Best LED Button and Trackball Setup

[budz71]

So I've been researching a ton on this subject and there really isn't a lot that refers to the new products that are out there. I have compared paradise arcade, groovy game gear, and ultimarc and they all seem to have pricing that is very similar. I am trying to stay away from the most expensive option which seems to be a LED WIZ or similar device with Electric Ice or similar buttons and track ball. With control boards (LED and Gampad), 18 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a LED trackball I'm looking at 400-500 dollars. Is there a cheaper route where the buttons and trackball have an LED and instead of a RGB output from a card I could just wire up a power supply to feed them voltage and just install the color of LED that I wand that particular button to be? Obviously I still would need a Gamepad or Keyboard card but that would shave off some of the cost. Basically I'm looking at the cheapest LED setup that is still a quality product. Thanks in advance for your responses as this is my first post and my first arcade cabinet project that I have ever done.

[Titchgamer]

Those companies you mention also do single colour LED buttons which if you wanted to could be hooked up to a power source and permanently lit.
Some may require additional resistors but each company could advise you of that if you contact them.

Of course with that option there is no control over brightness, patterns, colours etc which is where the driver boards come into their own.

[GlynH]

Or of course you could go with single illuminated buttons in various static colours and drive them with PacDrive board or something similar?

PacDrive does a maximum of 16 LEDS though I think but is reasonably priced at $29/£18.27/€27.62

For a no-nonsense, simple setup integrated into MaLa by default this is the way I will go as I already have the PacDrive but looking for illuminated, concave buttons. The Ultralux buttons have flat tops unfortunately for me.

I would love RGB buttons (and joysticks) but this would mean a different driver board, more expensive RGB buttons and more wiring so I thought I'd take the easy option...

Hope that helps?

[Titchgamer]

Or of course you could go with single illuminated buttons in various static colours and drive them with PacDrive board or something similar?

PacDrive does a maximum of 16 LEDS though I think but is reasonably priced at $29/£18.27/€27.62

For a no-nonsense, simple setup integrated into MaLa by default this is the way I will go as I already have the PacDrive but looking for illuminated, concave buttons. The Ultralux buttons have flat tops unfortunately for me.

I would love RGB buttons (and joysticks) but this would mean a different driver board, more expensive RGB buttons and more wiring so I thought I'd take the easy option...

Hope that helps?

You can get ultra lux classics (think thats what they are called) which are concave.

[budz71]

Great! Thanks for all the info. I was also thinking of going with a LED trackball. Are there any in particular you would suggest? I plan on having my action and my trackball LED's all green so my thoughts are to go non RGB to save in cost. However I'm afraid that if I don't go RGB that my greens won't match between the trackball and buttons. With RGB I can control that.

[Titchgamer]

That is always a possibility due to different LED manufacturers etc they will have slightly different tones/hues.

Personally I like the Ultimarc trackball but I have a cheap ebay special one on my cab which lights up a nice dark green.

Reason for this is that I do not have the space on my CP to permanently mount one.

So I got a ebay special that is controlled via USB and is a box mount design so I can just pull it out from under my CP and rest it on the top whenever I want it :p

[GlynH]

You can get ultra lux classics (think thats what they are called) which are concave.

But the Classics are RGB though aren't they? Or have I gone 'button blind' from staring at them for too long!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[GlynH]

Personally I like the Ultimarc trackball but I have a cheap ebay special one on my cab which lights up a nice dark green.

Reason for this is that I do not have the space on my CP to permanently mount one.

So I got a ebay special that is controlled via USB and is a box mount design so I can just pull it out from under my CP and rest it on the top whenever I want it :p

That's a good idea...I never thought of that. I would love a trackball but there is no way I could squeeze one in my coffee table control panel.

I wanted a spinner and had to fit that outside of the CP but it's in a great position because I can rest the heel of my hand on the flat, chrome T-moulding on the edge of the CP and my fingers then just fall naturally onto the spinner.

I'll have to have a rethink about the trackball option now...

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[Titchgamer]

You can get ultra lux classics (think thats what they are called) which are concave.

But the Classics are RGB though aren't they? Or have I gone 'button blind' from staring at them for too long!

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

Yeah they are RGB:
www.ultimarc.com/ClassicRGB.html

But I suppose you could just wire the one colour and the negative if you wanted single colour?
Never tried that lol

As for the track ball yeah works well for me.
I just got one of these and put a non slip backing on it and removed the unused wires:

http://r.ebay.com/m6u09V

[keilmillerjr]

I have and will sell a brand new translucent green happ high ball. Happ is oem item and very good. They have a hole in the bottom of the housing so it's very easy to hot glue an led in place.