IIDX Deck - Build Log - Part 1

Date Published: 2015-09-18

This covers the initial design and failed attempts way back in 2010, and eventually starting over in 2015.

So, this is a project I started back in 2009 at HackSLC, predating even the Transistor. I wanted to build my own Beatmania IIDX arcade-spec controller. When the project first began, the idea was to dismantle the american PS2 controller I had, and give it some better buttons and a wheel, so I could still use it for my American PS2 version of Beatmania.

These first two pics are of my trying along this path back at tT in Provo. Not a lot of records form that time. One shows the unmodified IIDX america controller, and the other shows my first attempt at a disk. It spun well, but I never got the hall effect sensor and magnet array inside to work right.

We can now skip forward a few years to 2015. I was mid-burnout phase from after Elefu, much more into woodworking than electronics, and decided to revisit the controller project. I came up with a totally new design, based around the new woodworking skills I had acquired and the laser cutter for cutting the deck. I was going to go all-in.

I made a sketchup file for my design (download at the bottom) based on these dimensions for the arcade controller I found online.

With that out of the way, I set to work on the woodworking. I planed a bunch of oak first, and left it to sit for a long while in my shop before beginning work in earnest.