So I’m making myself another stick, because I wanted to try American parts out. I’m familiar with how to wire it up and make everything, but I wanted to do something different, something unique. I’m a big Gundam fan, so I decided to theme it on that. So I got an idea. A green stick that’s designed to look like the mobile armor Big Zam from Gundam. Pretty much it would be a uniquely painted stick with two large legs coming from the bottom. The legs would have to be able to fold up for lap/desk play, but also stand when the stick is not in use. Any ideas?
Don’t make it.
wow, that would be a feat to accomplish! how tall do you want those legs to be? does it have to fold up or can they be detachable? i mean if u r making the legs like 3ft and in the shape of a real leg, it would be hard to fold up. if it’s like a flat sheet and u r just putting print out on the side, that might be easier. but yea gl with it!
Well, that wasn’t very constructive. If you have a reason I shouldn’t make it, then say it, but it seems like a very creative project to me.
As for the project, I’m thinking of PVC piping for the legs, and having them easily removable when playing (therefore making it an arcade stick with a stand). Then I could just paint the legs and add extra bits from some model kits.
Be like this guy.
[media=youtube]-HCTNmBXPKU[/media]
Would PVC hold up? I’m thinking you’d need some metal or wood to help support it.
A) Why do you think an arcade stick with legs attached is going to look anything but silly. Try sketching it out or doing some cut/paste in photoshop/gimp to get a real idea of what it would look like.
B) Getting legs that are sturdy enough to hold the stick acceptably steady is going to require an fairly enormous footprint and extensive tests for balance/stability. There’s a reason most “stands” have at least 3 support points.
C) Getting them to fold inwards for floor/lap play is going to be an engineering headache. They’ll need to be on some sort of hinge/pivot arrangement. The pivot arrangement will have to have sufficent resistance to not fold inwards on itself when the legs are extended. You’ll have to design the case to accommodate legs folding into it. This means you’re either cutting holes into the bottom of the stick case - so now you have issues with arranging your internals (stick/buttons/PCBs) so that they don’t come into contact with the legs. If you don’t cut holes into the bottom, then you need to build a large recessed area underneath the stick, which is going to make it uncomfortable to play on your lap.
D) Even if you just make a stand of it, you REALLY think taking PVC pipe and gluing model kit bits to it will look anything but silly?
E) How exactly are you going to make a stick that looks like that gundam? Considering you haven’t apparently thought through even the most basic questions regarding this, I doubt you have enough planning/execution skills to accomplish what you want.
Is this enough or should I go on?
See, that post was more constructive. I’ve done some weird art projects in the past and gotten them to work out, and some that have just turned out bad. Giving something a try never really hurt anything. I respect your opinion, and I’ll take your comments into consideration. Besides, I’m not sure if you know anything about Gundam, but have you seen Big Zam. It looks pretty silly. Big Zam
You could try using a big zam kit (if one is available at appropriate size) to make casts. Use epoxy for the parts. That will make them sufficiently strong to hold the weight. The pivot mentioned is another thing entirely. I’d try metal hinges like the ones the guy (can’t recall name) who created the laptop style ps3 used. When you fold them, how do you want them placed? Some kind of rail on the bottom on the bottom of the stick, might be an idea. That way you could move them independently from one another and place them on the sides or front/back.
However I honestly think that it would be a great deal of effort and money with questionable outcome. As a Gundam fan myself however, I can propose you sth similar:
Choose a gundam model (or a couple anyway) and either glue them to the sides/ front/back or make them seem as if coming out of the wood. I hope I conveyed my idea appropriately.
Another concept (more to your liking I suspect) would be to attach gundam parts all around the case (perhaps on top too) but place so the can be removed and reassembled into the original model.
I know both my proposals are tedious, but I believe that at the very least you’ll have a case that could be modified to sth more conventional if anything goes wrong.