Not many times do i concern that much about the housing of a project. Yet, this is a special occasion. I do not really know why i consider this a "special occasion", but i have spent a lot of time to make a nice curvy sweet housing for my console. Maybe because i am a computer freak and i do have this "aesthetic" of game controllers and stuff... Any ways. Here is the way that my "MOW Glove" -as i call it- evolved:
A trip of 1000 miles begins with a first step...
More curvy with less buttons
A more "female" outlook
That female outlook looked like a frog...
This is the final outlook that i will make.
Added the last button and the "shift"
After having decide of the housing's outline, i had to put the entrails inside it. To see if everything fits, i had to draw a 3D model:
This is the final product that i wish to make
The housing is made of MDF. The cover is transparent plexi-glass, with a opaque black sticker underneath.
The 3 PCBs (top buttons, thumb buttons and 2 PICs) must be cut to specific shapes to fit in the pockets
These are the PCBs from the front side.
And here are the PCBs alone
The internal side of the wooden housing has some weird pockets and grooves. Not a problem for a CNC though...
You may wonder (or you may NOT wonder) why i have a transparent plexi-glass for bottom, and then i cover it with an opaque sticker. I want to make an effect with blue LEDs. I will put some inside the housing, so that the acrylic glass will shine at the bottom side. The acrylic glass that will be visible at that point will be about 1.5mm thick. I hope this will make a nice effect... We will see. Now. On to the CNC!
Turn on the CNC mate!
Again to this friend of mine, Christos Polidorou. He has this wonderful piece of woodworking CNC, and i am allowed to use it at will. So, i began making the hosing...
Thats a really nice machine
This is the first housing i made. It is 17mm thick.
And this is the cover made of transparent acrylic glass.
Do you notice something strange? Well, neither did i... But the housing is mirrored... The first try was a complete failure, as i forgot to mirror the housing during machining, so it is good for a left-handed person but not for me. Anyway, i re-made the housing on a 16mm MDF:
This is the final version of the housing made of 16mm MDF
This will be the top side
And this is my left hand :D... Now its orientation is fine
The bottom cover needs of no change
With a small file i removed the MDF remainings and cleaned the openings for the buttons the joystick and the LEDs
Then i marked the first PCB with a marker
And the second PCB as well...
With the grinder, i removed the pieces of the 2 PCBs, so that they fit in their pockets
Its beginning to look like the console i designed...:
Well, "lol", as i always, say "Use all your abilities to win". After all, you can get yourself a customizable controller from the market. And then, i hope i meet you in the battlefield... preferably at the opposite team... ;) ;) ;)
PS: This is not cheating. I don't use a bot to do something that i can't, faster or more accurate. I mean, hey, be wise and gather all the shortcuts that you need close. You can do that. You can customize your shortcuts... You can use the shift key, the control, double clicks...Everything. Is this so hard to do? Or do you miss the LED effect that i have???
At 14 December 2010, 8:28:25 user lol wrote: [reply @ lol]
man you are such a nerd, go, get a wife children and a life.
with this frankenstein like thing you have clearly an unfair advantage
you super nerd hardwarecheater.
At 3 December 2010, 4:03:43 user Don wrote: [reply @ Don]
Oops! Just realized I was reading the comments in backwards chronology! My bad! Sorry, nevermind my last comment!
At 3 December 2010, 4:00:56 user Don wrote: [reply @ Don]
Just ran across your site! Thank you! Very informative! A note to Marc Leonhart (since nobody answered him; AND although I haven't studied all the specifics): I believe an input device like this could do anything you would like it to do. It is custom made. I'm sure it could be modified to any purpose!
Of course it can. But there are in the market remarkable shortcut consoles for this. You may be interested in this project, either if you want to DIY and for you the trip is more important than the destination, or because you want to do something that the market consoles wont do. In my case, i fit in both cases. The joystick for example is not just a normal arrow key replacement. Does much more that a normal game console cannot be programmed to do. But most of all, i just wanted to do it...
So can a project like this be fitted towards Photoshop and Sai, since I draw with the right I want shortcut keys for the left. But need more button option.
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