oh dear, first mistake: hoping it's not too big a deal...

i've done the base, now, and have moved on to doing the LCD screen holder parts. i forgot to check which side the connector is... turns out that when the screen's facing forwards the connector is on the *right*.... guess which side i put the main PCB? yep, on the left...

so that shouldn't be so big a deal, right? just run the cable all the way along the back of the lcd until it pops out? noo problem, right? ... except it has to cross the middle part of the LCD, which is where there is a divider so that the left and right bamboo laminate panels can "lock" into place, and also so that the top and bottom channels can be divided into two (so they'll fit across a 200mm x 200mm 3d printer).

the problem is in joining the parts together. previously i had thought to slot a little u-shape in place which would act as a trap: the ends of each of the U would "lock" into the left and right edges.... noo problem, right? except now there's a cable that has to go through exactly where that joining-piece was supposed to go.

the other option: i was considering mirror-imaging the laptop base. put the PCB on the right, battery on the left.... except argh i remembered that i had to *offset* the touchpanel from centre (by about 30mm) in order to fit the battery to its right, and also fit PCB2 so that the keyboard connector goes into it.... all of this means that there is absolutely no way that the parts can be mirror-imaged: it's a near total redesign of the interior, and i'm certainly not doing that.

sooo i have an eeenteresting mechanical design challenge left to think about.... :)

l.