The Copper Wire Hand Controller

A game controller made out of cardboard and copper wire to play video games with!

BeginnerFull instructions provided6 hours90

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Adafruit Circuit Playground Express

Rechargeable Battery, Lithium Ion

Copper wire

Cardboard

Velcro

Software apps and online services

Microsoft MakeCode

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Scissor, Electrician

Tape, Electrical

Pencil

Sharpie

Story

This project is about creating a video game controller with cardboard and copper wire. The reason Josh and I decided to make this type of controller was the simplicity of attaching copper wire to the circuit express playground to use as the conductive material for mapping the keys for the controller. The controller works by using the copper wire as the buttons and all the user has to do is touch the end of the copper wire. Additional buttons are used on the circuit express board itself to create a total of nine buttons for the controller.

1 / 13 • Step 1: Gather Materials

The design of the controller went through various stages of design to determine the most efficient use of copper wire and cardboard. At one point, a whole glove was to replace the cardboard, but the design did not conclude with sufficient results and had to be scrapped. Additionally, a custom made game was to be originally made for the demonstration, but was erased due to technical difficulties so an emulator for a game boy game was used for the demonstration instead.

Schematics

Code

Strange Controller

input.buttonA.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(1, 0x000000)
    keyboard.key("g", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.buttonA.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("g", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})
input.buttonB.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(9, 0xffffff)
    keyboard.key("h", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.buttonB.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("h", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})
input.buttonsAB.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(5, 0x0000ff)
    keyboard.key("j", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.buttonsAB.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("j", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})
input.pinA1.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(6, 0xff0000)
    keyboard.key("k", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.pinA1.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("k", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})
input.pinA2.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(8, 0xff8000)
    keyboard.key("a", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.pinA2.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("a", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})
input.pinA3.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(4, 0x00ff00)
    keyboard.key("w", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.pinA3.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("w", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})
input.pinA4.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(2, 0x00ffff)
    keyboard.key("d", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.pinA4.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("d", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})
input.pinA7.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Down, function () {
    light.setPixelColor(3, 0x7f00ff)
    keyboard.key("s", KeyboardKeyEvent.Down)
})
input.pinA7.onEvent(ButtonEvent.Up, function () {
    light.clear()
    keyboard.key("s", KeyboardKeyEvent.Up)
})