CP Wiring
This seemed to be one of the most time consuming parts of the entire build. I had 32 channels of LED lighting, 2 - 49 way Joysticks 20 buttons (5 using RGB LEDs all the rest used Blues), a track ball, track ball buttons, USB for all the interfaces, plus wiring an adapter that would feed the cabinet (coin door switches, LEDS...). I started with the LEDs. After all the PBs, Joys, TB, +Interfaces were in, I realized that there was a significant shortage of real estate available for clean wiring. But I set out to do just that. I decided to use wire looms. I found a good supply at Fry's. I bought a roll of 1/4 in and got a package of various sizes. Everytime there was any distance between source and destination, I would loom it. This way all wires would be both secure and tightly bound together. I did the player 1 LEDs first. I tested each LED Before and after I added them because I did not want to get to the end of all the looming, heat shrinking, and soldering to find out that I had a problem somewhere. I build a little LED tester a few years ago which helped. I put heat shrinking at every solder point so there would be no shorts at some point because something shifted. I decided to put all the resisters be the LEDWiz so I had only clean wire in the tight spaces. This seemed like a good idea, but as I learned soon, it also got very tight around the LEDWiz. The RGB LEDs were set up with RG&B wires for easy tracing. I did all the LED and PB wiring in my living room while watching TV at nights. I have to say my family was very supportive in this trying time. (I sort of made a big mess). Little snippets of red, yellow, blue, green, black, and yellow wires everywhere. After Player 1, I did players 2 then the utility buttons (coin up, P1, P2, Esc, and Pause). This took several nights and mornings (before work).
Then I moved onto the push buttons. After the LEDs, the PBs were a piece of cake. Side note, but I talked to RandyT and asked if he saw any problem with me making the mouse buttons also connect to the GPWiz49s shift key. He did not see a problem. So, once in MAME, being that I would not be using the mouse buttons, the shift keys come into play. Buttons 1-5 on both P1 and P2 can all be shifted. This has been great so far as my Tab and Volume up and down. BTW all PBs were wired with yellow wire to totally stand appart from the LED lines.
One of the things I wanted to do was try and do a Knievel'esk wireing job. Did I succeed? Well, I think I did ok, but it was not a Knievel job. He's still is the master of the perfect wiring job. He raised the bar on wiring it is a good bar to try to reach for.
BTW, If you are someone who does a lot of soldering and feel that helping hands do not really help as much as one could hope for should check out the Panavise sets. I got one on e-bay for like $15. They can be like $85 at a store. But you can clamp a circuit board or LED or anything up to 9 inches and rotate it in just about any position. GREAT TOOL!!!