2 Player control panel project (now with pics)

[LeedsFan]

I recently sold my Mame cabinet to a mate of mine. And now I have no retro gaming action in my house. 

So to rectify this atrocity I have decided to embark on a much smaller project, but one in which I want to improve from the cabinet control panel I had before. I simply don't have the space or the funds to do another full cabinet project. Also I'm still a n00b when it comes to this stuff really and my woodworking skills are nothing compared to the projects I see on here. I just wanna try and make the best looking and most functional CP I can... so here goes:

There are three criteria this panel has to strictly adhere to:

#1 Maximum coverage of the games in Mame (as is possible with the final specification)

I've been planning and thinking recently about all sorts of ideas to try and "encompass" the maximum number of Mame games. I thought about dual spinners, dual joysticks for each player, a top fire on the second stick for Battlezone etc.etc.    But then the whole look of the panel would be compromised and I just felt that would detract from the final finish. Battlezone or games like those could still be played, but would need a little dexterity in pressing buttons.

So in the end I decided upon a 2-Player control panel with two joysticks - 7 buttons each, one trackball and one spinner. In fact the same layout as I had on the cab    But this time I'm not as restricted on space.

#2 Absolutely no compromise on quality or "feel".... even if it's just my personal preference

2x UltraStik 360s (I can play analogue games now... which means Star Wars fun for me!  )
1x SpinTrak spinner
1x Happs 3" High-Lip trackball (I have more room now so this is my TB of choice)
1x Minipac unit
USB hub
One and Two player start buttons with microswitches
Original leaf switches for all the play buttons (my personal preference... simply a "must have" for me  )

I was gonna go the full monty with all translucent buttons and trackball and have them all lit up. I think the effect looks marvelous on cabs, but after a little thought I decided that this would be overkill for a stand-alone CP. Having to feed it with an extended 5V supply from the PC would be a bit daft I think. Just one USB cable to power the Minipac through the installed USB hub will do fine thank you very much. 

#3 CP has to be able to be stripped back down to replace/repair any aspect of it.

One "mistake" I made on my cab was to recess all the bolt heads for the joysticks and TB and then smooth them over with wood putty. This was to give a smooth surface for the artwork to lay on. All very nice... but if anything goes wrong with those parts it would be a nightmare to fix. 

So this time I have an image in my mind of how I see the control panel when it's finished. A 15mm main base with a thin overlay where the artwork will sit then a covering of plexi for the final finish. This means that each "layer" can be removed if necessary should something need attention. Even if it's just a scratched plaxi cover. This is probably something all you guys do anyway, but it's something I didn't do before. I haven't decided yet whether the artwork overlay will be on aluminium sheet or just thin hardboard. Whatever happens the plexi must come up flush with the lip of the trackball.

So that's it so far. I will update with pics etc.etc. when i get started. Stuff from BobRoberts and Happs has already been ordered. Any advice, criticism, suggestions are all welcome. Me still n00b remember. 

[LeedsFan]

OK... plenty of planning and more research has been taking place. I managed to get my MaLa frontend setup this week on my PC exactly as MameWah was on my cabinet. I'm new to MaLa, but I have to say it is really brilliant! However, this has just made things worse though. Now I have access to the games again but can't play them properly at all. So frustrating! 

Anyway, below is my final CP layout I have settled on. I was thinking of adding some buttons to the right of the spinner but have decided against it. I will simply use the Player 2 buttons for spinner games. I may also add pinball buttons to the side panels. I don't play pinball games really but I might just add them for completeness sake. Not really much extra work at all. Two buttons each side towards the front of the panel is OK yes?

The panel measures 24" x 12" and the trackball sits dead centre. That's to fit the artwork which I am using (Same as Knievel's Neon Mame cab). Those middle player buttons may not be as raised up as they are in this pic. Might only be raised about 10mm, but they will be set in that pattern. It's to suit my finger placement as they naturally "fall" to the panel in this arrangement.

24" may not seem very wide but I want the panel to be as compact as possible so that the joysticks aren't too far apart for games like Robotron and Smash TV. At 24" x 12" it is already bigger than the panel I had on my cab with the exact same layout.... except then I had to use a 2.25" trackball instead of a 3". So I'm confident that this is gonna be 100% playable.

[LeedsFan]

 

[LeedsFan]

 

[RetroGreg]

I like your layout. I'm actually in the process of making a "solitaire" desktop panel myself. I've received most of my parts already.

