Circuitmess ByteBoi User manual

Introduction
The beginning
Welcome to CircuitMess ByteBoi build guide!
By following this build guide, you'll learn how to assemble your retro game console.
With ByteBoi you'll learn how to create your gaming device, how video game
consoles work, how to code your own video game, and how to animate characters.
Also, you'll learn how to interface ByteBoi with your Wheelson.
Age group
Like it says on the box, ByteBoi is designed for anyone who's at least 11 years old.
You should approach some of the assembly steps carefully, so make sure to have
an adult jump in if you need some help with soldering or tightening the bolts later
in the process. It's okay to ask for help.
ByteBoi Build Guide

Don't worry, though! We'll go through the assembly step by step and provide some
useful tips along the way. We'll give you a heads-up if there's something important
to keep in mind while assembling.
Assembly time
It should take you approximately 5 hours to fully assemble your ByteBoi.
Of course, the assembly time depends on your previous knowledge and
experience. If you don't have any experience yet, don't worry! It just might take you
a little longer to get into the groove and overcome the challenges in the beginning.
Skills
You don't need to have any specific skills before getting your hands dirty with this
DIY project.
The main objective here is to have fun and learn something new.
So hold on tight, read all the instructions, and get ready to have fun! This is a great
opportunity and your first step in your big engineering career.
Learning with ByteBoi
As previously mentioned, ByteBoi will teach you a few useful things in the following
few hours.
Here's what you'll learn:
How to assemble you own gaming device
How video game consoles work
How to code your own video game
How to animate characters and simulate physics in a video game
How to interface your ByteBoi with your Wheelson
What's in the box?
Let's meet all the components that arrived in
the box!

Open your ByteBoi box and check if you have all the components. Make sure to lay
it all on a clean surface where you'll inspect if everything is there according to the
photo and the list below.

In case something is missing, please contact us at [email protected].
Send us a photo of everything that came in the box, and we'll get back to you as
soon as possible to resolve the issue.
Here's the list of components:
1. Main circuit board
2. Acrylic casing
3. USB-C cable
4. Li-Po battery
5. Pushbuttons
6. Button caps
7. Screws, bolts, spacers
8. Speaker
9. On-off switch
Meet the tools

Mandatory tools
In this chapter, we'll explain what tools you'll need to assemble your ByteBoi.
If you have your CircuitMess Tools pack in front of you, you should be all set!
In case you got the ByteBoi kit without the Tools pack, this is a good time to borrow
some of the tools or purchase them.
The tools required are essential whenever you assemble, fix, or modify electronic
devices and are the tools of the trade for every maker/hardware
hacker/modder/electrician.
All the tools from the box
1. Soldering iron
2. Desoldering vacuum tool (solder sucker)
3. Soldering iron stand
4. A small reel of rosin-cored solder
5. Cleaning sponge

6. Phillps screwdriver
7. Needle-nose pliers
Soldering iron
This is the most important tool in a maker’s arsenal.
For ByteBoi's assembly, any entry-level soldering iron will suffice.
If you plan to dive into the world of DIY projects, you should consider getting a more
expensive one with more features. Many soldering irons with interchangeable tips
can be particularly useful when working with much smaller components.
There are two types of soldering irons you could have received in your tools pack.
The first one is white with a temperature regulator, and the second one is blue with
a small metal button. Both of them will do the job of soldering the components in
place and there is no significant difference between them.
In the next chapter, you'll find the instructions on how to properly solder and take
care of both soldering irons.
The soldering iron from the Tools pack
Soldering sponge

Diagonal cutter pliers
With pliers like these, you’ll be able to trim the legs of soldered components and cut
wires!
We prefer this type shown in the picture (Plato, model 170), but any other type will
do.
Diagonal cutter pliers
Needle-nose pliers
You’re going to need pliers like these when assembling the casing or when
plugging in some tricky connectors!
They’re generally helpful when doing some fine mechanical work.
This small piece doesn't seem like much until you soak it in some water. It then
turns into a super solder-cleaning sponge! Use it after soldering a couple of
joints to remove the excess solder from the tip of your iron. Make sure that the
sponge isn't dripping wet or bone dry - it should be damp.

Needle-nose pliers
Standard cross screwdriver
You’ll need this cross (Phillips) screwdriver to assemble the casing.
A standard 2.0mm cross screwdriver should do the trick.

Standard cross screwdriver
Desoldering vacuum tool (solder sucker)
This tool is useful when cleaning up soldering mistakes, but it isn’t necessary for
assembly.
If you plan on doing some hacking, modding, or hardware repairs in the future,
having this is always a good idea.

Desoldering vacuum tool
Additional useful tools
Helping third hand with magnifier
This could make your soldering experience a little more enjoyable, especially when
doing some more complicated projects.
Helping hand with a lot of additional tools
Multimeter
A multimeter can be used for many things: testing tricky connections, measuring
battery voltage, testing resistors & capacitors, measuring the current consumption,
and more.
It’s a useful tool when you’re trying to figure out what went wrong with any
electronics kit.

