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Contacts for removable panels (cable-free)
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Minwah:

--- Quote from: mahuti on September 21, 2005, 06:58:23 pm ---For a cable free system, the best thing to me seems to be the use of edge card connectors. They're easily available, cheap, and sturdy, and they come prelabled for jamma type arcade connections.

--- End quote ---

I'd also be worried about getting them lined up or inserting the panel square enough to locate the connector without damaging it.
Lilwolf:
You just have to remember, that you probably aren't going to have everything 'exact'.  So anything like card edges (or very small connectors) will probably have some issues.

I have 3/4" throw on the springs I use.  And try and set them so that the control panel will touch 1/2 way.  Its over kill.  After the 3rd control panel after getting everything working, I would say has a 1/4" of difference.  But it was nice that I don't have to have many items exact. 

Also, if you want them mounted on the sides or front, you may have a huge trouble seeing them with the control panel mounted.  This was a problem for a while for me.  Knowing where to mount the control panel version since I couldn't really see it.... and my head didn't fit thought the coin door :)

Last...

USB works GREAT for hotswap.  I have a full keyboard/mouse control panel using one.  and a few oscar hacked mice control panels.  The only problem is I get a mouse cursor whenever I switch them until I move them (which my frontend then takes as the first time it has control and then hides it again).  But I haven't removed the system mouse icon yet since I'm working on it too often. 

Minwah:
OK I received the connectors...here's the deal:

They are very small, but the male side are springloaded and thinner than the female flat contact - this should give a bit of room for error.  The problem is that since they are designed for PCB mounting, I am not sure how to actually connect any wires to them.  Another problem is that there is no way of mounting them as such.

So they are not really ideal...however I might give them a shot anyway.  There are some small metal tabs which I think I can bend & solder the wires to.  Then I would mount the female contacts to my control panel & the male contacts to the cab using superglue.  I would then use some hot-glue to provide some stability for the wires trailing off the contacts.

I'll post some pics when I've tested it out...


Lilwolf: You could have your FE replace the system cursor with a transparent one (only while the FE is running) - that's what I do.
Lilwolf:
btw, why not mount them on a little circuit board?  You can buy them at radio shack pretty cheap.  Then wiring them might be easier.  Heck you could probably for another 5 or so bucks put some screw in terminals on them. 

I was pretty sure that the size would make them hard to deal with.  but Iw as assuming the trouble would be that mounting a control panel, usually a 5 mm here and there should be ok.  But with something that small, it better be dead on.

As for the transparent system cursor.  How are you changing it only when the game is running?  Doing it in the batch file that you launch?  Or doing it in your app?  (I can't make any system changes from within java).    I haven't really been doing much work on my frontend for a bit.  Had some trouble getting a joystick jar working well (with swapping) and lost interest because my cab started overheating... then lost time... then started playing dungeon siege 2 and fable :)
Minwah:

--- Quote from: Lilwolf on September 28, 2005, 07:34:34 am ---btw, why not mount them on a little circuit board?  You can buy them at radio shack pretty cheap.  Then wiring them might be easier.  Heck you could probably for another 5 or so bucks put some screw in terminals on them. 

--- End quote ---

That's a good point...but actually I'm not even sure how to mount them on a circuit board.  I'll take some pics of the underside and maybe you can see what to do!?


--- Quote ---I was pretty sure that the size would make them hard to deal with.  but Iw as assuming the trouble would be that mounting a control panel, usually a 5 mm here and there should be ok.  But with something that small, it better be dead on.

--- End quote ---

I really don't think this will be a problem.  My control panels fit near-enough exactly so lining them up should be no problem, assuming I mount them in the correct place to begin with!


--- Quote ---As for the transparent system cursor.  How are you changing it only when the game is running?  Doing it in the batch file that you launch?  Or doing it in your app?  (I can't make any system changes from within java).    I haven't really been doing much work on my frontend for a bit.  Had some trouble getting a joystick jar working well (with swapping) and lost interest because my cab started overheating... then lost time... then started playing dungeon siege 2 and fable :)

--- End quote ---

Using my FE...it just swaps the system cursors (normal, hourglass and arrow+hourglass) for a transparent cursor.  On exiting the FE it swaps them back.  Sounds like you probably can't do it like this in Java...I've never used it myself.
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