My Control Panel Design

[Minwah]

I am planning to use swappable CP's on my cab when I get round to doing it...CP #1 will simply be a J-Stick + 7 buttons per player (2 players).

I would like CP #2 to be capable of playing more or less anything CP #1 can't

I've come up with this design for CP #2 so far, any comments / suggestions etc. would be great:

(The panel is based on the size of 60x30cm, I may alter the depth, but the width is set.  It will be metal btw.)

[Minwah]

It would look something like this in reality:

[said7]

You should put 3 more buttons on the right side incase you get tired of using the spinner and or trackball with one hand.

[Tiger-Heli]

Might want to add some kind of stick (Ms.Pac 4-way?) to the left of the top-fire stick for BattleZone, etc.

[u_rebelscum]

I like it; it looks like something I'd do.  However, here's my suggestions, all are very small points.

IMO you don't need both a paddle and a spinner, except for two player paddle games (warlords).  Unless you really want the "ends" of the paddle, you can get by with just the spinner.

I like the suggestion of buttons on the right side, too, but not sure were to put them.  Although, I guess you could use the trigger buttons instead of adding normal ones.

Tiger-Heli mentioned a 4-way; you might want one, but I'm not sure where to put it.  Personally, I'd leave it out (and put it on a third CP ).

Lastly, the 8way top fire stick is right hand only (the flight stick is in the way for lefties).  Also, even right handed people would have to reach around the flight stick to reach the top fire stick and the three buttons; might be hard for the smaller people, and especially when pushing the top fire stick to the left.  
Maybe move the flight stick up a little and put the top fire below it (but keep it to the far right)?  Might not be very nice, however, with the two sticks footprints.

[Apollo]

Leave out the 4 way!!! Nooooooooooooo.
Gotta have it. I would make your first cp a bit bigger and put a dedicated 4 way joystick and 3 buttons in between the 2 8 ways. With no spinner or trackball you should have plenty of room.

[u_rebelscum]

Leave out the 4 way!!! Nooooooooooooo.
Gotta have it. I would make your first cp a bit bigger and put a dedicated 4 way joystick and 3 buttons in between the 2 8 ways. With no spinner or trackball you should have plenty of room.

I said to then put it on a different CP, which you also say, so I think the two of us agree on not including the 4way on the CP in the drawings, yes?  Sorry if I gave the impression of not having it at all, I was just talking about CP #2.

Where we differ is that you say use two CPs, I say make a third.  Of course, I'm a little bias toward more CPs, as I already have 3 CPs (5 if you include test CPs), and plan on making a cab with swapable CPs.

However, putting the 4way on the fighter CP isn't a bad idea.  IMO, I think you could just use the fighter buttons and no need for adding the extra three.

[Apollo]

Well that's tricky as you would have to cross your hands over. Left hand on 4 way joystick andd right hand on player ones buttons? Not gonna work. Or am I missing something blindingly obvious?

[u_rebelscum]

Well that's tricky as you would have to cross your hands over. Left hand on 4 way joystick andd right hand on player ones buttons? Not gonna work. Or am I missing something blindingly obvious?

Not obvious, but ctrlr ini files so both player one or two buttons could be used for the 4-way games.  More obvious but more of a pain: in-game TAB remap.

You only have one 4way, so it's for one player (or swap two player) game, so no problems.

[Minwah]

Thanks for the comments chaps

I am not too concerned with the 4-way (on this panel), since I am using J-Sticks on my CP #1 - I am planning to have a 'trap door' on the underside of the CP in order to reach in and switch between 4/8-way.

I like the idea of buttons on the right too, but I am a little pushed for space on that side.  I don't want to have any buttons too close to the front edge of the panel because it wouldn't allow you to rest your wrist on the panel (I do this).

The reason I want the paddle, is of course for paddle games, but also for the 270deg driving games.  I really like using the paddle for these games, OK so it doesn't return to the centre but apart from that it's great.  I am going to have a dedicated 270deg wheel panel (& a 360deg one), but I might want to play the odd driving game without swapping panels (or until I get to building the driving panels).

Yes, the top-fire stick position I am a little concerned with.  I originally put it towards the front of the panel (with the analog stick further away).  I decided to swap it round as again I'd like to be able to rest my wrist on the panel when using the top-fire stick.  When using the analog stick there is no need to rest your wrist on the panel due to the handle being quite big / far off of the panel.

Really I added the top-fire as a bit of an after-thought.  I was going to try to get away with just the analog stick, but I know I will not be 100% happy with this for the digital stick games.

I will perhaps put the actual controls on my life-size printout of the layout, and try to move them around a bit to fix some of these issues...it's more difficult than I first thought  

Oh, and I will do a filter to see what double stick + button games there (BattleZone etc) & see what I can do about those....I suppose I could use my CP #1 j-sticks and use a pedal for fire