Today was a fairly productive day and as a result I have pretty much finished the control panel..
First job for today was to rub down the surfaces that the overlay would be attached to. This was to remove the slight orange peel finish in the paint, giving a nice flat surface, ensuring maximum adhesion. To do this I used 2000 grit wet and dry with a couple of drops of dish washing detergent in the rubbing down water - this helps lubricate the paper which is very useful when using such fine grades of paper. I then wiped down the whole panel with a wet cloth to get rid off the bulk of rubbing down slurry and then brought it back inside and stuck it in front of the heater to evaporate any remaining solvents trapped under the cured skin.
After about 3 hours getting all toasty warm in front of the heater, it was then back outside for a wipe down with prepsol to remove the remaining rubbing down "powder" along with any oil from finger prints etc. This was the followed by a quick wipe down with a tack cloth to remove any remaining dust..
My fiancee was then conned into helping me hold things while we attempted to stick down the overlay without stuffing it up - it was pretty nerve racking stuff. With the backing paper still in place, I lined up the centre punched holes with the button/joystick holes and then taped down the top edge with masking tape forming a sort of "hinge" arrangement.
Once we were happy with everything, Kristy started slowly pulling off the backing paper while I used a spray bottle to spray both the control panel and the back of the overlay - the water had a couple of drops of baby shampoo added to it to stop the overlay grabbing straight away but rather float on top of the panel until we are absolutely 100% sure of alignment. I then took a plastic squeegee and started squeegeeing the water out, working from the centre outwards.
It was a nervous time but at the end of it all, but it came out beautifully with alignment being spot on. I then took a sharp razor blade and trimmed off the excess around the edges along with the joystick and button holes.
Next up I fitted the joystick shafts, fire buttons and of course the Atari volcano buttons. When I had my overlay printed, they actually messed up the first one - fortunately they sent me a replacement. Using the first overlay, I cut out the area around the joysticks and stuck them onto the built in dust washers on the joystick shaft's, helping them blend in a little more..
..And here is the result - all in all, I am pretty happy with it
You can see how close a match the paint colour is to the overlay colour..
I then started on the wiring - this is a BIG job to do neatly.. I've seen some people who's control panel wiring looks like a rats nest with wires running everywhere and all in the same colour. For me, I think the little bit of extra effort it takes to route everything neatly helps prevent mistakes in the first place, and also helps you trace faults and come maintenance time too.
The Mini-Pac interface uses a 40pin IDE connector on board - I found an old hard drive cable in my spares bin and wired that up to a 25pin male connector. I then wired up the main loom to a 25 pin female connector which then terminates with spade connectors for the mircoswitches - everything is soldered and heat shrunk of course. The 25 pin connector was probably overkill, but works nicely as I always shudder when I have to pull on the 40 pin IDE connector, waiting for something to break.. The USB cable on the back of the control panel was also spliced and hard wired to the Mini-Pac.
After about 6 hours, this is where I am at with the wiring loom - everything is hooked up except for the LEDs in the Volcano buttons. Unfortunately I didn't have any 220 ohm resistors in my parts drawers, so I'll have to get some tomorrow - I will then tidy up the wiring going to these buttons and button it all up.
I now really wish I had painted inside the control panel area - it looks a bit feral in there, but hey, no one is going to see it.. :rolleyes:
Next job is to get stuck into the cabinet and get it prepped and painted but not before I cut the slot for my T-molding which has also arrived. I still need to get a slot cutter and one place I rang wanted $50 bucks for the thing, so I am still looking around.. My monitor has also arrived, so I need to make up the mounting panel for this.
Still a lot to do, but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel - stay tuned
Hoops
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Topic: Centicade - A Scratch Built Centipede Replica (UPDATE: 99% finished..) (Read 46682 times)
