). Speaker slots have no holes to allow the sound out ?. Shame ‘CLOCKWORK’ and ‘ON/OFF’ printed right where they could…

Also I drilled out the two centre back case screw holes and added spacers on the circuit board so the centre two hold the circuit board in place when the (now faster to remove) back is taken off. Stops movement/stressing of the display cable. NOTE you might then get a bit of case creak doing this !!

I use the rubber handle of a pair of micro pliers to ease the modules out (alternating a little bit each side). Saves damage to the module and main board tracks underneath…