Paul's Modular Control Panel

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Paul Olson:
Yeah, I have that part. I was talking about the base to mount the tap on. :)

wbassett:
Very nice Paul. I love the modular designs people make. To me the all in one cps look cool, but they can become huge and even confusing for people to know what controls to use for what game... modular is ideal in my opinion.

I have a console up and running and currently have a TankStick, but that was a known temp setup. I may be new to building an arcade, but I am not new to DIY projects. One thing I know is certain things come together quickly, others take a lot of time, thought and engineering. So the TankStick makes sense to me... I am up and running while I design my final and ultimate cp. :)

Can you show some detailed shots of how your panels anchor down? Also can you provide some information on your panel interface setup. It looks like you went the cat 5 route, but it would be nice to see your layout and any comments of problems, or tips too.

I'm still in the designing stage of my final cp, but I do know I will have some permanant buttons and then swappable panels. I may do a few generic panels that I can move around and make custom layouts, but I also may just do full panels for some of the games we play all the time.

Are you using one ipac, or some other method? I am kind of intrigged with the UltraStik 360 for a couple of panels. It's usb and you can connect up to eight buttons to it. Like I said, I am still in the designing my cp but I love seeing how other people tackle modular layouts.

Great job!

I

Paul Olson:
thanks wbassett

Use the hell out of your tankstick while you have it. Test as many games as possible to find out how much you hate how the stick feels in each games. I have a bunch of happs sticks, and I will probably end up selling a lot of them because I am buying new sticks constantly to get the right feel for each game. When you find the right joystick for a game, it just feels right; there really is no substitute. That is what makes modular so nice.

Stcks like the u360s sound like a great all in one compromise, but I do not think they could replace the original controls. The physical restrictors really change the feel of the sticks in adition to limiting how they register inputs. This summer break, I hope to find and/or create a list of original joysticks for the games in MAME so I can play all of the (decent) games as they were intended. There are many games that I never played, so I don't know how they were supposed to feel.

When you start your modular/ swappable panel, try to do what most of us don't do. Try to mount the controls on panels as soon as you get them. It is no fun having a closet full of cool parts that you cannot use, and once it gets like that you never seem to get caught up. I finished 3 panels recently, and I have bought the parts for 4 more - it never ends! :o

I will try to post a pic this weekend on the mounting. I tried a lot of different ideas, but none of the others worked with MDF. They all required routing part of the MDF so the lockdown pieces would sit flush and MDF is really weak in that situation. In the final design, the panels are just bolted down to the box. All the parts (capscrews, washers, unistrut, and channel nuts) are available at lowes or home depot and are fairly inexpensive. I keep thinking that I want a more elegant solution, but I don't need it; this works really well.

I will try to get you a pic of the patch panel too. If I redo it, I will add even more ports. I currently have 24, but most of them are used, and I would like to have them all mirrored. I rarely need to remove the start button panel, and it can be a pain to get the cable under it to the port on the opposite side. I use 6 ports for my AKI (analog controls), 6 for the optipac, and the other 12 go to the jpac and GPwizrx. The jpac is currently only used for start and coin buttons ( I have a short somewhere and it just was not reliable for all of the inputs, even the shift function is not working right. One of these days, I will trace the short, but for now it easier to just not use it. I will eventually add 49way encoders, and maybe another analog interface if calibrating turns out to be an issue (I don't have any of my analog controls mounted yet, so I don't know).

The main plus of modular is that you can do almost anything -- but you don't have to. Do as much or as little as you want. My modular panel was only as functional as my old panel for a long time, until I started building new panels. Just try to design for anything you may want to do in the future. I made mine big enough to accomodate a heavy gp rider controller (which I hope to actually hook up someday). Everything else should fit easy.

Have fun!!!!

Paul

telengard:
Looking good!! Any feedback on how you did the steering wheel mounts? I need to make a way to mount my Pole Position and SW yoke on something.

Sorry to hear about the crimps. I went through the same thing and ended up soldering too (went full circle).

~telengard

Paul Olson:
telengard - Those wheels were way too easy, they already had the mount built in. All I had to do was drill 3 holes in each panel, and bolt them on. :)
I already had wheels, but I bought these just for the easy mount; glad I did, it worked out great.

I only have 2 more weeks untill summer break, then I will get to work on some more panels. My Pole Position wheel and Gamecab flight yoke are at the top of the list. I'll let you know what I come up with. I am going to try to make the mounting boxes out of wood first. If it doesn't work, I will do it out of metal.

Paul

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