by Trevor Neal and Massimo Bacchiocchi
This event lets students build their own arcade joystick controller. It can be used with PC’s, Raspberry Pi’s and other emulators. The case for the arcade stick was designed in Fusion 360. Then, exported as dxf files and combined in CorelDRAW to fit on one 12 x 24 inch sheet of 3mm plywood. The combined file was laser cut on the Epilog Fusion Pro. The PCB, buttons, and joystick are all plug and play with no soldering required making it very easy for students to build. The PCBs are programmed using an emulation software or front end like retropie or libretro. They should be able to be remapped in games such as street fighter V on PC.
Equipment/Software:
- Fusion 360
- CorelDRAW
- 3mm Plywood
- EG starts Arcade Joystick lever
- EG starts Light up Arcade buttons
- EG starts Arcade stick PCB
- M3 Screws
- M3 nuts
- M4 Screws
- M4 Nuts
- Epilog Fusion Pro Laser Cutter
Step by Step:
- Designed the container in Fusion 360
- Exported the file as a DXF
- Laser cut out all the pieces on the Epilog Fusion Pro
- Test fit the pieces
- Screw in all the buttons and stick to the top case
- Install the front two buttons
- Screw the PCB board into the bottom of the container
- Assemble the sides, plug in all the wires into the PCB, the buttons, and stick
- Fully assemble the joystick controller
During the creation of the container housing the joystick, one of the challenges we overcame was determining how to best fit the button layout on the top face of the controller. We looked to the internet to see official designs of actual full-sized arcade cabinets and based our layout on theirs.
Through this project we learned a lot about designing laser-cuttable containers in Fusion 360. I learned how to break down the full container model into different components making up each face. They could then be laser cut and slotted-in together.