I sat down and plugged in my upgrade module tonight. It seems to work really well and it picked up my wifi without incident despite my all-aluminum case.
That said, the module is quite tall and contacts the lid even without the thermal pad. When I set the lid on, it doesn’t sit flush with the recess in the top, but it will when I tighten the screws. I’m concerned about the amount of pressure this is placing on both the module and the motherboard.
Has anyone else had this problem? What solutions have you come up with? Can the spacers on the board be changed?
It’s properly seated. Both little spring arms are engaged and I even tried using an extra screw to secure it to the nut on the motherboard, but the processor still protrudes just a fraction of a millimeter above the edge of the frame. I can close it and secure the lid, I’m just worried about the stress it puts on the boards.
It also fits snugly in my case (I also have the metal backplate), but I haven’t noticed any bulging, so I’m not that concerned. I have considered using thermal paste instead of the thermal pad, although this will make it more annoying to open the case, so I’ll probably wait until I’m done messing with the internals. It should improve the thermals a little more, but they are already great with the metal backplate.
Here are some photos. I had a tough time getting my phone to focus on the little clip/arm in the last photo.
I thought about thermal paste too, but taking the pad off doesn’t seem to make much difference.
In the Reform forum, there’s a thread about a similar problem with the RK3588 where it came up that the spacers between the two boards were a little too tall in the earlier batches. There’s a sticker on mine with a hand-written “32” on it, so maybe I have an early production board?
Yours looks different than mine, on mine the lid won’t fully recess until the screws are tightened, but it doesn’t stand out as much without screws. Maybe you have a different, earlier mainboard revision. I ordered mine rather late compared to most people. The difference can’t be more than a mm, so it could also just be an issue of engineering tolerances.
I see that too, but it looks like that because the upper board of the module is blocking the view of the pins, making it look like the board is in at a weird angle. It’s just out of focus, so the separation is indistinct.
I had the same issue on the pocket. I ditched the thermal pad and put some ptm7950 on. Seems to lay perfectly flat now. It also holds up okay even taking the lid off and putting it back on multiple times since I applied it.
Mine is bulging also. But I have still have the PCB cover so I could still screw it on. Thought of using the original thermal pad since but used the provided one instead.
If I put a ruler on top of the lid, against the light I could see about 1mm light on both sides with ruler still touching the middle of the cover.
I put everything back in the original case and test-fit the new board to see if it had anything to do with the natural finish part I had made. The lid still bulged.
Given that some people have this problem while others don’t, is this because different thicknesses of PCB were used in different runs? Is it the spacers between the two boards?
It does bulge a bit on my own unit, but on the left (non-port) side only. I assume that all cables are out of the way. There were no different mainboard revisions, it’s all rev 1 and batch 1 still (the first run was 750 units). There were at least 2 different brands of thermal pad used, but it’s nominally 0.5mm thick. Thermal paste is a good idea if you’re concerned about bulging. Just an idea: if you have a CNC milled lid, you are in the unique position to mill out a bit more in that contact area.
I went down a rabbit hole of modifying the lid part Freecad file, and it occurred to me that I could calculate how much of a recess I would need based on the dimensions of the respective processor modules and the 2mm thermal pad that came with my original board.
Is there anyplace I can get the spec sheets or dimensions of the RK3588 and the imx8m boards?
Hello, I am also having this issue. I have two pocket reforms (one purple, one black) and the RK3588 upgrade:
does notfit in the purple unit without extremely concerning bulging in the middle of the lid above the SOM; I could barely tighten the screws and did not proceed with the upgrade
does barely fit in the black unit with somewhat concerning bulging in the middle of the lid above the SOM; I was able to partially tighten the screws by omitting the thermal pad. I left the RK3588 module inside the black unit and I’m now using it as a desktop — it is a fantastic upgrade!
I do not think this is my error inserting the module, I had previously upgraded the purple unit to A311D and the lid fits above that module perfectly flush with the case. I tried re-seating the RK3588 modules numerous times, with the same outcome each time in both units.
Is there anything I should try short of making a custom lid? Open to any suggestions, is it possible that by “tearing down” the units I could get to the bottom of the variation between my two units? Or is this roughly what should be expected from the tolerances inherent in manufacturing Pocket Reform cases?
If a new lid is necessary I’ll just try to make one. @Khaaan , could you share your new Freecad file in progress…? I am also looking for module dimensions in the Reform repositories with no luck — unfortunately I have no experience whatsoever with CNC milling or CAD.
Is this thread the “canonical source” for your (gorgeous raw aluminum) custom case? Do you expect a one-off order from PCBWay or JLCCNC to make a custom lid successfully for less than $50 per lid?
Anyway, here’s a photo of the lid barely fitting on my black unit with RK3588 module installed. This is the v2 lid directly from MNT, which I got with my RK3588 modules. Any suggestions/help appreciated!
I calculated about 1.8mm clearance between the top of my original imx8 module and a flat aluminum lid I had made. It was 6.5mm from the bottom of the original module to the lid. My RK3588 module is 7.7mm, so it needed an additional 1.2mm. I could still use the PCB lid, but it bowed out in much the same way yours does.
I designed several different lids in FreeCad, including one with a rectangular bulge to create the additional space.
I ultimately decided to modify the top case itself by adding an additional 1mm to the depth using some slicing, pasting, and refining and reaching the necessary clearance with a recess on the back of yet another aluminum plate. ETA: I get a snug fit with good contact using a 0.5mm thermal pad between the system module and the lid now.
Since that was going to be quite expensive (quite expensive, indeed), but doable for me, I also made some modifications to just about every other part of the case. I now have a recessed MNT logo in the top lid and a couple recessed regulatory markers in the bottom lid for good measure. I’ve had decent WiFi reception with the current all-aluminum, but I had some other options made to see if I get any different results with a different bezel, an acrylic spacer like @Josch designed, etc.
Did I mention this project was expensive?
I will get some photos up of the final result at some point. As for the files, is there a way to do that on the forum or should I just use the repository?
