Should I add P1/P2 leds? If so, where?

[Blakey]

I have begun the long and painful task of wiring up my control panels now that the majority of the cabinet is built.

I keep forgetting that I have a pair of bezel leds (~9mm OD) that I meant to hook up to num/caps lock, to flash for the games that support it.



As far as I can see, the only place to mount them is to the left of P1start and to the right of P2start.

What's the general concensus? Yay/Nay?

[RayB]

What about inside the buttons?
I saw a page with instructions on doing just that (assuming you have the typical white buttons--I doubt black would glow very much!)

I'm sure someone else will come along and know what page I'm talking about??

[hunky_artist]

yeah, I saw that too... can't find the link for you, sorry

by the way... NICE control panels, did you make those yourself or get them made?

[Industen]

Probably this page:

http://www.arcadeparadise.org/arcade/ap3/lighting.html

I just used HAPP illumination buttons for mine. Better output. Although some people might like to have all the buttons the same. Credit buttons do nothing on the playing field so you won't be using them much.

[Gameboy.au]

yeah, I saw that too... can't find the link for you, sorry

by the way... NICE control panels, did you make those yourself or get them made?

that's a damn good point.  the control panels look fantastic.  How did you get them made up?

[Blakey]

The control panels are brushed stainless steel, 0.9mm thick.

I had them laser cut, but could almost as easily have guillotined and chassis punched them myself.

I folded them on a manual sheet metal folder, testing the angles as compared to a CAD printout.

The vertical front face makes it very stiff there, but there was too much flex on the back edge of the long CP as I didn't make them long enough to fold that edge down as well. To stiffen I attached a piece of 20x25mm angle aluminium to the back edge which makes it very stiff.

I could be convinced to make some more if the demand is there.

Wired up all the switches last night to a 12 pin molex, very time consuming. Top view of CP's in cabinet attached.

Back to lighting:
I've already seen Edgedamage's button lighting thread and have considered it. I may stick a superbright led inside one and see how it looks, but I also like the look of the bezel mounted leds.

[RayB]

More pics!!

[Blakey]

Fine fine.
It's almost done. Still waiting for the smoked glass and I still have to mount PC parts, amp, and wire all that together.

[Blakey]

end on.

[mw]

Real nice job, looks great  

[mattv]

Old atari games used to have flashing p1 start / p2 start buttons so I guess that would be the best place to put your LED's (inside the buttons, should be easy to drill a hole in the bottom and glue them in)

Having said that, those stainless LED bezels look so cool it's a shame not to use them

The main reason I replied was to say that is one georgeous looking control panel, if it could cook i'd marry it.

[rdagger]

The CP looks great.  
You could place the P1 LED on the CP above the P1 joystick and the P2 LED above the P2 joystick at the same height as the P1/P2 buttons.  

You could go one step further and core out the joystick handles and place the LED's on the top of each joystick handle.

[Blakey]

Well, I've played hackety hack with a spare button and have worked out a fairly easy way to mount a led inside it without cutting the legs or obstructing anything. Similar to Edgedamage, but with slots instead of holes.

So I'll pick up two superbright white/blue leds tomorrow and whack them inside the start buttons.

Picked up the smoked glass today, wired up the IPAC last night, tackling the sound issues now and it'll be done by tomorrow barring little niggles like extended tvout/usb cables, replacing all mounting bolts with mushroom head stainless ones, cable tieing all wires neatly....

[Santoro]

That is a seriously nice cocktail.  Good work!

Yet another example that makes me want to learn metalwork!