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Going w/ swappable metal CP's -- Have a couple of questions
gamecreature:
How about using CP latches? Not only will they hold the CP in place, but you can run your ground wire to one of them and then connect the other end to your earth ground.
shardian:
--- Quote from: Ninten-doh on July 18, 2006, 02:18:51 pm ---
--- Quote from: shardian on July 18, 2006, 01:50:21 pm ---I believe he was wanting to ground the control panel itsself.
--- End quote ---
Yes, that's what I was referring to.
--- Quote from: shardian on July 18, 2006, 01:50:21 pm ---Since you are swapping the panels, you would want to designate a wire in your wiring harness of choice to be a ground wire. That way you can hook whichever cp to the ground that you want.
--- End quote ---
Sorry, I'm not following what you mean here. Wiring harness of choice? Each panel will have it's own ipac. I just plan on disconnecting/connecting the USB cable.
--- End quote ---
That, my friend is a MAJOR waste of money. One set of interfaces (IPAC/Optipac/mouse hack) can handle all of your controls. What you do is go to a computer shop and take a few parallel ports and their respective cables off their hands. You wire the parallel port to barrier strips, and then to the ipac, or other interface. Next, you hack off the peripheral end (the end that doesn't hook into the parallel port) of the parallel cables, and wire a cable to each control panel. This way, you can just plug in each control panel as you need them.
Another tip for mounting the control panels is to get some panel clamps. Isaw you said you were mounting some coin buttons to the coin door, so you do have access thru the front of the cabinet. Once you install the panel clamps, you can reach up thru the coin door to latch/unlatch the control panels. Odds are that the three screw holes on your metal panel were actually to attach the cp to a wooden bracket of sorts that the clamp catches were mounted to. I can take some pictures of how my control panel attaches to my cabinet if it will help you.
And for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT BUY SEPARATE IPAC'S for EACH CP!!!!!!!!!
Ninten-doh:
GC and Sharidian, I like the panel clamp idea, but wouldn't i need to weld them on to a metal CP?
As for the ipacs, ummm, well, hypothetically speaking, what if someone impulsively and without regard to family budget bought three ipac VE's already? :dizzy:
Thing is, I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible, and once terms like "hack" get involved, I tend to get a little dizzy.
shardian:
hehehe... well if some unknowing person in your family bought them...then it is ok. You are officially addicted now anyways and will come up with uses for them. First off, you can make a desktop control panel. I have an ipac in a 1 player desktop unit that is fugly, but works very well and still tends to impress everyone. Sometimes, the ghetto look makes it look harder than it really is, thus tends to show yourself as smarter than you really are. ;D You know, like when you walk into an electronics lab and there are wires everywhere and no organization whatsoever - your first thought is 'dang! There are some really smart people in here who know what all this crap does.'
Back to the clamps. On my taito cabinet, the control panel bolted onto two pieces of wood. The panel clamp catches are then screwed to the wood, and the main part of the clamp is screwed to the inside of the cabinet. Once I get my spare CP, I will cut out a new set of wood pieces that match the existing ones, and attach a new set of panel catches to it too.
Well, when it comes to wiring you are going to have a mess either way. You have to custom cut every piece of wire, and crimp on every single quick disconnect. It is very tedious and frustrating work if you don't do wiring on a regular basis. Using the parallel ports and their cables can actually make your life easier. The only somewhat hard part will be keeping track of which wire goes to what pin on the parallel port.
I haven't personally hacked a parallel cable yet, but here is the plan. If there is a color code to the wires inside the cable, then we are both home free. If they all happen to be the same color, then no problem. You get your trusty multimeter and continuity test each pin to a wire until you find a match. Then you can slap a masking tape label on that wire.
Since we are working on generally the same project, I would be happy to keep in touch thru the process.
Ninten-doh:
Thanks for the info Shardian. If it's not too much trouble, I'd love to see pics of how your clamps are set up..