Volume control

[mackmack1]

So I made a small mistake with my cab and thought I knew where I was going to install a volume knob. Turns out I can't put it where I wanted. 

So I started thinking of some alternatives.  I think I am just going  to map the overall system volume to some buttons.  I found this program: http://www.arcadecab.com/Projects/VolumeTray.htm  and it sounds like an elegant solution.   

Does anyone else control their volume like this?  Can you offer any alternative ideas that dont include any modififcations to my current CP(I currently have 6 buttons per player, a one player button, a two player button, and a start and select button(so 16 total). 

I havent gotten everything up and running but will be using hyperspin. 

Thanks. 

[EMDB]

If you are using an iPac(1,2,4,Ultimate) you can natively map buttons to the volume control. I map Shift Joystick Up/Down to Volume Up/down myself.

[mackmack1]

I'm using a GP-Wiz40 MAX, I am assuming I can do the same with that? 

[knightrdrx]

I was thinking it is better to turn the windows volume to 100% and then control the speakers directly....i bought a set with a vol. control on a cable..not attached to the speaker...though i'd rather have the bose set i see at BJS that doesn't have a subwoofer....that subwoofer is awful for some games because it is in between my tower and the wall.

[mgb]

So I made a small mistake with my cab and thought I knew where I was going to install a volume knob. Turns out I can't put it where I wanted. 

So I started thinking of some alternatives.  I think I am just going  to map the overall system volume to some buttons.  I found this program: http://www.arcadecab.com/Projects/VolumeTray.htm  and it sounds like an elegant solution.   

Does anyone else control their volume like this?  Can you offer any alternative ideas that dont include any modififcations to my current CP(I currently have 6 buttons per player, a one player button, a two player button, and a start and select button(so 16 total). 

I havent gotten everything up and running but will be using hyperspin. 

Thanks.

just a couple of questions:
what are you using for sound, pc speakers? component speakers with amp?
what were you planning on using for your original volume idea?

I've seen others go the route of volume buttons but I've never done it. I don't have the room for the extra buttons and to me it seems to take away from the arcade experience.

I have my volume at the top rear of my cab on the downward slant. its out of the way but easy to reach and adjust.

as an alternative, are you able to put the volume in the coin door or something?

[keilmillerjr]

I was thinking it is better to turn the windows volume to 100% and then control the speakers directly....

Car Audio 101 - controlling volume via amp is the quickest way to blow your speakers.

When setting up a car audio system, I max out the headunit. Then I adjust the amplifier until I hear distortion, it clips, or is just too loud. Now volume can be controlled from the head unit without risk of damage.

Your thought process is backwards.

[nitrogen_widget]

I was thinking it is better to turn the windows volume to 100% and then control the speakers directly....

Car Audio 101 - controlling volume via amp is the quickest way to blow your speakers.

When setting up a car audio system, I max out the headunit. Then I adjust the amplifier until I hear distortion, it clips, or is just too loud. Now volume can be controlled from the head unit without risk of damage.

Your thought process is backwards.

how many watts is a car audio amp vs what most sane people would put in an arcade cabinet?
It's not like he's going to cause the marquee to rattle. 

Trying to adjust audio volume via the OS in an arcade cabinet in game over complicates the setup.
Just set the volume slider to wherever in the OS & use the volume knob on the speaker to control it.
If it's a PC speaker just crack it open & extend the wireing of the volume control.
If it's a bare speaker & mini-amp the same except you don't have to crack open the case.

We are talking barely above line level sound output from a motherboard and a maybe a few watts max for speakers.
Even cheap usb powered speakers are loud enough for me & i'm half deaf from too many Hair Band concerts back in the 80's & 90's. 

[JimmyU]

I would like it if somebody could build a volume control knob that would fit into a standard arcade button hole.

[keilmillerjr]

I don't understand what's so hard about having 2 buttons to control volume? My happ over under coin door from a golden tee machine had 2 volume buttons mounted to it. My Walkman came with 2 volume buttons. My iPhone came with two volume buttons.

