Jamma/XBOX 360 Candy Cab *Final Panel PICS, VIDEO, LED's

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Ughhh, after working at a computer all day and then coming home to work on Photoshop/Illustrator on a laptop with a trackpad my wrists are killing me!!

Anyway, this is the DonPachi CP that I will most likely be using. I think it will go well with my marquee. The Mushi Futari one will probably get printed out too at some later date.


Overlay photo


Sloppy photoshop to show buttons/stick

[skinz]

Awesome.  I dig the Illustrator over the photoshop look - Makes it look really authentic.  Great job.

[emphatic]

I gotta say I really like the Futari art much more than the DonPachi one. It's just much cleaner and the pastels look much better on a candy cabinet. But it's your cabinet, so you will do what you want.  Here's some more DonPachi art: http://www.world-of-arcades.net/Cave/DonPachi/DonPachi.htm

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Thank you both for your opinions. I have choice to make. I agree with you emphatic that the Mushi Art is beautiful. I really like the colors as well. My problem is that I like to have things match, so if I'm going to put up my DonPachi marquee then I want a CP to match... What do you think about the DonPachi CP without the buttons names, just the circles?

I would really like to print both, and use the following image as a Mushi marquee. The problem is that I know I won't feel like pulling out all the buttons to switch out cp's very often. Maybe a few times a year at the most...

[emphatic]

I would go much more minimalistic with the CPO. I made a couple of mockups (for EGRET IIs) a while back:



As you see, the DonPachi doesn't even have the logo as that's covered by the marquee.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Thanks emphatic. PM sent.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I would go much more minimalistic with the CPO. I made a couple of mockups (for EGRET IIs) a while back:

http://www.pici.se/pictures/IQFAzeRRX.jpg

As you see, the DonPachi doesn't even have the logo as that's covered by the marquee.

Wow, those are great.

[SNAAKE]

I like 6th best. white background with 2 planes

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I would go much more minimalistic with the CPO. I made a couple of mockups (for EGRET IIs) a while back:



As you see, the DonPachi doesn't even have the logo as that's covered by the marquee.

Ketsui (#7 is my favorite)

After seeing some of emphatic's designs I asked him if would be kind enough to do a little design work for me, and he was up for it. I wanted him to use his own DonPachi CP (3rd one down), and add a few extra elements. This is what he came up with:



I went to kinkos tonight at 7:30, and they said I can pick up the print tomorrow night at 10 p.m. WOW, they must be the busiest kinko's in the country..... I guess it doesn't really matter though since I have a little more painting to do before I'm ready to place the art. So updates tomorrow probably.

thanks emphatic.

 

[emphatic]

 

I really hope you can give them the HIGH RES version I've just PM:d you instead of the sample image at 72 dpi.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

It's taken care of.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

So here are some pics of the control panel with new buttons and stick (not wired up yet). It has the low resolution image which I retardedly printed because I was in too much of a rush to realize what I was doing. You won't be able to tell from these pics but in person you would be able to tell. So I will making a high rez print sometime next week.

The pics actually make the whole thing look a little cleaner than in person since it's not a super high quality camera. It doesn't show all of the imperfections. There are a couple of small cracks in the plexi, but I don't have the heart to recut another one since I already destroyed one when I was drilling out the button holes. I have a small tolerance for frustration and little patience (I think if I had a decent place to work it would be different, but working in my living room/kitchen just aggravates the piss out of me. What I wouldn't do for a garage!). Also, since I knew that this wouldn't be the final print, I cut it out pretty quickly with a somewhat less than sharp razor knife, so you may be able to notice some ragged edges of the print sticking out from the edge of the plexi (maybe some fingerprints too since I didn't bother to clean both sides like I will for final install. Hmmm. And I think I will probably put down a small bead of clear silicone on the edge of the plexi to make a more finished edge. It will make it semi-permanent, but if I ever need to disassemble it to switch out the artwork or something I can just peel up the silicone without much effort.

So onto the pics. Again, artwork is courtesy of Emphatic.

[emphatic]

Wow, even though it's low res it looks very nice! 

If you want to, we could probably add some text near the 24 mm buttons as well as you're going to reprint if you feel something is missing.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Thanks, but I like it the way it is. One thing I will probably do is repaint the bottom plexi. I'm not really liking the shade of blue that it turned out to be. I am thinking of doing a semi-gloss black painted on top instead of the bottom. I think it would go better with the black bezel, and I want it to contrast more with the artwork. Right now I think it's too much shiny reflective plastic. The pics don't really show it though.

[emphatic]

I would paint the plexi white instead. As I was eying your lovely pictures I kept thinking that the plexi has a WIP "quality" to it.  

You've done such a good job at making the plexi fit that snugly, so why not go all the way and have it white?

