Control panel depth & Lighting question

[Evetsllub]

Hi guys,

I’m new to this game, have found a wealth of info on these forums!  I am still left with a couple of hopefully simple questions that I hope someone can help me with.

I plan to convert a square coffee table to a cocktail style machine.  I’ll be running a laptop (already disassembled) vertically with controls at either end (2 player).  I am going to build some ‘wings’ off the end of each end of the coffee table as the control panel, to keep the surface of the table clean.  Control panel will be either 4 or 6 buttons (not sure if I want the flexibility of fighters, and if realistically a 15.4” screen halved would be big enough for fighters), as well as player 1/2 button, esc button and insert coin button.  Now here is my question:

Space is limited, the coffee table is pretty small.  How much depth should I be including under the control panel to ensure all controls & wires fit in there?  I want as little as possible but don’t want to go too shallow.

Also, ive found some light up rectangular “Insert Coin” buttons, which I think would look pretty cool.  I am struggling to work out how to power the lights.  I’ve found those light strips which seem to be overkill for my needs to power 2 buttons, and space is limited under the table to include more than I have to.  I was hoping to just power the lights via the laptop usb, but they all seem to be 12v, whereas the USB output is 5v… not sure if it would be enough to power them, and I am conscious of drawing too much from laptop USBs, have seen that end up in tears before.

Finally, is playing fighters on a vertical 15.4” laptop screen which is split in half going to be ridiculous?  Should I just stick to the 4 button (or less) games which will also mean I don’t need to have easy access to the underside of the control panel to change the joystick from 4 way to 8 way.

Hoping I can get some suggestions on these questions, I’m looking to order my controls/keyboard encoder in the next couple of days and get started on things.

Cheers,
Steve

[sapro]

Just look around for a power supply to a printer / router / cell phone you don't have any more, in the neighborhood of 12VDC.

Or, look for some 5V LEDs to use for those lights and use the USB power.

As far as fighters on 15.4" vertical alignment ... why not install MAME and try it out? Keyboards suck as controllers but it will show you how much space you're talking about.

[Evetsllub]

Thanks mate.  I think i'll try to go the 5v LED route and wire it up to USB, plygged into a hub.  Never wired anything to USB before but surely i can find instructions on the interwebs.

I think i'm going to go the 6 button route.  I did have a play around last night and managed to get the split screen working, it doesnt look too bad.  Also, i really want to play Double Dragon, i was thinking for some reason it used a 4 way joystick but it doesnt, so i might go the u360 joystick for ease of playing everything.