local Asteroids cab. / connection methods for swappable CP's

[D_Harris]

There was someone with a Moon Patrol inside of an Asteroids cabinet for a very long time on Craigslist in this area. For some reason it is not there at the moment. But it looked terrible.

Well, I certainly hope that doesn't happen to my cabinet. Thanks man. 

And if you need a new control panel you may want to check out this thread: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=184155

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Louis Tully]

.

[D_Harris]

One thing I'm curious about. Why go with Asteroids CP artwork? Is it just so that it will match the rest of the Asteroids art on the cabinet?

I ask because obvious the CP lay-out you have is not conducive to Asteroids. (But I only say that because I personally refuse to play any game without using the original control panel format).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Louis Tully]

.

[D_Harris]

One thing I'm curious about. Why go with Asteroids CP artwork? Is it just so that it will match the rest of the Asteroids art on the cabinet?

I ask because obvious the CP lay-out you have is not conducive to Asteroids. (But I only say that because I personally refuse to play any game without using the original control panel format).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

So.... you don't want to come over and play some games?

-L





 

Actually, I have all the arcade platform games that I play, and will just swap control panels on either of the two Williams cabinets (which are set up to cover vertical and horizontal games) I have depending on what game I want. (I don't believe in cluttered control panels).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Louis Tully]

.

[D_Harris]

Actually, I have all the arcade platform games that I play, and will just swap control panels on either of the two Williams cabinets (which are set up to cover vertical and horizontal games) I have depending on what game I want. (I don't believe in cluttered control panels).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Glad you've got it all figured out.  

I developed what I call the "Quick-Swap" control panel system, so I can just swing the CP down, and swap the CP top for another before pushing it closed. There are no connectors to push together or pull apart because the Phosphor-Bronze spring backed contacts, which come together, involve zero-insertion-force.

So a swap takes about 5 seconds.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[Well Fed Games]

 

[bkenobi]

Can someone host the sketcher drawings for that last CP design?  I'd like to get something that works for every game, and I think you've nailed it!

[TopJimmyCooks]

somewhere, out in the darkness, a frankenpanel has died:

EBay

[TopJimmyCooks]

I developed what I call the "Quick-Swap" control panel system, so I can just swing the CP down, and swap the CP top for another before pushing it closed. There are no connectors to push together or pull apart because the Phosphor-Bronze spring backed contacts, which come together, involve zero-insertion-force.

So a swap takes about 5 seconds.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

D_, all BS from these guys aside, I am really interested in the spring contacts.  I looked long and hard at pogo pins but I just can't justify the cost/benefit ratio.  Did you cut your contact fingers yourself or find something on the market?  I would love to see a pic if you have one.  Check the CP thread in my sig and you'll see why I'm so interested.  Thanks 

[Vigo]

He made his own. Read this thread:

Franken-panels Vs. Multi-Swaps

 

Edit: I see you have been active on that thread to begin with. Ah well, refresher. Maybe a good cue to request 

[Nephasth]

D_, all BS from these guys aside, I am really interested in the spring contacts.  I looked long and hard at pogo pins but I just can't justify the cost/benefit ratio.  Did you cut your contact fingers yourself or find something on the market?  I would love to see a pic if you have one.  Check the CP thread in my sig and you'll see why I'm so interested.  Thanks 

Jimmy, you and I both asked him to show pics of this back in May. He never did...

Darren, please. I'm not a fan of wind...

Or is it still in development like it was in May?

[TopJimmyCooks]

Right, I remember the thread. I can imagine what the system would look like.  I would just like to find some flat/stamped spring fingers or some sheet stock they can be made of. 

most of what I have found is custom $$$ like this

I'm going to do a quick sketch of what i really want and see if someone's seen it in the wild.

[Nephasth]

If you could find strips big enough (with enough contacts) like the spring contacts on cell phone docking stations, that would work well.

[TopJimmyCooks]

this is what I want. 


several ganged together would be even better.
the fingers would land nicely  on a 1/4" pitch screw terminal strip.  I've found some very small stuff like the cell phone ports, but nothing of decent size. 

[Vigo]

Looking for a good retailer for pogo pin connectors is hard, I tried before. I think I did end up finding a few when it came to motherboard connectors, but it took a lot of searching.

I remember I did suggest on that original thread to use something like edge connectors, like how a SNES cartridge pops into the system. Wire the controls to a flat edge card, and have a connector mounted on the cabinet. I think it would be cheap and easy, but you would need to make some guide when it slides in to prevent the card popping in at a bad angle.

