It's all good Mike A
all I got was that you're passionate about your craft
So I thought I would update on the latest going on's. Hopefully, this helps someone one day
Control panel art is doneSorry this version doesn't have working screens in it
Wood saga2 weekends ago I started cutting wood, but could only get so far because the mdf with black melamine hadn't come in (a few public holidays were in the week leading up). New eta of Friday was given but alas it still hasn't arrived. This is is making it hard to plan when to set time for this build!! I really want to progress. But still, this has been a blessing in disguise.
for one thing, while the designs are done and the cnc files sent, it has given me time to go over things, refine parts and debug. I ended up finding some errors) all of which would've been fixable at build time but save time and effort finding them now. Also ordered more parts like screws, PCB feet, panel mount 3.5mm audio, screws etc
HingesOne huge issue was the hinges. I spend many hours with very little sleep researching this. I know very little about the world of hinges lol. I've seen many hinges and I knew what I needed would be out there, its got to be! There are sooooo many. I just didn't know what the ones I needed were called. After researching and I found them and I thought why not add them to the designs adn update the cnc files, I've got the time. luckily I did as I found an issue that took forever to resolve
Coin doorAfter researching and a few trips to the hardware store the joint I'm using for this is a Euro Concealed Inset Hinge 107deg. This hinge will allow me to have the coin door against the inside of the side panel. I added the holes to the design and once I bought the part, I updated them with the correct measurements. easy
Control panelFor this, I decided to use a standard Euro Overlay Hinge. And it had to be at least 100deg since the control panel is angled at 7.5deg. so at 97.5deg would be perfectly vertical but it would still tip forward (controls, wires etc offset the center of gravity) so 100deg or more would work better. added the holes to the design and discovered a major issue!
The issue I found was that the cup cutout for the hinge eats into the area where the leds will be!! goddamit! This is why I love cad. this would've sucked to have bought the parts and made this find at build time.
The issue was bigger than I though because, in fact, all euro hinges will have this issue... So I looked into other hinges. Can't use a butt hinge, piano hinge, gate hinges so so many... because have the same issue or don't provide the movement I needed. Holy crap what can I use... I spent so many hours researching. The next day I still didn't have an answer and was just about to post on this thread to ask for help when I found Frog hinges.
in the above photo, the brown stained wood would be the control panel. You can see the holes for the screws, on the dark wood, are the same distance as the side panels thickness plus about 4mm. In my case, thats 16mm + 4mm. The leds are 15mm from the edge.. awesome! prays answered? These hinges can only go to 90deg which as I mentioned before means the control panel will tip forward. crap, what do it do? So I looked into gas struts and stay lifts.
the problem is they still require a hinge and they often can't hold the weight that this control panel will be (estimate 10-15kgs). There are other arm mechanisms but now it was getting ridiculous and expensive. But what can I do?! I need a hinge... the way I designed the control panel is so that it will sit in place without any hinge using placers (highlighted blue in the pic below) that are attached to the control panel on the underside...
would that be enough? it would suck to repair buttons etc. I would need to remove and disconnect the whole control panel. I was stuck!!! holy crap what am going to do? there doesn't seem to be a solution!! and then after many many more hours the arcade gods blessed me... by absolute fluke and even after looking at hundreds and hundreds of hinges I never saw this hinge before. At first, I only saw it as a photo... didn't have a name. had no info. I did a reverse google image search... got a name and more images of the same hinge came up awesome. But most the images were mistakes in that it was incorrectly in the gallery for another part, the frog hinge. Eventually, after so many attempts I kinda have a name, introducing the 130-170 frog bridge hinge or a combination of those words lol.
this bad boy has an adjustable angle between 130-170deg and 2 of these can hold up a door that is 30kgs (66 pounds) and bonus the movement is wide so the t-moulding doesn't get clipped. Is this joint a godsend, will the joint be heaps stiff? who knows. I couldn't find anywhere on the net that sold them except for one website based in china. I got the hole dimensions and ill add them to the design soon, just waiting on the supplier to give me the correct ones (found many mistakes in the ones he sent me due to dodgy cut and paste). It's always safer to have the actual part in your hands and take measurements. A few times even with the manufactures dimensions they were wrong. they didn't match with what they actually are. Anyway, I'm deciding whether to risk it.
This hinge issue took 4 days to get to this point, many nights up till 4am-5:30am trying to find an answer.