Custom ABXY buttons on the 360 controller?

Fobia · Post by **Fobia** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:40 pm

Has anyone ever tried or seen some try to make their own custom buttons? Like, different color, symbol, etc. I've got this wicked idea for a controller, but I want to have all my info, including this, before I dive into it.

Edit:

Just for the helluvit, here's the concept image I made. The spatter will, of course, be different, and look better. I may switch it to the other side and move the "Fobia", but that's the basic idea.

Edit 2:

So, I think I've figure it out. Through some late night sketching, contemplating and brainstorming, I think I've come up with a system to create the set buttons. I've designed a series of molds and casts (Some reusable, some breakable) to great the buttons with the in-set design. All I need now is to find and pick the final materials. And for that, TO THE CRAFT STORE! I'll start assembly tomorrow. Er...later today. I will definitely document the process and post it in a thread when I am done, and display my results.

Rekarp · Post by **Rekarp** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:07 pm

You would probably have to make a mold and pour epoxy or something similar. Or hand craft it out of metal/wood.

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:46 pm

There's no reason why it isn't possible. (The buttons you see are just chunks of plastic anyway...

) The big problem is what to make them out of. You could make a mold and pour in melted plastic (or even glass if you have access to the equipment); this would let you embed things into the button. Or you could take a piece of plastic dowel and cut it to length, then carve into it. For extra credit you could use clear plastic and stick some small LEDs in there.

Actually that would look pretty cool. Clear acrylic dowel, cut to length, with the necessary symbol etched into the top, backlit with a matching-color LED. You'd have to use something like paint thinner (or maybe a match) to make the cut edges of the plastic clear again, but that's actually not too difficult.

Fobia · Post by **Fobia** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:48 pm

I've been considering the molding idea, the only problem is, how does one properly melt plastic to a pourable consistency? I really like the idea because I want to set something in it, the same way that they actual buttons are made.

My second idea was taking the existing buttons, painting them black, then putting the symbols on top with some glow in the dark paint.

bicostp wrote:There's no reason why it isn't possible. (The buttons you see are just chunks of plastic anyway... ) The big problem is what to make them out of. You could make a mold and pour in melted plastic (or even glass if you have access to the equipment); this would let you embed things into the button. Or you could take a piece of plastic dowel and cut it to length, then carve into it. For extra credit you could use clear plastic and stick some small LEDs in there.

Actually that would look pretty cool. Clear acrylic dowel, cut to length, with the necessary symbol etched into the top, backlit with a matching-color LED. You'd have to use something like paint thinner (or maybe a match) to make the cut edges of the plastic clear again, but that's actually not too difficult.

phantom92opera · Post by **phantom92opera** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:29 pm

check out www.llamma.com or their forums www.forums.llamma.com
all things xbox mod are there or at www.xbox-scene.com and their forums www.forums.xbox-scene.com

Xazarus · Post by **Xazarus** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:10 am

Fobia wrote:My second idea was taking the existing buttons, painting them black, then putting the symbols on top with some glow in the dark paint.

This is by far the easiest and best idea. If you've never taken apart a 360 controller, it's very simple and particularly easy to put back together. It looks like you're working with a wireless, which is somewhat more difficult because of the torx security screws, but if you can get those off (JFGI) it's ridiculously simple to pull out whatever buttons you want to mess with, including the Xbox logo (separate from the LEDs, so you can keep those perfectly intact). Why hand-mold your own buttons when you could just paint the ones that you know work perfectly?

phantom92opera · Post by **phantom92opera** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:21 am

there was a guy who did some custom guide buttons like that a while ago... his name was ljfivetwo if i remember correctly and he calls himself the "controller king"

http://forums.llamma.com/viewtopic.php? ... sc&start=0