I have a very similar layout, except I am putting my trackball and spinner on the right side of the panel as they feel more natural in my right hand rather than my left. My second joystick is an 8 way "topfire". This way I can play the two stick games, and also use it with the spinner for tron even if the controls are on the wrong side of eachother.

I'm also squeezing in a 4 way stick for classic games. I know it sounds like a lot and that is frowned upon around here, but the functionality is what I am really concerned about and I will really be the only person using it. So if I'm happy with how it turns out than great.

I am not forking out the $ for the U360 sticks though. I'm sure they are great though. Are you still going to use 2 of the U360's? That sounds like it might be an un-needed added expense for just a little extra use? But if that's what you want I'm sure you will be happy with it.

I'd like to see you update this with your progress as you move along to see how it turns out. 

[LeedsFan]

Well all my parts have now arrived! 

I can actually start doing something. Earlier I did change my mind from the two player panel to a "solitaire" solo panel. (I edited all my earlier posts out about this solo panel). But now that my parts have arrived I realised I made a couple of errors in my calculations.

Firstly the TB plate is 6" square and not 7" as I was originally working with. And also the U360s can be mounted in either landscape or portrait manner by just remounting the sticks 90 degrees in the plate. This has saved a bit of space and after making a temporary mock up of installing sticks and trackball into piece of wood I feel the two player panel will be playable for Robotron and Smash TV type games. So I'm definitely sticking to my first 2-player design with just minor tweaks to button placement.

[LeedsFan]

Well it's time this thread had some pics.... so here goes:



Total cost of arcade parts (including shipping): £428.39

All my parts have arrived. I ordered from four vendors: Suzo UK (Happs), Ultimarc, TherealBobRoberts and Arcade-shop.de. All four delivered the goods with no fuss and were a pleasure to deal with.  Just waiting on my artwork and plexi top now to really get moving. So it was time to get started on something at last.



This is as far as I've got so far. My woodworking skills are very limited so please don't expect Kneivel type results here.  I basically just went to B&Q and got all the stuff from there.



I strengthened the corners with 90 degree angle brackets as you can see here.



I even mortised a hinge! Never done that before. I was gonna use 38mm flush mount hinges but to be honest I didn't think they would be strong enough. They would only attach to the underside of the control panel lid with with four screws and each pair is very close together. So I went with the 300mm continuous "piano" style hinge. Fits perfectly into the 15mm wood and should be much stronger than the flush mounted type for this job.



The corner flanges were just perfect for this unit. Allowing a corner area to lower the base panel onto they also had holes in the bottom through which I could mount these rubber feet. The base itself is 6mm MDF. I could have used a piece from the 12mm MDF I'm using for the panel top, but I wouldn't have got the spinner to fit inside the base. (The spinner will just clear the base by about 2mm when installed)



I'm gonna fill the corners in with these 16mm diameter rounded trims I cut to size. I've yet to glue these in place though. Sorry guys... no fancy dovetail joints on this piece. But it feels very strong and I've been at pains to make sure the interior gap from top/bottom and left/right is exactly the same all the way round.

Total cost of stuff from B&Q up to this point: £41.78

This means total cost of project so far is £470.17.  This aint cheap! I've still got other stuff to come and a few more small parts yet to buy. Hoping to keep below £550 but it's doubtful. 

[waveryder]

£550  on a control panel Holy  . My whole candy cab hasn't cost anywhere near that!

[LeedsFan]

£550  on a control panel Holy  . My whole candy cab hasn't cost anywhere near that!

Well... look at the cost of the arcade parts only. I can't get them any cheaper. 

Surely we are all in the same boat with that? The Hi-Lip Happs 3" trackball cost me £33 only. I have 2x U360s. I did buy a $15 replacement ball for the trackball but what's that in sterling? I also bought 9x leaf converters for microswitch buttons which I may not use. They cost me £25.

But in general the main bulk of the cost is in the arcade parts. I cannot see how it could be a lot cheaper. Unless I searched for second hand parts on e-bay or compromised on what I wanted and settled for 8-ways instead of U360s etc.

Even that wouldn't drop the cost by all that much. :/

EDIT:  I just read your project thread. That is one awesome looking cab!  Kudos to you.   

I gotta say though that getting that cabinet for £65.00 was an absolute steal. What a bargain!

