NEO GEO Evolution (EVS-1) - Experimenting with DIY trackball

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BadMouth:
A little progress!

The artwork arrived today. It was printed by Lucian045: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134866.0.html

I was tired, but had to at least get the marquee in this evening.
It's hard to accurately capture how the marquee looks in person. It doesn't look as washed out as it does in the pics.
That said, I may try lowering the voltage to the LEDs to dim them a little.

It had a little light bleed on the edges despite having a layer of thin white foam tape on the inside edges of the CP box.
I rolled a little butyl rubber from a sound deadener mat into a long thin strand and pushed it into the corner between the plexi and side panels. It got rid of the light bleed, but took a lot of finessing with the edge of a credit card to get looking nice and uniform.

Even looks good when not lit.

I'm hoping to be able to make time to do the CP next week, even if I have to miss work to get it done. ;D
After that, I'd like to make an emblem for the center of the speaker shroud and maybe large ones for the sides of the cab.

current state:

Gatsu:
That's looking really good man. Sorry about all the problems you're having with the controls.

So ultimately...if you want to play the widest range of games, you'd suggest using a keyboard encoder instead of a pair of xbox controllers?

My setup would be similar to yours, but I wouldn't be playing all of the steam games. Just the fighters like SFIV, KOF13 & MK9. Everything else I'd just use a controller on my regular desktop.

BadMouth:

--- Quote from: Gatsu on July 21, 2014, 11:14:25 pm ---That's looking really good man. Sorry about all the problems you're having with the controls.

So ultimately...if you want to play the widest range of games, you'd suggest using a keyboard encoder instead of a pair of xbox controllers?

My setup would be similar to yours, but I wouldn't be playing all of the steam games. Just the fighters like SFIV, KOF13 & MK9. Everything else I'd just use a controller on my regular desktop.

--- End quote ---

Eh, setting up the controls hasn't been horrible. I just ran into more need for workarounds than expected.

If you're going to run a wide variety of emulators including consoles and aren't worried about modern steam games, then a keyboard encoder not using the MAME defaults for the first four buttons (CTRL,ALT,etc) will provide the most compatibility with the fewest workarounds. In addition to the issue of those keys being used in hotkey combinations (which can be disabled), some emulators just don't support them.

I was running a Key Wiz and had enough extra inputs to just not use the ones that post the MAME defaults (the other pins I used posted v b n m). The Key Wiz has been great, but it doesn't store any alternate mappings. They must be uploaded to it by the uploader software every time you start the computer. The uploader software has given people headaches on some PCs and even if it works, it makes the bootup process more complicated than it needs to be.
The I-Pac from Ultimarc can be reprogrammed to post different keys and will retain the settings in the device itself. It has two less inputs, but if there are four on the key wiz you don't want to use anyway then you're actually gaining two pins.

Most people use gamepads with emulators so there are workarounds out there for just about everything, but it's nice to just have the device work directly and not have to mess with anything else.

BadMouth:
Had some plans cancelled yesterday so used the time to inch forward on the cab.

Of the few builds I've done, none of them ever had CP art. I didn't realize how much of a pain alignment was going to be.
My artwork was printed with extra black around all edges, so I had no edge to use as a reference point.
For the back part, I had the center button as a nice reference point, so I drilled a hole and put a nail through it, then passed that through a hole punched in the button drilling mark on the artwork. From there I drew some lines on the panel to make sure the center button and two outside buttons were all on the same plane. Then I marked the other button locations with a hammer an nail.

The main CP was done the same way, but since no center point was available I just marked centers on edge of the panel & artwork, then aligned and taped them together. I wasn't good about taking pics. Just wanted to make progress. I got everything centered, then made sure the top buttons on both sides were on the same plane and at the right distance from the back, then punched the template with a hammer and small nail.

To make sure that my button spacing didn't shift when drilling the holes, I started with a tiny drill bit, followed by a larger one, followed by the hole saw. I don't know if anyone else does their button holes this way, but I like to drill halfway from one side, then finish from the other. It makes for a clean edge on both sides. It also makes the plug easier to remove from the hole saw since it will already be halfway sticking out of the hole saw.

Dunno what happened here, but the location of this button was off. My artwork is right. All the buttons around it are right.
I must have mistook some other mark on the wood for the right spot when drilling the pilot hole. I didn't want to start over, so I glued in a plug and redrilled it. getting the location right without having the center points of the other holes as a reference anymore took a little work.

Holes in acrylic were cut with a dremel, router attachment, & drywall bit. The drywall bit is just a solid cylinder at the end, so it can trace whatever is underneath. (starting holes were predrilled with a regular bit). I had a brain fart when buying the acrylic and thought I needed a 32" piece for the CP. I was excited that they happened to have a 32" piece available. Unfortunately on the way home, I remembered that although the cab is 32", the CP is 34". :banghead: Back to the home improvement store today I guess.

Instead of routing out 3/4" material I cut the button holes out of 1/4" and access areas out of 1/2", then glued them together.
I got a bit lazy with the recess area, but it won't be seen and I really just wanted to push forward.
I still had to route out the areas for the sanwa joystick s-plates since they needed to be an odd depth.
The vertical strip across the back is for rigidity since the back edge doesn't rest on anything.

I sprayed some primer/leveler on the front edge of the back panel that will be exposed, but it's nowhere near smooth enough.
Gonna have to use some filler.

The plexi on the back part doesn't go all the way back, so it can prop up the moves lists. I'll use the wrong size plexi that was bought yesterday to make a taller holder for modern horizontal fighting games. (corners of CP will be rounded when it is finished)

BadMouth:
I've screwed up so many CP corners with jigsaws it's not funny. The blade always bends and then I clean it up with a random orbital sander which ends up rounding the top edges so they dip below the top edge of the t-molding. This time I did it right and rounded the corners with a router and template.

In my last post I thought I had screwed up the placement on the D button on player 2 because it didn't match player 1.
Well, this evening came the realization that I had screwed up the D button of Player 1, then proceeded to change player 2 to match it! :cry:

The CP and plexi were already cut so I decided that unless I messed up the plexi or the CP somehow, I was going to accept it for the sake of moving forward. The placement isn't any more or less comfortable, but it does run off the button area on the artwork.

Applying the CP art went amazingly well. I ended up with one little spot where a speck of something got trapped under it. (the pic looks like there are two, but only the top one is actually there). I used a tack cloth before starting, but something must have fallen off the backing as I was working with it. Otherwise, the CP art went down and aligned flawlessly. For all the things that could have gone wrong, I'm very happy to only have this tiny little imperfection. This stuff does where out the x-acto blades very quickly though. Make sure you have a few extra before starting.

Location of the D button on the artwork not perfect, but not horrendous.

Looking all glossy under plexi. ;D

I didn't apply the artwork to the back portion of the CP yet because it may need modified for the T-molding of the main CP to clear when it slides. I'll figure that out after applying the t-molding tomorrow.

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