Building the SwitchPin Pinball Controller for Nintendo Switch
2020 was certainly a crappy year, but I did manage to build some pretty cool stuff. One of the highlights was my SwitchPin pinball controller for Nintendo Switch. It requires no wiring, no electronics and no modifications to your Switch in any way, and here’s how I did it.
The whole idea began after i got Star Wars Pinball as a gift from my wife. After playing from the couch for a while the notion struck me that I could grab that TV that’s collecting dust in the corner (we had recently upgraded the living room TV), take off the feet and lay it on the table and have a pretty good analog for a classic pinball field. Well, it was better than I expected, way better. We would play it while holding the Joy-Cons in each hand, sometimes leaning on the table. And I thought “it would be great if I could attach these to the TV, wonder if I can print something”. The first notion was to build a frame that just holds the Joy-Cons on the corners of the TV, and I began brainstorming. I also noticed that the shoulder buttons, which activate the flippers in the game, could be triggered with a lateral push, this was the real lightbulb moment, so I started sketching.
The process began on paper, but quickly graduated to one of my favorite prototype and brainstorm materials, cardboard. I quickly threw out the idea of attaching them to the TV, and just went with something that was big and sturdy enough to lean on, and you could put them on either side of the TV. I planned to weight them down and put non-slip feet on them to keep them from wandering. Once I had some basic dimensions to work with I opened Fusion 360 and started modeling.
Naturally during this phase I could really wrap my head around what I was building. I started with sketches of the top view, using my calipers to take fairly accurate measurements. There were some curves to contend with, especially the bottom of the Joy-Con where the finger rest is. I opted to just do a well for that area, rather than toil over the exact topography. I wanted to try and design something that would print with no support material, since it’s always hard to get clean surfaces. I intentionally designed the plunger so it would work on both sides. I draft printed a couple versions before I got the dimensions where I wanted them. The first one was way off, a simple math error in the sketch had thrown it off by 10mm. Since it’s my philosophy that even failures teach you something, I just zipped it through my bandsaw to check the other dimensions and functionality.
I was pretty proud of the plunger assembly, it snapped together (after a few design iterations) and used a spring readily available in the Harbor Freight assorted spring pack. Once I had all the dimensions right and the button was working like I wanted I mirrored the model and printed a left side. While I was experimenting with them I thought maybe I’d design a bridge to go between them with laser cut acrylic. But since I don’t have a laser cutter, and Covid was keeping be from visiting anyone who did, I put that idea on the back burner. In the mean time I decided I would just connect them together with some scrap wood to make it a single unit. A really ugly, but functional singe unit. I also noticed it was about the same width as the TV (which was now mounted on the wall in my studio) and that seemed pretty serendipitous.
I took it home and invited the family to play test it. I pulled a folding table out of the garage and just set it up in front of the TV. We all took turns, and I took notes. It was decided the buttons needed a little more travel, and the little rubber feet kept peeling off or sliding around, but that was pretty much the only revisions it needed. Most important it was FUN, and we kept playing and playing.
With my notes in hand I sat down in Fusion 360 again and made some changes. I decided to go ahead and design and print the bridge, since a laser cutter wasn’t in my immediate future (still isn’t). Since my Prusa i3 Mk3’s print bed is only so big I designed the bridge to be in two identical sections. I also added a lip on the end pieces for those to rest on. Everything was printed with holes to tap for M3 screws. The whole model got subtle tweaks, I added little indents on the bottom for silicone rubber feet, added a more gentle curve to the outside corners, reworked the buttons to have longer throw and be a little more reliable (they were just a bit sticky for my preference). I decided to print the bridge sections right side up so the top surface would be smooth and without any odd transitions on the curves, since this is where your hand tended to rest. This meant a lot of support material though, and extended print times. But it was worth it. Unfortunately I burned through all my Prusa Galaxy Black in the prototypes, and it was sold out everywhere, so I settled for Hatchbox black PLA.
With everything printed I tapped all the holes and bolted it all together. I probably over did it with the screws, I think it was 15 total, but I saw how hard my family was leaning on the prototype and wanted it to be plenty strong. While the buttons tended to stay in place with a press fit, I went ahead and used just a little E6000 to lock them in. Once it was assembled I cleared the table, pulled my TV off the wall, plugged in the Switch and had a go. What a blast! After playing for a while and getting some shots for the video I packed it all up and brought it home.
While it’s not what I would consider “authentic”, it is a lot of fun, and an augmented version of the classic arcade game. The rumble still worked, and the depth of the Joy-Cons was just right to get your thumbs in to do things like bump and activate features during play. It was at the house for a couple months, but eventually we needed to get it out of the living room, and I was tired of not having my TV at the studio, so I packed it up. I do miss having it all set up though, it really makes for a very good pinball experience. I’ve been asked many, many times if I sell them, and while I did eventually sell the one, I have no plans to go into production. There’s clearly a market, but I doubt it’s big enough to justify the tens of thousands it would require in tooling to make a legit product. But if you’ve got a printer, or know someone with one, I put the whole thing on Thingiverse. To date it’s been downloaded 236 times (and I’ll give you one guess how many tips or donations I’ve received, it rhymes with Nero, not that I’m bitter). Check out the video to see it in action.