Before you start, take a minute to locate, identify and count the components. It can save you a headache later.

• If you have too many parts: Put the extras to one side. You may discover that you need them. If not, you have some free parts for your own projects!
• If you have too few parts: First, make sure none were stuck inside the LCD's packaging. If parts really are missing, contact us and we'll see about getting you the missing parts.

GAMBY uses tiny, surface-mount LEDs for illuminating the LCD. These can be difficult, but they can be considered optional; the LCD is very readable in daylight. You can opt to install them later, although it will be somewhat easier to do them now.

The LEDs come packaged in a strip of tiny plastic trays covered by plastic film. You should have five in total; if you have fewer than five, one has probably fallen out of its packaging. Carefully search the bag and other components, particularly the LCD module, where the missing LED could have become stuck.

1.1 LEDs

1.2 Backlight Resistors

1.3 Backlight Jumper

The capacitors go on the front of the board, the same side as the LEDs. These capacitors are non-polarized; they do not have a specific positive or negative lead. They are also all the same value, so one is no different from the others. Just make sure they are installed 'vertically,' fitting in the box printed on the front of the board.

2.1 Insert a capacitor's leads through the holes on the front of the board.

2.2 On the back of the board, bend the leads outwards to keep it in place when you solder it.

2.3 Solder the capacitor into place. For each lead, apply the soldering iron to both the lead and pad and then melt the solder against the point where they meet.

2.4 Repeat 2.1 through 2.3 for the remaining 7 capacitors.

Step 3: Audio Components

The audio portion of the board consists of a transistor, a piezo speaker, and a pair of resistors.

3.1 Transistor

3.1.1 Take the transistor and place its leads through the holes on the front of the board, with its flat edge matching the picture printed on the board. You may want to gently bend the middle pin a bit to better fit the staggered holes.

3.1.2 On the back of the board, bend the pins slightly outward to hold the transistor in place when you solder it.

3.1.3 Solder the transistor into place. For each lead, apply the soldering iron to both the lead and pad and then melt the solder against the point where they meet.

3.2 Resistors

3.2.1 Locate resistor R1 (with stripes colored blue/red/brown) and place it in its holes, located slightly right of center.

3.2.2 Solder resistor R1 into place. For each lead, apply the soldering iron to both the lead and pad and then melt the solder against the point where they meet.

3.2.3 Locate resistor R2 (colored brown/black/red) and place it in its holes, located slightly left of center, next to R1.

3.2.4 Solder resistor R2 into place. For each lead, apply the soldering iron to both the lead and pad and then melt the solder against the point where they meet.

3.3 The Speaker

The speakers arrive from the factory without the leads bent; you will need to shape the leads before you install the speaker. Otherwise, the speaker's leads are too close together.

3.3.1 Remove the cardboard strip from the speaker's leads. You can either peel off the cardboard or snip the leads where they attach to the cardboard; peeling off the cardboard sometimes leaves residue.

3.3.2 Looking at the bottom of the speaker, notice that each lead comes out of the center of a cylindrical bump in the plastic. Note that these bumps have a little wire-sized channel in them.

3.3.3 Bend the leads flat against the back of the speaker, pressing them into the little channels.

3.3.4 With pliers, bend each lead where the channel ends. If done correctly, the speaker will now fit into its holes on the PCB. The TDK logo on the front of the speaker will be squarely aligned with the board, either horizontally or vertically.

3.3.5 Insert the speaker into the board. On the back, bend the leads outward to hold it in place. The speaker is non-polarized: its orientation does not matter.

3.3.6 Solder the speaker into place. Apply the soldering iron to both the lead and pad and then melt the solder against the point where they meet.

Step 4: The Buttons and D-Pad

4.1 The Game Buttons

4.1.1 For each of the four identical pushbuttons, insert it into the PC board on top of one of the printed circles, labeled S1 through S4. These should snap into place. Orientation does not matter: there is no right side up or upside down.

4.1.2 If necessary, bend each pushbutton's pins inward. The pre-formed shapes of the legs should hold them in place, so this is optional.

4.1.3 Solder each of the button's four legs into place on the back of the board. For each leg, apply the soldering iron to both the leg and pad and then melt the solder against the point where they meet.

4.2 The Reset Button

4.2.1 With the remaining pushbutton, insert it into the PC board on top of the printed circle labelled S5. Like the other pushbuttons, there is no right side up or upside down.

4.2.2 Solder it into place as you did with the first four buttons.

4.3: The D-Pad

4.3.1 Take the directional switch (D-Pad) and insert it into the PC board over the printed box labeled D-Pad. Its legs are spaced so that it can only be installed in one direction.

4.3.2 Solder the D-Pad into place like you did for the pushbuttons.

Note: be sure to insert these from the back, soldering on the front! As obvious as it might seem, putting a header on the wrong side of a board is a mistake that everyone I know has made at least once.

5.1 The Digital I/O Side

5.2 The Analog In and Power Side

6.1 If you installed the surface-mount LEDs, the solder on either side should be shiny and look like a slight bulging of the rectangular pad. If it looks like a ball sitting on top of the pad, re-melt it with your soldering iron.

6.2 Inspect each of the through-hole parts' solder joints. They should be shiny and conical. If they don't look right, re-melt them with your soldering iron

6.3 Cut the resistor, capacitor and transistor leads from the back of the board. You don't really need to trim the buttons or D-Pad.

