Thanks to everyone for all the views and taking the time to comment! All the support has been amazing. Special thanks for the donations to the channel. Those were totally unexpected and mean a lot to me! Wanted to take some time to respond to some of the recurring questions below: “Why didn’t you source an internal board for electronics?” I’m trying to release project videos every 3-6 months which means I have to finish my physical builds in 3-6 weeks on top of my day job as a design consultant. Specifying and integrating electronics into this concept would have stretched my release schedule way beyond that timeline. Leveraging off the shelf product internals isn't a pretty solution, but it makes it so I can quickly build out a design. It's a shortcut to quickly experience the ergonomics and design details of an early stage concept. “Why no gyro control?” I was looking into gyro options during the early research phase and have some experience with handling telemetry data on past projects pyottdesign.com/product/skana But, to be honest, getting the data stream out of the gyro sensor and passed into the Steam controller API would have been outside of my skill set. Pretty sure I could have gotten there and it's definitely something I want to learn more about but, again, that would have been more of a year long project instead of a multi-week build. “Are your design files available for download?” I had to cut a lot of things for time, but there was a bunch of Dremeling and manual labor that went into this build after 3D printing. There aren’t really “complete” digital build files for it. This controller was also made specifically for my hands and grip. Because of those reasons, I don’t plan on releasing the files yet. I am looking to revisit a variation on this controller design in the future, and I will (hopefully) include build files when I do! “Can I buy your controller?” Unfortunately, not at this time. This project was really about sharing my design process by exploring a fun working test prototype. I don’t want to totally slam the door on the idea, but it isn’t something I am pursuing right now. “This will never beat a mouse/keyboard” I was more curious about why alternative controllers aren’t more common and why the controller and MKB became the standards. I really like projects like this because they challenge my own assumptions on why different industries exist the way they do. I also just love making this type of thing 🙂 Thanks again for all the feedback, comments and great information everyone has shared!

The mouse vs. stick debaters keep ignoring the enlightened gyro-aimers.

the numbers of individual skillsets combined in this project is simply amazing

This is BY FAR the most professional and well designed homebrew controller I've ever seen. Your final product has so much care and effort put into it, the first question a person might have isn't "how long did this take to make", but "where did you buy this from?"

As a designer in the game industry currently, this was really awe inspiring to watch. This was a fantastic piece of content. Really impressive.

Having the track ball accessible on the back of the controller is nothing short of FUCKING BRILLIANT

having all the requisite skills to prototype such a polished and actually potentially useful product is super impressive.

Being able to control the right "stick" with a finger from under while using thumb to press face buttons is actually a game-changer for console I would say.

Patent this ASAP. This is awesome! This is the first gaming creation I’ve seen that actually gives off ‘revolutionary’ vibes.

Being able to control the trackball on both sides is a touch of genius!

This looks like the Xbox 720 controller I would’ve seen in concept videos made as slideshows in Movie Maker years, years back

There's no "Stay for Part 2" BS. You kept it in for so long, compiled it, and emerged to display your talents and visions with a bang! Keep your flight 👑.

i dont play FPS shooters i have no idea why this was recommended to me but this was FASCINATING and I love it

This is nothing short of astonishing. A simple idea of fitting a trackball into a controller presented so many challenges that you are forced to innovate the overall design.... Thankfully, you're a brilliant engineer. I would LOVE to see this thing passed around some professional FPS players, maybe even on-stream, so we can see their impressions.

As a Steam Controller/Deck trackpad enjoyer, something that basically kills this is that most games do not have support for mixed input so you can either use the mouse or stick, not both. Trackpad/ball _are_ superior in controller form than to stick, but because they weren't looked at seriously until recent years they are so against the norm that even one of the biggest gaming companies in the world couldn't make people take it seriously.

Man out here mastered like 15 different skills to create the ultimate controller

Being able to access the trackball from the back is actually insane

An xbox 360 controller infected by the flood.

THIS IS SIMPLY CRAZY GOOD ! Damn ! Like, just wow. The idea, the results, the promising gaming performance, the MANY skillset needed to put this together, the pedagogy of the video, the pace of script, the editing, the overview various softwares used and their purpose and strenght...JUST WOW. A video to be studied for ages.

