Have you ever thought of vaccuforming a housing separately and just assembling it to the PCB with epoxy or gorrilla glue? You could emulate the PCB design quite well and gorrilla glue with most likely never come off. Just a suggestion to help out your cosmetic situation. Hit me up on PM or AIM, I have alot of vaccuforming/sculpting experience and can give you detailed instructions on how about doing that.
Right right.
Forgot about converters and the like. I was just thinking about what would happen if you blew the main power line coming from the PS, but now i realize that might not be possible.
Well, I’ve assembled the MAX731 and the MAX751 on the breadboard and tested, and it looks like the clear winner is the 731. Whether it was fed 5v from my power supply, or just under 3v from a pair of AA batteries, it output a clean voltage somewhere between 5.02v and 5.08v. The schematic in the datasheet recommends a 100uF capacitor between the output line and ground, but it appears to work fine as low as 8uF (four 33uf capacitors in series actually). Im going to the GF’s so tomorrow I’ll test to make sure it behaves when under load, and work on getting it into the pcb.
For the curious, I wanted a lower capacity capacitor because the specs for USB devices say that there shouldn’t be more than about 10uf capacitor on the board to prevent a massive current draw when first plugged in. Since it is very likely these will end up used on USB devices by a bunch of folks, Im trying to make sure they’re covered.
How about an inductor to prevent current rush?
Any updates?
The second order for PCB protos was put in last weekend. It includes all of the parts for putting a MAX731 directly on the board. The PCB house I’m getting these protos from is where I will likely have the big run made at, and probably assembled at. These protos should be here in 1-2 weeks.
I’m still waiting on a quote from another place for molding the housing, but even if they fall through or are too expensive, I still have the CNC machine to make the housing with; that should be here soon.
-bump-
~Goodbye
Yes, Mone, Ill make sure you know when some are available 
But if ya want a status update, I got an email from the pcb manufacturer with a fedex tracking number. Supposed to arrive tomorrow, but I think they’re sending to a PO Box, so they may not be here until the 12th or 13th. Expect pictures of the new pcb in thenext couple of days.
CNC table should be shipped by Monday, to arrive late next week or early the week after.
The place I ordered the second batch from had a square inch special; set price, and as many as they could it in 155 sq in. I figured I’d end up with like 10.
I ended up with 36.
Niiiiiiiice.
Any word on the horizontal 4 pin connectors?
I got an order of 5 pins and 3 pins hopefully coming soon from Per. Im still trying to hunt down a distributor that can tackle all of the JST parts I need for a 1k run at once, but so far no-go. If the parts from Per look good, Ill just get the whole shebang through him.
Right on, I highly doubt per would stiff you on this especially since you’re trying to replicate one of the most sought-after joysticks everyone would like to own. I think we all appreciate the hard work of busting your cajones on this one bro :looney:
Good lord. As soon as you get done you will be one rich mofokr. Count me in on the completed product. I’ll be buying those like crazy for my stick building business. Keep up the good R&D.
i’ll buy surely 2 of them
keep it going!!
def. in for atleast one when they are done…
Same here: at least one, probably two
Hadou-bump
~Goodbye
I’m buying one! As long as it’s electronics retard friendly.
Toodles
Package is on it`s way to you now (from customs).
Sweeeeeeeeet!