6.4 Check the entire board for any stray specks of solder or 'bridges' between pads -- i.e. solder and/or bent leads connecting things they shouldn't.

6.5 Clean any residual solder flux (brownish stains near the solder points) from your board using a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. Denatured alcohol is not recommended.

7.1 Remove the LCD from its packaging.

7.2 Look at the back of the LCD. In a slot in the transparent plastic at the bottom of the screen there should be a rubbery elastomeric 'zebra strip' connector. Every LCD had it when tested, but there is a remote chance that it could have fallen out.

7.3 Make sure the LCD's connector on the PC board is clean: no specks of solder, dried flux, et cetera.

7.4 Line up the LCD's metal tabs with the corresponding slots on the board and snap it into place. It will only fit in one orientation; the top tabs are further apart than the bottom ones.

Note: These instructions assume that you have already have the Arduino software installed and working.

1. Download the latest code from GitHub. This will arrive as a single ZIP file with a name like logicalzero-gamby-ab452b6.zip; depending on when you download it, the last part, the 7 digit hexadecimal number, may differ.

2. Unzip the file you downloaded. Unzipping this file should create a folder with the same name as the ZIP file. Change the name of the folder to simply Gamby (first letter capitalized, the rest lowercase).

3. Locate your Arduino sketches folder. The specific location and/or name of the folder varies by operating system:

• MacOS X: The folder is called Arduino and is in your Documents folder (~/Documents/Arduino/)
  
• Windows: The folder is called Arduino and is in your My Documents folder (My Documents\Arduino\)
• Linux: The folder is ~/sketchbook/ 

4. Within your Arduino sketches folder, create a sub-folder named libraries (all lower-case) if one doesn't already exist. Copy your Gamby folder into this.

The next time you launch the Arduino software, you should see a Gamby item in the File->Examples menu, and Gamby should also appear in the Sketch->Import Library... sub-menu.

Alternatively, if you are already familiar with git and GitHub, you can use git to download the software, replacing steps 1 and 2.

If everything looks okay, you are ready to attach GAMBY to your Arduino. The bottommost pins on GAMBY should fit into the bottommost sockets on the Arduino; newer Arduino boards have additional sockets at the top of each side but GAMBY does not use these.

Note that GAMBY's pins are slightly longer than standard: When plugged into your Arduino, there will be a gap between the headers' plastic bases and the tops of the Arduino's sockets. This is supposed to be this way; it keeps the LCD module's metal tabs from hitting the power and USB jacks. Don't try to force the pins any deeper into the sockets. 

Once GAMBY is attached to your Arduino, connect your Arduino to your computer, then open and upload the example sketch FirstTest from the Files->Examples->Gamby menu. If it uploads correctly and all is well, you should see something like this:

If the test sketch uploads successfully but your GAMBY does not appear to work, there are a number of things you can check:

• If you were holding your Arduino/GAMBY, place them on the table and try again without touching them. Both GAMBY and the Arduino are naked circuit boards, and your hands can short out connections, producing erratic results. Make sure there's nothing conductive under your Arduino -- bits of wire, clipped leads, solder, et cetera.
• Try simply re-seating the LCD. If you gently pry apart the bottom pair of clips, the springy zebra strip will pop the bottom of the module away from the board; press it back into place and see if that's worked.
• Gently press downward on the bottom corners of the LCD's metal frame and reset your Arduino. Use very little force; too much may make things worse. If the LCD works when you are pressing on it, you will know that the problem is mechanical (the way the LCD is physically attached) and not electronic (bad components, soldering problems, etc.).
• Re-check all your soldering as described in Step 6. If you need to fix a solder joint, remove the LCD before doing so to avoid damaging it.
• Clean the LCD connector. Remove the LCD module and wipe the zebra strip with a cotton swab and isopropyl alcohol. Start from the center of the strip and wipe outwards, doing one half and then the other. Repeat twice. Clean the pads on the PC board with alcohol, wait for both to dry, and snap the LCD back into place.
• Adjust the LCD clips to improve the connection with the board. Remove the LCD and try bending the bottom tabs slightly inward. You may also try very slightly flattening the 'barbs' on the inside of each tab, the part that actually hooks onto the board, to make the connection tighter. Do this very carefully, particularly if you try to flatten the barbs: if you flatten them completely, it will be difficult to undo.
• Clean the other side of the LCD connector. With tweezers, gently pull the zebra strip out of its slot on the back of the LCD; it is held in only by friction, so it should come out fairly easily. Flip it over and re-insert it, then clean the strip as previously described. This should be done only as a last resort, and will probably not be necessary unless the zebra strip had fallen out of the slot (step 7.2.1). If the strip is slightly shorter than the length of the slot, try to get it centered.
• Melt each solder joint on the back side of the board. There may have been bad connections that were not obvious. Again, you should remove the LCD before doing so.
• Make sure you have not warped the printed circuit board during assembly. The board is particularly thin in order to accommodate the LCD, and if bent, the zebra strip may not contact the board properly. You can try leaving GAMBY plugged into your Arduino overnight (or longer); this may pull the board flat over time.
• Make sure you're using a compatible model of Arduino. GAMBY was designed to work with ATMega328-based boards; it will not work with the Mega, Leonardo, Due, Yún, et cetera.