How is this not a thing already? Amazing work, man. Beyond impressive.

PLEASE Send one to MetalSlug and see what he thinks! He’s one of the bigger trackball players on KZfaq! I truly wanna see what results his testing would pull.

I am not a gamer at all. I am simply amazed at the engineering skillset on display here. And this is without considering the added work to turn this project into a well documented KZfaq video.

Man this was so unbelievably cool!! The process alone was really awesome to watch and learn from but the finished controller is just insane!

The amount of skill it takes to build this thing from scratch is insane, incredible job brother

I don't even play FPS but the fact that you not only know what you're doing from start to finish, being very well-spoken in describing your process on top of the very clean video meant I was hooked for every second

This is the smartest thing I’ve seen so far this year. Well done sir.

Awesome idea! I was sckeptical in the begining but wstching the design and crafting process was mindblowing. From an idea, an scketch, a clay model to a pc 3d model, 3d printing to a working prototype. Amazing. It almost looked so easy but im sure it took several months of hard work. Subscribed and liked .

I LOVE the look of it. It's got a bit of a 2000s Y2K aesthetic, almost alien. Companies wouldn't DARE to be this creative and unique

Very impressive work. I'd love to see a follow-up video in a handful of months to see how it winds up being for you after a long enough time to get used to it.

Wow, just wow! My new hero! Incredible to see the process and genius in action.

breakout box idea is genius, and is a really useful way to get past hickups in projects. I've definitely taken note!!

I think one thing people forget about mouse movement is you have 3 "gears" to let you be both fast AND precise: High gear - Your forearm physically moves to make fast, large movements Medium gear - Your wrist moves giving you a good balance between speed and precision Low gear - You move the mouse in your fingers without necessarily moving your wrist. This allows you the most precision. Position vs velocity control is part of it and it's what your trackball addresses but combining these different muscles is what lets you be simultaneously fast and precise.

This ContRoller's design is straight from the late 90's And thanks for showing the whole process. You're a genius

This video was phenomenal. You fully covered your whole process providing enough detail to follow along without drowning us in them or glossing over things. I look forward to more of your work.

This was absolutely _fascinating_ to watch it go from a vague idea to a competitive viable product. Thank you for so much detail!

Finally, someone who cares about: 1) Ergonomics 2) Efficiency 3) ACTUALLY EVOLVING CONTROLLER DESIGN

This is iiiiiiiiinsaaaaaaaane. A gamer from 80’s here. This is like landing in the future. Great work.

Mad respect sir! As a fellow mechanical product design engineer I can only say this is amazing! Both the concept and the execution are beyond ‘on point’. Just… wow!

amazing one man team doing everything on your own. the most fascinating bit of the design is the trackball being accessible from behind. incorporating the scroll wheel and adding levers are ingenious as well!

It's always fun when a YTber with less than 25k subscribers puts out a true SLAPPER of a video, a VIRAL MASTERPIECE, which will very often place their subscriber count on a parabolic trajectory. You will have 200k subscribers within 2 months my friend, 1 million within a year. Easily. Love the controller. You just taught me how to design and build a gaming controller in a timespan roughly commensurate with an episode of Spongebob, I can't imagine that was a simple feat.

The way Splatoon does it is really good actually and helps make up for the controller disadvantage while being intuitive too.

The way you had access to the trackball is so engenious! Moving a mouse usually you'd use your thumb, ring finger, and middle finger. Now you can use the ball with those same fingers, while you use your index and middle finger for the right bumpers that simulate the feel of a mouse click. This is a nice blend of a purely functional mouse controller. I'd take this over its look anyday!

Excellent video, brilliant idea, impressive implementation of skillsets/knowledge/clear passion for the project. Subscribed.

Saw the thumbnail and was immediately intrigued. Being able to adjust the trackball from both the front and back of the controller is inspired design.

I appreciate how you went through the entire development process, and even labeled each section in the video! Very inspirational

Your content scratches my itch. Great work start to finish. I love seeing the process and exercise of multiple disciplines. Earned a sub off this!

