BrandonR Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 A while back I had the nerdy idea to make a ride operator control panel for my computer to do otherwise-mundane tasks, like a E-stop button to lock the computer. So after months of researching and buying stuff, I finally did it! I made a video of it in action here: In the second part of the video you can see I modified it to control trains in NoLimits. I explain how everything works in the Youtube video's description, but basically it runs off an Arduino microcontroller which makes everything simpler than you'd probably expect. I plan on posting some pictures of the inside soon but in the meantime if you have any questions or comments I'd love to hear them! Call me crazy but having a bunch of bright, blinking buttons (that are actually functional!) on your desk just looks cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABW Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 That's awesome! I love how you can control it for pretty much any program and it just looks great in NoLimits! I'd totally buy one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle11 Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 Cool! How much did that cost to build? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonR Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 The Arduino microcontroller was $30 and the enclosure was about $30 off eBay. I bought several lot auctions on eBay for the push buttons and kind of mixed and matched til I got what I liked, so maybe altogether $30-35 for the buttons (but I have a ton left over so I could make another one if I wanted to). There's several little odds and ends like the breadboard and jumper cables but those were cheap (less than $10). Somewhere around $100 for the whole thing. I probably could have done it cheaper had I used lower-quality buttons but they don't "feel" as good. By far the biggest expenses on any similar project are going to be the buttons and enclosure since they're typically made for industrial uses and extreme operating environments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber.Fiber Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 That is just incredible! Looks so cool with no limits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The SETGO Guys Posted August 5, 2011 Share Posted August 5, 2011 Awesome! Please post inside photos! I'd love to see how you built it! Great Job! -Zach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonR Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 Here are the pictures. I didn't want to connect all the wires again (it was a pain having to do it with needle-nose pliers) so access was limited. Contact blocks for the buttons and LED lights. The Arduino microcontroller that controls everything. The breadboard connects it all together, along with some pull-up (or is it pull-down?) resistors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagro5 Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 I'm in awe of how nerdy this is. I'm also in awe of how awesome this is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastermaniac Posted August 7, 2011 Share Posted August 7, 2011 That's very impressive, and cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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