[Nephasth]

Wonder if Molex makes anything that would be suitable? I'll have to chaeck into that...

[TopJimmyCooks]

Looking for a good retailer for pogo pin connectors is hard, I tried before. I think I did end up finding a few when it came to motherboard connectors, but it took a lot of searching.

They're out there, made by Mill-max, etc. I didn't price the PCB sizes but the larger sizes, with minimum qty's, shipping, etc. were going to be a $50-60 order from digi key.  I basically decided i'll keep plugging/unplugging usb and rj45s.  I don't do it that often anyway.  It's worth maybe $20 to me right now, if it's easy to implement.  If I get extremely low on projects I might look into pogo's again.

Nephasth should be off the red phone with the CEO of Molex here in a minute, maybe he'll have them whip up something proto for me.  (and a $69 tool to go with it!)

[Nephasth]

Nephasth should be off the red phone with the CEO of Molex here in a minute, maybe he'll have them whip up something proto for me.  (and a $469 tool to go with it!)

Fixed. Sent you a PM.

[D_Harris]

I developed what I call the "Quick-Swap" control panel system, so I can just swing the CP down, and swap the CP top for another before pushing it closed. There are no connectors to push together or pull apart because the Phosphor-Bronze spring backed contacts, which come together, involve zero-insertion-force.

So a swap takes about 5 seconds.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

D_, all BS from these guys aside, I am really interested in the spring contacts.  I looked long and hard at pogo pins but I just can't justify the cost/benefit ratio.  Did you cut your contact fingers yourself or find something on the market?  I would love to see a pic if you have one.  Check the CP thread in my sig and you'll see why I'm so interested.  Thanks  

I had decided not to post pics until I finish everything. It's the art work for the control panels that I haven't done yet. (That's on the back burner while I try to take care of some personal things).

I had originally gotten some pogo pins, but realized that they wouldn't work. Besides, I need durability, and since there was nothing on the market that I could use, and I wasn't going to spend money to get them custom made, I decided I had no choice but to make my own.

To cut out the contacts I used a straight edge and a blade to score the Phosphor-Bronze sheet, before bending back and forth until the strip snapped off. I then cut to length, and bent them into "L" shapes with a little lip. I repeated until I had enough. This was actually the most difficult and tedious part of the project.

The thicker the contacts the better, but thicker ones are more difficult to cut out. You can get Phosphor-Bronze sheets from McMaster Carr. I actually used some stock I came across on eBay some years ago.

I used rubber sheet as a backing between the row of contacts and the support which is made of hard nylon. (I don't think it is necessary to do this with the opposing row of contacts).

I cut V-grooves in the ends of the nylon supports so that the opposing pieces come together the same way, making sure the contacts line up. The nylon's dimensional stability allows the contacts to come together perfectly every time.

Also, slots are cut into the nylon so that half of each "L" shaped contact fits into it's own groove and will not move. I then soldered leads to each one and secured them by their lips with another thin nylon strip I cut a thin groove into. This small piece is screwed into the main nylon support at each end.

One block is attached inside of the control panel base and the other is attached each removable control panel top.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Cool, I'd love to see the pix when you get your art wrapped up.  I know what you mean, around here your project is nothing without completed art.

I'll take a look at the bronze sheet from mcmaster.  do you know what gauge you ended up with?  are you happy with how springy it is? 

[D_Harris]

Cool, I'd love to see the pix when you get your art wrapped up.  I know what you mean, around here your project is nothing without completed art.

I'll take a look at the bronze sheet from mcmaster.  do you know what gauge you ended up with?  are you happy with how springy it is?  

Speaking of how springy it is. I have a slight modification I may have to incorporate. It's still early, so this can still considered the "testing phrase". (The simple below illustration shows the four basic parts of the lower contact row from an end view).

The modification would involve using rubber bushings between the support and contacts of both upper and lower contact rows, and replacing the secondary support with a straight piece with no groove. This would just attach above the contact lips to keep them from moving up.

*** What is not illustrated is that the main support has grooves on it's horizontal wall where the contacts fit.

I had to do a lot of sanding down and test fitting of the upper(CP) supports until the fit was "perfect" between opposing rows.

P.S.: You know we hijacked this thread.  

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[TopJimmyCooks]

looking forward to seeing more of that.  looks like you're relying on the compression of the rubber rather than just the spring memory of the metal pieces. 

P.S.: You know we hijacked this thread. 

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

I cleared it w/Louis Tully by PM, he actually enjoyed the discourse on the mame v/s historic that went on earlier.  Of course, we can return to regularly scheduled programming at any time.  Post a thread your results on the CP when you're ready and don't worry about the knuckleheads.  There are many who would like to see the work you're doing. 

