Accessibility Focused Nintendo Switch Controller

Inspiration gm

We have come to realize that there is a market for older-generation gamers. People in this age group can have significant challenges when using traditional console controllers. In addition to this, we suspect that gamers are going to be getting older in the future (Gen Z). Finally, the Nintendo Switch has notoriously small Joy-Cons. They can be hard to use even for people without accessibility problems. We wanted to create a wireless alternative that can be used for the older demographic of gamers.

What it does

It acts as a standard wireless switch controller in terms of button functionality with directional pad, bumpers, triggers, 2 analog sticks, and ABXY. It features an ergonomic layout with its most prominent feature, the dual palm sticks. The joy sticks feature deadzone control to help with any shakiness a user's hands might experience.

How we built it

We used an ESP32 with bare bones open source Bluetooth connectivity code and flashed a modified version onto the microcontroller to fit our controller's needs. The buttons, limit switches, and ESP32 were soldered into 2 cookie boards, which we glued and soldered together. In total, we have 8 buttons and 4 switches in the ESP32, as well as 2 analog sticks. The whole assembly was surrounded in cardboard layer by layer until the important components were contained and the wires could be stowed away. The Joy stick tops were modeled and 3d printed, then we took foam from the Hive and used it to make the tops more comfortable.

Challenges we ran into

Modifying the bare bones ESP32 -> Nintendo Switch code was tricky. Building the cardboard body was challenging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud that we got Bluetooth to function even with existing tutorials and code online. We have never used an ESP32 so learning how to flash code and program within it was fun and rewarding. Connecting to nintendo devices can be harder than other consoles. We are very proud of the palm-sticks. We are also proud of the soldering and that nothing broke during assembly.

What we learned

We learned that cardboard takes a long time to cut and form a body out of... We also learned how to work with the ESP32 and improved our soldering skills. We also learned what hackathons are like. This hackathon was an awesome first experience for all of our group members!

What's next for Accessibility Focused Nintendo Switch Controller

We would like to add noise filtering to help improve any stick drift. Also, we would like to add a stick tilt sensitivity adjustment so that even less movement could be required to perform an analog stick adjustment. The whole circuit layout could be printed onto a pcb and the body of the controller could be some plastic, possibly 3d printed. Finally, the button placement and palmstick height could be dialed in to be the most ergonomic possible. Possibly a customer survey would be conducted where we would get real feedback from older gamers.

Built With

• c
• espidf