I love this, it's fascinating. I always imagined we would continue to see ingenuity and alternatives for controllers, but they've been stagnant for so long. I really appreciate all the effort put in to this and hope it inspires others.

This man needs to be designing controllers for a major platform. This is one of the most well thought out controller designs I've ever seen.

I like the idea of a trackball that's accessible from the top and bottom of the controller. You could use your middle or ring finger to move the ball while leaving your thumb totally free to press face buttons.

Thank you so much for putting the grasshopper definition on the screen when showing how you smoothed the mesh! Coincidentally right after I watched this video I started a project where I needed to do a similar thing and couldn't figure out a good way to do it until I remembered that you had done something similar in the video!

You're a brave man bench-marking your controller after ALL that work you put in! This was a great video for an impressive project, it really makes we want to push my design skills to the next level.

I started using Fusion while in highschool and throughout many different projects and a few years on a robotics team I feel like I've gotten pretty good at it. I've probably spent a few thousand hours modeling across a thousand or two different designs and I can't even begin to compare to how incredible your designs are! Seriously, this is some of the most fantastic modeling I have ever seen, mixing mechanical design and organic/ergonomic modeling is possibly some of the hardest stuff I have ever attempted doing and you pull it off flawlessly with what looks like ease! I am just in continual awe at each of your projects, I have some general ideas of what can be accomplished with some of this stuff but with each video of yours I see, my conceptions of where the limits are get completely blown out of the water... Thank you for these fantastic videos, being able to see the full product design process from start to finish is unbelievably informative. I can't believe you don't have more of a following by now!

I know this product isn't meant for mass production, but I've thought of a few improvements I would make to the design/internals; 1) Utilizing hall effect sensors for the left joystick as well as the triggers. PowerA is strange in that it uses physical copper potentiometers on the triggers instead of the standard hall effects. PowerA parts are also notorious for failing and causing unwanted input registration. 2) Replacing two of the face buttons with rear paddles/buttons or even just adding rear paddles/buttons in addition to the 4 front facing buttons. This would help relieve your right hand a bit more, as it's constantly going to be using the trackball and a lot more motion is going to need to be exerted than if it were a standard controller due to the increased surface area and other buttons being further apart. 3) The extended right handed shoulder buttons is a cool idea but I believe it could be expanded upon. You could make them adjustable so that you can remove the shorter buttons and/or clip on longer buttons so they extend further to the right for smaller hands (this seems to be something you've accounted for as the buttons appear easily removable) These are just some minor (and somewhat subjective) improvements to what is ultimately an awesome project. This was a great video

Awseome process, such a creative approach on the trackball, congratulations!

Both your video and design are very exciting. Beautiful!

As a person who has been using the steam controller as my sole input method for my computer for several years now, I have worked out a few interesting point to add to your findings: - The benefit of a track pad over a track ball or even a joystick comes from three places: 1. The track pad is one big digital sensor / button. This allows you to add multiple inputs on it in various different ways. For example, I can have my right pad set to a track ball mouse (which is my usual method) and have a full D-pad underneath that activates when I click the touch pad. This allows me to use a full set of face buttons without taking my thumb off my aiming input. 2. The track pad has no moving parts. This reduces the wear and allows the touchpad to last basically forever assuming you don't get one that is faulty due to a manufacturing defect. 3. The track pad is able to emulate a joystick very well, and because it has such a large surface, I am able to get better accuracy than a joystick. - Pair these three points with a gyro scope, and you have a setup that is 1-1 with a mouse. All you have to do is set the gyro to activate when you touch the right touch pad and you can use both the touch pad and gyro at the same time. This lets you use the touchpad in track ball mode for wide quick turns, while using the gyro for fine point aiming. Getting used to actually using both inputs at the same time took me about a month to get used to, but once you do it is a skill you can not unlearn. - My final point to note, is that many games at the moment unfortunately do not support both keyboard + Mouse and Controller inputs at the same time. A lot of them do to some degree but for the ones where you have to choose, the track pads are a bit more versatile than a joystick as you can map it to a "no click d-pad" (this just means you touch the pad to activate it rather than having to click it) this joystick can have your WASD mapped for the instances where you are unable to take advantage of analogue movement along with mouse aiming. P.S Love your work, I think what you are doing is amazing, and its always good to see people out there pushing whats possible.