You can try hooking up a spinner to control volume, but that's an unnecessary large expense.

[lamprey]

They also make PC speakers with (wireless) remote controls if that would help.

[lamprey]

I was thinking it is better to turn the windows volume to 100% and then control the speakers directly....

Car Audio 101 - controlling volume via amp is the quickest way to blow your speakers.

When setting up a car audio system, I max out the headunit. Then I adjust the amplifier until I hear distortion, it clips, or is just too loud. Now volume can be controlled from the head unit without risk of damage.

Your thought process is backwards.

This isn't car audio.

I agree with you when setting up you car, but for non-car audio applications you don't necessarily want to do it like that. For example; I'm not going to set my windows volume to max and then adjust my home theater receiver until it clips and then control the volume with windows. That's just silly.

[lilshawn]

I was thinking it is better to turn the windows volume to 100% and then control the speakers directly....

Car Audio 101 - controlling volume via amp is the quickest way to blow your speakers.

When setting up a car audio system, I max out the headunit. Then I adjust the amplifier until I hear distortion, it clips, or is just too loud. Now volume can be controlled from the head unit without risk of damage.

Your thought process is backwards.

This isn't car audio.

I agree with you when setting up you car, but for non-car audio applications you don't necessarily want to do it like that. For example; I'm not going to set my windows volume to max and then adjust my home theater receiver until it clips and then control the volume with windows. That's just silly.

in this case, the proper way to do it would be to set the amp at max and then turn up the windows volume to the level you think you will need (or distortion is heard... whatever) if it's only 1/2 that's fine. the amp won't amplifly it any more than it's maximum.

be aware, that your amp may have distortion introduced internally by the gain being up all the way. there are ways around this.

best option... a shift button on panel and then up and down on joy1 (or joy2 or whatever you like really) to vol up and down.

or just relocate the volume to the back of the cabinet... not a big deal to reach back there and tweak it. 

[DaOld Man]

I would like it if somebody could build a volume control knob that would fit into a standard arcade button hole.

I like that idea.
You could probably put an audio pot (small one) inside a button.
Maybe cut a plastic washer to fit in the button where the button plunger goes. Glue it in and mount the pot to the washer. Then mount the whole thing in a regular button hole.
But it may be hard to find plastic (to make a washer) that matches the button color exactly. Maybe light the washer from behind to draw attention off the color?
I may mess around with that idea on my next build.

I have always used a pot to adjust the volume.
It is just so much easier to turn the button if the sound gets too loud.
Ive never hidden the pot, but of course that is not a bad idea.

[PL1]

I would like it if somebody could build a volume control knob that would fit into a standard arcade button hole.

Have you considered using a button plug?



If the body of the potentiometer is 1/2" or smaller, it should fit fine without modifying the support ribs inside the plug.


Scott

[aldub516]

I use cabvol. It's a great little app I think from somewhere around here just search for it. Very simple. Run the little app, just set a hotkey for volume up and down. I set + and - as up and down.. Then I set my encoder to have coin act as shift and up and down on the joystick shifts to + and - . Very easy and quick. Set it to start with gameex in gameex settings tweaks and options.

[SavannahLion]

I don't understand what's so hard about having 2 buttons to control volume? My happ over under coin door from a golden tee machine had 2 volume buttons mounted to it. My Walkman came with 2 volume buttons. My iPhone came with two volume buttons.

You can try hooking up a spinner to control volume, but that's an unnecessary large expense.

Because it's unnatural. 

A volume pot isn't linear but has a logarithmic curve called an Audio Taper. There is a larger relative change at the top of the range and smaller relative changes at the bottom of the range with the most notable "curve" around the middle. Generally speaking, this sounds the most natural to our ears. A bunch of audiophiles back in the day did a lot of research to figure this ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out.

Unfortunately, some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- for brains around the 90's decided to cut costs by using a couple of resistors and a linear pot to fake the audio curve. Sounds like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, but with the influx of cheap audio equipment a lot of people didn't care.

