For the price, it's a bit unfair to be too critical of this... but I'm going to do it anyway, though fairly so...
First, assembly:
- Installing the heatsinks was a breeze: just peel and stick. It's a bit weird that the CPU heatsink is flat, when compared to the other, but I assume this what the fan is for.
- Installing the RPi into the bottom portion of the case was also easy and everything fit well.
So far so good...
(record needle scratch)
...as noted by at least one other reviewer, there's a nylon standoff included with the kit to give the LCD display support in the lower, left-hand corner (the corner above the USB-C power port) of the RPi. The nylon standoff does not screw in, though. It's basically just a solid nylon cylinder. That's the first problem.
The second problem is that the kit includes an adhesive square to affix to the back of the LCD display and the nylon standoff in the hopes that the small amount of adhesive with which the standoff makes contact will keep it in place. Not likely. Furthermore, the square is far too big to fit on the back of the display where the instructions indicate it should be placed because the jumpers for the fan are in the way (see image). The instructions must be old because it looks like the layout of the fan has changed quite a bit. In any regard, I tried to cut this to a smaller size that would fit but the standoff refused to stick to it, so I just gave up and left it out. That corner of the screen is nice and spongy so I'll likely rig something to remedy this, Regardless, it's a serious design flaw.
[minus one star for assembly]
One nice thing is that the kit includes a top to use if you do not want to use the LCD display. It even provides a way to attach the fan so you can air cool the RPi. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to remove the fan from underneath the display. I believe it is just attached through a pin connector--no screws are visible--but I tugged on it just to a point before I was concerned about damaging the display but it did not budge.
[minus a half star]
Finally, once I had it all installed I wanted to see if I could get it to work with DietPi. No joy. Installed Raspbian, followed the driver installation instructions, and it worked! One problem, though, which could be a deal breaker for some: once you set up the RPi to use the LCD display, you CANNOT use any of the HDMI ports for other external displays.
For my particular use case, it's not absolutely essential to do this, but it will be a pain if I want to use an external display.
[minus half a star]
So, to summarize: the display works and was fairly easy to install, but it the standoff should be changed into a proper standoff that screws into the corner of the case to support the display. It would also be nice to have an easy way to either toggle between displays or to use both the internal and external display simultaneously.
| Brand | TangYY |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | TangYY |
| Model number | 3.5ScreenTYY |
| Part Number | 3.5ScreenTYY |
| Hardware Interface | MicroSD, HDMI |
| Display Technology | LED |
| Standing screen display size | 3.5 Inches |
| Display Type | LCD |
| Batteries Required | No |
| Connector Type | HDMI |
| Product Dimensions | 8.99 x 5 x 3.99 cm; 31.75 Grams |
| Item Weight | 31.8 g |
| Manufacturer | TangYY |
| ASIN | B07WRV48ZW |
| Item Model Number | 3.5ScreenTYY |
| Date First Available | 21 August 2019 |
