| Main > Project Announcements |
| Project BlueShift |
| << < (16/18) > >> |
| mourix:
Good job so far :D With the incredible woodworking skills demonstrated here, I can recommend learning basic electric work for a next product as I'm sure you will beat that hurdle fast. |
| Ond:
Clean build! When I use the word 'clean' I mean really pro. This hobby has so many skill types to draw on, electronics and electrics are high on the list. Its pushed me into a few areas I was less comfortable learning than others ;D. I also loved the display of parts neatly laid out! I have the exact same coin plate ha hah! :cheers: |
| Lexiq:
Thanks everyone! I'll be covering electrics / wiring in one of my next posts. |
| Lexiq:
Control Panel Graphics For this style of control panel, the graphics are sandwiched between the panel surface and a sheet of clear acrylic. Everything is held in place by the controls and the T-molding so no additional fasteners are required. Continuing with the blue / yellow / black theme, I used Inkscape to create a fairly simple, high contrast design that highlights each control, as well as the grouping of controls for player 1 and 2. Inkscape also has tools for measuring the size and distance between shapes, making it easy to work to a 1:1 scale. I started this process earlier in the build and went through several iterations before settling on a final design. Another consideration is choosing specific colours. Colours won't print exactly as they appear on a monitor, so it can be a good idea to do test prints with a few different variations to find which works best. Graphics software may also allow you to choose print-safe colours. Material and Printing When creating the graphics, all the elements are vector based layers, which means they can be resized and rearranged without losing detail. For printing, everything needs to converted to a high resolution bitmap image of at least 300dpi. I used 600dpi for better resolution - you can go higher, but there are diminishing returns. The image should be supplied to the printer in an uncompressed, or lossless format such as PNG. I originally though it might be possible to print the graphics on poster paper and rely on the acrylic to keep it flat, but it's not very durable, and is difficult to align without adhesive backing. Vinyl seems to be the best option. I chose to use a temporary adhesive, rather than permanent as it allows for mistakes to be corrected, and for the graphics to be more easily swapped out in the future. Another thing to consider is gloss vs matte finish. Gloss finish results in more vibrant colours, and this is what I originally chose, but I found that when the acrylic is pressed tightly against the gloss surface, the thin-film interference patterns become very noticeable, especially when illuminated. I thought about trying to separate the surfaces using thin shims around the buttons, but eventually decided it was easier to sacrifice a bit of contrast and use a matte finish instead. Vinyl is used everywhere for signage, so most print shops will be able to do this type of job. Applying the Vinyl The first step is to align the graphics with the holes in the control panel. On my printed graphics, I included circles for where the holes will need to be cut, so I started by cutting 4 of these - two on each side, and aligning these holes with the matching holes in the panel. Before removing any adhesive backing, I clamped one end of the vinyl to the panel using a left over piece of clear acrylic. This ensures the vinyl stays aligned, while keeping the holes visible. With the vinyl secured, I then removed the adhesive from the unclamped end, up until about one third of the width. Then, with a little tension to keep the vinyl flat, applied it to the surface of the panel, working from the inside out to keep it smooth and remove air bubbles. The temporary adhesive makes this simpler as it's relatively easy to peel of the vinyl and redo a section if it's not quite right. Now that one end is attached to the panel with adhesive, the other end can be unclamped and the rest of the backing can be removed. For this stage, it's a good idea to remove a small amount of backing and apply the vinyl a section at a time. Once the vinyl has been applied, it can be trimmed to size with a craft knife or other similarly sharp blade. It's important to ensure that the is no overlap around the edge as this will cause the vinyl to kink when the T-molding is applied. The rest of the holes can now be cut the same way, running the blade around the inside of the holes. Acrylic, T-molding and Controls The acrylic can now be placed over the vinyl and a few buttons installed to keep it in place while the T-molding is applied. As with the screen glass, one of the most challenging aspects of assembling the control panel is ensuring there is no dust or debris between the vinyl and the acrylic. Outside of a NASA clean room, there is really no good solution for this, but I did eventually end up with a result I was happy with. The process of applying the T-molding is described in an earlier post - if everything was measured correctly, the top of the T-molding should be perfectly flush with the surface of the acrylic. With the acrylic and T-molding in place, the controls can now be installed, ready for wiring. |
| Lexiq:
Control Panel Wiring For the majority of the wiring, I used the harness kit that came with the I-PAC Ultimate I/O. This includes the wires for each button, as well as a daisy chain harness for ground. The gold leaf RGB buttons that I use for the admin and coin buttons each have their own RGB connectors that plug straight into the I-PAC. A custom solution where every wire is cut to the right length and routed to its destination will look tidier, and I've seen some really nice examples on these forums, but with cable ties and some planning, the standard harness can look pretty good. It's best to mount the interface boards as close to central as possible, or the wires won't reach all the buttons. For my two pinball buttons on the sides of the control box, I needed to create short extensions as the harness wires weren't quite long enough. I also needed an extension for the trackball wires because they are fairly short and originate from the bottom of the trackball housing when it's mounted in the correct orientation. Extensions To extend the main harness, I soldered terminals to a short length of wire, with heatshrink to insulate the joints. The trackball uses DuPoint connectors, so for this I ordered a kit with a ribbon of wires that can be separated into whatever widths are required, and a variety of different sized connectors. Process I started by positioning all the controls and orienting the button terminals the same way. The next step was to choose which buttons should be assigned to which pins on the I-PAC and connect those, taking care not to tangle the wires. The ground harness can then be connected, starting from one side of the panel, moving from one button to the next in a pattern that covers the shortest distance and avoids crossing over itself. The various wires can then be grouped together with cable ties based on their destination, for example, all player 1 button wires can be grouped up to the point where they need to split and connect to individual buttons. RGB buttons can be connected next. The wires on the gold leaf buttons are much longer than I needed so I had to fold them up and tuck them out of the way as much as possible. Cable ties were useful here too. The final step is to connect the spinner, USB, and power cables. I had 4 USB cables in total - the two UltraStik 360s, the I-PAC, and the Opti-Wiz board for the spinners. Coin Door Wires In addition to the coin buttons on the control panel, I also wanted my coin door to work. This meant that I needed extra wires attached to the coin terminals on the I-PAC. In the end, it was easier to splice the wires to the coin button terminals, but the result is identical - putting a coin in the slot is the same as pressing the coin button. Main Wiring Harness All these wires exit the control box through a single hole in the back that's not visible when the cabinet is assembled. To keep everything tidy I used a braided wire sleeve secured with electrical tape. The harness enters the cabinet through the gap under the monitor, then through the hole in the monitor shelf to reach the PC in the lower compartment. All wires in the harness are terminated with electrical connectors so the whole thing can be unplugged easily if the control panel needs to be removed. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |