Paul's Modular Control Panel

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Paul Olson:
The first coat of paint on the box is drying. It will take at least one more since the paint doesn't want to stick to the primer in spots. I am working on the panels today. Here is the panel for my Donkey Kong jump button. I wrapped it in vinyl from parts express. I am going to paint the sides and mounting holes black, but I was impatient and wanted to see how the vinyl looks. If anyone knows of a good way to cut the vinyl out of the mounting holes please let me know. I was able to cut it out of the button hole with my forstner bit from the back, but I don't think I will be able to line it up good enough from the front.

I have a few button panels drilled, and now I am starting on the joystick panels.

I have the patch panel ready to mount in the box. I was originally using a 48 port panel (yeah, overkill!), but it didn't fit with with the strut and 2 x 2 in the way. The rope of CAT 5 on the back of that one was insane. :)

I have a box of patch cables, so I will be able to wire as many panels as I can think of to build.

telengard:
I have a very similar setup (modular panels) although I used aluminum plates. The 1/4 turn thing interests me as I have to unscrew rack mount screws to remove panels. Not a terribly big deal with an electric screwdriver nearby but I'm always looking to improve. :)

How do these things work? I currently screw into a rack rail and the distance between the holes is *very* important. Is there some solution I could just drop in?

Here's a link to my control panel, the 2nd and 3rd pics show the part they mount on:

http://home.comcast.net/~bsturk/mame/controls.html

To the OP, congrats on going modular! You won't regret it.

EDIT: Here are the pics

Sorry for kinda trampling this project announcement, maybe I should start another thread about these cool sounding connectors?

~telengard

Paul Olson:
telengard:
Trample away! :D My panel is pretty much my interpretation of a cross between your panel and Doc's. I wanted the solid mounting of yours without the cost of the rack panels. Any discussion of the quarter turn fasteners can only be a good thing. Like you said, it is not too bad using screws, but an improvement would certainly be welcome.

My panel is coming along pretty well. I will try to get another coat of paint on the box tonight. I am using the Hammered texture spray paint and it does not want to stick to the primer very well. I had the same problem on my old panel, but I forgot about it. ::)

I have about 20 of the panels drilled and routed, so I hope to be able to finish these up this weekend.

I have a couple of original donkey kong joysticks. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to mount these on 3/4 MDF?

arcadefever:

--- Quote ---Here's a link to my control panel, the 2nd and 3rd pics show the part they mount on:

http://users.adelphia.net/~bsturk/mame/controls.html

--- End quote ---

:dizzy: very impressive :cheers:

Anubis_au:
That is seriously cool!!

I'm following a (somewhat) similar approach with my cab, in that I'm setting up the software side of things first, and my final selection of games will dictate my controls. But modular is damn cool...

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