I noticed an oddity with my MkIIa. The handle isn't nearly as flush with the fascia as the one on my MkII. Actually there is a rather noticable gap between the handle and the bottom of the fascia. Anyone else notice this? Particularly anyone with both a MkII and MkIIa... I guess it's a minor gripe but it is a bit unsightly because the silver of the steel chassis shows through. The gap isn't huge, maybe 1/16" or so. I will try to get a picture soon. Any adjustments I can make to fix this? Besides electrical tape over the chassis to make it black. :)

It's there... but it counts for wiggle room when a new color faceplate goes on I guess.

Calvin

The fascia has wiggle room to move up/down and side/side a little bit when you loosen the screws. A tiny bit. This can slightly reduce the gap. There's no way that I can see for you to cover the gap up completely without external manipulation.

Given a common mounting angle in a car and the direction of sunlight and interior lighting, for most people, the chasis may never be visible. Setup at home on a rack or desk may be very different. My suggestion is if you want to cover it up, as you mentioned, go with the electrical tape cut carefully, or mask the chasis and apply a thin strip of black paint. I'll leave it up to you to decide between a brush and a spray can. I'd choose a small brush though. :)

If you look at the way the handle is mounted to the outside of the chasis, you'll notice there isn't any way to adjust its vertical position - otherwise that would be a convenient way to remove the gap.

You can also make sure to ask whomever decides to make new custom fascias to purposely take the size difference into account and design the piece to cover the gap.

My couple of cents anyway.

Bruno

Yah but my original question... Do you have the same gap on yours? There is none on my MkII.

Sorry, I realise that in my stooper I didn't actually say I had the gap on mine. Here it is:

Yes, I have the exact same sized gap, just as you described, on my brand new MK2a Riocar (received this week). :) Hehe.

I have a Mk2 and a Mk2a ( was planned as back up now his and hers) and the build of the chassis of the 2a doesn't seem to be quite as high as the 2 it is still very good but not as good as the mk2

Also the cage doesn't seem as good but the new looms seem slightly better

The original cages were a damn impressive piece of engineering and i don't kno how much of a loss they made of them but the old price could not of covered it.

Actually, the metalwork on the 2a (including sled) was more expensive than the mk2 - we had supplier problems and the metalwork tended to be coated in grease/metal filings (not ideal for electronics) which required cleaning at the factory.

The mk2a metalwork suppliers did a very good job, and also improved the design of the lid (mk2a's have angled lips, which makes fitting/removing the lid much easier).

What build quality problem did you notice? I've always thought the mk2a's were marginally better made...

Hugo

the quality of the steel doesn't seem as high and the holes on the 2a aren't as nicely rounded as the Mk2.

The gaps on the 2a are slightly tighter i will say that

But i am far from unhappy about it the quality is still light years ahead of anything from the big boys like alpine etc. The cages are brilliant

Hugo, can you comment on my original statement? I notice about a 1/16" gap between the handle and the bottom of the fascia on my MkIIa that is not at all present on my MkII. I am not sure what is causing this but in this thread others are saying they see the gap too. Was this done by choice?

Yes, it was done by choice; the mk1 handle was far too tight and caused problems so we made sure there was a slight gap - it also had to take into account casting tolerances for the aluminium handle, which is hard to make as accurately as the plastic of the bezel.

Hugo

Thanks for the info, but actually I was asking about the difference between the Mk2 and the Mk2a, not the Mk1. Was there an additional gap added for the Mk2a?

No, the design was not changed between mk2 and mk2a. The handles were cast by a different company though - but as they were from the same CAD, in theory they should be the same. The coating process was definitely different though.

Hugo

Hrmm.. Well there is a definite difference on mine. The MkII handle was flush with the bottom of the fascia, on my MkIIa it's a bit off. I'll chalk it up to the difference in the companies and such. Just wanted to know if I'm the only one who noticed this.

The difference could just be due to a difference in adjustment of your fascia.

You can loosen the hex bolts and scootch the fascia up and down, the tighten the fascia again. If you're careful about it, you can get a pretty good compromise between handle gap and buttons which don't stick, then tighten the bolts a little bit.

The difference could just be due to a difference in adjustment of your fascia.

Nah... I thought about that first. No amount of fascia adjustment is going to do it. This isn't like a tiny gap. To give an idea, I can fit a credit card in the gap very easily, two credit cards on top of each other fit in a little more snugly. I'm not sure what that amounts to in terms of measurement, but it's nothing that a fascia adjustment can take care of, unfortunately.

Here's what my MkIIa looks like. Your gap seems to be much larger than
what I see on my unit...

/Michael

Okay here are a couple pictures of mine. My MkII looks pretty much like yours, no real appreciable gap to see. I also grabbed a closeup of the left side to show how not only is there a gap on the bottom, but the handle doesn't really come close to the top left edge of the fascia. It appears the entire handle is "shifted down" by a little bit.

And yes, those are Double Stuff Oreos in the background. That is NOT product placement! They were there when I took the pictures, honest. :)

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You can really notice the difference best if you look at how the curved indentation on the left-hand side of the screen matches up between the facia and the handle. On the first image it matches, on the second pair of images it doesn't.

My Mk2a matches the second pair, it has a noticable gap. Not that it matters.

Yeah exactly. The airfoil pattern doesn't align the same way it does on my MkII. I didn't snap a picture of my MkII for comparison because it's almost identical to the MkIIa picture posted earlier in this thread. Both of the pictures I snapped are of my MkIIa. The closeup pic shows the gap (and the mismatch of the airfoil groove) better.

At first I would have said that it looks as though the holes for the Handle Mounting Screws have been drilled in the wrong position. I've had a look at mine though and the Handle Mounting Plates sit quite snugly into a recess in the Handle so I don't think it's that. Only other thing I can think of is that your Display Board is sitting a bit high (the fascia mounts onto this). Have you tried to loosen the four Display Board Mounting Screws (located on the sides of the player) and pushing down to see if it moves into a better position?

edit: Mines a MkII btw.

Ah. Try this:

loosen off the 4 screws that hold the display board (at the front of the sides of the box), push the fascia down slightly, and then re-tighten. If you get binding problems with the top of the handle against the fascia, you may need to slide it up again.

There is a teeny bit of play in the mounting points to allow for adjustment of the entire display/fascia up & down.

Hugo

Hey!! Is there an echo in here?

Hadn't got to your post in the thread at that point :)

Hugo

That's not the case - I had the new casting company review the gating for the Mk.2A because the shoulder of the Mk.2 handle would often rub against the fascia. I also instructed the factory to assemble the fascia at the upper tolerance of vertical position.

Rob

Mmm, though I thought the problem was more that the handle casting company wasn't making them to spec quite often. The metalwork itself (ie, the stainless steel bit) did not change in any way with relation to handle position or hole position.

ISTR, anyway.

Hugo

The design didn't change, it was a process issue.

Rob

OK you're forgiven - but only because of who you are!! I wouldn't be so lenient with just anybody you know.

mine (mk2a) has that gap too. in my case it's probably because the wrong screws were used at the pivot points on the handle. (all six of the screws in the handle are the same)

Tell us details about your custom rotary control.

Hmm don't know how the screws would affect that but I guess it's possible. I haven't had time to mess with it but Hugo's solution sounds plausible.