Quick mockup:

[BurgerKingDiamond]

You know what, I was thinking about going white, and your mock up has convinced me. I like that it minimizes the appearance of the bottom plexi so that you don't notice it as much. Which is good since I had to put it there out of necessity rather than for any aesthetic reason.

BTW, isn't the internet a strange wonderful thing? What we have here is one guy in Sweden and another guy in the USA who will never meet, but are communicating over a common interest in video games. Isn't it cool to design something on your computer, and then see it printed out on another continent just a few hours later? Your English is really good too, it sounds completely natural to me. The only foreign language I know is Spanish and it's pretty rusty now. If I was trying to converse in Spanish it would sound very broken and weird....

Anyway, I will definitely not have a chance to do anything until maybe Sunday. So check for updates in a few days.

 

[Rick]

Now, I'm not a big fan of the candy cabs, but I gotta say you're doing some nice work on this one!

[emphatic]

BTW, isn't the internet a strange wonderful thing? What we have here is one guy in Sweden and another guy in the USA who will never meet, but are communicating over a common interest in video games. Isn't it cool to design something on your computer, and then see it printed out on another continent just a few hours later? Your English is really good too, it sounds completely natural to me. The only foreign language I know is Spanish and it's pretty rusty now. If I was trying to converse in Spanish it would sound very broken and weird....

You left out that the guy in my avatar is Canadian, smoking and swearing profusely.  What can I say, the arcade hobby is the only one that's stuck with me since my first credits of Knuckle Joe (what a crap game) back in 1986 and forward. And yes, I get plenty satisfaction from sharing what I can with people "in the same boat". 

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Now, I'm not a big fan of the candy cabs, but I gotta say you're doing some nice work on this one!

Thanks Rick. I've been following your DOOM build. That is gonna be a Hall of Fame'r for sure when it's finished. I can't believe that you tried to use your router on your finished panel though! OUCH that's gotta hurt.

[emphatic]

Btw, care to explain the metal showing on the sides where the screws are? Or are they on top of the panel?

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

You know what, I was thinking about going white, and your mock up has convinced me. I like that it minimizes the appearance of the bottom plexi so that you don't notice it as much. Which is good since I had to put it there out of necessity rather than for any aesthetic reason.

BTW, isn't the internet a strange wonderful thing? What we have here is one guy in Sweden and another guy in the USA who will never meet, but are communicating over a common interest in video games. Isn't it cool to design something on your computer, and then see it printed out on another continent just a few hours later? Your English is really good too, it sounds completely natural to me. The only foreign language I know is Spanish and it's pretty rusty now. If I was trying to converse in Spanish it would sound very broken and weird....

Anyway, I will definitely not have a chance to do anything until maybe Sunday. So check for updates in a few days.

 

Can I get in on the  cuz I am totally sipping cheap whiskey here and ... I also like to give/ receive tips over the internet, plus I'm from a dark, cold, exotic European country just like Emphatic.










... Germany...

[BurgerKingDiamond]

You know what, I was thinking about going white, and your mock up has convinced me. I like that it minimizes the appearance of the bottom plexi so that you don't notice it as much. Which is good since I had to put it there out of necessity rather than for any aesthetic reason.

BTW, isn't the internet a strange wonderful thing? What we have here is one guy in Sweden and another guy in the USA who will never meet, but are communicating over a common interest in video games. Isn't it cool to design something on your computer, and then see it printed out on another continent just a few hours later? Your English is really good too, it sounds completely natural to me. The only foreign language I know is Spanish and it's pretty rusty now. If I was trying to converse in Spanish it would sound very broken and weird....

Anyway, I will definitely not have a chance to do anything until maybe Sunday. So check for updates in a few days.

 

Can I get in on the  cuz I am totally sipping cheap whiskey here and ... I also like to give/ receive tips over the internet, plus I'm from a dark, cold, exotic European country just like Emphatic.










... Germany...

Yes. for cheap whiskey indeed.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Btw, care to explain the metal showing on the sides where the screws are? Or are they on top of the panel?

Oh yeah, I forgot to explain that. It is the metal from the panel I got from LizardLick. Originally I cut the plexi to the exact shape. What happened is that when I was drilling out one of the corner holes it shattered the whole corner of the plexi. I was already on my second attempt, and didn't want to cut a third piece of plexi. So I cut off that corner of the plexi that shattered and cut the other 3 to match. I thought it looked cool so I stuck with it.

[emphatic]

I see. Perhaps painting the panel (that's showing) white as well would look even better?

Not a fan of Whiskey myself, but I like both German and American beer though.  Mmm, a cold Flensburger pils or a Bud anytime.

[BobA]

No matter what color you end up painted the underlying plexi I would paint it underneath as that gives the very best finish.   Painting on top of the plexi will never be as smooth or uniform and is prone to scratching and other damage.

