Re: More WIP pics -- comments on the control panel appreciated

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: Cool project. BIG control panel. : How did you get that marquee? : http://kevin.jonas.com/images/cabinet1.jpg : Here's my cab so far. Getting painted this weekend. That pic is a near completion pic. It was taken last weekend. Over the week I put the monitor shelf in (20" trinitron I found on ubid.com for cheap) and a bunch of final touches (like fill up those edge screwholes with wood filler, those holes were accidents, doh) : I (loosely) based my measurements off a rotting double dragon cabinet I got for free but still wanted a unique look but keep the 80s feel. The double dragon game still works though!! But no monitor. : My control panel is removable. EVERYTHING is going to be USB ultimately. Though my IPAC is going to be in the cabinet. Using a 25 pin and 9 pin serial port connectors for the joysticks and buttons to the ipac and 12v and 5v lines will be in the 9 pin connector too (for future use). The trackball and spinner are usb hooking toa a usb hub in the cabinet. : It will have a custom frontend too. The whole thing will be pacman themed. : The shelf and the control panel have a 1/8 clear plexi over them (not in that pic obviously). : The control panel in the pic has two joysticks (8 ways I think), 6 buttons each, the two middle button slightly raised for comfort, an oscar spinner, and a wico trackball. : The player start and coins are on that shelf. The three middle buttons are esc, pause, and computer power (stupid ATX power, not a switch anymore!) : I am going to make a second control panel that will be a table for a keyboard and mouse that will be usb. They will connect to the two usb ports that are going to be on the shelf in front of the monitor. Also, those ports can be used with my two game pads for 3rd and 4th players if I ever need too. This panel will also have pinball buttons on the side. : The third panel is the specialty panel. It will contain dual joysticks for use in battlezone and robotron type games. maybe a rotory spinner for ikari warriors. 45 degree angles 4 way for qbert. a spinner for the the joystick spinner combo for discs of tron. You will also be able to mount steering wheels on that panel when needed and the gun I plan on making work in mame (not an optical gun, a position gun which is just a fancy joystick). : It will have a working coin door. Just for realism. Though there are coin buttons on that shelf. Also for realism I will have an instruction card on my cabinet. It will show how to use my custom frontend. : That back piece with all the holes on top is hinged to get at the speakers and lights from behind. You can hold that piece up with a rod like a car hood. : The machine is on castors. They are only 1/2" blelow the bottom so in carpet they sink enough. : If needed I'll make a little board to go underneith to keep it from rolling. : That metal bar in front serves two purposes. First a foot rest, I ahve bar stools. Second, a handle for a person in front when moving it. The back panel has a vent/handle for someone in the back to hold onto. : All the edges of the cabinet are rounded using my dremel. That way there are no sharp edges to hurt anyone. : The cabinet also will be wired with ethernet. I need to hook it to my LAN so I can play multiplayer computer games when friends are over. Plus I can also remote manage the roms then. : Eventually the side will have the pacman side art outlined in glowire (www.glowire.com) : Will eventually have details and autocad pics on my website after I finish the project. : Materials used: : MDF for most everything. 1" pine boards for corners. 2" pine or mdf strips in areas that need strength. A thick strong piece of plywood for the monitor shelf. : The whole cabinet and one control panel was done in 3-4 8' pine boards and 2.5 4' x 8' MDF panels. : 1/8" plexi for the monitor bezel. 1/8" clear plexi for control panel and shelf. same plexi will be used to sandwich a cheap marquee I found until I get my own up there. : Oh, here's a screenshot of the start of my frontend (it's done in flash, tons of animations to make it look cool). The right side has debug info, later screenshots and such will be there. : http://kevin.jonas.com/images/yapfe1.jpg : : : I added some more pictures of my WIP control panel. I have stained it and added two coats of polyurethane before adding the buttons, sticks and spinner. : : I use a KE24 connected via 50-pin SCSI cable that I have split into a male and female DB25 set of connectors. Tonight I wired up all of the buttons, using 18 ga. wire, .187 connectors and barrel connectors to the DB25's. If you ever try this, please get a good, good, good crimping tool. I have one of the cheaper ones and my hands hurt mucho bad because the handle has virtually no grip padding. : : I have searched Home Depot, Lowes and Wal-Mart for some #8 or #10 Carriage Bolts to use to hold the Happs plate in place. I ordered the carriage bolts to mount the trackball, but didn't get the ones to mount the plate to the wood and I don't want to have to go back to Happs just for those four bolts and nuts. Right now I am using #8 3/4" bolts and nuts, but would like to find some black (or some I can paint black) carriage bolts. : : I still need to connect the spinner up and the trackball to the three mouse buttons, but it is coming along nicely I believe. : : Thanks for all the help so far. If I can answer any questions, please don't hestitate to ask.

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