Main > Main Forum
joystick directions lit? possible product suggestion
tony.silveira:
hi all,
i have an idea rattling around in this skull of mine; how to highlight which directions are used on a stick, 2-way (hor. or ver.), 4-way, 8-way.
i'm thinking of adding 8 small red LED's in each of the directions around a j-stick; drill from ender the panel so the lights are flush with the top of the cab. these lights could be driven by my ledwiz board. when starting a mame game, the appropriate lights would light up (galaga, only left and right would light, donkey kong, up, down, left right... street fighter, all 8 lights would light up).
this got me thinking of a potential product for randy at ggg or andy at ultimarc.
it would be like randy's LED marquee bars but instead would be a circle. we users could route in a circle, 1/4 inch deep, around our sticks, so that this round board is flush with the panel. to top it off, it would come with a plastic clip on top that has directions arrows that would be lit from the lights underneath. you could even have multiple versions of this plastic clip on ring, different arrow styles, different colors, etc; think of an xbox faceplate. heck, it could even be clear and come with a template so the user could design and print their own.
maybe a stupid idea, just throwing it out there :)
Gatt:
It's not a bad idea, there's a thousand ways it could be done.
I'm not certain how in demand it would be though, I mean with a joystick, there's usually little confusion over which direction(s) to use it in, I think it'd end up a novelty item.
Ginsu Victim:
I've thought of several different ways to do something like this, but never got around to trying one.
bkenobi:
It might be cleaner to have a small picture above the joystick (somewhere) that shows the mode and install a single light behind each one. Then, just use your LED controller to light the correct one. I'm thinking something similar to how Lunar Lander has the different images on the bezel area.
Franco B:
I was kinda going to something similar with my cocktail.
I just inserted some 5mm acrylic rod pieces in this test panel which were then back lit by LEDs.
However, I then decided it would be better to use 10mm rod pieces and then cut arrows out of the CPO to reveal the acrylic below, kinda like:
The dotted line represents the 10mm acrylic insert.
I'm still undecided whether to do this with one of my Naomi cabs.
This is a quick video of the 5mm lit inserts. I think the 10mm inserts + arrows would look nicer, along with halo lit Seimitsu buttons.