Building the Steam Controller
Valve1 HN recommenders · 2016–2026
2.3M views · demo · dated · Uploaded 2015-12-10
Valve's short video on building the Steam Controller on a heavily automated assembly line, which the company designed itself. It shows the robotic manufacturing process and US final assembly.
HN cites it as a glimpse of in-house, highly automated hardware manufacturing and the scale of a lights-off factory.
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4 comments from Hacker News
Not that it's much of hinderance these days but it will make the knock-offs easier and quicker to produce, and of a higher quality. I know the controllers are assembled in the US[1], don't know if the injection molding is too. [1] [VIDEO]
I always felt their controller was a bit of a weird product. Turns out they were just dipping their toes in the water. I wonder if they are going to produce this fully in house like the controller. [VIDEO]
Given they’re near Hangzhou they can source a lot of stock for 1/4-1/40th the price as the US. I would guess $1.5k-$2k for the hot mess they show at 6:06 and $8k for the polished setup plus $0-$850,000 in billable hours to some PLC engineers. The old school way to learn this field is an Allen Bradley or Siemens certification[1] but it’s pretty dry and tedious [2] with good money [3] because once you have a network you can show up at any factory or bottling line as they all use Siemens or Allen Bradley and they’re always breaking down. The new school way is AI, raspberry pi’s, and 3D printer tool chains. It’s worth watching the Valve Steam Controller Factory video to appreciate the scale of these lights off factories: [VIDEO] [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]
Valve did final assembly for the steam controllers in the US. Not sure if that counts or not. It was shortly after the portal 2 launch and they did a slick video of the process with portal music. [VIDEO]