My first build : Clint. Finished.

[yamatetsu]

The bottom. I put the bottom together, nothing special here.



Instead of buying single casters, I grabbed this at a sale :



Since it is too small to be put directly under the cab, I had to cut it up :



It's incredible how tough this glued wood is. I had a hard time sawing through it. Anyway, here are the mounted casters :



And finally the bottom attached to the left side :



Next I will be tackling the door. It turns out that if you have 60 cm space between the sides, having a door that is also 60 cm wide is not a good idea, as you can't open it.
So I will have to sand it down a bit. After that, the control panel.

[yamatetsu]

The control panel. As I have neither router nor drill press, this doesn't look pretty, but it works. The rectangles and the trackball hole were cut using a jigsaw, the button holes were done using a forstner bit.



No router means no recessing the joystick plates, so I came up with the idea to top mount the joysticks and then use two layers of lexan to level the field.



Since the joystick inserts are a tad too long and I didn't want to bother with them, I used screws with nuts to mount the joysticks.



The joysticks with two layers of lexan :



Joysticks, buttons and minipac mounted :



And for today's menu : Control panel with spaghetti.



I haven't tested it yet, I pray that it works.

[yamatetsu]

The control panel box / the finished panel.

I wanted to have rounded edges at the front of the control panel, so I bought rounded wood thingies (I don't know what they are called in english), painted them black and glued them to a piece of MDF. Since the MDF is 12mm and the rounded thingies are 15mm, they protrude a bit in the direction of the box. To compensate for that, I cut a profile into the front of the box. Here it is, again, not pretty, but works.





The upper rounded edge is higher than the box, so when I lay the CP on top of the box it is then level with the edge. Sounds good in theory, but has a drawback. I wanted to hinge the CP to the front of the box, but that doesn't work because it hits the edge when I try to lift it.
I can't put the hinges at the back of the box because the trackball is in the way at the front.
So I said to myself 'Screw that.' Figuratively and literally. I cut out some battens and glued them to the corners of the box, so I can screw the board into them.



As you can see, there are only three battens and a mess in the fourth corner. That's because in the fourth corner there will be a button which clashes with the batten. This occurred to me, of course, after I had glued the thing in. Luckily my dad bought a Bosch multi tool recently, so I used that to cut the batten. That at least was the plan. Turns out that the tool vibrates so much that it literally tore the batten from the MDF while sawing into it.

Now on to the CP art. This was done using cardboard. A white cardboard rectangle for the background, black cardboard for Clint. I cut out the black shapes using a scalpel and then simply doubletaped them to the white cardboard. The pic doesn't do it justice.



Then I put everything together. As you can imagine, a board of wood and three layers of lexan, all hand-cut and -drilled will probably not fit together very well, so I had to sand quite
a lot of the holes to make them bigger and allow me to shift the buttons around a bit. For this I used my tool for etching glass, it took me only about two and a half hours.
Aaand the result :







Note how shiny the lexan is. This makes my hardfought mirror finish for the front panel look totally dull.

[rablack97]

Dude.....WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY   





Did you mock up that layout?

Man you started out sooooo good, that CP layout is not cool.....WHHHHHHYYYYYYY??



One stick is lower than the other, and whats with the one at top, its too close the bottom one.  I don't understand....

[yotsuya]

I gotta agree with Rodney, if not as loudly, then as in spirit.

[PhoenixGG]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together. If I had to re-sand the sides as much as you did, I would've just painted the cabinet flat black and be done with it. My hat goes off to you.

As for your CP. If the layout works for you then go with it. I do prefer symmetry when I build things, but I am not the one playing your cab and with all the effort you've put in this far, I am confident you're not the type to leave something if it isn't to your standards.

[yamatetsu]

Dude.....WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY   

Largely because of space restrictions. And because it's my first panel  This is what I had to work with :





As you can see, there isn't much space for three sticks, a trackball and a bunch of buttons.

One stick is lower than the other, and whats with the one at top, its too close the bottom one.  I don't understand....

The two sticks close together : Space restriction. I can't lower the bottom stick because then I would have no space for my hand. The upper stick already is as high as I can put it. It certainly is not an ideal solution, but both sticks are playable.

P1 stick and P2 stick not on the same level : I just wanted to give player 2 more space for the hands, as player 1's hand is close to the edge.

