Bacteria's project: "Project Unity"

[bacteria]

That method didn't work either, the pins were too stiff in the end, unreliable, so useless.

Had a go with another method, an amalgumation of various techniques tried so far (a few posts into one here):

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Right, this one looks like it will work great! Did a prototype with one unit (as described in previous postings), ran it along 3 different sets of contacts on my construction and all worked. Simple idea, which are always the best ones, I now need to make it properly. There is virtually no resistance as the slider moved across (only 1 contact pin not 18 but was to prove the principle), the contact pin literally brushed onto the contact points.

So, I might FINALLY have cracked this!

Couple of pics:





There is enough play on the foam pad to do the job, it is drilled though, and also superglued in place so it's not going anywhere. The black dividers (I need to make them a bit taller) are to stop the pins rotating, and the wire through the wood, which keeps the pin in place, works.

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Finished making my first set of 9 contacts (ie half done). Waiting for the superglue to finish drying - added more to make sure the glue got everywhere. The foam pad pieces didn't work in the end, making the gap in the spaces 1mm less, as needed to make the proper ones meant the pads were too cut and drilled so didn't function, however based on my previous attempts, made the wire twisted to be stronger and using the natural spring in the wire itself for my ends. I think this will work this time, will give it a test later, before making the other set of 9 contacts.

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Ran the unit back and forth over the connectors several times, and tested for continuity and each connection worked (all 9). I'm taking that as success - to make the other unit. This is about my 5th or 6th attempt using different methods, finally got one that works!

[bacteria]

This unit makes contact on each pin on the board, each nut moves independently and has about 2mm play to lower as needed thanks to the foam pads, and the nuts can't move out of sync due to the black piece of plastic. Superglued small pieces of card to separate the nuts to stop shorts.

I just need to test this further before making the 2nd set of contact nuts. It looks like (famous last words) this might be the version that works! This latest method has used quite a few techniques to make, but worth it.

[bacteria]

Had to remake, yet again, use rubber bands instead of foam, for uniform pressure, also sanded down the hex nuts to be rounded.

After many remakes, come up with this, I think it works...

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Well, finished making the unit and it seems to slide properly side to side, and seems robust and looks like it all works fine - I need time (tomorrow) to test a sample of the pins to check it works fine. I need to stress test the unit too to see how it performs.

Basically, how I made this was to make a runner on the bottom so a strip of wood can slide across fine, and held in place, a piece of wood in the middle to join the top and bottom together.

[aaron]

Well, you got the font right, but what's the issue with the font, not a fan of it? I chose it because it didn't look too formal and also letters came out well on the small height I had to play with - fonts on Ubuntu (even with "restricted areas" installed) are limited.

i just think it's just an ugly, stupid font. but power to you. i truly don't care, it's your choice, hence the " " in the post.

[AppleQueso]

this is still the craziest thing ever

who would've dreamed that a project as relatively simple sounding as cramming a ton of console boards into a single box would be so incredibly complicated?

[bacteria]

If i'd just used different power supplies, A/V cables and controllers then the project would be simple; however also a complete waste of time too. What makes this project so complex is the point of the project, making it all work together, to only use one power supply, A/V port and controller instead: that makes the project considerably harder on many levels!

[bacteria]

This is where i'm at at the moment - secured wood onto the top, the slider works nice and smoothly. The idea is i'm going to have a knob of some description on the wood top to allow sliding the unit back and forth, have an LED through part of the wood, so as I move the slide across, when it's made contact to the pair of pins for a console, it illuminates the LED. I'll have a strip of perspex with the name of each console system, so the LED will shine through that. Will make it easy and obvious to use, not how it was with the old design. As mentioned before, making the slider itself easy to remove, and dismantle so if for example the rubber bands snap, they can be replaced in minutes. Elastic bands i've got are about 15-20 years old, got through a few as it was until found good ones - will replace them in the interim anyway no doubt! (rubber gets brittle with age).



I'll need to hack at the wood supports on the Unity case to enable this construction to fit inside, also dismantle the old switches and power switches, pretty much starting that part again, so there is a shed load of work to do and will take time.

Is all this effort worth it for the slider unit instead of the push-buttons - unquestionably!

[bacteria]

This camera takes nice pics!

Anyway, there is just enough space to put the GameCube above the DreamCast, and the rest of the space will be taken up by the game carts of the other systems.

Skeleton mode of course, i'm more interested in mechanics of things working at this stage not making pretty.



The switch unit is straight and level. Ignore the old bank of switches on the left, they will be all removed in time when the new bank of switches replace them.

[xan_racketBOY_fan]

Amazing work, keep it up! Are you shooting for a particular date of completion, bac?

[bacteria]

Very much a case of "it's ready when it's ready" unfortunately, this project has has many re-dos and alterations so has already taken a lot longer than anticipated. All those changes though have resulted in considerable improvements to the system, so positive changes. For example, the old CD tray holders now look vastly better, the old bank of switches are going in preference to the new method i've invented; and also as those changes are underway, I can ground the cables from the systems at both ends now rather than one to make things better.

I'm hoping to get this system done before the end of the year, will have to see how it goes though. There is a considerable amount of work left on this project remaining, for sure; the Unity project is probably in the order of about 40% complete at this stage.