Quick links: Printables / imgur
So here we are at the second iteration. This will be the first time that we’ve completely replaced the joystick platform with something 3D printed. I have faith in Andy, he’s very capable. So here’s what he came up with!
(If you just want to blast through the imgur here’s that link)
So it’s a new joystick platform and it has Legos? Why? Well, I think Andy just thought it was a lot more exciting than a plane black platform which he also printed. And damn it, he’s right.
We had a straight black one to pick from but Andy was convinced that the Lego version was more exciting and it was hard to disagree with him especially because he brought a small Lego kit with him that he was intent on assembling in front of me. Which he did. It was Jurassic Park themed and then my wife decided to grab her Flanders Lego mini and stick him on there too just to keep Chris Pratt from getting lonely.
So this is the first time that we actually replaced the entire platform which was essentially a test to make sure that all the components that he embedded in the plastic beneath the platform wood measure up correctly and attached to the wheelchairs actual hardware. I had no doubt that it would but it was important to make sure that there was no hiccups for future development.
Despite the lack of a finished surface on the original platform that came with the joystick the printed version turned out really well and it looks like Andy mastered the art of embedding the hardware into the recessed plastic. So from here the sky is the limit, anything that I might want to connect to the chair as a controller is basically possible at this point.
So why is there a picture of Andy’s little emergency button? Well, because the next iteration is hopefully going to involve adding buttons that will interact with my desktop computer. The goal of this whole project is to be able to increase the accessibility that I have when interfacing with my computer. There’s so many quick shortcuts that could speed up my development time just by holding control, shift, or alt that adding these buttons to my left hand while having my other hand on the mouse as usual would be a huge benefit to my time developing artwork as well as software for my job.
So yeah, stay tuned for the next version!
Oh yeah, the Legos broke off in a matter of hours. Pretty sure when I drove up to the bedroom I bashed it on the door frame and the Legos went flying. It was a nice idea, in theory…
-mh