[LeedsFan]

The project has been on hold for a couple of week because I needed to wait for the artwork to arrive before I could really get going again. It arrived yesterday and this morning I got on with the next stage. (Excellent artwork product as usual from Scott at Mamemarquees)

I'd already bought a sheet of 0.5mm aluminium from my local B&Q and also ordered a sheet of ready cut plexi from a UK company on eBay. I trimmed the ali sheet to size together with my top panel of 12mm MDF to exactly match my plexi (660 x 340mm). So now I had all three layers matched exactly just awaiting my artwork application:



Yeah... it's not the most original artwork but I really like this piece. Really makes the trackball the centrepiece of the panel. Now for the two parts I had been apprehensive about for a while. Firstly sticking the artwork to the panel. I knew I had two perfectly straight edges on my sheet of aluminium as I cut if from one corner of a larger piece. So I worked from that corner and made sure the artwork went on squarely. Working slowly and carefully, and using a clean rag, I peeled the backing a couple of inches at a time and smoothed the artwork on. I was really pleased with the result. Not one single air bubble! 



Then I placed all three of my top layers together and clamped them square. Having marked the exact centre where the trackball would be I made a pilot hole through all layers. Then I used a piece of scrap wood on top and drilled the 3" hole needed. This was the second scary bit for me. I was worried that the artwork might tear at the edges or that the plexi might crack. I needn't have worried. The holes cut out cleanly! I just need to rub the inside edge of the plexi hole with some emery to polish it up a little. 



The aluminium sheet (1000 x 500mm) cost me £21.14 from B&Q which I thought was quite expensive. But having checked on eBay for similar sheets it seems I would have saved maybe three or four quid at most. The artwork cost me £26.37 after calculation of the exchange rate (including shipping), and the plexi cost me £14.20. They kindly sent me the left over offcuts from my pre-cut sheet and I used those to practice drill with first.

So total price of project so far is £531.88, but the only things to buy now are small things like fixing screws and paint etc.

Next step is to get the trackball "rugby ball" hole cut out and work on getting the button holes and joystick mounting holes cut out.

[waveryder]

What kind of bit did you use to cut the aluminum. I have just bought a bunch of 2mm steel panels for my cab and need to start putting holes in. Any tips on drilling metal?

Great job. Cant wait to see the finished piece.

[LeedsFan]

What kind of bit did you use to cut the aluminum. I have just bought a bunch of 2mm steel panels for my cab and need to start putting holes in. Any tips on drilling metal?

Great job. Cant wait to see the finished piece.

Well steel is a much harder metal than aluminium. That's why i chose the ali sheet even though it was expensive. So i dunno if any of my advice would apply. Plus your sheets are four times thicker at 2mm.

For what it's worth I used the finest metal jigsaw blade I could find to cut out the desired size piece. They were a five pack of blades from B&Q (part no.BS28100) and I used the finest blade in the set. For drilling the hole I just used a standard 3" part from my hole cutting set. I didn't need any special metal drill bits for this panel but I think you will with steel. 

[LeedsFan]

Well I got quite a bit done today... was really going well. But it ended in huge disappointment. 

I'd clamped all my top layers together and was drilling the pilot holes for the buttons. Then I made a very silly mistake. I went and drilled through one of the joystick mounting holes in error. I didn't even notice at first. I was so annoyed! 

So what now? I'd drilled right through the artwork and plexi. I can't repair that now. So I decided to continue on and drill them all and then use some plugs to fill the holes. Kinda like dummy carriage bolt heads. I was hoping to find something in glossy black.

But then worse was to follow. I decided to drill each of my three layers separately. I found it hard going trying to drill button holes through MDF, aluminium sheet and the plexi. So I separated them and did them all individually. However... the drilling of the ali sheet ended  badly. I was drilling from the non-artwork side and had the piece lying flat on some scrap wood. This was so the artwork wouldn't tear as the bit came through the other side. But what I didn't see happening was that the drilling was causing heat in the ali sheet. When I finished all my holes and turned the piece over the heat had caused the artwork to "bloom" around nearly every button hole I had made. It's like the protective coating has started to come away from the artwork and it looks bad. 

I took loads of pics of my work today but this has set me back now. I can't be bothered to post any pics of the good stuff I did. I'm even considering scrapping the artwork and ali sheet altogether now and just use plexi on a plain black painted MDF. 

I knew it was going too well. Something had to go wrong. The first mistake I could kinda get around... but the artwork looks too much of a mess I feel to use now. 

