Greets,
So I've been playing a lot of Smash 3DS lately, and in my curiosity I found that the one thing causing most of my inaccuracies has been one difference between the Gamecube Controller and the 3DS circle pad.
If you happen to have a Gamecube controller, you might notice or have noticed that it has 8 notches which align it to 8 different directions, and the same for the C-Stick. The 3DS, however, does not. So after gathering some measurements from my own 3DS, I think I may have found a solution, the only problem is that I cannot easily prototype it without a significant (ish) amount of money since I don't have a 3D printer. (It's about $1.50 on Shapeways, but shipping almost triples the price per prototype so if there's a lot of issues then it'll get expensive quick).
I designed the following shape that when, to scale and raised to the right hight, should be able to be inserted in the small chamber where the Circle Pad and the actual joystick for it connect:
It effectively rests on the 4 flat sides of the chamber and forms the proper notches that would create the same octagonal notches to align the 3DS circle pad in those directions like the Gamecube controller. For anyone who is curious, the entire chamber is approximately 20x20mm, but it has rounded corners, so the actual flat side lengths are about 12.25mm large.
Of course, my main problem is that I haven't been able to test this theory at all, and I have no idea if this even works. So my main question is this: Are there any engineering issues I might have missed, and for those with a 3D printer and the right size screwdriver to take apart their 3DS and insert this, does it work for you? I'm going to try and find out if there are any local services for 3d printing things so I can prototype and test this myself, but if anyone has access to the stuff to do this, that would be awesome as well.
A 3D printable model can be found here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:661685
(units are in cm if you import, entire thing should be 22x22mm)
So I've been playing a lot of Smash 3DS lately, and in my curiosity I found that the one thing causing most of my inaccuracies has been one difference between the Gamecube Controller and the 3DS circle pad.
If you happen to have a Gamecube controller, you might notice or have noticed that it has 8 notches which align it to 8 different directions, and the same for the C-Stick. The 3DS, however, does not. So after gathering some measurements from my own 3DS, I think I may have found a solution, the only problem is that I cannot easily prototype it without a significant (ish) amount of money since I don't have a 3D printer. (It's about $1.50 on Shapeways, but shipping almost triples the price per prototype so if there's a lot of issues then it'll get expensive quick).
I designed the following shape that when, to scale and raised to the right hight, should be able to be inserted in the small chamber where the Circle Pad and the actual joystick for it connect:
It effectively rests on the 4 flat sides of the chamber and forms the proper notches that would create the same octagonal notches to align the 3DS circle pad in those directions like the Gamecube controller. For anyone who is curious, the entire chamber is approximately 20x20mm, but it has rounded corners, so the actual flat side lengths are about 12.25mm large.
Of course, my main problem is that I haven't been able to test this theory at all, and I have no idea if this even works. So my main question is this: Are there any engineering issues I might have missed, and for those with a 3D printer and the right size screwdriver to take apart their 3DS and insert this, does it work for you? I'm going to try and find out if there are any local services for 3d printing things so I can prototype and test this myself, but if anyone has access to the stuff to do this, that would be awesome as well.
A 3D printable model can be found here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:661685
(units are in cm if you import, entire thing should be 22x22mm)