FullCircuit

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The Control Panel
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The control panel for FullCircuit is a 4layer sandwich. 3/4" MDF forms the base and outer rim, this has been routed out to accept a t-shaped piece of 16ga steel which forms the main surface where the controls are mounted. This was done to minimize the mounting depth and get as much height out of the sticks as possible. The panel was then covered with custom artwork and a sheet of 1/16" lexan for the top. The entire assembly was slot routed and wrapped with a piece of 13/16" T-molding. It's super-durable and weighs a ton!

If you notice, there are no mounting holes. I really wanted to keep the clean look and show off the artwork as much as possible so when I was putting the whole thing together, I drilled and tapped the mounting holes into the steel from the bottom, this has the advantage of not showing anything from the top, but still being able to remove the joysticks/trackball with a simple screwdriver from the underside of the CP.

The artwork was cusom made by myself in photoshop. I plan on doing a marquee and sideart to match, but haven't gotten around to finishing it up yet. Printing was done at a local shop and cost about $35 on high-quality paper.

Finally, I spent a lot of time on the control layout and finally decided on the (seemingly unconvetional) placement of the trackball and spinner up-front and off-center. This gives tons of room for trackball movement (although, I must confess, I never really see the need to fling my hand about when using the trackball. If I need that much speed I usually use the two-tumb method) and you don't have to reach over the other controls to use either it or the spinner. The sticks have a nice short throw, which I like, my only regret is not being able to find this fantastic stick with a blue ball-top shaft.

I may eventually swap in illuminated leaf switch buttons as I think they provide a excellent look and I'm going to change the trackball lighting over to high-power blue LEDs to make it match the color scheme a little more.