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811 Review
43 Karma

Review on Retroflag NESPi Case+ Plus: Power Button With Safe Shutdown, Cooling Fan & Heatsinks For RetroPie Raspberry Pi 3/2 Model B & 3B+ by Paul Barnes

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Hurts to give this thing a low review

I switched from the NES3Pi case to this one, after I saw that it had functional Start/Restart buttons, whereas the NES3Pi only has non-functional "for show" ones. I'm using a Pi 3B+.With this case, you'll have to do a few additional connections, a fan installation, a toggle to enable the Safe Shutdown feature, and enter a Github address in the console to download scripts that make the Safe Shutdown feature work.I noticed a lot of people complaining about the fan. It appears as though the manufacturer starting shipping a new fan with this unit - the fan that came with mine has two separate connectors, while the ones I see in older reviews have a joint 2-socket connector. The new models also come with short screws -- people were complaining that the screws were too long, it appears as though they remedied this as well. I did not notice any issues with fan noise. However, the complaints about the fan screws damaging the case are accurate. If you turn the fan's 3 screws until they can't go anymore, it winds up damaging the top of the case (you'll see 3 white dots on top of the case where the plastic has worn through). Horrible engineering with cheap plastic. So, make sure to put the fan screws in only about 3/4ths through with 1/4ths remaining for slack.To make a very long story short, this case is a huge disappointment and it would be a big waste of your time to order and try it out for a few main reasons. (I have an edited comment at the end of this review - there is a way to fix ALL of these problems with a community-made fix, which I'll help you find.regardless, this product deserves a mediocre review as it is being sold with glaring problems that the average person is being expected to research and fix on their own):1) There's just something wrong with the internals. Pi will show a "low voltage" warning every time you attempt to use it while it is housed in this case (a lightning bolt icon that never goes away on the upper right of the screen, plus references in the system startup for low voltage). I think it has something to do with the Start button circuitry. I did notice, after testing a few different kinds of power supplies/power cords, that the *only* cord that works with this case is the CanaKit 2.5A Power Supply. Other more superior supplies, such as the Enokay - which has a power toggle on the cord itself - will always show a low voltage warning when the Pi is in use. This is unacceptable and NOT a problem with the Enokay cable. That cable works fine in all other scenarios with the Pi 3 and with other cases.2) The Power button - it simply doesn't do anything once the Pi is on. you can plug your Pi in, hit the power button to turn the system on -- which works -- but once the Pi is on, that button does nothing at all from that point forward. for the remainder of the session - it does NOT shut the system down. And yes, I did move the Safe Shutdown switch to "on" as instructed and have installed the software properly. This is an example of poor quality. What's the point of a power button that doesn't do anything?!3) The Power button has a red light just like the original NES had. The only difference is that it works for about 3 seconds after the Pi turns on, then it immediately turns off for the remainder of the session. Why? Isn't the purpose of that light to glow red for the entire duration of the Pi being on to show you that it's.on?4) Reset button - it does absolutely nothing at all. And I mean nothing. You can press it over and over, there is no response from the Pi. The instructions mention nothing at all about what the purpose of this button is - I can only assume it reboots the Pi when it is pressed. Or, it was supposed to.5) Here's the worst issue of all. Once you power down the Pi - and I'm not talking about using the Power button, which does not work at all - but power down the system through the Pi menu, Pi will shut down but the case will still be powered. In other words, the fan doesn't stop, even when the system is off -- it runs infinitely unless you unplug the unit from the wall.This case is full of problems - and when I say problems, I mean major ones that can cause damage to your Pi, namely with an unsafe power down that leaves the fan running. The Start button doesn't work properly, the Restart button doesn't work at all - there's literally nothing good about this case aside from the fact that it truly looks awesome. This is a terrible shame, and I wish none of this were true, as it continues to be impossible to find a satisfactory Pi NES case with a functional Power/Reset button.EDIT: Turns out that a community-made software fix from someone on Reddit will resolve all of the main issues of this case. You can find the link in the comments section of the Reddit post named "Safe shutdown still not working on replacement retroflag SNES case, need advice". If you apply the Github fix seen here, both front buttons will work as they should, and the fan will stop spinning out of control when the Pi is shut down. I noticed that this software fix will also resolve the "low voltage" warning with the Enokay power cable. It is sad that it came to a community-made fix rather than the manufacturer being responsible enough to fix these issues, which seem to have been complained about incessantly since 2018.

Pros
  • ‎8.8 ounces
Cons
  • The heatsinks may not provide enough cooling depending on the user’s workload