Soo, apart from moving the P2 stick a bit down to level it with the P1 controls, I fail to see what I could have done differently.

If anyone can come up with a cooler design, I'm very interested in it.

Restrictions : - The trackball has to be in the middle
                    - no stick above the trackball as I don't want to smash into it when playing a certain golf game

[yamatetsu]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together. If I had to re-sand the sides as much as you did, I would've just painted the cabinet flat black and be done with it. My hat goes off to you.

Thank you  Regarding the re-sanding : After having redone the boards countless times, my inclination went more towards setting fire to them, or re-designing them with a sledgehammer 

[dkersten]

my inclination went more towards setting fire to them, or re-designing them with a sledgehammer 

Guns work REALLY well for that.  And tannerite.. nothing helps cure frustration like blowing some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- up.  "Just a little touch up"...

[yotsuya]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together.

I didn't know you were a doctor, yamatetsu? Good for you.

As for your CP. If the layout works for you then go with it. I do prefer symmetry when I build things, but I am not the one playing your cab and with all the effort you've put in this far, I am confident you're not the type to leave something if it isn't to your standards.

As skilled at yamatetsu is, I would have thought a switching Servostick would have been a better option for P1 than two joysticks. Yeah, I get it, it's his cabinet, blah blah blah, but Rodney's right. Visually, I don't think it works. I don't have to play it, either, so yamatetsu can tell us to go pound sand, but I think he's appreciated our previous honest opinions, so 

[rablack97]

Ok......

This may suck a major big one, but before you go any further, widen your cab to give yourself space for the your jsticks.

You've put waaaay too much work into this to ruin it with a CP like that man....Your work so far has been spot on.

Yots suggestion of a servo stick is a great modern idea.  I think the days of the double stick have kinda surpassed us.  Even so the placement is so tight you will not be happy playing-wise i can promise that.  Another option is to have the CP easily unlatched, pop it open switch your 8way stick to 4 way and done.

http://www.ultimarc.com/servostik.html

Widen your cab man, and place your 1p 2p symmetrical to one another.  You mentioned the stick being in the way of your t-ball well your buttons on plyr 1 are in fingers shots distance, so that could cause havoc in game play as well.

Not too fond of those labels either hit up this guy and get you some vinyl for your buttons man...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130477.0.html

[rablack97]

Dude, you do exceptional work and probably have more patients than all the guys on the forum put together.

Illiteracy is a awesome.....

[Vigo]

The nice thing about a CP is you can always redo it later. The CP can be pulled fairly easy and worked on as an independent item. So, feel free to get some play time before making any decisions. Hopefully, you kept your cardboard stencil, but if you didn't, I think it would be fairly easy to patch it up and redo the joysticks at least, while keeping the art.

The stencil work is still top notch, and you have the perfect theme for it.

[yamatetsu]

Mayhem ensues ...

This may suck a major big one, but before you go any further, widen your cab to give yourself space for the your jsticks.

Widen the cab ? WIDEN the CAB ? Are you MAD ?
Now seriously, widening the cab would mean ditching everthing but the sides, including all the boards I have spent about six months to get right. Also, if you look at one of the previous posts, you'll notice that the bottom already is glued to the left side.
So, while I certainly appreciate you people wanting this to look as good as possible, redoing the most frustrating work I have ever done for the sake of a control panel looking slightly better is not going to happen.

As skilled at yamatetsu is, I would have thought a switching Servostick would have been a better option for P1 than two joysticks.

Err, thanks for the praise, but I'm not skilled. My woodworking experience prior to this consists of helping my Dad build some kind of shed, i.e. cutting support beams and putting screws into them, that's about it.

I have looked up the Servostik at Ultimarc, while this sounds like a good alternative, judging from this picture, this looks kinda hard to top mount without a router. I dunno.

I think he's appreciated our previous honest opinions, so 

No worries about that, I can take criticism. After all, this isn't about trashing my cab, it's about making it better. Just look at what dkersten's Nostalgia evolved into after a few rounds in the forum 

Hopefully, you kept your cardboard stencil, but if you didn't, I think it would be fairly easy to patch it up and redo the joysticks at least, while keeping the art.

