Last weekend I painted this case by trying to match the colors of breadbin cases.
Actually, it was very hard to match the color by mixing acyrillic paints that I have.
Anyway, first I applied a surface primer (gray) and then used sandpapering to clean up surfaces. After that I used putty to fill layered surfaces that caused by 3d printing. And applied sandpapering again.
Careful while using this kind of putty products (in my case Tamiya Putty). There are huge warnings about how hazardous they are.
I'm trying to match a color here but it's far from good. So I decided to use it as a one more primer layer to sandpaper once again.
Sandpapering again has made the gray at the bottom look more visible like some Substance Painter edge damage filter is applied :)
Color in the container is my second mix where you can see that previous one (the right part) looking more off.
I'm using airbrush for the job BTW.
And looks better.
Finally I assembled the pieces and paint the icons on the front panel with black permanent pen.
A close up with flashlight.
One comparison with Commodore 1702 monitor.
Now it looks more like the one I rendered for the the blister pack project on my portfolio :)
I'm here with another case and electronics design related to BMC64 Emulator (https://accentual.com/bmc64/). It's a Commodore 64 emulator for Raspberry Pi devices.
My purpose was to assemble a portable All-in-one device to be usable by just connecting to a TV or Monitor by a video cable.
First you can check this introduction video I recorded about this device:
Now let's see how I made it:
First I gathered the components and soldered them.
Power Bank Charge Unit
18650 Battery
Raspberry Pi 3A+
2 x DSUB9 Connectors
6 x 8mm Switches
SD Card Expander
Firepad 64 mechanism (Custom made)
USB Expander (Custom made)
GPIO hat (Custom made)
3mm LED light
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I made a GPIO hat for the Raspberry to distribute all joystick and custom function pins to buttons.
Once I gathered all the components together, I designed the case by part by part which I'm lucky that all fit together at the end.
First I designed the bottom part and 3d printed it. Made the assembly fixed onto it by screws.
Next my measuring the result with the bottom part, I designed the top part of the case and 3d printed it.
Connected the firepad unit to it by screws & nuts.
All system is ready to be encapsulated.
I made this translucent keycaps by 3d printing. I applied translucent filament into the direction icons and used sandpaper to smooth and blend them together.
Here is the lit version with labels I printed with my color printer.
Finally I printed little key caps fot the left panel, and device is ready to use.
It's connected to HDMI screen.
And here it's connected to A CRT screen (Commodore 1084).
Yesterday I was detaching keycaps of my Commodore 64 to clean the mess under, because some of the keys were not pressing well. But while detaching the keycaps I broke 19 of them. Since the time passed, these key mechanism plastics got crunchy.
Normally this means you need to send your computer to service, and make them replace the key mechanism. Since there is no service of this brand, that mean I need to solve this myself.
First I tried to super glue the thing but it was not a good idea, since doens't work. After that, I decided to 3d print the parts that I broke down.
But first, I needed to remove the broken part inside the caps. For that, I used "wine cork technique" with a tiny screw! First I screwed it 3-4 steps into the broken part and I pulled it back.
Next, I modeled the existing part with Solidwoks by taking measures with calipers.
Before printing this kind objects that needs to be used on mechanical purposes, I make the slicing angular (about 30°). This way printing layers will be angular, so part will be more durable for the forces on the arms.
Since it is roughly 10mm to 18mm part, I wasn't sure that it will come out correctly. Because there is a rubber conductor part that needs to be attached to that part to make it work.
Recently I made an advancement on my Firepad64 design, which is the Version 3 (possibly the last update) for this device. It's a joystick replacement for Commodore 64 that has a keyboard layout for easy playing. You can check this post to see the first creation steps of this device:
I want to share the steps of the creation of this device because (except the PCBs) it's all homemade manufacturing which is a great achievement of our world has come to. I didn't even get out from home to create this "mechanic and electronic" product. So I find this important to share the details of creating an end-user product at home. It's cyberpunk! :)
Anyway, Version 3 of Firepad64 has 3 major advancements after the previous version.
Professional Outemu brand mehchanical keys with regular linear (red) and clicky type (blue) versions.
Backlit Lighting
Screw Assembly instead of shrink-fit
This video shows some details of the product but it's in Turkish.
The most problematic part of this update was to adapt the Mechanical buttons to my existing PCBs. Because the pin positions are totally different. Since I have some 50 pieces of the previous PCBs, I decided made an adapter for the buttons to comply with my existing boards.
Without those adapters I was adapting the keys with prototyping boards. It was good for some 1-2 adaptations but it was not durable and it was so much time consuming to make the buttons adapt to my existing PCBs.
