Balancing D-Pad Gets You In The Game

Inspired by TRON, [lasttraveler] decided to try his hand at building a Balance Board — basically a giant joystick pad you can stand on to control.

Constructed of solid wood, the switches are actually very simple — he’s just using tin foil to make the contacts. By opening up the sacrificial keyboard, he’s taken the up/down/left/right keys and wired the contacts directly to the four tin foil pads. A recess in the bottom of the board allows the rest of the keyboard to remain intact — in case he ever wants to take it apart again. Or add new buttons!

Wooden crossbeams in the shape of an X allow the board to balance in the middle without touching any of the contacts — but as soon as you lean the connections are made and you’re off to the races!

Now strap on a VR headset and play some TRON! Though if you want even more accurate control you might want to pick up a cheap Wii balance board instead.

[via r/DIY]

14 thoughts on “Balancing D-Pad Gets You In The Game

  1. I really like the project, but why use tin foil? Aluminum foil is much more conductive and far easier to get. You can get aluminum foil at any grocery store, but you have to special order tin foil.

  2. I can’t help but observe that many non americans don’t hesitate to look down their noses at Americans, yet are ignorant of American culture. Don’t speak derogatorily of a culture until you understand it. I do understand that CJ wasn’t being derogative, but CJ’s comment brought my observation to the surface.

Leave a Reply to DV82XLCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.