# Great building experience!

**URL:** <https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459>\
**Category:** Building Zynthian\
**Tags:** v5\
**Created:** [May 16, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459 "2025-05-16T13:07:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![laban77](https://discourse.zynthian.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@laban77](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/laban77)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 1:07pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/1 "2025-05-16T13:07:33Z")

</div>

I finished building the Zynthian 5.1 kit yesterday, and got my first sound out. Great building experience! It was really enjoyable to follow the detailed description. Still, there are things that can be improved of course:

- When attaching the RBPi5 to the main board the text says that the flat display cable should pass through the rectangular hole. This can be misleading, but the pictures clearly show that it doesn’t.

- I got the hiccups when I reached chapter 4.3 about plugging the flat ribbon cable into the control board. The pictures show a white connection socket in the lower left corner. My control board doesn’t have this socket, but luckily it was never used in the instructions.

- A slightly confusing part was chapter 5.2 when plugging the control flat cable into the main board. The picture shows the control part sitting 90 degrees on the side, with the cable sticking up. In reality the cable is pointing down, and has to be bent upwards to look like the picture. For a moment I thought I had turned the control part wrongly.

- Last, the six screws on the sides were a really tight fit. Two holes on each side lined up perfectly, but the third did not align well. It was still possible to get those screws in as well after some struggling. A precision problem, or meant to be this way?

Anyway, thatnks for a great experience. Time to start playing!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/jofemodo/32/2_2.png) [@jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/jofemodo)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/2 "2025-05-16T19:16:06Z")

</div>

> [@laban77](#):
>
> When attaching the RBPi5 to the main board the text says that the flat display cable should pass through the rectangular hole. This can be misleading, but the pictures clearly show that it doesn’t.

Ups! It seems a misplaced phrase from a previous kit version tutorial. I just fixed it.

> [@laban77](#):
>
> I got the hiccups when I reached chapter 4.3 about plugging the flat ribbon cable into the control board. The pictures show a white connection socket in the lower left corner. My control board doesn’t have this socket, but luckily it was never used in the instructions.

I added a note warning about the white JST connector.

> [@laban77](#):
>
> A slightly confusing part was chapter 5.2 when plugging the control flat cable into the main board. The picture shows the control part sitting 90 degrees on the side, with the cable sticking up. In reality the cable is pointing down, and has to be bent upwards to look like the picture. For a moment I thought I had turned the control part wrongly.

Ups! I would try to improve pictures to clarify.

> [@laban77](#):
>
> Last, the six screws on the sides were a really tight fit. Two holes on each side lined up perfectly, but the third did not align well. It was still possible to get those screws in as well after some struggling. A precision problem, or meant to be this way?

Normally they fit OK.  
**Trick:** You should place all the 6 screws before tightening any of them.

Thanks for your feedback and very welcome on board!  
BTW, do you have some noize for us? 😉

All the best,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lumm](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/lumm/32/7230_2.png) [@Lumm](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/Lumm)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 7:22am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/3 "2025-05-17T07:22:32Z")

</div>

> [@jofemodo](#):
>
> **Trick:** You should place all the 6 screws before tightening any of them.

That is a crucial trick for all parts which are mounted with many screws: Tighten all screws at the end and not directly at the beginning.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![riban](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/riban/32/2331_2.png) [@riban](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/riban)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 7:55am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/4 "2025-05-17T07:55:50Z")

</div>

> [@laban77](#):
>
> screws on the sides were a really tight fit.

This has been mentioned before. I think the issue is that some people are less familiar with self tapping screws, maybe expecting threaded slots and machine screws. Zynthian uses self tapping screws to fix the metalwork together which saves fabrication cost and is an established practice for metalwork construction. The first time you fit the screw, it cuts its own thread into the metal work, hence you must apply more pressure. On subsequent construction it should be require less force. Always be careful to avoid overtightening screws.

As @Lumm says, insert all screws to align metalwork before tightening down. If you were working on a safety critical device (not a zynthian!) then you would torque in a star pattern (opposing fastners) in an attempt to reduce warping the surface. I tend to do this for any construction, through habit.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![laban77](https://discourse.zynthian.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@laban77](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/laban77)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 9:07am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/5 "2025-05-17T09:07:01Z")

</div>

Ok, I also practice tightening the screws at the end, alternating oposite screws etc. I might have missed it this time, and I thought it would be impossible to get the last screws in because the holes were only half overlapping. Self tapping screws explains why it was still possible. I thought the holes were threaded. Now I know

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/jofemodo/32/2_2.png) [@jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/jofemodo)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 10:22am UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/6 "2025-05-17T10:22:02Z")

</div>

V5 use threaded screws. Old V4 had self-tapping ones but this is not the case with newer kits.

Regards

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![riban](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/riban/32/2331_2.png) [@riban](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/riban)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 12:35pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/7 "2025-05-17T12:35:40Z")

</div>

Well, what do I know? I had a man build my V5 for me. 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/user_avatar/discourse.zynthian.org/jofemodo/32/2_2.png) [@jofemodo](https://discourse.zynthian.org/u/jofemodo)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2025, 1:49pm UTC](https://discourse.zynthian.org/t/great-building-experience/11459/8 "2025-05-17T13:49:57Z")

</div>

a man with 2 arms