Monday, August 11, 2008

Giant SNES table Phase IV: Wiring, Button Adjusting, Detail Painting... etc




The Controller is finally finished! It has taken me all summer to do it, mainly because of classes and the new job... which by the way also helped me build the controller.

Button Mounting and wiring. The mounting was a bit tricky getting all these clamps in while it dried... but I somehow made it work.
This one shows the clamping of one of the bumper mounts. Its hinged with a single spring/ bolt at the other end.

Soldering for the SNES controller card, actually quite easy.






I used these screw plates to connect each button so I could disconnect each seperately for potential repair/ maintanence.

I used stencils made on the computer and cut on a machine to get the lettering just right. Turns out that the SNES font is almost identical to Hattenschweller, I think thats how its spelled. Its a standard font italicized. I also made a few stencils for the skateboards I'm making (the ones that say "meret"), and the Lost logo for some potential surfboard airbrushing.


I also stenciled out the circle for the A B X Y buttons, came out pretty clean. I had originally tried a rubbery brush-on material for the start select, but it stuck too much on the sides when pressed.
You can see the contacts are just springs, and the other side of the contact are metal plates.

You can see my sharpied arm chair here.

TADA!!!




It looks a little off here, but it actually sits straight, but it looks weird because it has to rock about the center.






Like the definition around the D-pad? I do.
The plug is normal sized, and fits in a normal size SNES.




22 comments:

Unknown said...

Yayyy!
I can't wait to see it!
p.s. I read your comment yesterday, asking me to post a link to your blog, I'll make sure to include it in my next post, which shouldn't be too far off.

I think you'll probably get a lot more views coming from blogs like Kotaku, destructoid, engadget and Gizmodo etc., so make sure to send each of them an email once you've got all the photos up.

CaBBage said...

Thanks man, I appreciate it!

Mike Golch said...

Dude. that is so Cool

inland empire restaurant and food reviews said...

Awesome whats next n64???

CaBBage said...

haha, ya, I'll let someone else do the 64... keep passing the torch.

Anonymous said...

Awesome read - http://digg.com/mods/Building_a_Four_Foot_SNES_Controller_That_Works

Anonymous said...

Cool cool! What are the buttons made out of?

Anonymous said...

Hmm... so would it be feasible to employ you to make another one? I need to own a gigantic SNES controller!

Besides, it'd be so awesome to just randomly rent a moving van or something to undertake the task of picking up the aforementioned masterpiece and transporting it all the way back to Kansas.

CaBBage said...

haha, awesome! Some of the sites are starting to post it.

The buttons, as well as almost everything else, is made of mdf.

I would love to build more controllers, but I'm a 4th year engineering student with an internship and not a whole lot of free time. It took me close to 3 months of atleast 3 full days a week planning and building it. For me to break even making it I'd have to charge way more than its worth, sorry guys.

I'll hopefully be able to post a video of me playing the controller soon, maybe tomorow if all goes well.

Gizmodo said I was "Garage-based"... I wish, I live in an apartment w/ no garage, just a small front porch.

Anonymous said...

Have you thought about taking some large black, flexible tubing to go around the connecting cable so it would be properly sized as well? You could then build the oversized connecter at the end with the regular sized plug sticking out a little bit so that you can connect it.

CaBBage said...

I actually did debate over doing that, and I still might, but I don't really want a giant cord lying all over the floor. When the controller isn't hooked up the cord is rubber banded and hidden. But thanks for the input!

Robert said...

I would totally buy that.

For a reasonable price.

ClearTranquil said...

Holy smokes that's incredible.

brunomocsa said...

Você é meu idolo cara!...

Anonymous said...

http://useloos.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=686

be original man..

CaBBage said...

yes yes... I have seen that, many times. If you'd actually read the posts I linked his blog on the first one. And his comment is at the top of this page.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

NICE! The decal work really finishes the look. Any chance of getting a video of y'all playing star fox up soon?

Mega Filmes said...

I wanna see you playing Killer Instinct on it!!!

Quero ver você jogando Killer Intinct com ele!!!

Kitty said...

This is literally the greatest thing I have ever seen.

Alex said...

Wow, good job man! Kudos for taking the time to do something like this.

As for all those people who keep knocking it down, seriously?! I think the people who need a life or a girlfriend are those who are taking the time to write negative posts about things that aren't meant to be serious in the first place.

Midtown Sweets said...

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen! Nice work on the controller! Makes me want to play The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. :-)