Wtih the help of the adapters it was easy for me to make usable mechanical switches in a fast way.
Next I 3d printed a template to make the perfect alignment for the keys before soldering them.
You can see the lighting under the keys. Best part of these mechanical keys, they are designed for to let the light under them. So I used a serial light cable which are used on new year lighting applications on homes to make the keys lit.
I assembled the PCBs.
This is how they shine like a Christmas tree :)
My next step was to finalize the 3d design and make the 3d printing. I made the whole design with Solidworks but I love how Rhinoceros show the CAD models. Look at this fast AO computation in viewport!
So I started 3d printing and assembled each set after they're complete.
Nice part about these keys is you can use regular keycaps.
So here is the army of Firepads :)
And finally the connector & cable design.
Time for boxing.
Enjoying Mr. Steven Wilson's great music while working on the stickers and product sheets.
...and voila!
I hope you like the steps of this home production phase for some friends from the community of retro gaming. Thanks & see you!
Hello! I made a 3d printable case design for my easyflash3.
Easyflash3 is re-programmable Commodore 64 cartridge that supports all CRT files and fastload cartridge binaries like Action Replay, Final Cartridge Etc. You can find more details about it by this link: https://skoe.de/easyflash/
I used Solidworks to measure and model the existing electronic part first. I use calipers to measure all distances and clearences while creating the model. And next I modeled the case by referencening the electronic part.
This way I had a chance to get rid of that center screw which I don't like on cartridges. It's economic and easy way for an assembly but my version is more rock solid at the end with no loose fixation between case and the PCB.
You can download the models from thingiverse. I also added some label designs as PDF file.
Firepad V2 was the same case design with linear adjusment handle and old-school click-type mitsui keyboard switches. I desoldered these switches from some mechanical keyboards that one of my friends Lutfi Öner gave me as a gift.
You can check some details about Version 2 by this link (blog post is Turkish).
And finally for best gameplay experience, I upgraded switch type with cherry buttons. For that buttons to be usable with my existing PCBs, I made an adapter board by using cheap prototyping boards. Because conductive legs of the cherry switches are not comply with my PCBs.
This is the single adapted switch for my firepad PCB.
Making these adapters and soldering the legs one by one is an overwhelming process, so I designed a PCB layout for that job. I didn't yet ordered the PCBs, so I'm not sure if they'll fit good. Until then, I will continue to make handmade adapters.
Hand made adapters work well too.
I even designed 3d printed custom keycaps!
Voila!
After this progress, I wired some LEDs for keys. Because I can even use translucent keycaps with these lights now.
After this touches, I finally made some Red & Black concept with keycaps to make a resemblance with most of the joysticks of the era. Red tone of my 3d printing filament didn't match perfectly but it looks all right.
And photo time with my portable BMC and Quickjoy Turbo joystick!
This time I designed interior stands to hold all compoenents in a way that made on the cardboard placement. So I measured all compoenents back, and designed holder skeleton stands. These stands will be able to fixed in a planar surface at the ground.
You can see some progress screenshots from Solidworks.
While designing the stands, I started to 3d print them and try to see if they fit and cables are OK starting from the bottom keypad and analog converter board.
To save space, I tried my best to place all components in 2 or 3 layers.
So I moved on to the upper part with analog controller.
I made the connections through test solders of the raspberry pi as much as I can, to get rid of using connectors. Because the consume to much of space.
Next I printed the stand that holds USB controller, Raspberry pi and the Screen.
It fit great!
Only menu navigation buttons set and the battery pack is remained.
And finally I printed the battery and navigation key stands with black PLA this time.
Everything in it's place but they are not fixed.
To fix everything on a wooden plate, first I extracted a bottom surface drawing from Solidworks.
Printed the drawing and checked if it's correctly scaled with the reference dimension on the drawing.
I glued the template to the wooden plate and drilled the holes with a screw (first I printed the mirrored template by mistake!).
And finally fixed!
Look at that screen with CRT Filter! Imho it's almost perfect for a 800 x 480 pixels screen.
Previously I made a case design for the Pi1541 standard "hat" circuit to place over Raspberry Pi 3 devices. To see what is a Pi1541 and what it's used for you can check my previous blog entry:
I made my layout in Excel to place the components onto the prototyping PCB.
I also checked the layout with physical items.
After several hours of soldering I completed the circuit (looks like some device from the "Back to the Future".
...and I tested it out by conencting to my Commodore 64.
Now it's the fun part: the case design.
As usual, I used Solidworks to design the case. I took measures of the existing circuait with calipers and then made the case design by checking the clearences. Here is the modeling timelapse:
I printed the design with my 3d printer and applied to the circuit.
