Hi,
After presenting it in the check out my new stick threard, and considering the feedbacks I got, I am opening this threat to present you my Heart of Glass stick.
First of all, I am a coppersmith, or metalworker, I don’t know what is the most common word to say that I make stuff out of metal.
What I wanted to do with the Heart of Glass was to apply techniques that are not commonly used in the making of arcade sticks.
Due to the high resistance of the matérials (the sideparts are made of stainless steel) I could go into design that was really not usual in arcade sticks world.
I endend up with a minimalist open case that whould not make compromise over strenght, as it is really rock solid.
To not break that minimalist design I intentionnally left the case open.
In my first design sketches, the bottom acrylic plate was not there. I added it later to allow the stick to be played on the knees without smashing the electronic components.
Here comes how it is made :
The sideparts are made of stainless steel. You can see a before/after welding shot.
The top and bottom panel are made of 9mm acrylic glass. To prevent it from looking too thick I make a double chamfer on the front and rear edges.
The upper chamfer is 45degres, and the lower chamfer is made to follow the angle of the metallic sidepart.
The chamfer and the inside of the holes are polished to become transparent.
Putting it together to make sure everything lins up perfectly.
I used this pcb, as it is the smallest I have found. It is ps3 and PC compatible (no home button).
In order to keep the design minimalist, I decided to hold the PCB vertically betwen the jowstick and the buttons.
So I needed to make a mouting plate :
It is 0,8mm thick stainless steel.
To protect the PCB from the vibrations, it is isolated with rubber parts :
And here, ready for assembly :
All together. Just missing the buttons, and the wires :
And here with the buttons, just the wires are missing
And last, the wiring loom :
And inside the stick :
The lengh of every wire need to be perfectly right or it will not fit.
Time was spendt here to figure out how to proceed, but I am very happy with the result.
It is 40cm width by 24cm deepth and 6,5cm high (without the stick shaft)
(Sorry for my bad english, I am french, and I am doing my best)
