[Tech] The Beast has been Unleashed. Kemonojo

(previous WIP post can be found here)

Not anywhere near perfection, but I'm proud to say it is the most amount of time and sweat I've ever put into making a joystick case! Picking up where I left off, the white stripe has been done, and the wiring took little to no time.

The inner dimensions are smaller than the acrylic case, but it's not like the latter was completely stuffed:

Interior or the acrylic case. The project box in the top right was previously used to contain a Playstation 1 controller's PCB (printed circuit board). While the new case was in the works, I had temporarily installed the Playstation 3 controller's PCB (seen in photo above) to test proper connections.

Organizing the wires is nice to do, though it's going to be concealed with the bottom panel so it's not important to me.

Kemonojo

"Beast Joystick"

Felt a name was necessary rather than just naming it by its colour or material. I chose Japanese to follow up on my colour inspiration that was the car tuning company Nismo, stylistically short for "Nissan Motorsport".

Parts Used:

• Sanwa JLF Joystick + Sanwa Ball Top, with Square Restrictor Gate
• 6 Sanwa OBSF-30 (snap-on) Push Buttons
• 3 Seimitsu PS-14-GN (screw-on) Push Buttons
• 3rd-Party Playstation 3 Wired Controller
• 22 AWG wire and leaded solder. 

A challenge to making this case is to find a way to conceal the mounting screws. Most joystick builders like to put a graphic print on top followed by a sheet of acrylic (such as plexiglas). I'm using the circular signal nibs that are used to connect signal points when pushing buttons on a game controller d-pad.

Settled on two instead of one red button.

Flush side buttons. These are wired to non-playing buttons like Start, Select and the PS button.

Flush Handle. Keeping with the theme, this style allows for an easy grasp, yet there is no external piece protruding from the surface of the side wall.

Here's a great shot of how the glitter clear paint shows. I wasn't able to capture it as well on the top panel since I didn't use as much on it.

The stunning continuous stripe. Tamiya's masking tape is simply amazing.

Not sure why a product demonstration photo needs this sort of atmosphere to convey the message, but here it is anyway.

 

What's great about having a handle like this is that this entire case can be picked up with a single finger. If there's an organized event and I need to carry multiple items, this feature will definite be handy.

Bottom & Top Panel

This was a great project. I got a taste of the legendary Bondo Filler, the smoothness of using high-grit sandpaper, the excellent results of Tamiya masking tape, sparkling paint and soon will be the renown unmatched reputation of Sanwa push buttons.