Saturday, January 17, 2009

Most Materials Arrive

I have lots of updates that i hadn't posted through the last week, but let's start with the buttons. All of them have arrived, and here is a smattering of them:

Here is a closeup of the switch assembly on them:

I also ordered several samples of pots to try and get ahold of this outlier in my materials needs:

So a few notes here.

First, the knurled shaft pot in the pic above (the one with teeth and a cut down the shaft) is EXACTLY what i need for the smaller knobs with black on top. they fit nicely, and they constitute the majority of the pots needed. therefore, i have gone ahead and ordered all of them from Mouser. the outstanding issue was the length of the bushing, and that has been resolved (a seperate update on that later today).

The other pot in the pic above was with a "D" shaft for the aluminum "hat" looking knobs you see below - they do not fit at all, and i have to go with another knob type. I broke a pot trying to force it on, even though the measurements suggest it should work. the easiest way to get aroudn this is to pick standard round 1/4" shafts and then knobs with set screws to get them on just right. i will post later on my selections to replace them. disappointed, as i liked that design, but whatever. we are so close to construction that i just want to move on.

Second, the LED's were not included with the illuminated pushbuttons. this is annoying and lame, but whatever - i have ordered them to arrive in a week or so.

Finally, the joystick is cool looking and i'm going to use it, but it is switch based only, meaning it has an on/off trigger in each of the four primary directions - it is NOT a potentiometer in each direction as i expected and hoped. turns out those are more rare than i thought anyway. here is a closeup of the joystick:

More later on remaining parts, and especially the plexiglass panel and enclosure. Colossus version 2 is at hand....

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