16. System Integration¶
Flow Chart¶
Here is a flow chart of how my box works:
Box¶
PCB Mounts¶
I made a mount for these PCBs by erecting a border around the PCB to keep in in place. To make sure it didn’t fall out of this border I added two press fit pieces that would go over the board and secure it to its enclosure.
Wires¶
To keep the PCB small I used pinheaders to connect the wires to the board. This meant I needed to connect the breadboard wires to the wires that came with the buttons.
Spade Connectors¶
At first I used spade connectors to join the wires together, since some of the buttons wiring harness came with them pre installed. However the bread board wires were too small and snapped after I moved them around too much.
Direct Solder¶
After a few of the wires snapped, I decided to soleder the breadboard and button wires together directly with heat shrink over them. This worked way better.
Design¶
One thing that always bugged me about the DIY button boxes was the fact that most of them were super ugly. They had harsh, sharp edges, brightly colored cheap platic buttons, and looked very ultilitarian. Since my racing simulator take up a lot of space in my common room, I wanted to make sure that my box was as sleek as the rest of the simulator. I wanted somethign that looked really cool, but didn’t stand out. I also wanted the buttons to feel so good to use, that people would find any excuse they could think of to use them. This is how I landed on using switches used in industrial, automotive, and nautical uses. While expensive, these switches were, solid, had a great click and a satisfyingly long press distance, and looked really good. I chose blue because a few other parts of my simulator had blue indicator LEDs and I also really like the color. I borrowed the design language from the large button box sold by ATS Accesories and made my boxes have a slanted top and large filleted edges, which added a nice sleek but subtle look.