With the introduction of things like DACs and microcontrollers someone realized they could lower costs even further by using two buttons and programming the audio taper in somewhere. If done right, it's only marginally better than the linear pot ---That which is odiferous and causeth plants to grow---. There's a drawback to that whole setup though, there is no amount of hardware or programming that can fake a true analog audio taper pot.

For example, if you have 8 bits of resolution, you only have 254 possible values to sample on that curve (0 and 256 are thrown out as absolute values). So you have to decide just what parts of the curve you want to focus on. Put more into the high part of the curve and you lose out on the volume resolution on the lower end with the annoying problem of the audio being either too loud or too quiet. You get the same issue the other way around on the high end of the spectrum. This is even assuming there is any effort on the part of the circuit designer to even emulate that curve. The DACs I've played with are all linear.

This is basically what happens in Windows (at least in XP). IIRC Windows uses a 16 bit value to adjust the volume on a linear algorithm but only keeps a table for a small handful of the actual values in an attempt to simulate an audio taper. mega lame.

In Windows XP, you can easily adjust these values, IIRC by going into the registry and tweaking the values to suit your listening habits. You can also "tweak" those values temporarily using a utility. Not sure if it's the same post XP.

Oh, to make matters even confusing. At some point, the part notation used to identify linear, nati-log and log pots were changed making things hell for everyone around the world. Even worse, there's a fourth type which is basically two linear-like pot joined at somewhere near the 50% mark. It's not a curve per se, but a straight ramp to 50% then switches to a steep "ramp".. Aggghhh...

[mgb]

Jeez guys,
  The op is just looking for a little input on where to put his volume knob.
You guys really know how to over explain something to the point that it doesn't answer their question.

[dkersten]

A volume pot isn't linear but has a logarithmic curve called an Audio Taper. There is a larger relative change at the top of the range and smaller relative changes at the bottom of the range with the most notable "curve" around the middle.

The smallest increase in volume that we can detect is one decibel.  Three decibels is considered "twice" as loud, primarily because it takes double the power or double the cone volume to increase by three decibels.  So since volume is an exponential function, it would make sense to have the volume control also be an exponential function.  If your volume control is labeled 1-10, 10 being the loudest, going from 9 to 10 would allow twice as much power as going from 8 to 9.  A linear pot might allow a power increase of, say, 10 watts per increment to the speaker, which would be massive at first but increasingly less sensitive, and at the top end, barely noticeable if even noticeable at all.

As for the "car audio" argument, the "amp" in question here doesn't have a gain, but rather an actual volume control.  A gain allows you to match input voltages so your volume on your source matches the output on your amplifier where the lowest volume is zero output and the highest is at the maximum output of the amplifier (unclipped).  A volume actually increases the output range (ie the voltage of the source).  While they are similar, again it is like a logarithmic volume control versus a straight potentiometer.  All PC speakers have a small amplifier circuit and a volume control of some kind.  You can control the output of your speaker jack with software and leave your speakers set to a certain volume level (much like a gain), but leaving your computer output the same and using that volume on the speaker is just as acceptable. 

And for the record, with the advent of MP3 players, it is not uncommon to find external volume controls for amplifiers that work exactly the same as PC speaker volume controls so you can plug in an MP3 player and not have to try to fiddle with the volume control on your player while driving (or blow you out of the car when you plug in). 

All that being said, there are plenty of external volume controllers (that are actual volume controllers) that could easily be "hacked" to fit just about anywhere on a cab, including in a button.  All it takes is a willingness to open things up and maybe solder some wires.

[pbj]

I don't care what anyone says, you really need at least four buttons on your control panel.  Vol- Vol+ MUTE and BOOST

[dkersten]

I don't care what anyone says, you really need at least four buttons on your control panel.  Vol- Vol+ MUTE and BOOST

Don't forget Pause, Enter, Select, Menu, Up, Down, and of course, Exit, which needs to be directly in line with the trackball so you hit it regularly when playing GT..

[bulbousbeard]

I would like it if somebody could build a volume control knob that would fit into a standard arcade button hole.

It already exists. You could use a spinner as a volume control.