3 questions for new cab design.

[Drexdamack]

Well,  I wrote this long ass post about my questions and when I hit preview...POOF. In summary, I have 3 questions. Please feel free to delete this post, yell at me, or string me up by my balls if I am being repetitive.

1. Keyboard encoder. I have an X-Arcade and love it to death, but it appears that too many keypresses at one time do not get registered. When I build my cab, if I buy an encoder, will the same occur? I know that windows cant handle a certain amount at once. That seems to be the problem. Do these encoders work around that? Or, is there another way to get the controls to work for authentic fighting game style?

2. Monitor. Feel like I am beating a dead horse here, but here goes. I can get my hands on a good 21" PC monitor for around 250. I have been using MAME for about 6 years, and am happy with the output. Is there something that you can tell me that would make me want an arcade monitor? This board has me as scared as an Iraqi to install one.

3. Motors. Yes motors. New subject here I suppose, but my design is very innovative,  and I want to know if anyone has any experience working with such (ie. websites,  what to buy). Basically, I want my cab fully automated so that my computertarded friends can use this when I go to grab some beer.

Last, (didnt mention this) where can I get a damn Star Wars Yoke...been searching Ebay for awhile, but I guess I am too impatient for that.

Any help is very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

D-

[Generic Eric]

Well,  I wrote this long ass post about my questions and when I hit preview...POOF. In summary, I have 3 questions. Please feel free to delete this post, yell at me, or string me up by my balls if I am being repetitive.

1. Keyboard encoder. I have an X-Arcade and love it to death, but it appears that too many keypresses at one time do not get registered. When I build my cab, if I buy an encoder, will the same occur? I know that windows cant handle a certain amount at once. That seems to be the problem. Do these encoders work around that? Or, is there another way to get the controls to work for authentic fighting game style?

2. Monitor. Feel like I am beating a dead horse here, but here goes. I can get my hands on a good 21" PC monitor for around 250. I have been using MAME for about 6 years, and am happy with the output. Is there something that you can tell me that would make me want an arcade monitor? This board has me as scared as an Iraqi to install one.

3. Motors. Yes motors. New subject here I suppose, but my design is very innovative,  and I want to know if anyone has any experience working with such (ie. websites,  what to buy). Basically, I want my cab fully automated so that my computertarded friends can use this when I go to grab some beer.

How are motors going to help your friends be less retared?  Especially when at least one of you is drinking?  

Last, (didnt mention this) where can I get a damn Star Wars Yoke...been searching Ebay for awhile, but I guess I am too impatient for that.

You'll have the best luck waiting for ebay I think.  Unless you are crafty enough to hack something together.  Another option would be to get a yoke from another game and make a star wars - esque enclosure.

Can't help much otherwise.  best of luck.  hope to see your adventures in cabinet building on a website soon.

[Drexdamack]

I guess what I meant was technically challenged. I have read 1up's sight where his friends dont know how to change the control panels, and that would be a problem for me. In the motor sense, I want one push does all. I dont want to show my design as of yet because i will get laughed at. Hopefully in the building stage, some photos will be going up.

D-

[Generic Eric]

Oh, I get ya now.

Don't worry man.  This is the internet, like space, no one can hear you scream, you won't hear any of the laughter.  But seriously, if you do post your ideas/plans, you'll get some constuctive critisicm.   As a matter of fact, I think thats a fine idea.  I have been considering the "automated rotating panel" as well.  

What I would like to have is a rotating panel that didn't push out the front panel(where the coin door is)  but rather sunk into the cabinets bowels, and did its rotating there.  Once panel rotated to the correct one, it would rise up and fit into place.  The whole deal would be complete with a door covered the control pannels open space while the contraption rotated.  
I think my idea sounds fair enough but I don't know how much space it will take up.  Or if it will be blocked by the coin door or its box.

[skirge66]

well let's see, i am not a grandmaster guru like many of these fine folks, but i'm tailing off on the resarch portion of my project, and getting ready to place the grand order for all my parts.  

what i can offer is this: as far as keyboard encoders go,
I now they are very expensive, but they are relitively easy to install, they eliminate ghosting completely, you can get them with or without a trackball interface, and they function as a highpass filter so you can still have a normal keyboard plugged into the encoder as well as your control panel, and they have 72 inputs if you go with the he72. plus the added
 bonus of not having to mess with the messy and to me confusing "keyboard hack", me being lazy this is the way i'm going, i also intend on using a usb encoder as well.


as far as monitors go... well all my reserch pretty much came from here, my original plan was to use a 27" television, it was cheap (relatively) with s-video seemed to get decent images, and was fairly simple to hook up to a pc. then i perused the monitor forum here, saw the pix of the wells garner 27" d9200 sitting beside s-video...all i can say is i'm gonna pay the extra bucks, but i'm working with a fairly large budget of about $3000 dollars. as far as danger goes, yes installing monitors is very dangerous, but you can do it i spent 10 years in the navy as a sonar tech, we replace fairly large crts quite a bit, and now i work for intel, so have plenty of friends with experience that i can call to help with the installation of a large 85lb tube. from what i've read almost everywhere normal computer svga monitors have to good of resolution for older game to look good plus they are interlaced. i say go to the monitor forum and look there...for me the choice was obvious.

hope this helps a little, like i said i'm not the most familiar on this stuff yet, but have been trying to do my homework, so if i'm wrong anywhere, i'm sure you guys could point it out.

cheers

[Frostillicus]

I thought of motorizing the rotation, too, as I'm sure everyone else has who's seen 1UP's design.  I was thinking of somehow getting it interfaced to the software - connect it to the parallel port and when you select a fighting game it rotates to the correct panel automatically.  

But then I weighed the time+effort+frustration+wads of $$$ for a  large stepper motor/interface/gears/mounting brackets/etc against the slight cool factor of automated panels.  I decided I wasn't quite that lazy and could put the money I'd spend into something else on the cab(like a better monitor).  Plus I wasn't sure if I had the technical know-how in the first place.

 I don't plan on having my friends mess with my cab, so I don't have to worry about their incompetence (which is vast). But good luck!

[Drexdamack]

Thank you so much for the responses! I still am curious if there is anything out there pertaining to the keyboard encoder's ability to handle multiple presses at once. If Windows can only take 3,  than if two people are playing a 6 control fighting game, that means 3/12 at once. Also, I am still looking to see if anyone has any automation/robotics experience. I am starting to get my hands dirty on this so far, but so many questions remain. This will happen! I think the only thing that would hinder it is a single motor that would cost $1k up. I have pretty deep pockets for my obsessions, and the knowledge will come with time. Thanks again for all the help so far.

D-