{"id":794,"date":"2018-05-27T17:31:11","date_gmt":"2018-05-27T21:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atavernier.wordpress.com\/?p=794"},"modified":"2025-10-15T18:53:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T18:53:51","slug":"3d-printed-arcade-controller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/?p=794","title":{"rendered":"3D Printed Arcade Controller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So I built this really quick arcade controller a few months ago using a kit I bought on eBay. It worked well, but I didn&#8217;t have an appropriate enclosure at the time, so it has been living in an old router box. Now with the help of super-future-3D-printing-technology, it can finally have a real home!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_795\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-795\" style=\"width: 3196px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-795\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/16.jpg\" alt=\"16\" width=\"3196\" height=\"3000\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-795\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The original cardboard box controller.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>The Build<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_784\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-784\" style=\"width: 4000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-784\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/07.jpg\" alt=\"07\" width=\"4000\" height=\"3000\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-784\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first half of the enclosure, finished after 12 hours. Tape to ensure edges don&#8217;t warp during this long print.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_791\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-791\" style=\"width: 2926px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-791\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/14.jpg\" alt=\"14\" width=\"2926\" height=\"2100\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-791\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The PEI print bed leaves this great glossy surface on the first layer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is the first object I&#8217;ve printed of this size. My print bed is only 200x200mm and this controller enclosure if 190mm wide. It&#8217;s also difficult to calibrate the bed evenly across such a wide distance with my current auto-leveling sensor, so the first layer could definitely be improved in the future.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_790\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-790\" style=\"width: 3478px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-790\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/13.jpg\" alt=\"13\" width=\"3478\" height=\"3000\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-790\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inside is much neater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_789\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-789\" style=\"width: 3622px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-789\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/12.jpg\" alt=\"12\" width=\"3622\" height=\"2910\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-789\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Unassembled controller, with a quick vinyl cutout to cover the top.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I did end up making a vinyl cutout for this controller to make it look even more professional. I suppose I could use another layer of vinyl to add text or images, but I really like the clean, minimal look of the current version.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_788\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-788\" style=\"width: 3244px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-788\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/11.jpg\" alt=\"11\" width=\"3244\" height=\"2856\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-788\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">No soldering required! This whole kit is just plug and play.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_787\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-787\" style=\"width: 3040px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-787\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/10.jpg\" alt=\"10\" width=\"3040\" height=\"1998\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-787\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Top half assembled! It is playable at this point, but the bottom is open.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_797\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-797\" style=\"width: 3226px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-797\" src=\"http:\/\/192.168.110.25:8088\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/17.jpg\" alt=\"17\" width=\"3226\" height=\"2574\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-797\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The finished controller, with base plate attached.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I think the total printing time for this project was about 18 hours&#8211;most of it overnight. Assembly of the final parts only took a few minutes. The base plate screw posts were fairly short in the original design, but I thankfully had several sizes of nylon standoffs on hand.<\/p>\n<p>Now if only I could get past the first stage of Ghosts &#8216;n Goblins!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So I built this really quick arcade controller a few months ago using a kit I bought on eBay. It worked well, but I didn&#8217;t have an appropriate enclosure at the time, so it has been living in an old router box. Now with the help of super-future-3D-printing-technology, it can finally have a real home! [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1721,"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions\/1721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atavernier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}