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

[kordman916]

Apologies for the old bump, but I had a few questions for the OP.

First, do you have any plans for this cabinet that you'd be willing to share? Also, did you manage to fix the issue with the Taito Type X/X2 emulator in regards to the controllers?

[kordman916]

Looks like I'm going to have to design my own plans based on what I've seen in this thread. Is there a board on this forum for plans? I'd like to post them there once finished.

[Generic Eric]

Looks like I'm going to have to design my own plans based on what I've seen in this thread. Is there a board on this forum for plans? I'd like to post them there once finished.

Post them here
http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=Cabinet_Plans

[Typefighter01]

I love this cab...

[BadMouth]

Apologies for the old bump, but I had a few questions for the OP.

First, do you have any plans for this cabinet that you'd be willing to share? Also, did you manage to fix the issue with the Taito Type X/X2 emulator in regards to the controllers?

Sorry, didn't see this until today.
I have an accurate outline of the side profile saved as a png somewhere.
Always planned on releasing the measurements so other people could use them, but didn't want someone else to finish theirs before me. 
I've shared it with a few people who PMed me.
I'll get off my butt and post it here this weekend if not sooner.

I still haven't fixed the taito type X controls.  Got as far as installing xpadder, but that was it.

I love this cab...

Thanks!

I've thought about just calling it done, but it's still missing a few things that fall short of my total vision of it....so it's not done.

[BadMouth]

Ok, here are some measurements.  PROVIDED WITHOUT GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY

These are not blueprints.  These are not instructions.  I typically build on the fly without strict plans.
These measurements are taken from the near finished cab as it ended up given my style of building.


Some comments:

I am 5'10" tall and really like the ergonomics.
The coin door is easy to reach down and put a quarter in.  It isn't too low or hidden under a deep CP.

My cab has a weird sliding CP that just kind of evolved. 
You'd probably want to handle the area just under the CP differently if solidly mounting the CP.
Maybe come out to a full point, or not come out as far, maybe have the cab shaped so the CP just sits in between the sides.
If I weren't going for the Neo Geo thing, I'd have had the CP overhang the sides like a Mortal Kombat cab.
You may also want to change the point at which the side of the cab starts to lean back (where it meets the CP).
Sometimes I think it's too far above the CP on my cab.  It rises above the CP about an inch before it starts to lean back.
The whole area is rounded so it isn't that noticeable, but I'd probably do it differently a second time around.

The 32" (30.5" inside) width is enough to fit some 32" TVs.  Too big IMO, but others have different opinions.
If not for the rotating monitor, I'd have only made it 24-26" wide.  This would have actually saved a lot of money on the bezel acrylic.

On these tall widescreen cabs, the bezel space between the CP and the bottom of the monitor is always an obstacle as far as aesthetics are concerned.  I chose to have a moves list holder that leans back at an angle to lessen the amount of "vertical wall" before the bottom of the monitor.  This could be handled differently (admin panel, cell phone charging station...whatever)

[BadMouth]

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

Been a while.

Almost a decade after I bought some cool looking Wii guns hoping to use them on this cab, someone finally writes software that makes them usable by my standards.
(my standards being line of sight accuracy and working at a normal distance from the cabinet)
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,167028.0.html

I 3D printed some holsters in ABS, but didn't want them to look 3D printed.  Sanding the corners sucked, but the random orbital made quick work of the flat parts it could reach.



I've never acetone vapor smoothed before.  Attempted it here, but only the bottoms were softening from the acetone vapor.  The big flat part toward the interior was untouched by the rising vapors.
So I brushed acetone on, which I have done before.  It comes out shiny, but always has "brush marks" regardless of how much I try to flow it on.  Probably should have dunked them, but this is good for now.  This pic is with bright morning sun coming from the side.  This is as bad as it will ever look.  (only one screw is installed because I am waiting on wire for the switch)



I didn't want the IR LEDs on all the time so planned to control them from the 12v motor controller operating the monitor rotation, but contrary to my memory it didn't have any extra outputs.
The next thought was to have them controlled by the servo controller operating the 4/8 way joystick switching, but that would require another device to either convert the servo signal to an on/off or a low level 5v signal to higher voltage and current.  Even after adding that extra complication, I would still have to figure out how to launch the bat file to control it only for gun games.
Then I wised up and figured out that I could just put a switch in the holster inline with the LED power wire.  Pull gun out=IR LEDs come on.  Put gun back=IR LEDs turn off.