I'm only at 10:32 in the video but I wanted to make everyone aware of the xbox adaptive controller. It's $100 but it's a very good tool for these types of projects. It breaks out the whole Xbox controller to 3.5mm TRS jacks and will even accept a lot of USB joystick inputs or let you tandem an additional second xbox controller. Then it takes all of that and outputs it as a single xbox controller. I'd definitely buy one if I was in the habit of making custom controllers. Microsoft doesn't advertise if all of the remapping features are available on PC.

Dude. You are the most informative person! Every single detail! Talented KZfaq builder I’ve ever seen… subscribed!

Amazing stuff, love the explanation on the process behind your build. Keep it up!

The Steam deck’s trackpads have a trackball mode! Aiming with the trackpad after a while is so intuitive, it’s crazy! 🎉

I am so grateful to the algorithm for suggesting me this video. I like tinkering, optimising existing designs and stuff like that. I learned a lot from watching this project and I like how it was divided into proper sections, explained why those particular sections and how you kept arising chalenges in and talked through overcoming them. Watching this was really inspiring and with my depression it really means a lot to me. I look forward to watching the rest of your content and learning form it. I work in healthcare and I sometimes think about designing gear and devices that would improve workflow and patient care and I think watching your videos is gonna help me in achieving that. I wish you all the best :)

Awesome video! So cool seeing the whole process come together and produce the final result!

Brilliant… this same issue with midi controllers for music. The custom curves really shined here. Attention details. This man gets it

Background: Computer engineer, been researching FPS and fighting game controller designs. Used Fusion 360 to model and print my own fighting controller. Have tested playing competitive FPS games with gyro using Steam input, reWASD, and in-game gyro control for over two years now. Suffice it to say I think how we control games plays an extremely important role in how we feel about the overall experience. This controller you've made... is nothing short of magical. Thr trackball usage and ergonomic shoulders allow free movement while accessing a bunch of buttons, instead of relying on face buttons that naturally decouple your aiming hand to use them. My one itching feeling though, and I say this even after seeing how fast you became with it, is that this controller would be much more accurate with the use of two gyro sensors like the Alpakka along with the trackball outputting a more linear curve for reliable yet fine adjustment. This would allow macro control on the gyro level with simultaneous, granular correction from the trackball. I can use my desktop almost as fast as m/k using Dualsense's gyro with reWASD, while his demo showed his controller perform at about hald the speed of his m/k desktop use. Just my useless 2 cents.

This is absolutely astonishing. Your skills with all the different disciplines here are incredibly impressive. The controller design & implementation are equally impressive & I for one would happily back a crowdfunding push if you were ever to attempt to get this into production. Thank you for sharing your talent & creativity with us 🙂

i NEED it !Ich Spiele seid 20 Jahren FPS games ( Regelmäßig) , vor 9 Jahren der Umstieg auf den Controller und inzwischen bin ich im Zwiespalt. Das was du geschaffen hast Privat...einfach unglaublich! ich würde sowas Zugern in nächster Zeit auf dem freien markt sehen . Setz dich mit der Thematik Scuf auseinander, die Action tasten müssen auf den Rücken, Reaktionszeiten und vor allem Langlebigkeit. 5 Casual 5 Streamer 5 Pro`s 6- 12 Monate und du würdest den FPS Shooter Markt revolutionieren

This is a very well made design sir! Very well done

This is pretty sick. I'll buy one if it ever goes to market!

The biggest hurdle is figuring out an alternative way to emulate how a mouse gets its precision. Using the fingers, the wrist, the arms, the shoulders, there's literally more muscle groups and bone joints, bigger range of motion, etc., being used to control the precision of where you want the mouse to move to. In contrast to controllers that mostly use thumbs. Less muscle groups, less joints, smaller range of motion is much more difficult to scale for precision. The closest compact controllers has ever gotten to incorporating as many muscle groups and bone joints as a mouse is the implementation of gyroscopic controls, which I think needs to be at the center of designing a controller for FPS games.

