The Finish Line is Ahead, the Last Brick

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After a bit of work, and a lot of wiring, player 3 is finally installed. I’m starting to pick up speed now as most of the challenges are behind me. The finish line is ahead and now it’s time to work upwards, towards the back of the control panel. However, a large part of this will require the rest of the internal structure built out. So, I’ll continue the expansion of the lattice grid throughout the inside of the control panel.

Finish line is ahead, beginning the final build out of the internal structure.
Beginning to build out the rest of the internal lattice structure

The First Cup Holder

In the midst of building out this internal structure, I alter the upper corners in order to hold the cup holders. I also begin to plan out the installation of the start buttons.

Photo showing the structure modifications required to hold the cup holders.
Internal structure modified to support the cup holders

Once finished with the internal structure, I plate up the top and slide in the cup holder. One of four installed!

Photo of the first cup holder installed.
First cup holder installed

With this now installed, I decide to begin closing up the left side of the control panel. However, before doing so, I need to install the left-side USB ports.

Front USB Ports

For reference, these are the USB ports that I purchased: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J4X41CS/

This required a little bit of design modification on the front. Additionally, so the USB ports didn’t pull out when cables are yanked out, I ended up clipping off some prongs on inside of the USB ports so that they’d better grab onto the back of the bricks. Now these photos were taken from an earlier time when I realized that I’d have this issue, but they demonstrate what’s required.

Photo showing the USB port prongs that are meant to hold onto whatever it's attached to
Red arrows point to the prongs
Photo showing the USB port place between bricks, but the prongs don't latch on because they are too large, these need to get clipped.
The prongs are too tight to latch onto the bricks

Once I clipped these prongs, the USB ports snapped right onto the back of the LEGO® brick perfectly.

Photo showing the installed Front-left USB ports.
Front-left USB port installed

Finish Line is Ahead, Start and Admin Buttons Added

Next, I plated up the rest of the top of the left side.

Photo showing the entire control panel, left corner now plated up.
The beginning of closing it off

Next, I’ll install the start buttons. I decide that I’ll install these just like I did the player buttons, by installing the buttons into a module which plugs into the control panel. So, I do some work to build out the module for 2 start buttons, a fairly simple task.

Photo of module to which the player start buttons can be installed into.
The simple module for the player start buttons, will build two of these

Once the modules are built, I install the buttons. Then I install the full button module into the control panel.

Photo of start buttons installed for players 1 and 3.
Players 3 and 1 start buttons installed

Since I’m building the modules for the start buttons, I figure I should build the admin button module. This module is significantly more complicated as it requires 6 buttons total. However, after a bit of trial and error, I finally come up with this build.

Photo of the admin button module.
Module for admin buttons

I can’t quite install this module yet into the control panel as I want it to be dead center. So, I lay it inside and I move onto the next task, let’s install player 4 controls!

Photo of module for admin buttons laying inside control panel, but not connected nor any buttons installed yet.
Approximate location for admin buttons

A New Challenger, Player 4 Joins!

Before I begin installing player 4 controls, I decide to attempt something risky. If you look back at the photos in my blog entry The Final Expansion – Players 3 and 4, New Challengers, you’ll see that I have a chair propping up the right side of the control panel.

This is because the length of the control panel was not stable, and it couldn’t support the wait of the ends. The ends would bow and snap in two if left unsupported. However, since then, I’ve spent some time building out the internal structure of the control panel.

Photo showing unsupported ends of control panel.
Tada – look ma! No chair!

The control panel is starting to become more and more structurally sound. Just had to take the time to mention that here as I was pretty proud of that moment.

Onward to installing the player 4 controls. I begin with the joystick and building this directly into the front of the control panel. Along with the USB ports getting on this side as well, this required another design modification of this part of the control panel.

Photo of player 4 joystick getting installed and integrated into the front of the control panel above the front-right USB controls.
Player 4 joystick getting installed and integrated into the front

Buttons installed next; these were shockingly easy as I just used previous tactics.

Photo of player 4 buttons installed.
Player 4 buttons now installed

The Last Stretch – Finish Line is Ahead, Plating Up the Front

Now that all four player controls are installed, I finish up the plating of the front.

First, the trackball.

Photo of trackball getting covered in plates.
Trackball getting covered in plates

After the trackball is covered, I work on closing up the front portion in front of player 2 controls.

Photo of player 2 controls entirely covered in plates.
The front of player 2 controls plated up
Another photo showing the front of the control panel covered and some tiling laid on top.
Control panel front covered, tiling can begin soon

Before I move to plating up player 4, I think it’s time – who else here is sick and tired of looking at black?