I forgot how much fun making Mala layouts is.  (I forgot a lot of things, but they came back to me easier than expected.)


I wanted to keep the light gun and positional gun games separate.  The play mechanics are different and sometimes it feels weird for the bullets to be coming from the bottom of the screen.  I couldn't come up with a good name for the positional gun list.  I wanted something to convey "spray bullets from a fixed gun", but the best I came up with was "fixed gunner".  Too many of my layouts are white/grey so I might redo this one.



I'm limited by the 12 year old 3.5Ghz Athlon II X3 in the cab, but was pleasantly suprised by advances in Singe and Supermodel emulators.
The 750ti video card in the cab is incapable of running the HD H.265 versions of the American Laser games, but the standard versions still look a lot better than my old XP versions.
Also added Teknoparrot games, but the only one I've launched is Alien Extermination.
So I updated some emulators other than MAME and made my gamelists, but have not set up or calibrated the guns in any game yet.  I did previously play test on my desktop so know they will work.
There are some issues to work out with switching between games played in 4:3 and widescreen, but I'll cross that bridge later.

The biggest issue is that I originally installed the monitor as far back in the cab as it could go and then installed the smoked acrylic bezel as close to the monitor as possible.
There wasn't enough room to have the LEDs on the front of the monitor, but having them on the sides means the gun won't work as close to the screen.  With the LEDs taped in place, I managed to make enough room by tilting the top forward a bit, but the bezel didn't really fit back in correctly.  I am going to have to remove and redo all the bezel mounting stuff and the back part of the CP.   
Also, the black duct tape holding the LEDs looks like crap even through the smoked acrylic, so that is being redone.  I am waiting on new wire to be delivered.

[BadMouth]

Repeating some stuff from the Lichtknarre thread for the sake of having the info about my cab in this thread....

Having the LED duct taped in place looked like crap, even behind tinted arcylic.
I was also worried about the lack of heat dissipation shortening the LEDs life.

So I thermal glued each IR LED and a heatsink to a thin strip of aluminum.


Then I painted the shiny parts with a flat black paint pen, bent it to fit around the edges of the monitor and affixed them in place with vhb tape.
The VHB tape is pretty gummy and let them wiggle around a bit much for my taste, so I broke out the duct tape again and taped them on the sides of the monitor.
They still wiggled a bit, so I ran some electrical tape (with good adhesive) on each side.  Not quite as clean as I wanted, but acceptable.
I've had electrical tape over the many monitor logos from the beginning and it isn't noticeable under the smoked acrylic.
There was probably a better adhesive to use, but I couldn't think of it.


Redid the wiring with 18 gauge silicone wire and duct taped it out of sight on the back of the monitor.
(lens flares are from my phone camera)


I worked out how much the bezel needs moved forward and predrilled holds for the mounting screws.
Sanding and painting were required where the bezel supports originally were, so waiting on paint to dry.
Next step is figuring out the position of the bottom support for the bezel (it will have to sit lower).
After that, the back part of the control panel (non-sliding part) needs some sliced off the back to fit the new bezel position.

[BadMouth]

I decided to add a trackball, but the control panel is too small and shallow for a standard one.

I looked at DIY trackball setups, but couldn't find anything I liked.
This one looks like it functions great, but it uses a custom PCB and I couldn't find the STL files anywhere.

There is another video where he plays some classics, but no fast spin Golden Tee type stuff.

So the plan is to roll my own.