Good progress 

[severdhed]

No matter what color you end up painted the underlying plexi I would paint it underneath as that gives the very best finish.   Painting on top of the plexi will never be as smooth or uniform and is prone to scratching and other damage.

Good progress 

be careful if you are painting the back side of plexi.  i have done it many times with flat black spray paint and it comes out beautifully.  recently however i tried some dark gray textured spray paint, the first coat didn't cover very evenly, and recoating it didn't help. Now my panel looks pretty crappy.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Ok. This is a short update. I have repainted the blue bottom panel white, and reprinted a high resolution version of Emphatic's artwork. And I've successfully accomplished the LED mod I referenced earlier from Shoryuken, and wired up the controls. I haven't had time to take pics yet, but I think I can do it tomorrow after work.

Overall it looks SO GOOD! I am very happy with the way everything turned out. One issue I have noticed is that there is already a small dirt spot on the white panel from where my wrist rests when holding the stick. I got most of it off, but I think it is actually rubbing through the paint a bit. So I will tape off all the plexi and respray one more coat of white and then do a clear coat over it for protection.

As for the stick... I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed at the moment, but I don't blame it on the quality of the stick itself. There are a few factors which are creating some issues for me. First off let me say that I have never used a Jap/Balltop stick. What I'm used to is the Happ 8 way competition with a very stiff spring. And after that I got somewhat accustomed to my Korean sticks which are physically the same size shape as the Happs but with a MUCH looser feel and longer throw (actually about the opposite of what you would look for in a shmup stick, but I got used to it nonetheless )

My problems right now with my LS-32:

1)  I'm not used to having the stick sit so low on the panel... It just feels akward. My hand is resting on top of it instead of gripping it from the side like I'm used    to. This will probably be the easiest thing to get used to though.

2)  I'm really disliking the square restrictor that it came with. I'm used to full circular movement and this square gate is really bothering me. It's not allowing me fluid, smooth movement, and I keep getting stuck in diagonals. Also, I've noticed that when I try to move straight up, I often slip left or right and slide right into a bullet. This is because I'm putting most of the pressure up, but any slight unconscious pressure left or right will cause the stick to slip in that direction. With a circular gate, the curvature of the gate causes a small resistance to lateral movement when you're holding straight up or down. Ideally I would like to try an octagonal gate, which would allow you to accurately lock into any of the 8 directions with confidence. However after some Google-ing I am pretty sure that there aren't any octagonal gates for the LS-32. So I will be ordering a circular restrictor from LizardLick soon.

3) I don't like how easily the whole shaft spins in the stick. It makes it harder to grip. Even my Happs do this but it takes a lot more torque to make them spin. So much that they won't spin during normal gameplay. Whereas this stick spins a lot (BTW I'm not talking about the balltop spinning on the shaft. I mean the whole shaft spinning).

4) The stick isn't as responsive as I had hoped. But I think that is my fault... In order to keep the wires leading to the balltop LED from getting twisted up during gameplay, I used a headphone plug and jack to connect the wires to the base of balltop. This allows the shaft to spin without the wire getting twisted up (I believe I saw this idea on one of Franco B's old posts. It's quite smart actually, and I don't want to take credit for it.) I think that part of why the stick is feeling less responsive is that the added weight of the plug/jack and the electric tape that I used to attach them to the shaft is affecting the inertia of the stick. I don't think that the stock spring is strong enough to return it to center as decisively as it would normally. I don't know, I just think it feels kind of "wonky". I don't really know if my head is playing tricks on me or not though. I don't want to get rid of the balltop LED. What I'm gonna try and do is get a LS-33 spring and swap it in. Supposedly these are stiffer, so I hope that it will compensate for the LED assembly and I happen to like a stiffer spring anyway.


So sorry for the "essay" on my new stick... 
Hopefully I'll have some pics up tomorrow.
 

[emphatic]

Glad you got the artwork sorted. Really looking forward to pictures on your white plexi panel surround. 

On the stick:

I grew up playing on lots of different arcade sticks, bat tops as well as ball tops and I was even quite happy with my X Arcade sticks until I found the LS-32. But I agree, the stick has some issues. First I would do though is to modify it by taking the spring out and stretching it to 2x it's original height. This will give it much tougher feel. It's too bad that you've gone though with all the work on lighting your balltop, as there are extender shafts available for it, www.arcadeshop.de for example has these. But the best way is to change you way of gripping it. I rest my hand flat on the panel and just grip the ball with my thumb, index and middle finger. This way my hand is pretty much in a resting position all the time, and the fingers do all the "heavy lifting".

