Re: Modular Control Panel

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: I really like this idea, sort of like legos for control panels. I don't think there would be any electrical problems for plugging joysticks or buttons in, but trackballs and spinners might take a bit more thought, but if you interface them through something like the ipac, it might work out ok. I am not sure about not covering the modules, my guess is that if they can be stored securely, they should be ok. Maybe you could make a rack for the side of the cabinet to store the modules. : My main question is how could you make the modules easily exchangeable, but secure enough for game play. Maybe some sort of "tongue and groove" type arrangement would work. : : I was wondering what people thought of this: I've been thinking about a modular control panel (CP) design where joysticks, buttons, trackballs, and spinners would be interchangeable individually, as opposed to an all-in-one design, or even a design with several different control panels, like a fighting stick panel, trackball panel, etc. : : What I envisioned was having a CP base installed with a keyboard interface, like an IPAC, and instead of one big SCSI or DB25 connector from the IPAC to the buttons and joysticks, have a set of smaller ones, each corresponding to a different control function. : : Some would be for joysticks, others for buttons, others for trackballs and spinners devices. : : Then, each module would consist of just a joystick, or a set of buttons, or a trackball, or a spinner. So for whatever game I wanted to play, I could just : : put in the appropriate modules. This would make panels more flexible, and upgradeable. : : I wouldn't have to build one huge panel for all the games you wanted to play, but I could start with 4 basic modules, 2 8-way joysticks and 2 sets of buttons. : : I'd make it big enough for 4 player games, but I wouldn't have to have it set up for 4 players all the time. : : If I wanted to add a 4-way ball-top joystick, I could just build that kind of module, swap an 8-way joy module for the 4-way module, and leave the buttons already in place. : : I think this is better than putting a 4-way in the middle of a panel and above the other controls. : : This design could also make it easy to switch between right-handed and left-handed configurations. : : For trackball games, I could just replace the joystick module with a trackball module. Same for spinner games. : : For Robotron, I could take out the buttons module and use two joystick right next to each other. : : For 2 player Smash TV, I'd put four 8-ways in without having to worry about 6 buttons making the sticks wide apart. : : For Ikari Warriors, take out the 'default' sticks and put in rotary joystick modules. : : Tell me what you think, and if there's any problems you can anticipate. : : One thing I wondered about is unplugging and plugging in modules while the PC is on-is that gonna cause problems? : : Also, would the underside of the modules be too vulnerable to damage if I left them uncovered? I don't know if I'd be able to cover the bottoms of these modules and still make them small enough for this design to work.

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