[LeedsFan]

OK... I've calmed down now. I was really angry with how yesterdays work ended. But it happens. We make mistakes and we learn. I had a few beers and did a Dynamis run with my linkshell in FFXI. Got a divine fragment for a 4th linkshell relic. w00t!!!

So I've decided what to do about the damaged artwork. I'm gonna order the same piece again from Mamemarquees. And this time I'm gonna prep the panel surface and mount it directly. The idea of a separate aluminium panel has been scrapped. Of course this will take time to get the artwork again from across the pond... so I decided to get the panel finished in a "naked" state as it were.

Here's the good stuff i did yesterday:



First of all I cut out the hole for the trackball and then chiseled out the rest so that the plate would sit flush. I don't own a router but think I will invest in one before a next project though. The chiseling went really well and didn't take as long as I thought it would. I made sure to score out the outline first so that the chisel went square around the edges. I was really pleased with the result here:





Then I laid out my joystick and button templates and stuck them down. I spent ages making the button templates making sure they were as comfy as possible. I even made up a mock up in some spare wood a while ago to ensure the feel was just right:



Then i clamped my layers together and made the pilot holes. Which is where I made my first mistake yesterday.  Drilling through one of the joystick mount holes meant I had to continue on regardless in that manner. I'm keeping the plexi cover from yesterday though. It turned out fine with the exception of those extra holes. I don't think some dummy plastic carriage bolt heads will look too bad if I can find something in a nice glossy black. I'm thinking some hobby stores might sell some push-in plugs. I dunno... anyone got any ideas?

Here is the near finished panel:



This morning I put it all together. I will need to use some wood filler to smooth over the joystick bolt heads and also around the trackball edges. This kinda goes against one of my original intentions in that the panel had to be completely disassembled if necessary. I can still remove the joysticks by unscrewing from below and lowering them down. But I will need to fix the ball tops with something non-permanent. I used an Aradite expoxy resin on my cab and that stuff sets rock solid. So I can't do that this time or I won't be able to lower the sticks down. I need to use something though because the constant unscrewing of the ball top gets irritating in games. Any suggestions? Would a simple locking thread do? The trackball of course can still be removed but the plate will be permanently installed under the new artwork.

Here are the pics of where I am now:








I also cut out the pinball buttons this morning. Two on each side (flipper and nudge) and one at the right front for the plunger.

Some people may think the joysticks and buttons are too close together... but they feel fine. The reason I made them so close was so that i could play Defender with a "reverse" button as near to the stick as possible... and then use Player 2 buttons for the rest.

One last minute revision was to move the spinner from centre top slightly to the left. This was because I felt that any vigorous spinning of the trackball in Golden Tee would result in my hand hitting against the spinner. In fact I'm pretty sure that would definitely have happened. So I added two buttons to the right also to act as mouse buttons. Not necessary at all I know.... but the lone spinner shifted to one side would have looked lopsided and odd.

I did realise another small error in my calculations. The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that the spinner knob is sticking up too high. The only way for me to rectify this is to cut off about 10mm off the end of the shaft. I can't lower the spinner any more inside the panel as there is only about 3mm clearance between the base panel and the counterweight. I also have a replacement blue and white marble effect ball to put inside the trackball unit which i got from BobRoberts.

I'm really pleased with the way the panel itself has turned out so far. Seeing how it is now has made me so much better from yesterday. So I'm gonna wire it up and get some Mame sessions going. It's gonna take some time for the new artwork to arrive so I'm not gonna go any longer without any retro action. 

[LeedsFan]

Well I kinda left this project to stand idle for a few months. But I always intended to finish it and here are the final pics. These were taken today so I'm kinda just getting to play on it now. Very happy with it so far, just need to tweak a few setting in Mame and MaLa.   

[KillerV]

Awsome graphics. Me like alot.

[tk375]

looking really nice, did you make the control panel overlay? looks awesome!

Tk 375
 

[LeedsFan]

looking really nice, did you make the control panel overlay? looks awesome!

Tk 375
 

The artwork is from Scott at MameMarquees. I actually had to buy it twice as I messed the first one up by sticking it on 0.5mm aluminium sheet. But when I drilled the holes through the sheet the heat from drilling through the metal quickly spread to the artwork making it "bloom". Kinda melted the top protective layer of the artwork. Looked awful so I had to rethink.

Second time around I just stuck the artwork to the wooden panel (after filling in the recessed bolt holes for the joysticks with wood putty). And that's 3mm thick Lexan on the top to give it that sheen.