Mechanical

Overview

Our priority was to create an immersive experience for players of Control. We achieved this by putting great emphasis on design and build quality. Careful consideration was taken to ensure a clean, durable, and robust design with no exposed wires, all while ensuring easy assembly and maintenance.

CAD

We developed Control using SolidWorks 2021; all CAD files have been made accessible below. All components were designed by us, except standard components obtained from GrabCAD as well as the joystick and LED matrix housings obtained from Thingiverse.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:700346
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3256141

CAD Files

Subsystems

Turret

The top part of the turret contains a laser pointing through the barrel and an orange LED mounted above. Both are activated upon firing the turret. The servo in the base rotates the turret.

The wires are routed through the turret in a way that prevents stress during movement, maintaining a clean aesthetic.

Target Module

Contains five targets for each player. In the centre of each target is a photoresistor, which gets activated when hit by the laser. The LED above the target glows with the color of its current state.

The wires are routed through the module down into the main housing.

Gear Dispenser

We developed a simple dispensing mechanism which uses a single servo motor to deliver gears to both players.

The servo rotates a paddle which ejects a gear towards the winning side. Once the paddle rotates clear of the gear tube, the remaining gears drop ready for the next dispense cycle.

Drawings

Assembly

The shell was constructed using laser cut 6 mm plywood. Wood glue combined with finger joints created a strong and durable chassis. The top plate was made of white acrylic and all other components were 3D printed using PLA or PETG.

We favored bolts and screws over glue for attaching components wherever it was feasible in the design. We used heat set inserts generously for bolting to 3D prints.

Initially, we relied on breadboards and jumper wires but ended up soldering much of the electronics together as a consequence of our debugging process. This drastically increased the reliability of the system.

We would also like to add a special thanks to the Lab64 community for tolerating us living in there for a week :)

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