My stick of choice now is the SUZO 500, but that's very hard to mount in most panels, and it's not a pretty stick unless you find someone that can make a custom shaft for it.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Damn. That extended shaft would be perfect if it was hollow. At least I know that if I can't get used to the low height I can order that extender and get it machined locally.

Thanks for the tip on the spring. I'll try stretching it out. Unfortunately that means I have to get that F****** c-clip off the shaft again. I'll probably need to find an e-clip to replace it since those are way easier to take on and off. I'll still order the LS-33 spring as a back up since I'll be ordering a circular restrictor anyway.

BTW, what kind of restrictor are you using Emphatic?

[emphatic]

BTW, what kind of restrictor are you using Emphatic?

ATM I have an LS-36 ( http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=212639 ) in one of my EGRET IIs, and a regular LS-32 in the other (my SUZO 500 is in the UK for some custom work @ FrancoB).  Both Seimitsu sticks use the stock restrictor.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

cool. What are you getting done to your Suzo?

BTW, I've decided to order two circular restrictors and try make one of them octaganol with a dremel. If I take it very slow and precise I think I should be able to get it ok. If I screw it up it's only a few bucks wasted.

[emphatic]

cool. What are you getting done to your Suzo?

Basically trying to create an 8-way restrictor for it.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

As promised here are some pics of the cabinet as it stands right now.

First a couple of pics of the bottom side of the panel with all of components. You can see that right now I'm using 3 AAA batteries to power the LED's. I did this as an easy portable PSU while I was wiring and testing. After a few days break I'll get around to picking up the +5V from the JAMMA connector.

I also put a little video on Youtube with a short tour of the cab. Please forgive the not so great camera work, and narrating skills.





The little square of electrical tape next the barrier strips is covering the IC that all the LED's are wired to.





















BTW, the two 24mm buttons don't light up. I didn't realize that the KNserts (pre fab LED inserts) don't fit the 24mm buttons.
I didn't feel like doing a custom thing to work around it.

Also, emphatic, you might notice that the background blue is still darker. For some reason when you print the high res file, the colors are slightly off. The guy
at Kinko's tried printing it and recalibrating the printer like 3 times, and it kept coming out that way. Then he printed the low res and the colors were light again.
I just ended up going with the high res. It still looks good.

Now I'm gonna enjoy some games for a week or two... When I get the itch to do some work I'll do the marquee. BTW, the white plexi really highlights how discolored the rest of the cab is. So respraying will definitely be done at some point in future.

 

[BadMouth]

For the making the buttons light up when pressed, did you use the hex inverter like in this tutorial:
http://shoryuken.com/content/light-up-activation-button-mod-tutorial-61/
or is there a simpler way?

[BurgerKingDiamond]

For the making the buttons light up when pressed, did you use the hex inverter like in this tutorial:
http://shoryuken.com/content/light-up-activation-button-mod-tutorial-61/
or is there a simpler way?

There is this:
http://www.lizardlick.com/Toodles-FGWidget-LED-Controller-Kit_p_580.html

and these:
http://www.lizardlick.com/KNsert-LED-Board_p_585.html

But It's still gonna require some soldering.

yeah, that tutorial you linked is exactly what I did. I got a 5 pack of the inverters on ebay for like $4. It's actually pretty simple if you're alright at soldering and can read basic electrical diagrams. I'm by no means an expert, but I was able to follow the diagram and it works.

One thing I did to simplify it was to use the prefab'd KNserts from LizardLick. So all you do is take of the button plunger and stick in the KNserts. You drill a couple holes and run a GND and a +5V wire from the KNsert to the outside of the button. Also if you choose to use the KNsert without the FGwidget board you have to add a 150 ohm resister and cut a trace on the back of the KNsert.

The balltop is wired straight to GND and +5V so it is on full time. I may be able to answer some question if you plan on going through with it.

 

[BadMouth]

Thanks.  I already bought a pack of those hex inverters, but there was a thread on this board about it and everyone seemed to think it was an overly complicated way to go about it.  I threw them in my parts bin and never got back to experimenting with it.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

hmmmmm. I never saw that thread, but after having done it myself I wouldn't call it complicated.  I say try it if you have the opportunity because the results are sweet.

[emphatic]

Looks great! 

Playing Ketsui with one hand while filming is hilarious. 

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Thanks. I put in some practice time with the stick yesterday, and I'm already getting used to it. I had to completely change my grip. The forefinger, thumb, middle finger grip works well.
Now it's time to get into Futari and 1CC that first loop on Original. Wish me luck.

BTW, have you played DDP DFK yet? I have it but I've been to busy to jump in and give it a try.

[emphatic]

BTW, have you played DDP DFK yet? I have it but I've been to busy to jump in and give it a try.

I LOVE it. Been playing Arrange B stage 1 the whole morning. Great to hear you're getting to know your stick. Adjusting the spring makes it a whole world better though.