Uhh no, the black parts of the art actually are black cut out cardboard bits doubletaped to the white cardboard. So when redoing the sticks this has to be redone as well. That, however, I wouldn't mind so much.

As for patching the CP up, that's something I have zero experience with. Bondo as such apparently isn't sold in Germany, so I'd have to hunt something down that's similar to it. That would be worth doing though as it certainly beats doing the whole board again.

I didn't know you were a doctor, yamatetsu? Good for you.

To derail this joke :

Nope, I'm not a doctor, but I've gotten quite skilled using a scalpel, so if anyone needs some internal organs removed ... 

[rablack97]

Mayhem ensues ...

This may suck a major big one, but before you go any further, widen your cab to give yourself space for the your jsticks.

Widen the cab ? WIDEN the CAB ? Are you MAD ?
Now seriously, widening the cab would mean ditching everything but the sides, including all the boards I have spent about six months to get right. Also, if you look at one of the previous posts, you'll notice that the bottom already is glued to the left side.
So, while I certainly appreciate you people wanting this to look as good as possible, redoing the most frustrating work I have ever done for the sake of a control panel looking slightly better is not going to happen.

I get it and understand, however this is at all about looks, this is about playing comfort as well.  Its like building Corvette and having rope tied to the steering column to steer.  Hey that's a great machine, but well, I can't drive it.

had you not of gone ape wild on that bad ass side art, i wouldn't have said a word about the CP, its just gonna turn it from kick ass to meh or what the heck happened on the control panel.

Just my 2 cents man, just some opinions, no harm intended...

[yamatetsu]

had you not of gone ape wild on that bad ass side art, i wouldn't have said a word about the CP, its just gonna turn it from kick ass to meh or what the heck happened on the control panel.

Just my 2 cents man, just some opinions, no harm intended...

No offense taken. Seems to me that I'm doing too well for my own good, now I'm cursed to build a great machine 
If I go the Servostik route, I could remove the restrictor plate from the 4/8-way and make that the P2 joystick. That would leave me with two U360s which I paid 120 bucks for 
We'll see.

[dkersten]

I forgot you are using u360's for the main sticks.  I have used both the u360 and the servostick, and while the 4 way restrictor feels good on the servostik, I had a hard time playing 8 way games it for some reason..  I prefer the u360 over it, and on my current build I am trying the octagonal restrictors which I think will be that happy medium between the top mount restrictor and no restrictor.  The top mounts do work well, but under hard use they can come loose (and you have to explain them to guests, where you don't on the other options). 

What I am getting at is that with the software restricting the 8 way movement on the u360, you don't NEED a restrictor plate, and hence you don't NEED a dedicated 4 way stick.  I have found that I don't notice much difference in game play between the u360 and the servostik when playing pacman, although the feel of the stick is very different.  So frankly, with 2 u-360's, you could scrap the 3rd stick.  And if you really insist on having some physical restriction, use the octagonal restrictor plates or add the top mount restrictors (top mount restrictor allows for undermounting the joystick too, so no routing, no covering holes.)

[yotsuya]

I forgot you are using u360's for the main sticks.  I have used both the u360 and the servostick, and while the 4 way restrictor feels good on the servostik, I had a hard time playing 8 way games it for some reason..  I prefer the u360 over it, and on my current build I am trying the octagonal restrictors which I think will be that happy medium between the top mount restrictor and no restrictor.  The top mounts do work well, but under hard use they can come loose (and you have to explain them to guests, where you don't on the other options). 

What I am getting at is that with the software restricting the 8 way movement on the u360, you don't NEED a restrictor plate, and hence you don't NEED a dedicated 4 way stick.  I have found that I don't notice much difference in game play between the u360 and the servostik when playing pacman, although the feel of the stick is very different.  So frankly, with 2 u-360's, you could scrap the 3rd stick.  And if you really insist on having some physical restriction, use the octagonal restrictor plates or add the top mount restrictors (top mount restrictor allows for undermounting the joystick too, so no routing, no covering holes.)

Yeah, Dave's right.... if you're using a U360, you really don't need a dedicated 4-way, unless you're a hard-core dedicated type, and you'd probably be best served building a 4-way only CP or cabinet anyway. 

[rablack97]

ok i just went back and looked at the side art...its too clean, redo the CP man, redo it now sir.  Clint said so....

