Mike Sannikov wanted to make an arcade controller. However, what he found was that the selection of buttons to choose from was daunting. Some testing was surely needed in order to figure out what buttons would work best for his ultimate gaming rig. What better way to test buttons than to simply get all the options in one place and press them a bunch!
The idea came to him that a sound sequencer would be a great project. He purchased a selection of buttons as well as a pre-made audio sequencer board from Robertsonics and the “Button Factory” was born.
Combining a milled case, laser etched front panel, and some hard work, the button factory is an impressive project on its own. You can follow along in the Imgur gallery for detailed shots of each step, but I’ve also selected a couple items that I thought were particularly nice to highlight below.
I’ve never had a need to create a speaker grille, and I found his method to be both aesthetically pleasing and quite simple to create. I’ll have to file that away for future projects!
Mike’s attention to detail on this was incredible. Though this was just a side project spawned to test the buttons, he treated it as a priority. Take the example of the corner that accidentally got milled incorrectly. Mike went back and filled the hole with epoxy and sculpted it to match the rest of the curve on the corner perfectly.
The only thing I’m left wonder is: What button will he choose for his controller?
ADVERTISEMENT
