Hello! Lately I was playing so much Street Fighter 6 in online ranked matches. I had got into this game to see as a 42 years old -old school gamer, would I be compete with younger opponents since the last Street Fighter game I had played was the Street Fighter II in 90s :)
After a while I managed to get #1 ranked Ryu in my country (Turkey) which was amazing achievement for me!
I was playing this game with keyboard btw. Here is a footage that I've recorded that show how I played with keyboard.
As a SF6 player that uses keyboard as controller, I'm not planning to be a tournament player (which requires much talent and effort than I can have) but since Keyboard is not allowed on Tournaments when the game runs on PS5, I thought that it might be a good idea to physically create my keyboard layout on a gamepad USB interface electronically.
Here is a section from the rules on Capcom's page
5. Keyboard usage:
Keyboards are allowed only if the platform used in the tournament is Steam. However, keyboards must adhere to these rules in the same manner as controllers.The keyboard alone is not allowed to compete in offline CPT tournaments and must be paired with a controller.
https://sf.esports.capcom.com/cpt/rules/
I recently bought some buttons for my Arcade Cabinets. And they come with a USB interface that you can connect gamepad buttons on the circuit and connect that thing to a device with USB. Here is a link of one of them:
https://www.amazon.com/Hikig-Buttons-joysticks-Controller-Raspberry/dp/B07JFXQSM5
So I started by cutting out some PCB from one of my dead keyboards to solder some mechanical keyboard switches on it.
And next I desoldered anything that I don't need on the PCB. Like integrated circuits, resistors and other components.
Also I have removed the connectors of the USB gamepad interface board to get more space for my case design.
I cutout the keyboard PCBs such a horrable way, so it was nearly impossibe to place them to a case design. So I "scanned" them to get a true scale outline of the boards.
I placed the scanned documents into Rhinoceros, and created the outline for them.
Then I moved the outlines into Plasticity and made a 3D design by taking several measurements of the PCBs.
I made the arrangement to fullfill a necessary width for the buttons, to keep my hands not so close to each other. Because if the left side buttons and the right directional buttons got too close, it would be hard to use that console ergonomically. But if I set the width too wide, then I would need to 3d print the case in multiple parts since it would exceed the build plate boundary which has 240mm by 240mm.
After the 3d printing is completed, I placed the PBCs and started soldering the pinout of the buttons.
Keyboards has a matrix style connections, so I cut the traces of each button trace to prevent any short-circuit.
And the case is completed with all electronics inside.
While I was testing and playing with the controller, there was no problems so far, so I've sealied (glued) the case altogether which means there is no possibility of maintenance after that point. But after using it a few minutes more a strange thing happened because down button and C button got short-circuited.
That was a terrible thing since I couldn't reopen the case without breaking it, so I cut a whole at the bottom side to hopefully see what is wrong inside. But let alone finding the problenm, when I cut the window at the bottom, I terribly scarred the PCB and cutout the traces of the controller circuit. As you can see on this photo that scratch cutout 2 bottons to function (Z and X).
So with a coated wire, I tried my best to fix the traces.
I tested the system and somehow the first problem was gone and the 2 missing buttons came back to life. So I used UV resin to seal the amateur repair that I made there.
After closing the back side with some folio, I go for printing a good artwork for the front cover. I used the curves of my 3d design and placed one of my artworks on it. Then I printed and laminated the coverart.
Then I cut the outline and applied it to the controller with a two sided tape.
Here is the final result.
I'm attaching two videos from my youtube channel to show how the controller works on both Desktop PC and my Steam Deck. I hope you like it, and always thanks for reading.
6th Feb 2025 update!
I revised the design by adding led light switch and making it fully accessible by screw assembly. Also I designed a cover art by Substance Designer. Silly me that I accidentally typed and printed the date as 2024 instead of 2025. A common typo on every beginning of a new year :)