Multimeter
Solder wick
You can use solder wick along with the desoldering vacuum tool to clean up any
soldering mistakes. Just put it on the wrongly soldered joint and press on it with a
hot soldering iron, then it will soak up the excess solder like a sponge!
Useful for fixing solder joints when they cannot be easily reached with a solder
sucker.
Solder wick
Assembly
Soldering introduction
The first thing that you'll do as a part of the ByteBoi assembly process is
soldering!
Have you ever done that before? If your answer is no, we suggest you look at the
following few links where you'll find useful tutorials and blogs about soldering. It will
only take you 10 minutes to get into the zone and understand how it's done. Here
are the links:
Adafruit’s video tutorial featuring Collin Cunningham – A tutorial featuring
Collin Cunningham, a super charismatic electronics guru.
Adafruit’s standard soldering tutorial – A great and thorough video tutorial.
An absolute must-read, even if you know how to solder. Make sure to check
the “common soldering mistakes” section at the end.
Sparkfun’s video soldering tutorial – Another well-made how-to-solder video
tutorial.
Sparkfun’s standard soldering tutorial – A detailed tutorial made by Sparkfun.

There are several rules of soldering that everybody,
regardless of their skill level, should follow at all times.
Never inhale the dust and the fumes that can be produced by the soldering
iron! These can be hazardous, so please don't inhale them.
Never touch the tip of the soldering iron! Even if the soldering iron is turned off
or completely disconnected from the power source, there is still a possibility
that it’s very hot and, therefore, can cause very uncomfortable pain if
touched.Always keep it facing away from your hands. If you’re finished with
the soldering iron, unplug it from the power source and leave it to cool off for
at least five minutes before putting it back in the box.
Clean the soldering iron! The sponge is your best friend while soldering. Make
sure to use it often and clean your soldering iron if you wish to have an easy
and simple soldering experience.Carefully hold one part of the sponge with
one hand and wipe the tip of the soldering iron on the other part of the
sponge to remove the extra solder. Repeat the process until the tip of the iron
is nice and clean from the old solder.
Check your solder joints twice (at least)! Most of the malfunctions in the
world of electronics are due to bad solder joints, so regardless if this is your
first or 100th soldering project, always make sure to inspect your joints multiple
times before proceeding to the next step.
Keep the soldering iron on the stand when you’re not using it.
Know how much solder is needed! Make sure to put just enough solder, not
too much, and not too little, since both can cause the device to malfunction.
Don’t leave any residual solder on the board! The solder should only be on
the parts where the pins connect to the board. Everything else should be
clean. Little pieces of solder all over the board are a big no-no!
Now go over these rules a couple of times so you don't forget them!
If you follow these rules, your soldering experience should be easy peasy.
Using the soldering iron
The soldering iron is very easy to use but only when used properly.

If you have purchased the CircuitMess tools pack with your ByteBoi kit, you have
gotten a white soldering iron with a temperature regulator.
Remember the rules mentioned previously? Good! Let's go over the instructions on
how to use the soldering iron now...
Soldering iron instructions
Step 1
Set up your soldering iron so it stands on the stand - as shown in the photo. After
that, plug it into a power outlet.
Step 2
Set the temperature to250° by turning the regulator. There is a small black arrow
next to the regulator wheel, so make sure that it points to the right temperature,
like in the photo.
Your soldering iron is now ready to use, but give it a minute or two, so it can heat
up. The safest way to let it heat up is to leave it on the stand while you wait!

Set the temperature to 250°
Step 3
Once you're done with soldering (don't worry, we'll let you know when that time
comes), you'll unplug the iron from the power outlet to turn it off.
Please use the soldering iron stand every time you are not using the soldering iron
to make sure you don't burn the surface or the circuit board!
Make sure to not touch the soldering iron tip for at least five minutes after you
have turned it off.
Chapter one - Soldering the
components
Now you know how to solder, let's put it to the test. Ready?
Part one -Soldering the components
Before soldering, please remove the battery from the circuit board!
You can see that the battery is connected to the circuit board with the white slot.
Carefully pull the battery from the slot, but make sure not to pull it by the wires. If
you pull the battery wires, they could easily break.

Did you do it? Great!

The main part of the console, besides the screen, is the buttons. You need to have
some kind of input to move, shoot, dodge, and pause in the games.
Buttons are the most commonly used input, and there are a total of 6 of them (nine
if you include the Selection, Reset, and On-off button).
The buttons consist of two parts - the mechanical button parts and the button
caps. Buttons can work even without the caps, but pressing them with the caps on
feels way nicer and they look a lot cooler.
Let's solder our first components!
Take the button and push it into the circuit board. Once it's in, it will make a clicking
sound. Make sure that they all sit firmly on the board.

Before soldering the pushbuttons, make sure that they are perpendicular
(vertical) to the board.
This is very important as you'll have trouble putting the protective casing on the
device if the buttons are tilted.
After placing the components in the right place (pins through the tiny holes), put
the main board on the surface in front of you and pick up the soldering iron.

This is how your circuit board should look after you've soldered all the pushbuttons
on both sides. Check if you can click all of the buttons.

If all is well, move on to the next step. If you're unsure about some solder joints, it's
always better to fix them rather than leaving them at "might" work. You should
always make sure everything is as good as it can be.
The second and last part of soldering is to solder the on-off button.
This is what you're going to need:
Before soldering this part, try to switch it around a few times. Each time the state of
the switch changes, you should hear a loud click. So far, it's not doing anything, but
soon enough, it will give life to your ByteBoi whenever you want it to.
Take the switch and put the pins through the holes so that the switch lies on the
front part of the circuit board and the pins stick out of the back.
Try to wiggle the switch when pushing it inside since it may require a bit of force to
fit in properly.

Is everything good? Great!
Turn your console around, take the soldering iron from the stand, clean it using a
sponge, and begin to solder the pins in the place.
Soldering these pins requires a little bit more precision since they are so close
together, so it's a lot easier to bridge them accidentally.