Clever Chris Williams, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, has created an amazing accessory. The accessory clips both the Wii-mote and Classic Controller attachment to each other, and helps remove the problem of what to do with the Wii-mote whilst using the Classic Controller.

“I thought you guys might be interested in a little weekend project of mine. I fabricated a clip that attaches the Wiimote to the Classic Controller, using the ‘mysterious’ 3rd shoulder button.

I’ve always hypothesized that the ‘mystery’ button (un)connects an as-of-yet unreleased clip that would allow you to attach your Wiimote to the Classic Controller. The idea being that such a thing would be good for (a) getting the Wiimote out of the way and (b) for any games that may want to have a mix between dual-analog controls and motion-sensitive controls.

I’m working on my PhD in mechanical engineering, and as such I spent some time in my research lab over the weekend working on graduating. I figured that while I was there, I’d spend some time trying to bring this hypothesis to fruition. So, using the lab’s Stereolithography machine (a type of rapid prototyping machine), I made a clip. It took about an hour to draw in CAD, and it took the machine about 2 hours to make it.

You feed it a CAD model, the computer slices it into cross-sections, and then the part is built one cross-section at a time. SLA does this by tracing a UV laser over a vat of photo-polymer resin — a viscous material that solidifies once it is exposed to concentrated UV light. One layer is made via a series of laser scans, the part is lowered deeper into the vat, a new layer of resin is spread over it, and the process repeats itself. “

The whole process is amazing to me, and the end result looks like something Nintendo should have already released. Not only does it look good, but it also adds motion and pointing capabilities to the Classic Controller, which opens up another world of Wii games.

Lets hope Nintendo already have something like this up their sleaves, or at least have taken note of the public reaction this great mod has recieved.

Source: Joystiq