Prong (Wall mounted, slimline, vertical screen for square bezel, first build!)

Main > Project Announcements

<< < (5/12) > >>

zestyphresh:
Made some pretty good progress last couple of days;

Control panel took the best part of a day but went pretty smoothly. I had to modify the servostik motor boards to fit on the short edge of the joystick though, the control panel is 630mm wide and the combination of 6 buttons plus a trackball make it very tight. Had to drill new holes in the motor board and remove one of the screws holding the motor to the board. I cut a couple of small cheap chinese drill bits to length (it was all I had to hand that would fit snugly) to wedge in the hole to stop the motor rotating. Worked pretty well in the end.

zestyphresh:
Laminated all the front facing panels, everything cutout ready for speakers, vent and controls.

Laminating didn't go great at the start and one or two of the panels are a bit lumpy. Switched to a new tin of contact cement as the one I was using was clearly a bit thick. Thankfully the laminate is a matt finish so isn't visible unless close up, but frustrating either way. I've screwed the panels together so not a lot more to do on them.

I fitted the controls this evening, which highlighted a couple of minor issues;

1) I routed out the panel for the trackball to sit flush with the bezel but forgot to account for the laminate. Now it sits 1mm shy. I'll re-route it before fitting.
2) One set of contacts on the P2 joystick are close to the trackball so can't be wired as normal. I'll just have to solder an extension or something to the relay.
3) I didn't route out any depth for the servosticks so the shafts are a bit short. I'll probably just make a new shaft to extend them slightly, but this can wait until after it's finished.

zestyphresh:
I thought i'd use a separate post to cover how I did the cutout for the trackball. It needed to be reasonably accurate as the bezel isn't massive, and hold cutters don't come in the correct size. Routing holes that small tends to be tricky though and I didn't have a base to do it with. I came up with a simple way of doing it with a hole cutter and router with a few different steps, but using stuff that most people should have (assuming you've got a hole cutter and a trim router).

First step was to cut a hole using the closest size I had available;

Next was to setup the trim router with a straight bit and the adjustable bearing guide that came with the router;

I set the distance to trim out to the line. To get this to work though you need to hold the router perpendicular to the hole at all times. To do this I carefully routed to the line and placed it perpendicular to the hole, I then added some tape to the base and marked it where it needed to follow (you can see the tape in the previous picture but I put it on the wrong side initially);

You then follow the line with the mark you've made, keeping the guide pressed against the material. By following the line with your mark it keeps the router perpendicular. You get left with the following;

Swap out the standard straight bit for a guided bit, removed the adjustable bearing, and route out the remaining lip. (Unfortunately the pic I took for this was blurry).

It probably sounds a bit complex but once I started it worked really well and gave me a far more accurate hole than i'd have got using a jigsaw.

zestyphresh:
Had another good day yesterday. Made the speaker grilles - wanted something that fitted the retro look so they are made from 3/4" material and will have black fabric attached to them. I'll round over all the edges once i've attached the fittings;

Getting ready to veneer the side panels;

Dry assembled the main panels on the floor so you get an idea of what it looks like;

The side panels will look great after a coat of oil. It's a bit chunkier than I had originally imagined but I do thing it gives it some of the 'heft' of a traditional machine while still being reasonably slim (48cm / 19"). Been spending some time configuring Launchbox, not all plain sailing but it's getting there.

pbj:
Looking good. Pic unrelated.

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version