From the parts bin:
A pair of tiny industrial encoders with 6mm ID.  Got a deal on them over a decade ago.  Wanted to use them for rotating joysticks, but they turned out to be too much of a PITA to mount.
6mm rod
Opti-Wiz or KADE interface

Had to buy:
$7 cheap 6mm ID bearings
$10 red bumper pool ball (2 1/8")
$18 Molex Pico Blade connector kit for the tiny encoders. 

Already approaching the cost of a used 2 1/4" trackball.
Skateboard bearings with 8mm rod and plastic encoder wheels would make more sense.....but anyways.....

Apparently there is a reason trackball rollers aren't straight shafts.  Arranging things so the ball doesn't contact the bearings in the corner turned out to be a balancing act. 
The ball has to sit low enough that the circumference where it contacts the rollers is large enough to clear the bearing in the corner.  But the lower it sits the more of a PITA it will be to mount it in the CP while still having a proper amount protruding on top.

Prototyping in clear ABS because I'm not using it for much else.  The final version will be black.
This is not even a preliminary design.  It is just to get clearances and shaft lengths. 

I wasn't sure how I would keep the shafts in place, but it turned out that they are oversized and don't fit in the bearings unless sanded.
So they basically ended up being press-fit and the bearing cannot travel any further inbound on them.

It will end up being about 3.5"x3.5"
Clearances are tight, but there is clearance.



I've got no CAD skills, so I'm hacking this together in TinkerCAD.
The brown and blue blocks on the right represent the thickness of the control panel top and plexi.


I don't want to replace the CP artwork.  I was hoping to get away with just drilling a 2.5" hole with a hole saw with the CP in place, but I see no way to pull this off without routing out an area on the backside.
No idea what the top part or mounting situation will look yet.  It needs to be serviceable, but will probably end up being held in place with wood screws.  I guess I might tolerate four recessed screws under the plexi, but definitely not ok with a big mounting plate on top.

I am still looking at other options, but this is the direction I'm heading for now.

Solutions that use an optical mouse talk about having to reverse the X axis in Windows, but MAME has the option to reverse an axis so it really isn't an issue unless you want to play trackball game outside of MAME or use the trackball as a mouse in Windows.

Experimenting with the mouse on my desktop, the ball has to be right up against the sensor for it to work reasonably well.

[PL1]

This one looks like it functions great, but it uses a custom PCB and I couldn't find the STL files anywhere.

Most of the .STL files will be easy to recreate in OpenSCAD.
- LMK if anyone finds a suitable PCB from a donor mouse or trackball.

Opti-Wiz or KADE interface

Between those two options, always choose Opti-Wiz.
- The one input type that the KADE interfaces never handled well enough is spinner/trackball.  They had really bad backspin, even with medium resolution encoder wheels.
- If you want to go the Arduino route, there are a number of other spinner/trackball firmwares that work great.


Scott

[BadMouth]

Most of the .STL files will be easy to recreate in OpenSCAD.
- LMK if anyone finds a suitable PCB from a donor mouse or trackball.

I found the original thread for that one after coming to most of the same conclusions already reached there.
Cheap optical mouse was pretty much useless.  Logitech M705 seems to work ok with a white trackball, but doesn't like the red one.
That was just balancing the ball on top the mouse by hand, so nothing very fast. 
I found some smaller 10mm OD bearings in my parts pile.  I could definitely make a tighter package with the smaller bearings, but am afraid they wouldn't spin as freely and would wear out a lot faster.
Not going to pursue the optical route for now, but I'm wondering if scuffing up a cueball and dunking it in dye would result in a good enough pattern for the mouse to see.

Between those two options, always choose Opti-Wiz.
- The one input type that the KADE interfaces never handled well enough is spinner/trackball.  They had really bad backspin, even with medium resolution encoder wheels.

Thanks for that.  I was already making provisions for KADE as it fit on the side of the housing better.
I will switch over to the Opti-Wiz.