[yamatetsu]

Sheesh, talk about peer pressure.

All right. I've played around with the layout and discovered that I had a second reason to place the P2 joystick higher up : The trackball. So to get the controls leveled the P1 controls have to move up.



That's all I can do. Looks a bit weird to me what with having all the space around the tb and the controls so high up, but I can't think of anything else to do. So if anyone has issues with this, speak up now or remain silent forever   

I forgot you are using u360's for the main sticks.

Nope, you didn't forget that, I haven't told you    Using the 360s : Good idea. Well, this seems to be the way I'm heading.

[dkersten]

Sheesh, talk about peer pressure.

I know, right!  lol, I actually felt a little hypocritical joining in and not adding "Just my opinion, it's your control panel and you should do it the way you think it should be done" because I know that feeling of getting to a point and not really wanting to change something that is perfectly OK with you, and deciding that the only reason to change it is so you don't have to read "It would have been so nice if he hadn't done xxxxxxxx"..  But at the same time, the advice is still solid, and control panels are not too big of a deal to change.  Even ones with hours of hand cut stencils, lol. 

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

Nope, you didn't forget that, I haven't told you    Using the 360s : Good idea. Well, this seems to be the way I'm heading.

And here I was trying to keep from looking like I hadn't read the thread closer and missed when you listed your parts.  My excuse is I was too busy checking out the great artwork in the pics and marveling at your persistence in working to achieve the perfect paint job, so I might have glazed over some details.   

I don't recall how wide your overall interior width is.  There are 2 things I see here that might be regretted down the road, but I don't know if they are avoidable.. 
One is your P1 buttons are close enough to the trackball that you might be hitting them on certain games.  Probably not a big deal since usually the button 3 is not going to cause any problems when shooting pool or golfing.  Not like the mistake I made twice in a row of having the exit button in the path of the trackball....

The other potential issue I see is the available palm rest for the trackball.  If you are only going to play games like Golden Tee, Gimme a Break, Shuffleshot, and Shuuz, then no worries.  But for games like centipede and missile command, your hand is going to get tired fast because you have no place to rest it while playing, unless you use the trackball sideways.  It is always a compromise though because some games you want enough distance from the monitor to prevent jammed fingers, and others you want to rest your hand so you can accurately move around.

Again, if you don't have the room, then you have to compromise, so don't sweat it.  I found that when enclosing the CP in designs like this, you want 4 inches to the left of the P1 stick (center) to never hit your knuckles on the side, although 3" will do in a pinch.  I also found you want 5" below the control (from center) to rest your palm comfortably.  Any less is pushing it unless you have tiny hands.  But you do what you have to do.

[yamatetsu]

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

Well, since I didn't want to spend month after month just painting and sanding, I did some other stuff too, including the CP. It also didn't occur to me that there might be something "wrong" with it. That totally blindsided me.

I don't recall how wide your overall interior width is.

Shame on you, that's in one of the pics    The cab is 60 cm wide, that's about 23.622 inches. The CP is 30 cm deep, that's about 11.811 inches.

The other potential issue I see is the available palm rest for the trackball.  If you are only going to play games like Golden Tee, Gimme a Break, Shuffleshot, and Shuuz, then no worries.  But for games like centipede and missile command, your hand is going to get tired fast because you have no place to rest it while playing, unless you use the trackball sideways.

Yup, sideways it is. I actually use a trackball with my computer, so I'm used to that. Also I don't think that the trackball will get that much use, in typical noob fashion I just wanted to have it 

I found that when enclosing the CP in designs like this, you want 4 inches to the left of the P1 stick (center) to never hit your knuckles on the side, although 3" will do in a pinch.  I also found you want 5" below the control (from center) to rest your palm comfortably.  Any less is pushing it unless you have tiny hands.

Going with the last layout I posted, center P1 stick -> side is about 4 inches, center both sticks to bottom is about 7 inches, so there will be enough space. I hope rablack & yotsuya will give me their seal of approval, so I can start rebuilding it 

[yotsuya]

I hope rablack & yotsuya will give me their seal of approval, so I can start rebuilding it 

[yamatetsu]

Do not invoke the X-man 

[Rick]

Do not invoke the X-man 

Please do not correlate the term "X-Man" with s/he, who shall not be named, in any way, shape or form.