Bet you didn’t imagine 1M views on this one congrats !! brilliant design for someone who finds keyboard awkwardly uncomfortable love the feeling of a console controller

I need this in my life immediately. I really hope this comes to market in the near future.

This is proper early iteration design for a product. I love it when proper engineering and product design makes it to KZfaq. This is inspiring work that makes me wish my job was half this interesting. Subscribed.

This was the most useful case for aimlabs ive ever seen

Great work. There are some illnesses that make people unable to use mice properly (think of bedbound people for example) but are able to use a controller OR a trackball. Your combination opens up whole new games to play for them!

Wow! Thanks for sharing such an amazing top notch project.

I love this. As a thumb trackballer I've been looking for a controller that offers a similar experience and and your design checks all the boxes with the added thumb and ring finger functionality. I also dig the retro-funky 90's aesthetic

I love odd control schemes, I'm reminded of a Nerrel video on gyro control for fps games

My God, this is amazing! Kickstarter it NOW!!!

this is simply incredible... so much knowledge and engineering!

I like how everyone is coming to love an update on the controller.

I don't know how possible gyro would be for this scope and size capacity, but it would help a lot with small precise movements, while you could mostly use the trackball for larger movements

Take my money. I've been seriously looking for this exact controller design for years; I had settled on a mouse and flight-stick combo but this is precisely what I want.

You did it! I’ve always wanted this! You brilliant bastard, I love you!

Being a product designer is such a gift on its own! "What ever you, think you make it" Forget about the market or brands to tell you whats best for you. You make it to your convenience. Hats off!

I think if you add Gyro to this, for yet another layer of granularity, this could easily pwn pros in fast paced shooters. Games like Counter-Strike, I do have doubts that Controllers of any type could ever reign supreme; the game is just so actively designed for KB+M from the very beginning in the late 90's, and is very optimised for it. But the potential is ABSOLUTELY there with your design. Great video. To be honest, your process is the part I am most invested in; doing creative things like this as meticulously you are is so awesome and I super appreciate it. This is the kind of community made thing that just gets my creative juices flowing!

I'm all for this, we've had the same controllers for 30 years, there has been other failed attempts at FPS controllers but this is the first time I see one that actually seems to work.

Chapeau bas Sir! I am impressed by the design process shown here and execution of this project. I admire the final design and aspire to learn some of the skills you have shown here. Maybe as a trackball guy I am little biased here, but still objectively you've done here some genuinely impressive work. I subscribe to your channel and can't wait to see your future projects.

Seriously amazing that you were able to do this yourself. So, designer, engineer, and KZfaqr. You got my sub.

This process was beyond genius. Actually stunned.

definately very impressive. Your data (after creating an amazing custom brewed controller) confirms, the superiority of the keyboard and mouse in ALL aspects.

I wish your videos got more attention, it's so clearly presented that you'd think it would be easy to create a controller as a single person :D I really like it!

this is OUTSTANDING - the whole video, the showing of the process you used along the way, just a great video. Thanks!

This was the concept behind the Steam Controller! Super neat implementation.

This man might single handedly change the controller scheme paradigm. THIS seems like the ultimate controller, you have the easyness of traditional controller and the precision of a mouse. I unironically believe if mass produced, this would change the controller industry

I love this because I had the same idea in mind for building my own controller. It makes total sense if you're a competitive FPS gamer and I don't know why more companies haven't produced competitive game or controllers like this. Keep up the good work! I haven't built mine yet lol

What a frickin amazing Project dude! Seriously impressed with the all ; the Planning, execution of your ideas and the Video around it. Well structured and informative aswell as entertaining :)! Love the whacky and yet alien like early 2000s aestethics of the controller!

Wow. This is the first of your projects I've seen. I enjoyed seeing the entire design process. The controller looks great! I have big hands, and I feel as though I would really like a controller as big as that one.

yo this is sick, beautiful video with a beautiful outcome.

Incredible video, great work and explanation !!!

the fact that you are so good with it after only using it for a few hours is crazy impressive. wow :D imagine using it for thousands of hours