Arduino button boxes

[FluffyVonRage]

I've recently decided to sort myself out with a proper button box - since the ones online were all looking rather expensive, and far too polished (not gonna feel like the millennium falcon if everything is shiny and new, is it?) . Gonna be borrowing lots of old used switches and things from work, and expanding it as necessary - I'll keep this thread updated as i go, in case anyone else in interested in sorting themselves out something like this. Throwing the thread up now, as the first major component has arrived - The arduino im going to be building the thing around. I'll also keep a parts & tools list somewhere, probably will turn up once I've got some more bits to hand :)

 

[Jamison]

I'm interested, I was thinking of doing something similar. Also buttons can be found really really really cheaply online. That and a GIANT RED BUTTON for eject and destruct!!

 

[marcsand2]

I'm interested, I was thinking of doing something similar. Also buttons can be found really really really cheaply online. That and a GIANT RED BUTTON for eject and destruct!!

http://www.black-hog.com/

Not Arduino and for sure not cheap

 

[Jamison]

http://www.black-hog.com/

Not Arduino and for sure not cheap

That's way too good looking for the likes of us. I'm offended by that beautiful piece of gaming peripheral.

 

[FluffyVonRage]

http://www.black-hog.com/

Not Arduino and for sure not cheap

Oooh..

pretty.

A colleage pointed out the Steel batallion controller sets, and now im super jealous.

As a side note, the first set of switches turned up today, and they look and feel just like something you'd find on a 1940's fighter.

I'm so happy :D

 

[Vavrik]

Hah! This sounds wonderful! I can't wait to find out how it works and looks!

II'll tell you how I got started with Arduino. This happened several years ago. I had just gotten through day surgery... and had just woken up. My wife drove me home, I was so drugged up. All I remember is that wanted to find a lobster truck. Don't ask. I went for a walk in the forest too. Well it was a forest to me, that turned out to be a Kroger parking lot. Anyway, my wife got me home and then left to complete the shopping at Kroger without me. Apparently I had been a bit of a burden.
The next day, I was feeling much better. Far as I knew, when I got home, I lay down on the couch and fell asleep. Then I learned that I should not be left alone under any circumstances if I am recovering from surgery, and there is an Internet connected device nearby. You see, FedEx unexpectedly showed up at the door with a package addressed to me that contained 2 Raspberry PI an Arduino UNO, and an Intel Edison I'd apparently ordered. The receipt was even saved to my laptop. To this day, I have no memory of doing this.

 

[FluffyVonRage]

OKAY, so here we go:
All the components have arrived - so i did a lil design, and put together a cardboard mockup.

Then I loooked at some wiring:

Played with a bit of code ( This is still ongoing)
And then once all that was working, tidied up the wiring, attached the diodes to the actual switches and bypassed the pinboard ( Which was way more fiddly than the actual build)

Here's a picture of what i guess was half way:

And here's the thing with all the diodes and leads out in place. After this i basically merged each pair into a single output, to make connecting it to the board easier.

I'm currently looking to finish the wiring tomorrow, with some more stuff being soldered to the arduino board, and the power cabling for the LED switches.
(I'll have to upload a picture in the morning when i get to work)

( As a side note, i've made sure all components can be removed from the wiring side, so moving everything over to the aluminium panel I'll be using as a final over should be super easy.

If anyone's interested in the full album of images, it's hidden away here - images may not be in order)

 

[Vavrik]

I love it so far! The toggle switches give it the same kind of look as the switch panels of an F-86 or T-33 from the 50's and 60's. The F-86 was also known as the "Saber" by the way.

 

[BluePilote]

Wow, nice job

 

[FluffyVonRage]

Keep forgetting to actually machine the mounting plate - hopefully I'll get around to it in my lunch hour tomorrow :D