Newbie help with LEDs + Materials

[Mamed for life]

Hi all,

I going to start building my first cab real soon: fristly I going to try a hacked Jakks Pac Man (following Markrvps brilliant guide), then a full cab for myself when I've proved to SWMBO that I won't make a Frankencab!

I've been buying a few bits for the last few months now, and reading as much as I can on the boards (don't tell the boss), and I'd love to have some lit LED buttons on my full size cab, but I have absolutely no skill or experience in anything like this. I have seen some buttons (fromm GGG, I think) that come with the LEDs in place in the buttons already, but I can't work out how I could wire them up. Is there a really easy guide anywhere that will explain it for me (a la spystyle guide to cab building, which I'm rtying to memorse!)

For the next 18 months or so, I'm based in Ireland (Dublin), then off to the UK, and from ringing around, I can't find the following:

Greylite glass
Plexi/Lexan (it's always a minimum order of 10ft square or something like that)
Reasonable prices for printing out side art on vinyl

Like I said, I've been lurking on the boards for a few months now (even tried to help a few times!), and I'm sure some of you guys can give me some pointers.

Thanks in advance!

[loadman]

I have seen some buttons (fromm GGG, I think) that come with the LEDs in place in the buttons already, but I can't work out how I could wire them up

You Connect the LEDS to a hardware controller:
EG
- MaLa hardware
- LedWiz

[sealslayer]

For the glass get I'm pretty sure us in the UK can't get hold of Greylite, I bought glass from a local glass shop that was 6mm Laminated grey made by pilkingtons, I believe they only sell it in 2' squares so you may have pay for 4' but its only cheap mine cost 28 GBP.
The glass is very dark and its almost impossible to see the monitor when its turned off, don't be fooled when you go to a shop and see a sample it looks quite light until you get it up against a black bezel and monitor, make sure you get grey and not bronze.
If you get laminated make sure you ask them to trim the edges as it bubble when they cut it, mines hidden by the top section of my cab and the CP.

Plexi can be bought from B&Q's for pennies, 2' x 4' 2mm only cost 15 GBP or look on ebay.co.uk theres this guy that will sell and cut to any size you want.
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/benjamin100674

[Mamed for life]

Hi All,

Thanks for the posts: tjhat plexi supplier looks like a good deal!

LED buttons: do I have to get an encoder if I just want lit buttons, not patterns and stuff? I think I'll stick with plain buttons for now, maybe build up to it later.

Any recommendations for good affordable sideart (vinyl) printing in the UK? The best price I got here in Ireland is €120, ex VAT, ex delivery, for two 18x24" pieces. If thats about right, I'm going to have to go with just plain paint for now!

Oh yeah, what do I get in B+Q to prime MDF for painting? Any ideas?

Thanks for the help!

[loadman]

LED buttons: do I have to get an encoder if I just want lit buttons, not patterns and stuff? I think I'll stick with plain buttons for now, maybe build up to it later.

No,  You would need to draw power from somewhere and have the appropriate in line resistors depending on what LEDS you buy.
This link has the equation on it
http://groovygamegear.com/PDF/LEDWIZ_INSTALL.pdf

You can shove normal LEDS in Standard buttons (as I did) you just need to drill a little hole in the bottom of the button

[Mamed for life]

Thanks Loadman,

Right, as I thought, way over my head! I'll stick to the plain buttons for now, maybe buy a few LEDs and practise on a a bit of scrap.

Cheers!

[Fozzy The Bear]

Right, as I thought, way over my head! I'll stick to the plain buttons for now

Nahhh! Anybody can wrap their head round this one.......

Buy your LED's from Groovey Game Gear and they come with the correct resistor (so you won't have to work it out).

Then all you have to do is connect the resistor to the positive leg of the LED conect the other end of the resistor to +5V  and the other leg of the LED to the negative or 0V on the power supply and it will light up. Easy Peasy stuff.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)