photos of the control panel

 


So I built a little unit out of plywood for the control panel, which will mount on the wall.  I used microswitches cannibalized from a computer mouse.  Red and blue LED illumination, of course, behind a diffusion layer of parchment paper, through holes drilled in sheet aluminum (painted black), then plexiglass epoxied on top.  Looks pretty rough and home-made, but the "clicky" feel is just right.

The USB keyboard interface is housed in the pill-bottle.  A regular-length USB cable connects this to the host computer.  Then, a long cable runs from the interface to the control panel (located next to Sheila's bed).  I found this nice 8-conductor 24-ga solid (not stranded) "CAT-1" cable at Lowe's, 100 feet for under $10.  I hooked up the full 100 feet to make sure there will be no problems with signal loss, crosstalk, ringing, etc.; I'll shorten the cable to the exact length needed (probably around 30 feet) when I install this system.



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