Making an 18 pole 16 throw switch

I would really like it if there was some kind of a readily made and available switch solution for a retro system collector for sale.

What I´m doing right now is: I take a system out from my table and put it to shelf along with all the cables and accessories, then I select a different system, take it and all its cables from shelf, put it on table, connect it to power socket, monitor and accessories and start a game.
I do have a vga switch that I could use but it degrades image quality and even with that there´s still a ton of stuff to do when changing from one system to another... I only have a couple of amigas, an Atari st, a spectrum, an Xbox and a Dreamcast.

Just like the starter of this thread, I am no programmer. Difference is that I´m not a genius with basic electronics either. I´m stuck with no solution.

 

I can neither confirm nor deny these allegations. If you have any evidence may I see It. ( takes evidence and walks outside with gas can and matches)

 

Pretty crazy switch mechanism... though I like it!!
Add some sheet metal housing, a few cogs hanging out and lamps, and you've got a nice contraption going on...

 

Question to the members here - obviously I update my Unity thread on my forum frequetently and often; question is here - i'm not sure if this site likes progress reports and updates on modding projects or if the site here is more interested in normal modding/hacks. If a few people are interested here in my putting my worklog for my Unity project here, i'll start a thread and do that, will keep it though more for completed updates rather than "this goes there", here.

Thoughts?

 

Are you crazy man???

Of course you should do that! I follow your work to give me inspiration for my stuff. Thanks to all the handhelds the members of your site make, I just may take my Xbox and turn it into an over-sized handheld.

...or not...

Not sure...

 

I don't see why people wouldn't be interested in this.

 

Those that think your switch is great, will enjoy reading about it.
Those that think you are doing it wrong, will still want to know exactly how wrong you are doing it.
Those that don´t care, will just not read it. So why not

 

Ok, i'll make a thread when i've done my next video part, and put a few of the previous videos of my project in that thread too, to at least make it reasonably up to date here. Some sites like in depth modding progress, some prefer the results of work done.

 

I would have used a bunch of mosfets and some logic - no programming required. But this is still awesome, nice job! I want to see more!

 

Even if the idea is to make it purely electrical solution, with no electronics involved i'd rather make it with 60s tech rather than early 19th century one and use rotary switch matrix (well, one or two two-deck 8 position rotary switches will be enough to connect a LOT of devices, with 8 switches it will be... omg, better not to think of that wire maze )

But still it looks good, reminds me of that 19th century phone station stuff from museum.

 

Thought I would update this thread with something relevant : i've used the slider back and forth quite a few times so far (probably 30+ times to date) and there is no damage to the bare wires so far, and also the switches work first time every time, so i'm pretty happy with that. Got 8 of my 19 console systems working in my Unity project on it so far, so had to do a fair bit of wiring to the wires (at the back of the switch unit) and also sliding the slider back and forth to get the cables out of the way or to test one system after another; works fine. I know it isn't maybe "an ideal" method I used in my approach, however it works fine.