How a control box gets built

Every control box that leaves this shop is built on one bench, by one person. Here is what that looks like.

The board

It starts with the circuit board. The board is cut to the shape of the box, with a pad for each of the 14 buttons and a spot for the small wireless board. That wireless board is what talks to the USB dongle you plug into your sim PC. No drivers, no software: the PC sees a keyboard.

Soldering

The wireless board gets soldered to the main board by hand. The battery leads go on next. It is slow, careful work, and it is the part that decides whether a box runs for years on one AA battery or gives trouble. So it gets done right.

Into the case

The case is 3D printed here in the shop, in the color you ordered. The board drops into the case, the battery holder goes in, and the buttons snap through the top. Each button sits on its own pad on the board.

Testing on the bench

Before a box is closed up, it goes on the bench next to a laptop that shows every key press as it comes in. Press a button, see the key. That is how a wrong wire or a cold joint gets caught before the box ships.

Buttoned up and shipped

Then it is screws, a last look over, and into the mailer. If you ordered a custom box, the logo, the button colors and the printed second-job labels were all done at the printing stage, so what you get is the box in the pictures, not a sticker on a stock box.

If you have a question about your box, you are not writing to a help desk. You are texting the guy who built it.