opinions on my control panel layout

[krazy_kenny1]

Here's what I'm trying to fit everything on...I'm just going to replace the top panel on the stock control panel.



Here's the layout I've come up with which "should" allow everything to fit:

http://www.comicfanboy.net/images/controlpanel1.png

Here's what it should look like with the sticks and trackball flush-mounted:

http://www.comicfanboy.net/images/controlpanel2.png

The layout of the joysticks and player buttons are identical to a street fighter control panel.  The spinner is the circle directly above the 3" trackball.  The 2 buttons in the upper-right and upper-left corners are the p1 and p2 start buttons.  The other 4 buttons at the top on either side of the spinner are admin buttons.  Also, can anyone confirm that the UltraStik360's are mounted in the orientation I have them at now or do I need to rotate them 90 degrees?

[BobA]

No mouse buttons?   Are you goiing to ever need to navigate in windows?

[krazy_kenny1]

No mouse buttons?   Are you goiing to ever need to navigate in windows?

I was planning on doubling the p1 and p2 start buttons as left and right mouse clicks in case I absolutely need mouse buttons.  For any windows maintenance tasks, I was planning on using remote administration.  What I'm wondering about now is choosing games in Mala.  I've never used Mala before, but I want to use it for this cab because of the UltraStik360 plugin.  Since my joysticks will be detected as usb gamepads instead of being mapped to arrow keys through an encoder, will I be able to cycle through my games in Mala with my joysticks?  I guess I need to install Mala and see if I can cycle through the games with one of my usb gamepads...

[urbecrisch]

Everything seems fine, however, IMO I would place the spinner either a little left or rt above the trackball so you don't break any fingers playing Golden Tee or bowling    If you don't plan on playing any of these games then the spinner is fine where it is.  Good luck.

[krazy_kenny1]

Everything seems fine, however, IMO I would place the spinner either a little left or rt above the trackball so you don't break any fingers playing Golden Tee or bowling    If you don't plan on playing any of these games then the spinner is fine where it is.  Good luck.

excellent point   i'll probably move it a bit to the right then.

[fjl]

Meh, this isn't my final CP but its pretty close. I've just been lazy to update the 3D model. I'm going to relocate the Spinner right underneath Joystick 1.

I had my trackball right in middle between the two joysticks just like you had it, but opted to move it down a bit to clear a little extra space for when playing the golf games and lessen the probability of smashing my fingers on the glass bezel.

[unclet]

I would open up another thread regarding your MALA questions to have a better chance of getting them answered for you.   

Personally I would have assumed that you USB gamepads would have a way of mapping the directional pad locations to certain keyboard keys, but perhaps I am wrong as to how USB gamepads work.    I have used the Microsoft Dual Strike USB gamepads which alow me to map the buttons and joysticks directions to keyboard keys so it works like an internal keyboard encoder.

I know you can map keyboard keys to certain functions from within MALA easily, so you can determine which keypresses you want to control the Up/Down gamelist selection, plus many others.

Probably the easiest way is like you said ..... just plug in a gamepad and see how it handles.

[krazy_kenny1]

Meh, this isn't my final CP but its pretty close. I've just been lazy to update the 3D model. I'm going to relocate the Spinner right underneath Joystick 1.

I had my trackball right in middle between the two joysticks just like you had it, but opted to move it down a bit to clear a little extra space for when playing the golf games and lessen the probability of smashing my fingers on the glass bezel.

I can't really move the trackball down much further due to the hinge that's under the front of the control panel.  I also have constraints on the sides due to the latches.  I know I could use different hinges and latches, but I'm just trying to use all the stock stuff to keep it simple.  I've been thinking about moving the spinner somewhere under the p2 controls, but I think I'll make a mockup at some point to see if it interferes at all.

[krazy_kenny1]

Alright, what about this?  I grouped the admin buttons together and moved the spinner over to be above the p1 controls.

http://www.comicfanboy.net/images/controlpanel3.png

[fjl]

I would think the spinner is in a wrong location cause if you try to rest your hand while using the spinner, your wrist will end up pressing the p1 action buttons not to mention, it won't be very comfortable. Although, while using a spinner your hand doesn't position itself in a manner that allows it to rest. So that's just really my opinion on that option.

As for the admin buttons, it's likely you will accidentally bump them when doing a fast forward roll motion on the trackball. This is why I put my admin button all the way to the left. I left the top section of the trackball completely clear to prevent any accidental nudging of buttons.

Currently I plan to have only one visible admin button on the CP. It will serve only as an exit from the game. Although It will also have Player 1 and player 2 credit buttons on the cp but I don't really consider those as admin buttons. I'm still thinking of adding mouse buttons though.

[krazy_kenny1]

I would think the spinner is in a wrong location cause if you try to rest your hand while using the spinner, your wrist will end up pressing the p1 action buttons not to mention, it won't be very comfortable. Although, while using a spinner your hand doesn't position itself in a manner that allows it to rest. So that's just really my opinion on that option.

As for the admin buttons, it's likely you will accidentally bump them when doing a fast forward roll motion on the trackball. This is why I put my admin button all the way to the left. I left the top section of the trackball completely clear to prevent any accidental nudging of buttons.

Currently I plan to have only one visible admin button on the CP. It will serve only as an exit from the game. Although It will also have Player 1 and player 2 credit buttons on the cp but I don't really consider those as admin buttons. I'm still thinking of adding mouse buttons though.

