Wall mounting plate issue

[RobLewis]

The wall mounting plate was a thoughtful inclusion, thanks.

The problem is that none of the screws I could find have heads that are thin enough to fit in the recesses on the plate. They all protruded out, preventing the Almond+ from fully snapping onto the plate.

I got it to work by using small nails (with very thin heads).

You should either make the plate thicker, with deeper recesses, or provide special screws with really thin heads.

[LGNilsson]

Well, technically we should've provided some better instructions and not made the holes.
The idea with the plate is to use something like 3M's control strips so it can be easily removed in rental properties etc.
If you want to use screws, the holes in the back of the Almond+ are technically better to use.
That said, point taken and I'll let our mechanical engineer know as I think this is something we overlooked a bit.

[RobLewis]

Thanks, Lars. The problem with using the slotted holes on the back of the device is one that many other devices have: you've got to get the screws in EXACTLY the right position or it is virtually impossible to attach the router. And once it's on, getting it off can be a bit of a struggle.

Some manufacturers provide a paper template for locating the screws. Some even provide screws.

In any case, the ability to simply snap the router off the mounting plate to plug in cables, work the touchscreen, etc., is appreciated.

[theshambler]

Well, technically we should've provided some better instructions and not made the holes.
The idea with the plate is to use something like 3M's control strips so it can be easily removed in rental properties etc.
If you want to use screws, the holes in the back of the Almond+ are technically better to use.
That said, point taken and I'll let our mechanical engineer know as I think this is something we overlooked a bit.

Keep the holes! Control strips suck if you want a durable and lasting mount and it's far easier to just use the included bracket as a template and level it.  I'm using my almonds as control nodes at a couple different points in my house where I pulled wire for them, both wall mounted and permanent with screws.  Replaced my switch panels in those locations.  You can let your ME know that there is enough clearance to drill clearance holes in the chassis for button screws which is what I had to do.  Really though this should have been done from the factory so I don't have to sweat drilling through a PCB with my ham hands.

[LGNilsson]

Actually, that's not a bad idea, we might be able to adapt the tooling to make a couple of "dimples' for the screw heads. I'll discuss this with him. How deep did you drill the holes?

[theshambler]

Actually, that's not a bad idea, we might be able to adapt the tooling to make a couple of "dimples' for the screw heads. I'll discuss this with him. How deep did you drill the holes?

The particular screws I was using came with a set of drywall anchors, the head isn't particularly large 0.265" diameter and 0.100" thick.  I started with a 7/64" pilot hole which I drilled through the full thickness of the rear shell ~ 0.100" if my caliper is to be believed off a scribe I made using the holes in the mount affixed to the chassis as a template.  I figured you're using a thermal plastic so I heated the screw head and used it like a punch die to knock out an area around the pilot hole.  Material removed was about 0.430" x 0.500".  Cleaned up the flash with a knife and some sandpaper.  My real worry was that maybe you had metalized the thing to use as a backplane or something crazy for RF but then I thought better of it.  Below is a selection of the rear shell showing the area between the mount interfaces.  Dimensioned squares illustrate approximate location of material removed for fastener clearance.  Distance of clearance is taken from approximated center the clearance and approximated center of the mount interface.  Figure is not to scale but does illustrate rough spatial relationships between clearances and mount interface.  Whatever dimples you use should account for screws with potentially greater clearance requirements than 0.100".