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| Idea for a simple Swappable CP |
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| Guywiththegun:
Here's the deal. I love the Hotrod SE because you can just plug it in anywhere and start playing (I'm putting an IPAC VE in it to make it even better). I wanted to use it on the cab I'm doing (old Kangaroo cab), but this would eliminate half of its appeal to me. So I want to make a system where the Hotrod can attach to the cab, firmly, and be somewhat easy to remove. If I get that worked out, great, but it would leave the cab looking terrible when I took out the Hotrod. So I had an idea. I once considered making an old school cab for Pacman, Frogger, etc. with just a 4 way joystick, a couple of buttons, and maybe a trackball. What if I were to make this CP, and keep it inside the cab like a sliding drawer that easily goes in and out. When I want to fire up SFII and MK with the Hotrod, I just slide the other CP in. When I want to use the Hotrod somewhere else, or play some 4-way games on the cab, I take the Hotrod out and slide the 4-way CP out. Here are some sketches of what I mean: Does this look feasible? Any suggestions on how to go about this? Should I just scrap the whole thing, keep the Hotrod separate, and make a big dedicated CP? (Keep in mind this is a small Kangaroo cab, and I'd have to learn wood-working from the ground up if I went that route) |
| TopJimmyCooks:
This reminds me of the single cartridge neo geo cabs - the pcb and cart is mounted on the same plywood piece as the bottom of the cp, and you slide the CP up and out to bring the pcb forward to change the cart or whatever. you might want to take a look at photos of those for geometry or ideas. I think this is very doable, though. |
| Vigo:
I think having a drawer slide can work. The part of getting the CP to come up at an angle, then lay flat once it is in position seems to be the difficult part of the task. You could have the control panel stay level as it comes up, you would probably want to have 2 drawer slides on each side of the CP. I don't know about joystick clearance though. You could also use a drawer slide system where there are two roller wheels mounted to each side of the CP, and once you get to the top, the first roller wheel will pop out of the drawer slide. This will leave the CP "free spinning", and you can lock in into place once it is in the position that you want. If I was to design a pop out control panel, though. I would probably consider some sort of swing arm hinge. It would be bulkier, but probably easier to work out. Have boards the go down either side of the coin door, and swing on a hinges mounted on the front interior of the cabinet. |
| Donkbaca:
The difficult part of the task is getting the CP and the bezel/monitor area to meet up right, and having space in your cab. Why would you ever remove the Hotrod? Just get a couple of xbox joysticks, they are smaller, plug into a computer and you can use them on an xbox to boot. |
| TopJimmyCooks:
if you're doing an lcd monitor, you may need the small "admin" panel that most people end up having under the monitor to get it up to the right viewing height. if you do use that, you could make it hinged at the top to flip up and clear the joysticks. |
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