Two Button Remote Control

Next on the list of achievable items was this little two button remote control. This hides inside the puzzle box until it is released by the player and is used to navigate a mouse around a maze on the top of the box. There are two tactile switches hidden under the brass chicago screws so that it makes a very satisfying and positive click when pressed.

There are actually seven layers of 1.5mm material that go into these controls and that allows me to build up a compartment that is a perfect height for the buttons and also a captive area for the screws so that they don't fall out. The general size was a bit of a trade off, it had to be quite small to fit inside the compartment but still a sensible size to click. The arrows were engraved onto the top layer of material but they weren't very visible so I added some smaller brass labels which show the button function much more clearly.

Inside the remote are two surface mount, low profile, tactile switches. The connections are first hand soldered with some copper wire and then the external cable is attached to those. The fabric cable is a length of usb cable so even though it has four cores this configuration was set up to only use three of them, one ground and two signal wires. The cable is pinched by some small wooden shims (not pictured) just before it leaves the remote and this provides the strain relied should the player tug too hard on the remote. As an isolated component of the puzzle this was also one of the first things I made on the original box too.