Button covers

[Diewrecked]

Well after years I finally finished my cab. And it works great. And it looks the nuts. Hurrah! Only trouble is, when I was at the design stage, the stage where I decided to put my three admin buttons Pause, Quit and POWER, at the bottom of the CP, I didn't have a little two-year-old boy who really likes pressing buttons (you can guess where this is headed, right?)

I really don't want to move the buttons to the top of the cab (above the screen) which is my only other alternative - I don't want three 29mm holes showing under the panel - so I was wondering if you can buy purpose-built covers for the buttons? IE, flip the cover open, press the button, close the cover again. Nothing too taxing but certainly enough to deter an opportunistic two-year-old.

Any/all ideas gratefully received!

Many thanks all

[NoBullMAME]

I've heard of button protectors, but not button covers; except for industrial applications. You could try looking for something like that, but they cost a lot more than a regular pushbutton and I'd bet you'd have a hard time finding one that fit your hole (though I might be wrong).  If there's something I don't know about, I'm sure someone else will chime in though.

If you are powering it down via an interface card (software), and not a button wired to the motherboard, you could make it a shifted key (if you have an IPAC) GGG products also have a similar function.

You could make it a two button process by wiring them in series (it is series right? It's too early for my brain--wire them in a row). Then you'd have to add a second button within reach. You'd have to press both buttons at once to shut it down (later you could disable one).

Or you could live with it for 6 months to a year. My little one has a year to two on yours; I used to have a problem with the location of the exit button, but she's figured it out now. My guess is what you get past the, "cool I can shut it down" stage, you'll be fine :-)

[TOK]

Thats funny! I went through this too. I have a coin up and pause button on the bottom of the panel of one cabinet. When my daughter was about 2 or so, she found out about them. She used to run into the room while I was playing something, hit the button then run away giggling.

Its a pretty short phase, I think I would just pull a lead off the button for now and just use the shift function (hold player 1 and press player 2) for exiting games.

[Vigo]

If you don't mind putting a couple screws in your machine you can get some sort of recepticle cover. The kind of thing they put over outdoor outlets.

[BobA]

Put a button in series with your control buttons ground lead and place that button on top of the cab.   Then you will have to hold down the button on top before your control buttons will work.  Extra safety and no button moving or covering.

[BadMouth]

Put a button in series with your control buttons ground lead and place that button on top of the cab.   Then you will have to hold down the button on top before your control buttons will work.  Extra safety and no button moving or covering.

+1   I think a cover would just make the buttons more interesting & the kid would take it as a challenge.  This way, he's happy because he still gets to mash on buttons, but they won't mess up your game.

[Vigo]

Good Idea, as long as you don't mind mounting another switch. 

You might want to make that switch a toggle switch though. You may find that having to push two buttons at the same time, at a distance farther apart than your armspan, could be an acrobatic act.

[severdhed]

have a separate ground loop for those buttons with A toggle switch mounted up high should do it. what I did was use a autohotkey script to make it so my exit button required you to hold it down for 3 seconds before it sends the keystroke. if you just press it quickly, nothing happens.

[Sir Headless VII]

Isn't this extra button tied into the ground idea exactly the same functionally as a shifted button? It seems like he could just tie those functions to button shifts of the bottom buttons and it would be a lot less work (and temporary for when the 2 year old button pushing phase is over). 

[Marsupial]

for this specific rease, I have a keyswitch to change from "play usage" to "admin usage".

If you have an ipac, make it the shift key.

if you don't, run it in series with the gnd of your buttons, as suggested earlier.

without the admin key, no way someone crash your game. Works like a charm with my 2 toddlers.

[lilshawn]

cut your ground to the admin buttons....

install another "enable" button out of the way that hooks the ground back up again.

press and hold enable and press your admin button.

[ErikRuud]

Good Idea, as long as you don't mind mounting another switch. 

You might want to make that switch a toggle switch though. You may find that having to push two buttons at the same time, at a distance farther apart than your armspan, could be an acrobatic act.

That's how I handled it.  I have a hidden toggle for the admin buttons.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Interesting, I recently came across another topic where the guy hid the buttons in the lower coin door.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106027.0



But +1 on the vote for creating a toggle switch that you need to hold down in order to get the buttons to work.

D

[katuuuz]

if you do decide to remove the buttons, you could buy these plugs from Happ:

http://www.happcontrols.com/pushbuttons/52621200.htm

[Diewrecked]

Many thanks for all your responses guys!

It does seem that a second switch in series for these three buttons is the way to go - what a good idea! That's why I like asking questions on this forum

Thanks again chaps!