You're right about the admin buttons and the trackball.  I think I'll put the two left-most admin buttons under the other two to make a square.  That should clear up the area over the trackball.  Something like this:

http://www.comicfanboy.net/images/controlpanel4.png

[DaveMMR]

No mouse buttons?   Are you goiing to ever need to navigate in windows?

I'm not remarking to tinkle in the fire but why do people put dedicated mouse buttons on an arcade cab?   I hook up the main buttons to the Optipac (assuming you're using one) and I can point and click with relative ease.  Plus I assume everyone tries to hide Windows - except for maintenance when you can just hook up one when the need arises.  I could imaging having them for PC games but I think the only ones worth using on a cab have remappable controls?   I don't know - just want to hear opinions on the matter.  They seem gratuitous to me.

But I don't mean to hijack - sorry. 

The panel has a similar layout to mine and it's been comfortable for me.  However, I don't have a spinner (I only added a trackball to cut down on panel swap) so I have a bit more space above the trackball.   You may not have room for one.  Is swapping panels an option?  Oh, and on my panel (once again, similar in layout to yours), the trackball played fine for most games.  But Golden Tee won't have many repeat visits (not the panel's fault - its depth is shallow by design, so you're whacking glass most of the time).

[urbecrisch]

DaveMMR, that's why I made my panel a few more inches wide and deep for the purpose of playing GT & Bowling without breaking all my fingers.  As you can see from my PICS (not so clear) I have plenty of room for my trackball since the CP is deep and my monitor is angled.  To answer your question about mouse buttons, I am adding two to my CP cause I plan on using GameEX as my FE and I will be using the CAB as a jukebox and also to browse the internet from time to time.  The buttons will be black and won't be too visible with the art I'm putting on my CP.

[DaveMMR]

DaveMMR, that's why I made my panel a few more inches wide and deep for the purpose of playing GT & Bowling without breaking all my fingers.

My cabinet's a replica of Centipede so widening/deepening the CP can only be done by completely breaking the lines of the original (plus some reconstruction).  Not worth it for me for GT.

To answer your question about mouse buttons, I am adding two to my CP cause I plan on using GameEX as my FE and I will be using the CAB as a jukebox and also to browse the internet from time to time.  The buttons will be black and won't be too visible with the art I'm putting on my CP.

Right, but I still say they're more than expendable if you're using other FEs and don't use it as a web browser.  And if you use an OptiPac (or reconfigure inputs via software/hardware/hacks), even if you do want/need mouse buttons, you can always use the main buttons for them.  I only bring this up as a space-saver/button-reducing tactic.

Ka-razy Kenny, did you provide the Height/Width on the panel?  I didn't catch it if you did.  With encoder shift buttons (or moving them off the panel), you really only need a couple of start buttons and then get the spinner from GGG* with takes a whole lot less space.   This way you'll have plenty of space to work the spinner.  But the best way to test it is to make a mock-up on heavy cardboard, or even cheap wood (don't tell anyone, but I actually cut two "test" panels as I had extra wood that could very well be upgraded to final for testing purposes -- I called them dress rehearsals) and "feel it out".

*If you already bought a spinner, then forget that sentence.

[krazy_kenny1]

DaveMMR, that's why I made my panel a few more inches wide and deep for the purpose of playing GT & Bowling without breaking all my fingers.

My cabinet's a replica of Centipede so widening/deepening the CP can only be done by completely breaking the lines of the original (plus some reconstruction).  Not worth it for me for GT.

To answer your question about mouse buttons, I am adding two to my CP cause I plan on using GameEX as my FE and I will be using the CAB as a jukebox and also to browse the internet from time to time.  The buttons will be black and won't be too visible with the art I'm putting on my CP.

Right, but I still say they're more than expendable if you're using other FEs and don't use it as a web browser.  And if you use an OptiPac (or reconfigure inputs via software/hardware/hacks), even if you do want/need mouse buttons, you can always use the main buttons for them.  I only bring this up as a space-saver/button-reducing tactic.

Ka-razy Kenny, did you provide the Height/Width on the panel?  I didn't catch it if you did.  With encoder shift buttons (or moving them off the panel), you really only need a couple of start buttons and then get the spinner from GGG* with takes a whole lot less space.   This way you'll have plenty of space to work the spinner.  But the best way to test it is to make a mock-up on heavy cardboard, or even cheap wood (don't tell anyone, but I actually cut two "test" panels as I had extra wood that could very well be upgraded to final for testing purposes -- I called them dress rehearsals) and "feel it out".

*If you already bought a spinner, then forget that sentence.

The panel is 26.625" x 13.25".  Some of that space around the edge is unusable due to things like hinges and latches under the panel, but who would want a control right up on the edge anyways right?  From the start, I decided I wanted to limit the buttons on the control panel, but I also decided I didn't want to use a shift function for simplicity.  So basically, I laid out the controls without any admin buttons and then added the 4 that I have when I decided they wouldn't interfere.  I agree on avoiding the dedicated mouse buttons if necessary though.  If I need to mess with windows stuff, I'll use remote administration.  Still, I may wire the start buttons as mouse buttons too since I don't think there's a situation where receiving a start button press and a mouse click at the same time would cause any problems.  I did already buy the ggg spinner as well as 2 ultrastik360's and a happ 3" usb trackball.  I definitely plan to make a mockup or two to ensure my layout is how i want it.

[DaveMMR]

Oh forgot to add a reply to your original post about the orientation of the U360's.  You can pretty much orient them however you like and either turn the PCB or reconfigure inputs.   That's what I did for extra space (I am also using Ultra 360's). See below.



(Note, I have since changed the layout a bit, but only nudging