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rotating monitor methods
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edge:
csa3d -
I think they mean that when a user selected a horizontal or vertical game, the front end can send a signal to the LEDWiz (or similar hardware) to turn on/off the rotating motor.

As for relays.. I think whamoed (sp?) makes a little hardware relay that people have used to turn on/off their PCs/marquees/etc.  Maybe that is another option to automatically control the rotating engine?
csa3d:
Edge:  Yes, this makes sense.  So everyone is talking about part 1 of 2 to achieve this.  Someone still needs to write the interface to the hardware, and that missing link belongs in the front end.  So currently, there is no "out of the box" solution to this as I understand it.  I suppose upon reading the first few posts, I got to thinking maybe there was and I was missing something.

Thanks!
-csa
koz319:

I was going to take some pictures of the monitor setup in my cab this weekend, but I forgot I loaned out my camera.  I got the camera back today, I'll try to take some pics tonight.

I did find some old pics from when I was building the cab.  Unfortunately, they were taken with the worlds worst digital camera.  They also unfortunately dont show any of the electrical connections.  They do give a fair idea of how the monitor is mounted though.  If you look in pic mountcab5a.jpg,  you can barely make out the motor and belt used to turn the monitor.  (Motor drives a belt wrapped around the monitor 'cage' to turn it.)

The current command line util I use to control rotation can be called from a frontend before mame is launched to turn the monitor.  (FWIW, the mame recompile is pretty simple, this is actually what I use now.)  I do want to get away from having to modify mame to auto rotate though.  I'm about halfway done re-writing the cmd line prg to query mame for a games orientation and rotate as necessary.  The idea is to call this prg (instead of mame) with whatever parameters you normally pass mame. The prg queries mame, rotates as necessary, then launches mame passing the params.   

I'll post the pinouts/wiring I'm using, I just need to find my wiring diagram in my garage :) .   I'll also post the command line util if anyone is interested.

If you want to build your own controller,  see this link http://www.bobblick.com/techref/projects/hbridge/hbridge.html

This is the basic circuit I'm using, I just connected it to the parallel port and added limit switches.

I want to make two more of these for myself.  I took a look at what it would cost for the components and to get a few pcb's printed.  Looks like it's right  at 25$.  Thats for a complete PCB with components, terminal blocks for the motor supply in, power output, limit switch connections, as well as a db25 connector and a 25pin cable to connect to the pc.   If anyone else is interested, let me know ($25 is actual component cost, not interested in trying to profit here)

Anyway, here are some really bad pics. :)

Koz


ahofle:
Not sure if this was mentioned, but how do you handle the bezel for a rotating monitor?  Would it just be a 'plus' shaped hole that partially shows the back of the cabinet?  Tinted plexi?  I also suppose it could also be done with two overlapping bezels.
koz319:

--- Quote from: ahofle on February 20, 2007, 06:12:25 pm ---Not sure if this was mentioned, but how do you handle the bezel for a rotating monitor?  Would it just be a 'plus' shaped hole that partially shows the back of the cabinet?  Tinted plexi?  I also suppose it could also be done with two overlapping bezels.

--- End quote ---

If you look at the pics attached to the previous post, you can sort of see one way of doing this.   Normal Happ bezel attached to monitor and trimmed.   Plexi masked and painted (in the plus shape you mentioned) to mask everyting else.  Looks decent IMHO.

Koz
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