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New cab or modular piece cp...?!?
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Aceldamor:
Need some opinions guys, I'm finally back into the saddle of finishing my cab and have realized that there is no way to put all the controlls I want on 1 panel...even rigging up swappable joystick handles and whatnot.

I'm torn however between ditching my cab shell altogether and building another, resembeling (sp?) Frost's with a rotating panel or keeping mine (LuSiD's) and building 1 cp with swappable parts.that way I don't have to have 4 huge panels, I can have the panel and just put whatever controls I want onto the panel and lock them down and get to playing.

Each have pro's and cons, the biggest con for the rotating would be a complete reconstruction of my cab... :o

The biggest con for the swappable piece panel is you can't really plexi the panel.  :-\

Does anyone out there have a swappable piece panel? Help me out guys....


Doc-:
I just finished converting to a modular "piece" panel over the weekend inspired by a thread I saw here several weeks ago.  I had a 24" wide single "classic" control panel that I replaced with a fully modular "piece" panel.  The panels are interchangable down to 2" wide spacers.

 Joysticks (4 and 8 way) and spinner are mounted on 4" wide panels, a set of 6 buttons on 6" wide panels, a 3" trackball on a 8" wide panel and so on.  I also have 2", 4", 6" and 8" spacer panels along with different joystick types so I can make pretty much any layout you can imagine within the 24" wide original cabinet.

  My "regular" fighter layout has two joysticks, two 6-button panels and either a spinner or 4-way joystick panel in the middle.  However you can swap it any way you want (joysticks on the right, tron style, dual joysticks for tank games, etc...) by just moving the pieces and spacers around on the 24" rails.

  I used RJ45 panels and a USB hub under the panel to connect individual panels and it works great.  Each joystick or button panel occupies one RJ45 slot and I duplicated some ports so I can connect (for instance) two joystick panels to the same port on the IPAC.  You can hot swap the controls - both USB and RJ45 connectors.

   I also came up with a pretty innovative way to mount and lock the panels so there is nothing visible from the top of the panel and also each panel can be swapped with no tools in a few seconds.

  It was a lot of work to make all of the panels and wire them- but the net result is pretty cool.  Something simple like swapping the spinner for a 4-way joystick takes less than 15 seconds since you just pop the old panel up, remove the USB connector, plug in an RJ45 connector and pop the new panel in.  Alternately you can reconfigure the whole panel in just over a minute.   You don't need to buy duplicate controls and its easy to add new ones at will by just mounting it on a blank panel.  Also the cabinet maintains its nice classic 24" wide look - no frankenpanel.  Finally I was able to keep my pinball buttons on the side and front - which I would have had to give up in a rotating panel scheme.

  I'm still finalizing a few of the panels (trackball, top fire joystick) and I have some minor cleanup to do (painting the edge of the panels so the space between them is less obvious).  I'll post some pictures in the next week or two.
Aceldamor:
I would love to see what work you've done so far on that panel...

I've got so many controls that I don't want to dink around with a frankenpanel and I'm really not into making a completly new cab..(yet  ;D)

Any pics you can post to show the actual interface and mounting system would be awsome..
telengard:

--- Quote from: Aceldamor on April 08, 2004, 03:20:48 pm ---Need some opinions guys, I'm finally back into the saddle of finishing my cab and have realized that there is no way to put all the controlls I want on 1 panel...even rigging up swappable joystick handles and whatnot.

I'm torn however between ditching my cab shell altogether and building another, resembeling (sp?) Frost's with a rotating panel or keeping mine (LuSiD's) and building 1 cp with swappable parts.that way I don't have to have 4 huge panels, I can have the panel and just put whatever controls I want onto the panel and lock them down and get to playing.

Each have pro's and cons, the biggest con for the rotating would be a complete reconstruction of my cab... :o

The biggest con for the swappable piece panel is you can't really plexi the panel.  :-\

Does anyone out there have a swappable piece panel? Help me out guys....


--- End quote ---

I have a swappable panel and *love* it.  It's a little more work but well worth it.  For example I can support any new control as I find them on eBay.  I just picked up a Xybots joystick and can't wait to make a module for that.  If you have any questions about how I did mine just let me know.
telengard:

--- Quote from: Mortalpawn on April 08, 2004, 09:06:40 pm ---I just finished converting to a modular "piece" panel over the weekend inspired by a thread I saw here several weeks ago.  I had a 24" wide single "classic" control panel that I replaced with a fully modular "piece" panel.  The panels are interchangable down to 2" wide spacers.

 Joysticks (4 and 8 way) and spinner are mounted on 4" wide panels, a set of 6 buttons on 6" wide panels, a 3" trackball on a 8" wide panel and so on.  I also have 2", 4", 6" and 8" spacer panels along with different joystick types so I can make pretty much any layout you can imagine within the 24" wide original cabinet.

  My "regular" fighter layout has two joysticks, two 6-button panels and either a spinner or 4-way joystick panel in the middle.  However you can swap it any way you want (joysticks on the right, tron style, dual joysticks for tank games, etc...) by just moving the pieces and spacers around on the 24" rails.

  I used RJ45 panels and a USB hub under the panel to connect individual panels and it works great.  Each joystick or button panel occupies one RJ45 slot and I duplicated some ports so I can connect (for instance) two joystick panels to the same port on the IPAC.  You can hot swap the controls - both USB and RJ45 connectors.

   I also came up with a pretty innovative way to mount and lock the panels so there is nothing visible from the top of the panel and also each panel can be swapped with no tools in a few seconds.

  It was a lot of work to make all of the panels and wire them- but the net result is pretty cool.  Something simple like swapping the spinner for a 4-way joystick takes less than 15 seconds since you just pop the old panel up, remove the USB connector, plug in an RJ45 connector and pop the new panel in.  Alternately you can reconfigure the whole panel in just over a minute.   You don't need to buy duplicate controls and its easy to add new ones at will by just mounting it on a blank panel.  Also the cabinet maintains its nice classic 24" wide look - no frankenpanel.  Finally I was able to keep my pinball buttons on the side and front - which I would have had to give up in a rotating panel scheme.

  I'm still finalizing a few of the panels (trackball, top fire joystick) and I have some minor cleanup to do (painting the edge of the panels so the space between them is less obvious).  I'll post some pictures in the next week or two.

--- End quote ---

I'm very curious to see how you handle holding down the panels and can do it so that nothing is visible *and* no tools.  Sounds awesome.  How sturdy is it?
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