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| Zebidee:
--- Quote from: Lexiq on October 29, 2023, 05:10:50 am --- --- Quote from: Zebidee on October 29, 2023, 02:48:46 am ---You'll probably want another piece of 90 degree angled metal to fit at the top, to lock down the marquee. I suggest that you secure it from top side with two M5 or M6 buttonhead screws (mostly hex heads, available in black and silvered finish) and matching T-nuts. You won't even notice the screw heads up there but, even when you do, they will still look good. --- End quote --- Looking back at my photos, I can see it's missing from most of them, but I do have a piece at the top as well. The first photo shows it, but the lighting and angle makes it less clear. I opted for 4 countersunk wood screws to attach it, but T-nuts would have been a bit nicer. I'll update my post to include these details, thanks! --- End quote --- Oh, I see the pic clearly now, somehow missed it before. Not sure exactly why, but countersinking screws seems to work really well with aluminium, so long as it is done neatly :) It looks good, and in any case nobody will be up there checking it out. |
| Alejo I:
I get my plexi cut to size from the shop because I *hate* plastic chips, but I've read that a track saw provides excellent results with a decent blade or even a special one for acrylic. |
| Zebidee:
--- Quote from: Alejo I on October 31, 2023, 10:25:36 am ---I get my plexi cut to size from the shop because I *hate* plastic chips, but I've read that a track saw provides excellent results with a decent blade or even a special one for acrylic. --- End quote --- With the score-snap technique there is no need to use a saw to cut! It generates no plastic chips and virtually no loose particles/dust! Less microplastic! All you need are a sharp box-cutter/art knife and a couple of straight edges, like side of a workbench and a good piece of wood, maybe a couple of clamps to hold it all steady. Lexiq's pics below. He is even cutting it inside the home/kitchen area, because it generates almost zero waste. I use the same technique for cutting fibre-cement sheets to size, and even bathroom/kitchen ceramic tiles. But yeah, the shop will usually cut it for free if you have the dimensions, so why not? |
| Lexiq:
Controls With the control panel already cut, it was time to decide which controls I wanted, and how to arrange them. The main goals were: * Support a variety of games. * Relatively compact. * Balanced / symmetrical. * Not a FrankenpanelTM.Selecting Controls I already had some idea of what I wanted at this point and had built the control panel and box just large enough that it should meet my requirements. Now I had to choose specific controls. Ultimarc is often recommended on these forums, so I started there. Joysticks After a lot of research, I settled on the Ultimarc UltraStik 360 Ball Top. These are analog sticks and are sometimes critisized for their lack of 'clickiness', but I haven't found it to be an issue. I also opted for the longer handles due to the thickness of my control panel, the stiffer spring, and the reduced travel restrictor because most people recommend them. The spring and restrictor make the resistance and throw much closer to a standard arcade stick and are definitely worth it. These sticks will function in analog mode if a game supports it, or map analog inputs to specific directions if the game is designed for a switch based stick. MAME will do this automatically and can be fine tuned if necessary. The supplied software also allows for custom mapped modes. They may not provide the most authentic experience possible in all cases, but they're incredibly versatile, very well build, and are a perfect fit for my cabinet. Buttons Sticking with Ultimarc, I decided to go with the GoldLeaf Pushbuttons. Being gold leaf, the lack the click that some people prefer, but they're very responsive and feel nice to press. Additionally, they're also available with RGB lighting. With a goal of keeping the cabinet relatively understated, RGB lighting wasn't a priority, but it appeared to be the easiest way to have labelled system buttons, which is something I did want. Ultimarc have a pack of logo inserts available that sit under the transparent surface of the RGB buttons. I decided that this could look good if I lit the buttons in a way that was in-keeping with the rest of the theme. At this point, I'd decided on a Yellow / Blue / Black theme for the cabinet, so I chose buttons in those colours (black for the pinball buttons on the side of the control box), and 6 RGB buttons and logo inserts for the system buttons. Trackball Again, continuing with Ultimarc, I chose the U-Trak flush mounted track ball. In reality, I probably won't use it that much, but I like the way it looks, and the blue colour option matches my theme nicely. Admittedly, I haven't used trackballs much in the past, and I find it to be a little bit clunky, especially spinning in certain directions. Apparently this is normal and there's a bedding in period that I likely haven't reached yet. In any case, it looks good, works well enough and I'm happy with it. Spinners Similar to the trackball, these may not see much use, but again, they look really nice on the panel so I had to have them. To maintain balance, I decided to have two instead of one. Like the trackball, these map to mouse axes by default - the left spinner is the horizontal axis and the right is the vertical. MAME can distinguish between the two axes so they can be used for two player games. At the time when I was purchasing controls, Ultimarc didn't have spinners in stock, so I chose the TurboTwist 2 from Groovy Game Gear, with the Blue Inset knob. I probably would have chosen these anyway because I prefer the way they look, and the shade of blue is a better match. Control Interface With the number of buttons, range of controls, and RGB lighting, I chose the Ultimarc I-PAC Ultimate I/O, as well as the wiring harness for the gold leaf buttons. I wasn't confident about connecting the TurboTwist 2 spinners from GGG to the I-PAC, so I also got the dedicated Opti-Wiz board, which is very small. With this configuration, I will have 4 USB cables to the control panel - one for each interface board, and one for each joystick. There are a number of ways to connect the UltraStiks with the I-PAC and buttons, but this seemed like the simplest approach and has so far worked well. Ultimarc and Groovy Game Gear have been great to deal with and I highly recommend them both. Layout Like most others here, I found my way to the slagcoin panel layout page. I ended up settling on something very close to the standard Capcom USA Street Flighter 6 button layout, with the joystick moved slightly closer to the buttons to fit within my space constraints. I also moved the buttons slightly closer together so they are the same distance horizontally and vertically. I prefer the way the square layout looks, as opposed to curved or offset layouts, and don't find it uncomfortable. I also