USB Arcade Controller

Last year for my math class, the homework was mostly online. I made lots of typos because I pressed the enter key too soon or pressed other buttons around it by accident. So that gave me the idea to build a giant numeric keypad with a joystick. My dad said I just wanted it for gaming, and I realized that was an even better idea (but don't tell him I said that).

I was inspired to build with arcade buttons because I work in an arcade. I ordered a kit for a 2 player arcade controller with 10 buttons per player. This gave me a lot of parts to work with. The controller board was not compatible with any of the programs I tried, including Minecraft or Roblox, so I decided to use the Makey Makey board I had bought at the Radio Shack going out of business sale.

For the box, I used a box from an old satellite DVR donated by a neighbor. It is made of thin painted black steel. For the joystick center holes and smaller button I was able to use a step bit to drill the holes. Unfortunately, my step drill only goes up to 25mm, and I needed 30mm holes for the larger buttons. I looked for another way to drill the holes. My grandad suggested a chassis punch, but I didn't have one. I tried the 1 1/8" hole saw that I already had, but it wasn't sharp enough. So next I shopped around for either a larger step bit or a bi-metal hole saw. I wanted either a tool that was in my budget, or a set that I could use for other projects in the future. I ended up getting a 1-1/8 inch bi-metal hole saw.

The left stick is WASD and the right stick is mouse, the lower two buttons are space, the top 2 buttons are click, and the middle button is G.