HELP HACKADAY develop A custom-made GAMING CONTROLLER FOR A great cause

We are going to make a custom-made gaming controller for a kid with Muscular Dystrophy. His name is Thomas as well as he likes minecraft. This is a job that I have been wanting to do for years.  I’m just beginning now, as well as you can join in on the job as well as offer your thoughts in our forums.  We’re starting with Thomas, however ultimately, we’d like to establish a collection of relatively basic to build open source game controllers.

For people who have a physical disability, gaming can have a profound mental impact. often it is the only location where they can go as well as be on a level playing ground with their peers.  frequently custom-made gaming controllers are rather expensive, particularly when you begin to leave the basic xbox/playstation type factor.

Now, with 3d printer in hand, I’m able to kick out prototypes much quicker as well as much easier than I had ever imagined. I can style something in a matter of minutes, then print it out to see exactly how it feels.  when I get something nailed down, I can refine the style to be much easier to assemble, as well as to in shape stock parts you might gather from an xbox controller (they have an official windows driver, which is nice).

Here’s a quick video of me playing with a prototype idea. You can see I begin by laying out all the basic game inputs from the controller, then I toss a slab of imaginary plastic on there as well as begin sculpting.  You would want to put velcro on the bottom of this so it would stay in location on a lap board at the best comfortable angle.

This is, in no way, a completed prototype. It was just a quick sculpt to get my concept down. though I only built one half of the controller, you can picture exactly how quickly you might setting two units such as this to ensure that your hands might rest on top of them.

Join in on the forums as well as assist me come up with some a lot more styles that may help!