added a 7th diagonally offset button on the left because I liked how it looked and also because a row of 4 buttons can be useful for some games. For the goal of balance and symmetry, I wanted the Player 1 and Player 2 controls to be identical, so the joystick, spinner, and buttons are positioned exactly the same for both. In addition to this, I wanted the over-all layout to be balanced horizontally, so each spinner is the same distance from the center of the panel, with the system buttons arranged evenly in between. Everything is arranged around the trackball, which is in the center of the panel. Because the trackball housing is quite large, the layout also has to account for this space, which is not apparent when looking at the panel from the top. I was able to find SketchUp models for my controls, so I could test the layout and fit before committing to anything. In the end, it was fairly close, but everything fit well. It was now time to test everything together. Test Panel Following the advice here, I translated my layout to a piece of scrap plywood and cut some holes using the 1-1/8" Forstner bit. I knew from testing the layout in SketchUp that I wouldn't have room to mount the interface boards directly on the control panel. To solve this problem, I built a small platform (shown in plywood here, but will eventually be acrylic) for the boards to sit above the system buttons. This central location allows the wires in the standard loom to reach almost all the buttons (I had to make extensions for the pinball buttons), and also positions the USB and power connectors right behind the hole at the back of the panel for the wiring harness. With everything attached to the underside of the control panel, it's very easy to remove the control box for maintenance once the harness has been disconnected from the PC. After connecting the controls, getting a few games working under MAME, and configuring the necessary software, I was able to test everything together. It wasn't quite perfect - the trackball was inverted because I had to install it upside down due to the cable length, and I hadn't modified the joysticks yet, but over all, I was happy with the layout and ready to cut the real panel. |
| Lexiq:
Control Panel Now that I've settled on a layout for the controls, and decided exactly which controls to use, I can cut the real control panel. This will require cutting the button, spinner, and trackball holes, as well as routing the back side of the panel to ensure the trackball is mounted at the correct depth. Cutting the Holes As with the test panel, all the button, joystick, and spinner holes were cut with the 1-1/8" Forstner bit. A Forstner bit cuts by removing thin layers and produces shavings similar to sharpening a pencil, rather than sawdust. With a large number of holes, and 18mm plywood, this results in a lot of shavings, so it's good to have the vacuum handy. The hole for the track ball is much larger and requires a hole saw. I needed a very specific size to match the radius of the track ball trim bezel, and because this is the only hole of this size, I used a cheaper saw. It took a long time to cut all the way through, switching sides half way. It produced a lot of friction and heat at any drill speed, and caused some burn. It did cut a hole exactly the right size though, so the end result was good. Cutting the Acrylic The acrylic panel sits over the control panel artwork, and is held in place by the controls and T-molding. It protects the artwork and creates a nice finish for the panel. Cutting the acrylic can be done in a similar way to cutting the second side of the cabinet - with the flush trim router bit, using the control panel as a template. The first step is to cut the acrylic to roughly the same size and shape as the control panel with the jig saw, leaving a small amount of material all around the edge. Clamp the acrylic to the control panel and drill pilot holes for each of the buttons, and the trackball. The pilot holes need to be large enough to fit the flush trim bit through. Acrylic is fairly brittle, so these need to be cut carefully - I used an 18mm slot router bit, plunging straight down, which worked well, but did result in some melted plastic smell. With the acrylic clamped in place, the router with flush trim bit can now be used to cut around the outside of the panel, and around the inside of all the holes. The end result is an acrylic panel that perfectly matches the control panel. Routing the Back For the trackball to sit with the top surface flush with the trim bezel, it has to be inset a very precise distance into the back of the control panel. This distance can be calculated by accounting for the thickness of the bezel, acrylic, and laminate (the control panel will have a laminate surface), the thickness of the control panel wood, and the depth of the trackball casing. The shape of the trackball enclosure is unusual. I routed the shape in sections, using an 18mm slot cutting bit, setting up guides for each section, taking care not to cut outside the area constrained by the current guide. This worked well and saved building a complicated router jig for this specific shape. With the inset cut, I could now test the trackball position with the acrylic, laminate samples, and bezel in place to ensure the correct alignment. At this point, I decided to route some shallow insets for the joysticks as well. At only 2mm, these are aren't really necessary, but give a little more length to the joystick handles. Being rectangular and shallow, these were significantly easier to cut. Threaded Inserts The trackball and joysticks come with threaded inserts for mounting to the back of wooden control panels. These are relatively easy to install, but care needs to be taken not to go too far through the panel when drilling the holes. Additionally, the trackball inserts are the 'tap in' rather than 'screw in' type, and I found that they were slightly compressed after tapping them all the way in, meaning the mounting bolts were quite hard to do up all the way. I think this would be less of a problem in MDF, and I probably should have made the holes slightly bigger. Control Interface Mounting As previously mentioned, I need to mount the control interface boards above my system buttons. To do this, I cut some lengths of dowel and drilled holes of the same radius in the back of the panel. The dowels are a pressure fit in the holes and can be removed relatively easily, but are otherwise secure. A small acrylic panel is mounted to the dowels with screws, and the boards are then mounted on the acrylic panel, with a layer of EVA foam as a stand-off. I discovered later that the height of the control interface mounting, combined with the height of the wires coming off the interface board meant that the wires would be compressed against the control box base when everything was assembled. To alleviate this, I ended up routing a section out of the control box base to create some extra room. |
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