New Here, This is what I am starting with. Any Ideas?

[Burnasty]

Hi, my name is Brian.  I am jumping head first into my first build.  I am starting with a defender cab that has seen better days.  I want to have comfortable room for two players with 6 buttons and sticks.  I think I will need to expand the control panel, which is what I am most nervous about.  Any help generally speaking or retrofitting a larger control panel would be greatly appreciated.  I have a p4 desktop that is going to be the system used.  This is going to take me about 8 months due to moving into a new home and small children.  I look forward to having plenty of questions answered.  Thanks

Brian

http://yfrog.com/16img0306fj
http://yfrog.com/7eimg0307qj

[DashRendar]

Welcome to BYOAC Brian!

This community is a great resource for this hobby.  99.9% of the questions people ask have been asked at some point in the past.

There is over a decade worth of posts- so using the Search feature on the main page of the forums will give you most of your answers.

Another good place for information is the BYOAC wiki.  http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/

Hope that helps!

[92greenyj]

I'm in the same boat and doing the same thing with a Pac Man cabinet.
What I've done so far was to take a lot of careful measurements of the original control panel. then to start I added 6"s to the width (front to back, or from the screen out towards your body) of the panel. I then cut several cardboard templates to this size.
Next I drew a 1/2" by 1/2" grid in pen on the cardboard. Mounted the first template in place with tape to get a feel for how far it would stick out. It was liveable.
next I got the dimensions of the joystick mounting bases (3"x3") from Happs website and the dimensions of the pushbuttons I want to use and I skecthed a few different layouts in pencil on my template using the grid I made as reference for placement and such.
When i had a layout i was happy with (2 8 way joys with 6 buttons per player, a dedicated 4 way joy in the middle with 2 buttons, 3 admin buttons, and a player 1 and 2 coin up and start button) I realized I could cut my board down a little so it wouldn't stick out as far. So I cut 2"s off. my final panel will, at present, only come out about 4"s further than the original.

This is a good place to start and will let you play with different sizes, layouts, etc until you get something your happy with

[HanoiBoi]

Hey guys,

Check out slagcoin.com.  More specifically, go to http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html

You'll find it a very useful site to map out a CP. 

Burnasty, I'd say you can fit 2p w/6 buttons each into that CP without issue.  I've got similar, but even wider per player (4+ buttons wide) in a 24" panel.  And there's room for a spinner in the middle (top).

Here's something I added to a previous post:

I've got a 24" x 9" Control Panel in my machine right now (actually a little less than 24" inside the cab frame) and I don't have issues with 2 players.

In that ~24" span, I have the following;

(1)(C)                  (S)(B)                  (C)(2)

 (J) (B)(B)   (B)(B)           (J) (B)(B)   (B)(B)
             (B)                               (B)

1=Player 1 Start
2=Player 2 Start
C=Coin
S=Spinner (The spinner was thrown into a previously drilled hole.  It will later be moved down slightly, or another added for both Players)
B=Button
J=Joystick