If you have an Amazon Echo Dot in your home and want to hide it away while also giving it a few extra features, well then you can’t go wring with this 3D printed Atari 2600 joystick.
Aside from improving the aesthetics of the device, it also works as a passive amplifier for both incoming and outgoing sound thanks to a cavity within the print.
While not an added feature per se, the buttons on the top of the Echo Mini are still accessible by way of the joystick. Using some registration grooves, the buttons can be activated by pushing the stick in the appropriate direction.
This project is the work of maker Tyler Keller who tells us that he modelled the print on a two-hour train ride using Tinkercad.
Printing at 0.2 millimetres took seven hours, but this was a bit of a rush job. The body and stick were done in black PLA while the gasket around the stick was instead printed in a matte carbon fibre PLA. Finally, the button was done in a red PETG, but these different colour filaments didn’t mean paint could be avoided.
The yellow dashed circle around the top of the print had to be painted in, which was done with some cheap acrylics and a small brush.
Assembled the print stands 128 X 115 X 170 millimetres with the lighting from the Echo Dot still visible through the gasket once it’s been placed inside.
Those looking to make their own joystick enclosure can find the files to do so available for free over on MyMiniFactory, where it was actually designed for a contest ran by the site.
MyMiniFactory recently held a design competition to make interesting enclosures for any kind of smart speaker on the market. Keller tells us that his past entries in this contest informed his most recent print, but it was still a challenge to make everything fit properly without damage.
While this print is specifically designed for the Amazon Echo Dot 2, we also recently featured another entry in this Stargate for the Google Home Mini.
