Sorry about the delay guys, had a bit on... Splitting up with my ex and so forth.... So not had the chance to reply, but I can do so now
I've done a change since I last wrote, I no longer have the 2 sheets of perspex, I now only have the one. What I am doing is I now have a 6mm thick piece of MDF which is 14" x 7", basically you want it the same size as the perspex. But I will write my method in the form that I had done when I used 2 sheets of perspex.
I placed the Home button on the left hand side of the stick and the Start and Select buttons on the right hand side, as I felt most comfortable with this. Each hole in the sides I drilled was using a 30mm spade drill bit. The distance usually between 30mm buttons is around 39mm from center to center. This gives a little room as the buttons have a bit of a lip on them with the border and so forth.
For the back piece (the USB holder), I picked this up from Maplin for about £4.50, I think that for anyone in the US, you can get it from Radio Shack, but not too sure . I drilled a hole of 24mm in the back of the panel and it fitted perfectly.
To measure the holes, I put my hand on a piece of paper and made some marks as to where my fingers would go. I did this for all 12 buttons on the perspex. The distance on some of my buttons are a little out, but if you go to
http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html, they suggest if your using 24mm buttons, then you measure about 29mm from the center of the first button to the center of the second. This apparently gives the perfect spacing for the buttons, so place have a look there.
After making the marks, I placed a compass with a 12mm radius on the marks I made and drew the 24mm circles apart from the Jump button which had a 15mm radius. After drawing out the circles, I measured where the middle of the circle was and drew a horizontal line. I did the same process for the vertical, so that I had drawn a 'cross' shape. The centre of the cross is where I would be drilling.
To drill the holes in the Perspex, I lined up the sheets of perspex as accurately as possible and then put masking tape over the top of the perspex on the top layer and also put masking tape on the back of the bottom layer. I did this as it helps stop the perspex cracking when drilling through it.
To indicate on the perpex where I would be drilling, I made a mark, by lining up the paper and perspex and used a needle to put a mark through each hole, so that an imprint would be made onto the perspex, so I would know where I was going to drill.
At this point, the perspex / plexiglass had all the marks where I was going to drill. I used a Spade drill bit 24mm to trill the holes in the perspex. Note: When drilling the holes, please take it slow and steady, that way you wont melt any of the perspex due to friction and you won't crack it. The masking tape helps re-enforce the perspex, but still should be drilled very very slowly as you are using a wooden drill bit.
I did this for all 12 buttons on the top. It took me a while and may take you a while, but just persevere with it and all shoud be fine. Once all 8 hols are drilled, now it's time for the graphic. You may be able to print it off yourself and place it in between the sheets of perspex or between the perspex and MDF, depending on which option you go for
and also the size of your Hitbox™ Style controller. The standard size is 12" x 6", so your printer may print out fine. When I tried it, it was short the first time I did it.
I took my image that I had done to a printing place. These are places that will probably print banners for partys/ anniversaries and things like that. As mine was 14" x 7", I had to get it printed on A3 as it was too big. If you have a smaller controller, then if it is below A4, you should be able to print off normally and use that!!!!!
I placed the graphic inbetween the perspex sheets and then turned the MDF over, so I was looking at the back. I took a pencil used the holes in the MDF as a template to draw the circles where my buttons were going to be passing through.. Once I drew the holes, I took the graphic, placed it on a cutting board and the carefully used a scalpel to cut 4 lines to split the circle into 8 segments. My advise is not to cut those individual segments because I did it and the holes look terrible!!!
When cutting, I go from the middle of the circle to just before the border edge, as when you push a buttong through the gap, it may tear a little, just something to be aware of!! Once all the lines are cut, there are 8 segments. You don't need to cut these, because when you put the button in there, the button will push the segments to the side, therefore no more cutting is required!!!
I haven't done the wiring as of yet, so I will stop the post here. Hopefully this may have been a help to you guys and when I get the wiring done, I will write more to explain what I did.
Depending on if this goes well and if people learn from it, I will re-write it as a guide, but at this stage I'm not going to do so because I want it to help people and work for people first!!
Take it easy all!!!
~Kobra
