In this tutorial, I will showcase the cat scratching post joystick that I made for my Alt Ctrl game Smack Dat Rat. I will guide you, step by step, through the process.

(I forgot to take more in progress photos, so some of the steps may show pictures of finished products.)

Supplies

You will need the following items for this build. (I will provide links for some of the items I used if you want to get some of the same items.)

A 4-Directional Joystick
An I-PAC2
Any box at least 8"x 8" x 4" (Preferably made of a sturdy material, e.g. thick plastic or wood. The box needs at least 5 sides. If it has 6, the 6th should be a lid that you can open to access the inside.)
Enough carpet to cover your selected box (Example of the kind of carpet you should get)
Sisal Rope
Hot Glue Gun and Hot Glue Sticks
20x Pop Rivets
4x Bolts, Nuts, and Washers. (I used 1/4" bolts)
Crimp Connectors (4.8 mm)
Ethernet Cable Ports (I used an 8-pin connector, but a 6-pins will work too.)
16-gauge Wire (As many colors as you want, but use at least 2 colors)
Pipe Insulation (The one I used had a 2 1/4" OD and an 1" ID. You will need about 10"-11" of insulation, but you can use more or less.)
Masking Tape

Step 1: Joystick Holes

Now that you have your box, we need to find the center of the box. If your box has a lid, we will find the center of the lid, if it doesn't, orient the box so that the opening is facing down.

Cut a hole big enough to fit the head of the joystick though the box. Mark the spots for the bolts and drill those out as well.

Somewhere an inch or two away from the initial 5 holes, drill a 6th hole. This hole should be big enough for your sisal to slip through. The holes should look something like the holes in the red tin lid picture.

Step 2: Pop Rivet Sockets

After drilling the 6 holes, we will 4 more holes on each of the corners on each side of the box as well as the top, for a total of 20 more holes. Drill the holes about 3/4" away from the edge at each of the corners and repeat for each side. These holes will be used to secure the carpet to the box using pop rivets, so make sure the holes are the correct size for your pop rivets. The picture shows the general position of where the holes should be. (Albeit the image is blurry, the blue circles will help.)

Step 3: Wire Hole

Cut out a hole, on the side you want to be the back of the joystick, near the bottom of the box. Make sure the hole is big enough to allow an ethernet cable to pass through.

Step 4: Cutting Out Carpet

After all the holes have been drilled, we want to measure out the carpet to cover the box. Place each side of the box on the bottom side of the carpet. Trace each side then cut the pieces of carpet. If you want, give yourself an extra 1/4" or so of carpet when you cut out the pieces that you can trim later if need be. After all the pieces are cut, place them on each side and check to see if the sizes are correct.

Put these pieces aside for later.

Step 5: Creating the Shaft.

Take your pipe insulation and cut a 10"-11" piece off. This will be the shaft of the joystick. Take the insulation and wrap it in masking tape. This will let you glue the sisal onto the tube without melting it.

Apply some hot glue to the base of the shaft and wrap the sisal around it. Make sure to leave a few inches of sisal as a tail at the base. This will be used to secure the shaft to the box. Wait for the hot glue to cool before wrapping the next layer above it. Keep wrapping and gluing the sisal onto the pipe insulation until it is completely wrapped in sisal. Cut off any excess sisal. I've attached a photo showing how you should be wrapping the sisal.

From this point forward, I will refer to this piece as the shaft.

Step 6: Cutting Out the Scratching Post Topper

Take the piece of carpet you cut out for the lid/top of your box. Find the center of the carpet and place the shaft over it. Trace around the shaft and cut out the outline, making sure to cut a little wider than the circle you traced. Doing so will ensure the shaft can be seated nicely. (Make sure you are drawing on the bottom side of the carpet.)

Once you cut out the hole for the shaft, keep it. We will use this to cap off the shaft. Place a circle of hot glue on the top of the shaft. Make sure the glue is on the sisal and not the insulation.

The shaft is now complete.

Step 7: Attaching the Joystick

Attach the joystick to the box. Use the holes you drilled in the center to attach the joystick using bolts. The joystick should be able to articulate after it's attached to the box/lid.

Step 8: Covering the Box in Carpet

Take one of the carpet pieces and place it on the side you want it to be attached to. Line it up and take a pen or marker, and from the inside of the box, mark where the carpet overlaps the holes. This is where you will put pop rivets into. Poke a hole though the carpet in that section and slip a pop rivet into the hole. Put the rivets attached to the carpet, through the holes in the box. Once they're in, pop the rivets to secure the carpet to the box.

Repeat this until all pieces of carpet have been attached to the box.

Step 9: Attaching the Shaft to the Joystick

Feed the sisal tail on the shaft through the hole we haven't used, under the carpet attacked to the box. Slip the joystick into the hole in the bottom of the shaft. (This may take a bit of effort to push in.) Once the shaft is pushed all the way to the bottom, pull the sisal tail all the way through and ties a knot at the end.

This will help keep the shaft on the joystick.

You have completed the Cat Scratching Post Case.

Step 10: Wiring the Joystick

We will now begin wiring the joystick.

Note: When picking which switch is which direction, keep in mind that whichever direction you want the joystick to move, the switch in the opposite direction is activated.

Example: If you want to move forward with the joystick, the switch closest to you, or the back switch will be activated. If you want to move right, the left switch will be activated.

I have attached some sketches that show how you should wire the joystick. The outer lead is the ground and the middle of the 3 is the power. Make sure to connect all the grounds together. This makes soldering the wires to the ethernet port easier. To attach the wires to the joystick, slip the stripped wire into a crimp connector and crimp it shut.

After you connect all the wires, keep note which wire is which, either through colors or labeling the wires with tape.

Step 11: Soldering to the Ethernet Port

When soldering the wires to the port, it doesn't matter which wires are soldered to which contact, however, keep in mind that you will need to match the same wiring on the other port connected to the I-PAC2, so it's helpful to be organized here too.

I soldered the wires to be Ground on top, followed by Right, Left, Up, and Down. This is the same orientation on the I-PAC2.

Step 12: Connecting to the I-pAC2

Solder wires to the same contacts you did on the first port for the second port. You will then connect these wires to the I-PAC2 by stripping the end and slipping the wires into their designated slots and screw them down.

Step 13: Connecting the Joystick to the I-PAC2

Grab an ethernet cable and plug the two ends into the ethernet ports you just soldered. Then connect the I-PAC2 to your computer using a mini USB cable. Once it's connected to your computer, you can use the I-PAC2 software to remap the controls, or use leave it as is. The I-PAC2 works like an external keyboard, so it's operable the moment you plug it in!