One Handed NES Controller: Le Fin

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Here is the final part of the one handed NES controller build. So let's get to it!

After soldering the mini-joystick onto the board, I hot glued the mini-joystick assembly to the board to make it never shear off or move. I used this mathematical equation to figure this out

hot glue = π(put in place by the gods^6)

I then took the surface mount 9.5mm high tact switch and soldered the connections to some ribbon cable. 


After that, I put the wii  nunchuck controller shell next to each other to determine the length of the wire for the switch. The switch will come through the bottom of the top shell and protrude enough to hit it with your thumb easily. As an engineering side note, buttons that protrude are considered "proud" buttons.














After determining the size, I stripped the wires and soldered them onto the board. I wanted to have enough wire to open the shell so I could take it apart. Here's a protip for anyone interested in doing any sort of EE project. Always build something you can take apart. Never make it to where you can't because most likely, you'll make it and something will go wrong later on and you can't take it apart. One thing I wish I could have done is use some disconnects on the wires for the tact switch but, I didn't have any on hand. 

After soldering that on, it was time to get to the hard part, soldering the two boards together via some flat flex ribbon cable. Here's one thing to take away, wires take up a considerable amount of space so always try and keep everything as flat and small as possible. This is why flat flex ribbon cable is great for these applications.

 

I took the ribbon cable and flayed it out and tried to get each wire reaching the points I needed it to. Then I cut the wire and started soldering it to each point. I wanted this board to be the flattest as I had the least room inside the actual controller here. The top board I had a bit of space in between it and the bottom so I wasn't as worried about that there. 

Here's what it looked like when I was done.

 
 
 I then realized that I made a mistake and I didn't need the +5v wire going to the top board at all and I actually needed the ground wire instead. So I removed the +5v wire and soldered on the ground wire.

After that, this is where things got difficult. While the bottom board was pretty straight forward in soldering terms, the top board was completely different. This one had wires that needed to cross each all over it. See what I did was I layed the components out the way they needed to be physically then worried about the solder connections. This is the best route to go just because I was worried about usability rather than making it easier on me when it came to soldering it together.


I had to take the wires and make them go in the directions they needed to (just like before) and trying to match them up with the points they needed to connect to before I started cutting each wire to length.  So after using my trusty tweezers, I was able to get it all sorted and as flat as possible. 




So there it is, All finished and wired up. I then loosely put the pieces together an made sure they worked before I did the next step which is.....

MORE HOT GLUE!!!!!!!!


 Yes I did. The reason for this is I didn't want any of these points to come loose or break.

Now that the controller innards are all wired up and working I have to worry about the thing fitting together. Now, I've done several 'Squish Tests' along the way making some adjustments here and there. One of them is in the photo above. The clear-ish white plastic piece up on the right hand side, you'll notice the left edge there has been cut diagonally. this is so the tact switch can come through the top and the case can close. 

I had to dremmel a couple parts down. One was that tab on the left hand side of the controller. The other was the center post in the bottom shell of the controller.















After that, I was able to do a final squish test and make sure everything fit together and then finally I was able to call it completed.




























So finally, to the piece de resistance! A video of it completed and working!

 

So here's just a recap:

This project was all about having a controller for people with disabilities to play old Nintendo Entertainment System games. This wasn't because I wanted to make a new and improved controller it was entirely for people with disabilities. I don't know how many people out there with disabilities enjoy retro gaming but, I know I thurougly enjoy playing NES games. Breaking out Super Mario Bros. 3 is always a treat. Contra is an awesome game. Mega-Man 3 has awesome music and Castlevania will always be one of my all time favourite horror genre games.

These games mean something to me, so I figured they might mean something to someone else who may not be able to play these games any more. It really astonished me to find out that no one had ever made one and Nintendo never created one. So, to my knowledge, this is the first and only one handed NES accessibility controller. I am going to be selling these upon request so If anyone is interested, let me know via the Contact Me section! Also, I would like to make it known that I do take requests for any ideas you may have. I'll be posting some more on my projects in the future.
 
 Parts I used
Wii Nunchuck controller
NES controller
5-way Navigation Switch (Mini-Joystick)
8 10k ohm resistors
Flat Flex Ribbon Cable (mine was taken from an old computer)
Solder
Hot Glue


Things I'd like to modify in the coming revisions (yes I will be continually improving upon this design):

  • I'd like to use disconnects through out the circuit 
  • I'd like to expiriment with replacing the mini-joystick with an analog stick. The reason I didn't do this to begin with is because I'd have to have an analog to digital converter within the circuit and that'd take up too much room for this controller shell which brings me to my next point
  • I'd like to make my own custom case for this controller
  • I'd like to expiriment with using the original D-Pad instead of the mini-joystick.
  • I'd like to make my own buttons for the controller. 
Even though the controller is finished, it's still in development. I'll be experimenting with things and trying to make it better as time goes on and I hear more feed back from people. 



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