[Nephasth]

Would hacking up a laptop dock work?

I'm aware that this site has the highest level of immaturity than the others site I frequent and therefore expect a higher number of trolls who attempt to analyze and decipher stuff you said and also stuff you didn't say. Especially since there are no mods here.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Um... last I checked, building/collecting/playing arcade machines didn't rank so high on the scale of maturity...

[TopJimmyCooks]

Point taken, Darren.  As long as a purist archetype like yourself and a scratch builder/Cab Mamer archetype like myself can exchange some ideas and rise above some background noise, it's cool.  Not to pigeonhole anybody, but those terms describe where we're basically coming from.  Didn't mean to imply you couldn't handle yourself, at all. 

Funny you mentioned that this is the least mature forum though.  I find it more mature than RGP (although the crowd is obviously older) or klov.  If you want to see immature try a brand related motorcycle forum or guitar related forum, even moderated heavily, they are ridiculous. They make the comments on a torrent site look like learned discourse.

Nephasth:  that dock is interesting, but what i need is a row of 8 or 10 of the pyramid contacts shown in front of the main data connector.  I'm working with a wood cp box and wood swap panels, I don't have the tolerance (or the soldering chops) to use a really small set of contacts.   

[yotsuya]

Point taken, Darren.  As long as a purist archetype like yourself and a scratch builder/Cab Mamer archetype like myself can exchange some ideas and rise above some background noise, it's cool.  Not to pigeonhole anybody, but those terms describe where we're basically coming from.  Didn't mean to imply you couldn't handle yourself, at all. 

Funny you mentioned that this is the least mature forum though.  I find it more mature than RGP (although the crowd is obviously older) or klov.  If you want to see immature try a brand related motorcycle forum or guitar related forum, even moderated heavily, they are ridiculous. They make the comments on a torrent site look like learned discourse.

Nephasth:  that dock is interesting, but what i need is a row of 8 or 10 of the pyramid contacts shown in front of the main data connector.  I'm working with a wood cp box and wood swap panels, I don't have the tolerance (or the soldering chops) to use a really small set of contacts.   

Yeah, what I like about this forum more than most is the level of maturity AND the spirit of community.

[D_Harris]

Point taken, Darren.  As long as a purist archetype like yourself and a scratch builder/Cab Mamer archetype like myself can exchange some ideas and rise above some background noise, it's cool.  Not to pigeonhole anybody, but those terms describe where we're basically coming from.  Didn't mean to imply you couldn't handle yourself, at all.  

Well, I'm definitely not a "purist", and I have nothing against building cabs or doing things from scratch. After all I'm on this forum, and my control panel projects are being done on original arcade cabs.

All I conveyed was that I will only play a game using it's original control format. (The instigators/trolls of course will attempt to analyze and decipher my personal preference to mean that I'm attacking everyone with a Franken-panel or call me "uppity").

Funny you mentioned that this is the least mature forum though.  I find it more mature than RGP (although the crowd is obviously older) or klov.  If you want to see immature try a brand related motorcycle forum or guitar related forum, even moderated heavily, they are ridiculous. They make the comments on a torrent site look like learned discourse.

Well, I didn't say that this is the least mature forum. Just out of those I frequent.

BTW. Below are pics of one of the printer port switches I picked up some years ago with the intent to use them to switch between game PCBs before I decided to go the "Build your own" route with that project also.

I haven't opened one up to see what kind of contacts they use, but I'm sure they're small.

I can't remember the exact thickness of the sheet I made the contacts from, but as I said the thicker you can make them the better. I'd say a minimum of .032", .040" or thereabouts should suffice. And you can make the contacts as wide as you want. Mine are 1/4".

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[saint]

Thread trimmed of most of the argument I think, back to your regularly scheduled Pax Arcada please.

Note - please folks, if you think a thread is going bad and being ignored by the mods, report it. We can't help if we don't know there's a problem, and I unfortunately don't have time to read every thread

*Oh - and this is an interesting thread, so any side comments on this moderation or *sigh* need to continue the side-argument, please do it in PM or elsewhere. Thanks *

--- saint

[D_Harris]

@saint: Thanks.

@TopJimmyCooks: If you're going through with this project, I'll answer any questions I can.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I'm going to finish my cab first, then order up some sheet bronze.  My approach will be for spring fingers on a 1/4" or so pitch to land on barrier terminal strip screws.  Any actual progress will be posted on my cp thread or cab thread.  Thanks Darren for the info on the materials.