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The Rats Nest
gazz292:
Been working on the cab a bit more, mainly wiring, but got all my controls in the cp, i have a spinner to add (not even got it yet) but not sure where to put it.
I'm thinking to the left of the trackball below the joystick, but not sure,
could put it above the trackball, next to the white button which is my coin button (for when i dont want to reach down and pop a token in the coin validator)
i like playing arkanoid type games, so need to be able to hold the spinner comfortably and press buttons of one of the joystick button clusters.
where do you rekon i should put the spinner (the front curved bit of the CP hangs over the CP box so is not space to put a control, my steering wheel clamps on that bit)
Heres the underside of my CP, mini-pac at the bottom centre, plug for the trackball by the trackball's hole (the trackball will be mounted to the plexi and the wood cut out to the size of the trackball housing to sink it in, i've just left the cp solid atm to cut the plexi)
the other bundle of wires and a plug hanging down if for the pinball buttons that will be on the side of the cp box, the coin validators input, and any other things that will need a connection to the CP.
This is the back of the cab, i've pulled he circuit board shelf out, the sub and psu's for the sub and the usb hub are under there, there's tons of room under there,
and this is the mains wiring centre, the silver box has the mains input, main switch and the back door cut out switch, which i've bypassed,
theres a filter in it, then it feeds 5 3 pin outlets to feed the monitor and switcher (or it di in the origional cab)
at the top is a 6 way connector, that had a couple of link wires, so when it's removed no power goes to the outlets,
so i re-wired that connector, the mains 'out' pins now go to the relay you can see on the right middle of the circuit board tray, through the relay's contacts and back to the plug, where it feeds the 5 mains outlets,
also connected to the mains 'out' pins on that plug is a kettle lead, which will plug into the atx psu for the computer, this way it gets mains all the time,
the relay's coil is 12 volts DC, and is connected to a Hard Drive power connector, thus will be pluged into the atx psu,
as most people know (i hope) an atx psu keeps the 5 volt rail live when it's plugged in, when you press the power button (or wake on lan or other event tells thecomputer to start up) the psu brings up the voltages on all rails, and hence when 12 volts is present, the relay is powered, and mains goes to the 5 power outlet connectors, into which are plugged the monitors, speakers psu and so on,
essentialy the same os one of those smart power strips, but this one cost me nothing as i had the relay already, and it was just wiring.
trevski:
Nice work on the bargain cab! Always interested to read UK based projects - love the B&Q hatin' :applaud:
As for the perspex: 1m x 1m x 4mm @ £25 delivered - http://uk.ebid.net/for-sale/4mm-clear-acrylic-perspex-sheet-1000x1000mm-8966255.htm
Cheapest I could find. 5mm seems to be alot more expensive and less commonplace than the 4mm
Jefferson:
dig that curved CP!
gazz292:
woohoo, someone likes what i've made :notworthy:
i just felt a standard square cp was a bit boring, i wanted to make the cp a little wider to allow hands to rest on it easier, especialy round the joystick on the right, but i also wanted an area to mount a steering wheel, so would need to extend the cp forwards too,
i just figured rounding the 'extensions' would make it look nicer, i think it does,
i'm re-designing the cp tho, i had a little time playing on it, and found that after about 45 minutes my left hands fingers start to lock up,
so now i'm going to have the left hand joystick mounted in the 'normal' place, to the left of the buttons, giving me a right and a left handed control set, like so...
(The dotted lines are the inner edges of the control panel box on the cab)
That way, if i'm playing by my self (note i said BY my self, now with my self lol) i'll make up a control asignment set thingy on the mini-pac, and it will swap over player 1 and 2 controls, so when my fingers start to lock up, i'll switch to the joystick in my left hand, when my right hand starts to lock up from pounding the buttons, i'll switch back)
I still have to figure out where i'll put the spinner, and i have a coin button to add, and a couple of admin buttons (escape at the very least)
BurgerKingDiamond:
Nice. I really like look of this cab. And I think that having one player righty, and one lefty is a good choice. That way if any friends come over they'll be able to play.