Lesson plan

Build your own fight stick lesson plan

One button to a full leverless controller on a Pico: SOCD, eight buttons, lit buttons, an OLED and modes.

2 chapters, 5 lessons, about 4 hours, on the Raspberry Pi Pico. Every lesson runs in the browser, with nothing to install.

The unit

Objectives and materials

By the end, students can

  • A button, the directions with SOCD cleaning, then all eight attacks.
  • Lit buttons, a screen, mode combos and turbo: the flagship template.

Materials for the whole unit

  • Arcade button x 12
  • LED arcade button x 8
  • OLED display, 128x64
  • Raspberry Pi Pico

Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too.

Chapter 1. About 2 h 25 min

The inputs

A button, the directions with SOCD cleaning, then all eight attacks.

LessonTimeWhat students do
One button, read like a controllerWire a 30 mm LED arcade button to a Pico, light its lamp, and debounce it the way controller firmware does: no added lag at all.45 min
  1. What is in an arcade button
  2. Run it and press
  3. Light it
  4. Debounce without lag
  5. See what the lockout saves you
Four directions and SOCD cleaningWire the left-hand cluster of a leverless controller, report it in numpad notation, and clean left + right the way tournament rules ask.55 min
  1. Numpad notation
  2. Hold left
  3. Left and right together
  4. Last win
  5. Up priority
  6. Which rule to use
All eight attack buttonsAdd the eight attack buttons in the two-row layout, keep the pins and names in one table, and report every combination at once.45 min
  1. The two rows
  2. One attack
  3. A motion and a button
  4. Everything at once
  5. Make the names yours

Materials

  • Arcade button x 12
  • LED arcade button
  • Raspberry Pi Pico

Check for understanding

Each student finishes "All eight attack buttons" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 5 of its 5 steps as they go.

Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Make the names yours".

Chapter 2. About 1 h 30 min

The finish

Lit buttons, a screen, mode combos and turbo: the flagship template.

LessonTimeWhat students do
Lit buttons with themesSwap in LED arcade buttons, fade each lamp with PWM on its own pin, and give the controller themes that react to every press.45 min
  1. A lamp per button
  2. React to a press
  3. Themes
  4. Brightness
  5. Tune the fade
The full controllerAdd the OLED input display, Select, Start, Home and turbo, switch SOCD and stick modes with GP2040-CE's combos, and make the template yours.45 min
  1. The screen
  2. Change SOCD with a combo
  3. D-pad or stick
  4. Turbo
  5. Make it yours

Materials

  • Arcade button x 8
  • LED arcade button x 8
  • OLED display, 128x64
  • Raspberry Pi Pico

Check for understanding

Each student finishes "The full controller" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 5 of its 5 steps as they go.

Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Make it yours".

Your class

Teach this unit as a class

Start a class from this course and its 5 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you.

The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way.