Well weather was good for a few days, So cut an old mdf shelf down to size to create a temporary control panel box for the software Setup. It would have been nice if it was possible to have cut the shelf down so was the same size as the end cabinet will be, but alas, just not quite enough material. Never mind, 23" wide by 12" Deep the box shall be
8 Degree slope. I think everyone knows how to build a box so haven't covered building that here,
Hit the box up with 2 coats of auto primer, quick sand down with some 200 sandpaper and then 2 coats of matt black. Control panel got 2 thick coats of MDF Primer on top ready for artwork.
I took my original art and scaled it to the size of the test control panel, replaced the button markings with a slightly different layout, which works nicely as has a semi curved layout when using buttons 1,2,6 and 7
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Printed the resized art out as poster PDF on A3 paper then carefully stuck together and stuck it to the control panel, cut holes out for buttons, My choices for drill were a 26mm forstner or 30mm forstner I went with the 26, really need 27.5
Used a router to increase size of holes, I have now ordered 27 and 28mm auger/spade bits. I could really do with a drill press though. Holes ended up OK, all buttons fit, nothing totally out of whack yet.
I found a local printing company that could do a metre square print on door vinyl, I figured for £21 it was worth sending them some artwork
Sent the artwork as used for test panel along with 2 versions of normal sized art to be used as templates for actual machine, only difference between those is the spacing of buttons, Whichever layout I like the best will then be used to get Laminated vinyl print, quoted £25 for a 25x11 matt laminate control panel seems like a fairly good price. I also have the same printer doing laser cut Logo's for the sides.
Anyway Door vinyl arrives, all good, Cut out the bit I want to use and spend 15 minutes lining up the vinyl, go to get tape to stick down one edge , ask wife to hold in place, say do not move it. Get tape come back. Did you move it? I asked, "No" was the answer. Good, tape down, peel other end, start laying down get about 1/3rd way across and I look at it and go that's not straight, attempt to pull back up, well that's not going to happen. Looks like with a dry install of this stuff you get one chance. Oh well, Its not going to line up then, luckily it's just a temp box, I'll live with the results
Cover rest of box with spare Vinyl from Entertainment Centre Build. I found about 7 Foot of black and about 7 Ft of Yellow Tmolding, I ran the black around the base and then decided to add Yellow over side panels. Really wish I had decided to have Tmold on sides originally though as then could have cut the slot before installing panel. End result looks like so.
The one unfortunate thing about the servosticks is the shaft length. Definitely designed for metal panels. Even after routing out the maximum I could on back of panel without then risking blowing the mounts through the artwork it just looks like the shaft is not long enough (Oooh Eer Missus). Guess I'll want to do the real thing in Metal, or go with one of the fancier methods for undermounting
So then it was an afternoon of cabling, And boy oh boy am I beginning to rethink this whole RGB malarky, Way too many wires under here, I am though getting better with the fitting of cables into Dupont pins and then getting those into the headers correctly
I was worried that I would need about another 1000 pins the way I was chewing them up at the beginning. I have found bending the end wings in a touch made it work so much better. Also ensuring I put the pin in to the right side of the crimper helps, took me a bit to see that one side was actually deeper than the other on the ratchet die
(I've only ever used BNC and rj11/45 crimps before now). For the test panel I am just running the cable into a bit of cable tidy tubing I had laying around, It's not perfect but its easy to work with. Final panel will have all cables ran to exact length using Male/Female SM JST connectors. I am not looking forward to installing all those.
Still to do on test panel, Finish extending Player 1 Joystick wires, Drill Start/Select/Exit Buttons (Waiting on New Drill Bits for this). Put some clamp mounts in for the tubing and wire up a 12V power brick for the Leds/Ultimate IO.
For now I will be installing a Micro Form Factor Dell Optiplex 3040 into the Box, I'm putting a faceplate on back to allow HDMI/Display port wires to exit box and for power to enter box. I did look for a HD panel that included USB/DP/HDMI/Audio etc but ultimately decided why spend the money, I won't use it in the full size machine
As for the Microswitches, I found some for £3 each as need new wire installing, shouldn't be an issue, (Piano wire should work) Unfortunately they've been shipped to lord only knows where, supplier says will post more tomorrow, but doesn't have them on his page anymore, so not sure on that.
So until next time, Be safe, Be Kind,