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Defender cabinet cp layout for hyperspin
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jilted:
I got my hands on another Defender cabinet.  It was not even close to as nice as the one I restored a couple years ago.  Graphics painted over, wiring was a mess, was converted to Perfect Billiard (I have the board if anyone is interested), no marquee, no monitor, original panel hacked up for perfect billiard, etc.  Has some water damage on the bottom and top, but not real bad.

This one is going to be my Hyperspin machine and will probably live in my garage.
My restored defender is in my home office ()

I'm trying to decide what to do about the control panel.  I have been toying with the idea of multiple panels since the Defender panel is small but easy to duplicate.  Panels I would be making would include 2 player fighter, spinner trackball combo, and maybe a 2 player smash tv one with 4 sticks!  If I do that, i want to move all the "standard buttons" to the cabinet since I will always need those.  Buttons like credits, P1, P2, ESC, Pause, pinball flippers, etc.

I have been browsing ultimarc and for the main panel, the 2p fighter one, I was considering 2x Ultrastik360's and since they each support up to 8 buttons, I was going to put 8 Goldleaf pushbuttons.  I like the idea of just needed 2 USB connections for to connect that panel to the PC.  I also was thinking that since the sticks had no microswitches, I  may as well try the buttons without them as well.

The "standard buttons" that I am thinking about mounting to the main cabinet, I would get an ipac for those and also wire up the coin door since it's right there and I have traced out the wires for it.  Just so I can put a quarter in if I want to.

Anyway, I know this image isn't to scale, I am just trying to get an idea of what I am going to do.  The other reason is to get input from here.

thanks!
-stephen




DaveMMR:
Swappable panels are a good idea; sticking some "all-in-one" on a Defender would not fit or play very well otherwise. Though reconsider the buttons on the front of the cab. It's going to look like the cab has "measles" (as one internet commentator described a cabinet with a similar front-buttons.) Maybe consider putting a strip above the control panel with the common buttons. It looks a heck of a lot better and you won't accidentally exit a game if you lean forward too much.

Next: you don't really need "coin" buttons - you have a decent coin door there. Rig the rejects with a micoswitch so you can just push it in. It'll look a heck of a lot nicer and it'll impress guests.

As an aside: In my "very early" planning stages I'm strongly considering swappable panels as well but I'm going the route of just repeating the start buttons on each panel for purely aesthetic reasons - I never liked the look of excessive "off-the-panel" buttons. Buttons are cheap anyway. But that's just me.  :dunno
jilted:
thanks.

My main concern is the usable space on the panel.  There really isn't much vertical space when you look from underneath.  Not to mention the panel goes all the way up to the bezel so there is no area above the control panel.  Also, I should have mentioned that the colors I was using in the picture was just so you can see the locations.  Any buttons I put on the cabinet will be black.  I thought about the coin reject idea but I have only found one hack for that so far and it was pretty shotty.  I do plan to light them back up.  I was hoping to find an insert for them that says FREE instead of .25 hehe.

Also, the underneath buttons, my plan was to use the original Defender switch to kill power to an internal power strip for a "full shutdown" instead of always unplugging it.  Well, maybe update that to a DPST switch to totally kill AC power to the rest of the cab.  I am going to convert the coin door lights to 12v LEDs (like my Defender) and I was going to use LED strip light for behind the marquee so everything can be powered from the 12v rail from the PC's PSU.  I'm an LED strip light junky.  I have them all over!  :-)

For the marquee I think I am going with the Defender style one

I do need some input on speakers, but that really hijacks my own thread.

mcseforsale:
Re-purposing stuff is excellent.  I love that.  Imagine all the other poor machines that got a ride to the landfill, never to be played again.   :cry:


AJ
RetroACTIVE:
Hyperspin is great... you really don't need extra buttons for that front end.  It's well designed to use the standard joystick and it's associated buttons.

IMHO 2 sticks and 6 buttons each are the absolute max here... that is if you want to play beat-em-ups.  If you don't care about those then 3 buttons each.  I'm guessing by your pic you do want them ;)
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