Assemble Rock64 Board Stack

These instructions show how to assemble a stack of Rock64 boards for your PicoCluster. These photos show how to assemble a 5 board stack. The 3 board stack is same, but only 3 boards are required instead of 5.

Please contact support@picocluster.com if you encounter any difficulties.

Step 1 – Prepare the Boards

Open the packages and apply the heat sinks as shown. Each heat sink has a peel-off backing allowing it to stick to the chips. The Rock64 only requires 2 heat sinks on the top of the board.

Step 2 – Assemble the Board Stack

Start with the 1/2" F/F standoffs on the bottom and the 3/4" M/F standoffs on the top as shown. Once screwed together, then tighten slightly. The standoffs only need to be snug, not wrenched tight together.

Continue to add boards to the stack using the 3/4" M/F standoffs as shown.

Step 3 – Assemble the PDU

Start with the PDU and acrylic mounting plate. The brown paper needs to be peeled off to expose the clear acrylic.  Place the long screws throw the PDU, then place the nylon spaces on the screws on the other side of the PDU.

Place the acrylic mounting plate over the screws onto the nylon spaces. The USB ports need to face to the right, towards the circular cable mount as shown. Next add the nylon washers and the nuts onto the screws. Snug the nuts down.

Attach the PDU to the top of the stack using the 3/8" screws and nylon washers.

Step 4 – Connect the Power Cables

Connect each power cable to the PDU as show. The power cables for the Rock64 are a bit bulky. Plug the power cables into each board as shown with the splitter cable connecting the bottom 2 boards. To keep the cables in place, we'll use a cable tie to bind all of the cables together.

Next Steps – Assemble Your Cube

Move on the the assembly instructions for your particular cluster cube. The Pico 10 requires 2 board stacks and the Pico 20 requires 4 board stacks.