A Very "Kovid" Kerbal

During some covid downtime I decided to revisit Kerbal Space Program. For those for you that are unfamiliar, it is a game that secretly teaches you the basics of rocket science and orbital mechanics. This is quite fun for anyone, not just space nerds like me. However, this time my lovely wife asked if I would teach her so that we could play and learn together. I was delighted. So much so that I decided to build her a custom controller so that she could interface with the rockets and capsules in a more interactive way than just a keyboard and mouse. 

I designed and built this controller in the span of a week and a half (plus a week or so waiting for parts). I am a senior at the University of Houston (mechanical engineering student graduating in December) so please do not judge my soldering too much ;-). 

Rather than make a single panel I decided to make many individual panes for different systems that all fit into a frame. This way, each instrument control panel can be replaced or updated for improvements, maintenance or new game features/versions. Furthermore, I created a separate top plate for each instrument panel which I call the “panel face”. In such a case where I want to keep the buttons or switches in their current orientation and wiring configuration, but wish to remap and re label a button, it’s as simple as laser cutting a new face plate and changing it out with 2 screws.  

Aside from buying buttons, switches, and development boards, the only materials I used are 5mm clear acrylic and 3mm white acrylic (that was spray painted in flat grey primer). I avoided using nuts to fasten panels to the frame by tapping the frame and base parts where fastening was required. 

I have learned over the years that developing a good understanding of the manufacturing process and tools will lead to better designs. When I design these panels, I do so with the manufacturing steps, tolerances and limitations of my equipment in mind. This ultimately leads to less iterations of the design and less intermediate testing prior to batch parts manufacturing. 

I keep all my design files and I am glad to share them with anyone out there who would like to build one of these.