Battle Pods Controller
December 6, 2005 09:48 AM
I spent 3 full days this weekend creating the final controller for Battle Pods.
I ended up making it out of foam core again, but I found some sheets of thin black plastic at Plastic Land to cover it with so it looks pretty nice. The plastic combined with all the components give it a pretty hefty weight, so I don’t think you ever know it was made from foam core.
I cut up some pie tins to use for the metal contacts around the pod bays. This works better than foil, but I’m still having trouble getting the pods to make good contact. I think I’m going to have to use springs or weights or something to keep them firmly in there.
I decided to use multicolored buttons for the moves so they can be color-coded to each move. In order to get all 6 colors I had to use slightly larger buttons than I had on the prototype. The new buttons have a click action that feels much nicer than the older mushy feeling buttons.
All the colors do make it feel kind of disjointed (as opposed to having all one color for each player). I think this will be better once I get the overlays on. I can tie each side together with color again (blue & yellow).
I accidentally fried one of my super-strong magnets. It got a little too hot and now it’s very very weak. Who knew?
I wired up the lights for the Ready and Battle buttons too.
And despite all the Xacto blades and razor sharp pie tins, I only cut myself once!
Still to do:
- Create all the graphic overlays and button labels.
- Add weights and/or springs to keep pods in place.
- Acquire new super-strong magnet.
- Acquire USB extension cord for the very very short serial-USB cable.
- Clean up the mess of wiring inside
- Finish the software!!
Project: Battle Pods | link
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