Connectors for swappable CP's

[Setabs]

I figured this might work as a decent alternative to some of the other connectors already in use.

This one uses a larger gauge wire but it shouldnt affect use of the product.  It also only connects one way.

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=1200&prmenbr=361

or you could try these, although very expensive
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=1213&prmenbr=361

Someone on here has used a similar method but made their own, with less than ideal results.  I think using these might have worked out better.

If anybody uses or knows of different connectors for swappable control panels besides cat5, and parallel cables and connectors please add them to this post.

[MustardTent]

The links you provide look a lot like molex connectors.  I'm sure that Molex has been suggested before, but just wanted to point this out since these are the guys who own the market on this kind of stuff.

They have plenty of different kinds of connectors for many different purposes.

[Setabs]

Know how to buy those connectors?  I couldn't find a on-line store or list of retailers for the connectors from their site.

[mmmPeanutButter]

I used serial cables... they seemed to work out just fine.

[Shape D.]

or I guess you could always use a car stereo wiring harness it would be fairly easy to clip on and off but theres not really enough wires on just one alone. Id just rather use the 25 pin serial cables.

[CheffoJeffo]

If I were to make swappable panels (which I am not planning anytime soon), I think I would follow Paige's suggestion of using Jamma fingerboards and edge connectors.

Cheers.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Whatever you use, remember that you will only have ONE hand to disconnect it with.
Molex connectors, and such don't work very well.

You really need something that wall mounts, and has the cable coming out of it--which is why I chose Cat5 cables.
Alternately, the "spring pin" connectors are a workable, but really expensive, solution.

I was using 9-pin (Atari/Sega style) pigtail connectors on my original CP's, and they were a pain in the butt to connect/disconnect because you had to balance the CP perfectly, so that you could reach in with both hands to work with them.
They would have worked OK if I'd mounted the male connectors into the back wall of the CP box though.

[MustardTent]

Whatever you use, remember that you will only have ONE hand to disconnect it with.
Molex connectors, and such don't work very well.

[snip]

I was using 9-pin (Atari/Sega style) pigtail connectors on my original CP's, and they were a pain in the butt to connect/disconnect because you had to balance the CP perfectly, so that you could reach in with both hands to work with them.
They would have worked OK if I'd mounted the male connectors into the back wall of the CP box though.

An excellent point.  It does, however, assume that your disconnects are built into the cabinet, and that they don't have any slack.  I realize it's probably a cleaner approach, but don't discount a bundle of wires with some type of connecter at the end with about a foot of slack.  That way, you can unclip the CP, pull it out, grab the wire, uncouple it, and you're set for another CP.

I understand that this may not be the most preferable approach, however.

[NoOne=NBA=]

don't discount a bundle of wires with some type of connecter at the end with about a foot of slack.

[ChadTower]

The counter argument is that the rj45 (for cat5/5e/6) connectors wear out much faster than the heavier, molex style connectors.

They are, however, cheap and easy to replace if they start to wear out.

[MustardTent]

don't discount a bundle of wires with some type of connecter at the end with about a foot of slack.  That way, you can unclip the CP, pull it out, grab the wire, uncouple it, and you're set for another CP.

That was my point.
If you unclip the CP, and then pull it out, which hand are you going to hold the CP in, while you use the other two hands to uncouple the wire?
Pulling directly on wires is a really BAD idea.

One end of the connector really needs to be securely mounted (like the keystone jacks on a Cat-5 system), so that you can simply unclip the cables.
Even the Atari style 9-pins, that work really well with one hand on the 2600, don't work well when both ends are connected to a slack wire.
You would have to pull the wires tight, and HOPE they don't yank on anything at the other end, or pull out of the connectors, etc...

The molex connectors are even worse because the pins fit tighter, and they usually have those little clips on the side to prevent them from coming loose by themselves.

Okay.

[gcbrowni]

I'm just finishing up a modular CP with a removable CP box. That gave me an idea ...

You could take a 19" 1U 16-port RJ45 patch panel and mount it to the front of your cab, right where the back of the CP box would sit. You could then cut a 'slot'  that's 1RU high right in the back of the CP box. That would give you access to the patch panel. It makes more sense if the top panels swap out also, like mine do, but you could leave the bottom of your box open also. You could also use one of those "6 in 1" blocks to make a larger 6 RJ45 bonded connector to plug in to your cab.

[mahuti]

I took a 37 pin connector, soldered the wires up myself, and mounted it in a wood box. PUt a grey plate around the other connector to give me something to pull on.

[PoDunkMoFo]

I was thinking something like this.  I found on this site.

Don't know pricing yet but I think it would work great for a no hand solution.  Kind of like a laptop docking station.

http://www.elconproducts.com/drawer/default.asp

[NoOne=NBA=]

Why is anybody holding the CP?

[ChadTower]

Sounds to me like a major design flaw, to not have a way to do this easily.

[Avery]

Sounds to me like a major design flaw, to not have a way to do this easily.

He has a way to do this easily - connectors that he can undo with one hand.

If he didn't, well, yeah, it would be a problem.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Sounds to me like a major design flaw, to not have a way to do this easily.

Yes, it was.

That's why I FIXED it.

[Setabs]

I would definately recommend against balance the cp on the cabinet.  I just get images of it falling to the ground.  I would think you would mount the connection in the front or back under the cp and just tilt the panel forward or backward to disconnect and reconnect it.  The docking station i could see working.  It could also be a pain trying to set a 28" x 12" peice of wood with controls on it into the correct spot with percision.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Thus my warnings.

Been there--Done that--Didn't like it.

[Rudi]

I'm building a cab with a multi-CP layout.  I plan on using Centronics connectors, and having the CP slide in and having the female connector permanently mounted on the cab and the male on the CPs.  The placement of the connectors would be critical, but possible.  These connects (parallel port type) can easily handle 36 wires and only cost $2 or $3 each.