[yotsuya]

Do not invoke the X-man 

That's actually Vigo's Seal of Approval. I don't mean to imply that X2 has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other. Vigo, however, thinks it's the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---!*




*I don't mean to imply that Vigo has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other.

[yamatetsu]

Do not invoke the X-man 

Please do not correlate the term "X-Man" with s/he, who shall not be named, in any way, shape or form.

Why not ? He/she/it is my hero 
Or not.

That's actually Vigo's Seal of Approval. I don't mean to imply that X2 has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other. Vigo, however, thinks it's the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---!*




*I don't mean to imply that Vigo has an opinion on your cabinet one way or the other.

I know that these are actually two seals of approval, X2s came later, if I remember correctly. And I certainly would not assume that you would speak for him (or would have anything to do with him). I just wanted to see if I could coax a response out of you just by mentioning him 
Your reaction time is top notch.

[yotsuya]

I know that these are actually two seals of approval, X2s came later, if I remember correctly. And I certainly would not assume that you would speak for him (or would have anything to do with him). I just wanted to see if I could coax a response out of you just by mentioning him 
Your reaction time is top notch.

It's almost Martial Arts-like, isn't it? 

[yamatetsu]

Without a doubt achieved by a deep understanding of Zen meditation.

[dkersten]

Does this seal mean you can practice the float technique or do you have to have original leafs to do that?

[rablack97]

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

He did actually, I just didn't pay attention to it till he actually built it.



I still dont like T-ball placement its off center, the controls are too high up, P1 admin buttons need to be on the far left.



At this point we are at an impasse without you having to recut your inner panels....Just chalk this one up as a practice run, i'm sure you will build another in the future, these things are like tattooes.

I just think if you made it right it could of been BYOAC UCA worthy, theres a lot of cool features going on here, just sucks to settle for that look due to lack of space.

However, man, you mught just want something to play if so..........

[dkersten]

OT, but this is why this forum needs a "go to first unread post".. I tend to "go down" and then read backwards until I find something I have already read, and often I end up stopping before reading everything, or at the least my idea of what order things were added is off. 

[yotsuya]

OT, but this is why this forum needs a "go to first unread post".. I tend to "go down" and then read backwards until I find something I have already read, and often I end up stopping before reading everything, or at the least my idea of what order things were added is off.

Why do you do it that way? I just click on the "New" icon and it takes me to the first unread post in that thread.

[pbj]

Has anyone else noticed an otherwise nice cabinet has a really weird control panel layout?

[yotsuya]

Has anyone else noticed an otherwise nice cabinet has a really weird control panel layout?

Is this your "thing" now? 

[Rick]

Has anyone else noticed an otherwise nice cabinet has a really weird control panel layout?

Is this an "ITT" or a "DAE"?

[dkersten]

Why do you do it that way? I just click on the "New" icon and it takes me to the first unread post in that thread.

I don't see a "new" icon.. but I am using IE and it wouldn't surprise me if it was displaying wrong, lol. 

[yamatetsu]

This is why you post your layout BEFORE you cut stuff out, lol.  Then you can take the great advice without having to redo your work.

He did actually, I just didn't pay attention to it till he actually built it.

Nope, dkersten is right, when I posted the layout the panel was not assembled but the board and the three layers of lexan were already cut at that time.

I still dont like T-ball placement its off center, the controls are too high up, P1 admin buttons need to be on the far left.

The trackball is of course centered, that was just me quickly throwing the layout together. If you look at the box I built, you'll see it. As for the controls being too high up, no choice here, the P1 buttons can't go down any further as button 6 is already as close to the tb housing as possible. If I move P2 any further down, I will have no space to rest the hand and smacking the joystick while playing with the tb is guaranteed.

P1 admin buttons need to be on the far left.

Something like this ?

[yamatetsu]

I don't see a "new" icon.. but I am using IE and it wouldn't surprise me if it was displaying wrong, lol. 

You might have to enable cookies for that to work.

[PL1]

Why do you do it that way? I just click on the "New" icon and it takes me to the first unread post in that thread.

I don't see a "new" icon.. but I am using IE and it wouldn't surprise me if it was displaying wrong, lol.

Maybe it depends on the theme you are using.   

Works fine in the forum default theme.




Scott