Cheap start to making a control box...

[RayB]

Check out the "keyboarder" and "modular desktop" boxes on this page: http://www.action-electronics.com/lmb.htm

They seem ideal for desktop control panels.

[DarkBubble]

I was just flipping through an Allied Electronics catalog yesterday and came across the same style of box and thought the same thing.  Seems like it'd be a bit light, noisy, and possibly flimsy though.  Would 16-guage aluminum stand up well?

[mahuti]

They have a deluxe nibbling tool.

*snicker*

[MikeDeuce]

I've played with these at Fry's a few times... good for something to press buttons on like a keypad, but would need a ton of reinforcement inside to withstand actual abuse, IMHO.

Maybe if ya filled em with expanding polyurethan foam... heh.

[DarkBubble]

Maybe if ya filled em with expanding polyurethan foam... heh.

I was thinking about using expanding foam to tone down the noise of the microswitches a little.  Once it's dry, it'd be easy to carve out the spots for the parts...anyone actually try it?

The thing about those boxes, in combination with an iPac and various controls, you can create custom controls for practically anything that you can use a keyboard with.  I've got friends who have home studios, and it'd be great to build them a custom control panel that's easily mappable to the keyboard commands of the software that they're most used to.

[ahofle]

How can all you guys hear your micro switches clicking?  Unless you play the games with no sound?  I can't hear a thing except the game sounds and my cussing. 

[Kremmit]

The 20" models are 50 & 60 bucks, unpainted metal.  That's cheap?

That said, it's also not outrageously expensive, and it's certainly a lot of work saved, especially for a metal panel.  Just add holes!

[RayB]

How can all you guys hear your micro switches clicking?  Unless you play the games with no sound?  I can't hear a thing except the game sounds and my cussing. 

If i keep the volume at a "normal--people are sleeping on the floor above me" level, I hear clicky clicky

[DarkBubble]

How can all you guys hear your micro switches clicking?  Unless you play the games with no sound?  I can't hear a thing except the game sounds and my cussing. 

If i keep the volume at a "normal--people are sleeping on the floor above me" level, I hear clicky clicky

And when you slap a dozen microswitches into a plastic and/or metal box, even cranking the volume doesn't do much.  My dislike for the feel of the stick (and the fact that it locks up) in my official Dreamcast arcade stick aside, that thing is one noisy *****.