If this layout fails, I have a Plan B of inserting guiding rods (long nails with point dulled), so that when the connectors are about 1/2" away from each other, a pair of rods sticking out from the cab will need to inserted into holes in the CP first, lining up the CP and cab properly.  That way the connectors meet perfectly.

I thought of VGA connectors, or serial cables, but I was afraid of the pins bending over repeated insertion/removals.  The only other method I'd try is the PC board and connector mentioned before.  The trouble is finding them.

Rudi

[paigeoliver]

All you need is one Jamma harness hooked to your encoder and all your other controls. Bob Roberts fully stuffed harness will give you 54 wires to use, which will be more than enough.

Each control panel gets a $1 JAMMA fingerboard. You can even set it up where you can just slide the sucker into place like a Nes cartridge.  Any other solution will probably cost more and be harder to deal with.

I have tried other ways of hooking up swappable panels and I have found them to be lacking.

[tivogre]

I used DB25 connections (soldered) in my CP and have a set of "printer cables" that come out of a slot on my cab:

Here are the harnesses I built for the CP:



CP Construction website here:

http://www.ogredog.com/mame_cp_construction.htm

[markrvp]

I was in the TV/Video industry for 13 years.

[Setabs]

Tivogre:

How flexable is the CAB012 wire that u used?  Compared to say a nintendo or playstation controller.  Or is it stiffer like a parallel cable?

Also, I like the detail you put into your wiring I bet you spent a good time making it look that good.

[Lilwolf]

btw, I was planning on selling 10 position tac switches somewhat similar to the ones above (http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=1213&prmenbr=361)

I have 40 connections on my cabinet right now using them and they work great.

[Carsten Carlos]

I use a internal 50pins SCSI-centronics-style cable and it works perfect for over 2 years now -never would use anything else! They are cheap and easy to get. On the cab itself is a SCSI-cable just screwed underneath the place for the controlpanel.

Though I did some soldering and a little pcb to connect thicker cables for the joysticks and buttons:

[tivogre]

Tivogre:

How flexable is the CAB012 wire that u used?  Compared to say a nintendo or playstation controller.  Or is it stiffer like a parallel cable?

Also, I like the detail you put into your wiring I bet you spent a good time making it look that good.

It's somewhere in between playstation controller and parallel cable.  Pretty easily routable.

[crsdawg]

i just used centronics cables. no muss no fuss. just cut one in half(or wherever) and wire it up. no need to put any wires on the connector itself, all the wires are also color coded which makes getting your connections a snap.



if you mount the encoder side connector you can disconnect and reconnect the cp with only one hand.

the cables are dirt cheap to boot. i got mine for $2.00 each(6ft length i believe).

[releasedtruth]

I have some random cables laying around, SCSI and parallel as well. Would I need more than 25 pin if It was a 2 player, 6 button setup on one panel and a spinner/track/(2)4-way joy/buttons on the other?

[horseboy]

You would be cutting it close. It would depend on a few things, though...

A)   Are you going to have coin buttons on the CP?

2-   Are you going to have admin buttons on the CP?

!]   How many buttons per player on panel 2?

[telengard]

I have to second the RJ45 connector route.  That's what I use now (although I have a modular panel now not a swappable one).  My previous setup was a swappable panel and as mentioned when using molex connectors you either need 3 hands or a very good place to put your panel(s).  I can't imagine any reliable way of placing a panel down without the potential for either bending or breaking something.  I am very happy with using ethernet cables and the jacks, it's cheap and it's easy to swap.      I guess if you have more than 7 inputs you may need to use more than one which would probably get a little confusing.

~telengard

[Grasshopper]

I thought long and hard about this and eventually chose to use 36 pin Centronics connectors for the following reasons:

* They're cheap and easy to get hold of.

* The pre-made Centronics leads have up to 25 separate wires in them, enough for most purposes.

* They lock together.

* They're tough.

* They are easy to mount on 3/4" wood.

Attached is a picture of an Ipac that I hacked into a Centronics printer switchbox.

[Rudi]

I build a coctail with centronics connectors and multible CPs.  For me the solution worked well.

-Rudi

[releasedtruth]

I'll definitely have 2 coin buttons, 1up/2up, admin buttons, all that. Rj45 may be easier. How often I switch them out will be "infrequent" to "rare"  And probably won't even build the 2nd panel for a while. Rather plan ahead than hindsight it though...

[NIVO]

you can see here the type of connector i chose to go with. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55220.msg541806#msg541806 they are made by allen-bradley. They are the best you could want, and probably overkill, and most definitely not the cheapest solution. They work like this: you take your wire, slide it into one of the numbered slots, and turn down the screw to lock it into place. Its the same as wiring the other end to the Ipac. Again a bit overkill, but i wanted the best.

[original_maxlamer]

I use molex connecters on my swapable control panel and DONT have to even unbolt the control panel to connect or disconnect.

I just have the wireing loom accessable from the coin door with enough slack that i can disconnect the loom, unbold the panel, then lift the panel straight off.

Easy when the hole to poke the cables through is over 5inch diameter

[pmc]

I used 50-pin internal SCSI ribbon cables, but if I had to do it again, I'd use 6-foot Centronics 50-pin cables cut in half (length, durability, and easy to use).

-pmc

[horseboy]

I used 50-pin internal SCSI ribbon cables, but if I had to do it again, I'd use 6-foot Centronics 50-pin cables cut in half (length, durability, and easy to use).

-pmc

Yup, that is your best bet if you have a bunch of inputs, and they are relatively cheap as well. Get a male to female jumper and cut it in half.

Link