Freeplay Zero finally done! Pictures and final thoughts

[Flavor]

Thanks for the photos.  They actually look really nice.  I agree that the X/Y is a bit wonky, so let's discuss that.

Before I get into this, in no way am I trying to disprove what you're saying.  We were/are legitimately concerned about you and any future builders going through this and want to be sure that the tools/information we're supplying are correct.

This morning we took 2 of the guides (one from a Freeplay Zero and the other from a prototype Freeplay CM3) to check out.  The holes in the guides are meant to be just a guide for marking drill positions, so they aren't quite large enough to push the button shafts through.  We oversized them slightly to allow the button shafts to protrude through the guide holes.

       
(Those are clickable thumbnails if you want a clearer view.)

That is a system that I built where I decided not to use button caps.  I will admit that the Y button isn't perfect on this build.  It works, but I will probably get in there with an X-Acto knife to open it up just a tiny bit more.

That being said, the guide does fit pretty much as intended.  You can see how well it fits over all 4 buttons.  This is just to compare the guide to a working system.

I will say that this is one of the better builds I've done.  Some aren't anywhere near this nice, and that's where the button caps come in.  When the buttons (without caps) don't line up perfectly with the initial holes, then the caps can really help.  As you have seen, though, when the buttons with caps don't line up with the shell holes, then there isn't much you can do.

We are really busy with all sorts of things, but I think that we really need to hone in on this X/Y button hole issue.  It's definitely not easy.  It's hard to get them perfect.  I guess I've done it enough times now where I feel pretty good about my process, but that doesn't mean I'm doing a good job of communicating it to everyone else.

Tri-Wing Screwdriver
It seems like we used to get a screwdriver with all the GBA-style shells we'd purchase.  Maybe it's less common to get them that way now.  I'm not sure.  Thanks to you, though, we're realizing the need to inform people and give them some options.  We're doing 3 things to help with this, now.  
1)  We explicitly added mention of the tri-wing in the build document.  I think it was in the photo before, but it wasn't mentioned explicitly.
2)  We bought some cheap Y (TriWing) screwdrivers and put them for sale on the site in case people needed them.
3)  We bought some phillips head screws that we think should work in the shell.  If they work well, we'll toss them in future DIY kits as an option for people.


Audio Quality
What we've noticed is that there is this background noise at times, and it's worse when the system isn't pumping audio out.  In the config.txt, we use audio_pwm_mode=2 and it really helps.  If you changed/removed that, it would likely have a noticable effect on the white/background noise.  Otherwise, what we've seen is the noise is likely due to interfering signals that the amplifier amplifies when there isn't anything else going on with those audio pins (of the Pi).  When the Pi is actually sending signals on those pins (like when you run a game), then the pins don't pick up that interference the same way.  Even a game running silence will sound better than no game running at all, in our experience.


Slow Responsiveness
This one is new to me.  I'd like to know more about this problem.  Can you tell what it's related to?  Does it happen for a while and then go away?  Do you have a USB device plugged in?  I'm not sure where to start with it, actually, but I'd like to figure it out.

Thanks!