One of the key aspects of each PipBoy iteration I’ve worked on has been the element of having working buttons and dials, so after finding the appropriate display for the job, the next most important thing was to find appropriate buttons and dials and to integrate them with the software in a way that is functional.
Looking at the game model there are a few main controls, there is the dial in the top right located next to the 3 main navigation buttons (STAT, ITEM & DATA), below that there is a dial and rocker switch for the radio. Elsewhere on the device there’s a button on the very top and then a light that may also be a button on the front of the holotape deck. In my recreation the radio buttons are already an apspect of the radio module made by The Wand Company, so that’s already taken care of, the main buttons we’ll need to make use of for navigating the user interface are the 3 navigation buttons and the dial.
The buttons are relatively simple, we just need to find appropriate buttons that’ll fit the holes and we’re good to go, the dial we’ll use a rotary encoder for, and for a cheeky extra bit of control we can opt for a rotary encoder with push switch, so the overall look of the PipBoy does not change, but we can utilise the fact the dial presses in as extra control in the software, and we’ll need every bit we can get.
The first set of buttons I used were standard plunger type switches, to get these to the correct depth I 3D printed a simple block with holes in, slid the switches in and superglued them, very quick and dirty but they looked the part from the outside and they function, why make it any more complex. This didn’t leave much space for a rotary encoder, but I was able to squeeze one in with a few modifications to the plastic around the module and removing the standard header pins off the encoder I’d purchased. At this point I thought I was done and I had a complete module that I was happy with, but little did I know at this time, I was so far from done.
