Got into flight sims at some point and decided to build a simple button box with the very basics. It's intended mostly for the AV8B harrier, but can be bound to any plane or any sim.
Letters are laser engraved on translucent white acrylic that i painted in black beforehand. There are green LEDs behind the panel that backlight the thing. (not bright enough though).
Here it is. It's mounted on an extra https://www.monster.tech/ support I had laying around, I can smash it without looking, something I do quite often when playing DCS as I'm not very... let's say... proficient. ;)
Inside it's run by an Arduino Micro. The other buttons I often use for Emergency Jettisons... as you can see there's a "Theme" :)
Anyway, super interested. Going to do the same but with only 20% transparency white + black colour. Someone suggested black acrylic but my dad (having a laser engraver) said that black acrylic just cooks up 🤪 Apparently that depends on the laser.
Currently working on the first version with wood. Used cardboard for the mock-up and I like where this is going:
there you go, i managed to upload the image i think. I used 30% transparency white acrylic and black matte paint. I don't own a laser cutter but i have access to it thanks to a local community tool sharing association
Black acrylic looks nice but you won't be able to backlight anything.
What i like with black paint over white acrylic is with a very light engraving setting, the laser just vaporises the paint and shows the white acrylic below