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I have finally started my cabinet!!! (Now With Pictures! 13-APR-2008)
Jdurg:
I was digging around in my closet today and saw that I had a lot of cardboard hanging around doing nothing. So I got out my exacto knife, scissors, tape, and parts and built a real sized mockup. (With no actual measurements or specifics). I decided that I like my layout, but can move a lot of the admin buttons to hidden areas on the sides of the cabinet. If I build my control panel to the same height and width as my cardboard mock-up, there will plenty of room to include all the admin buttons inside recessed areas with a door hiding them when not in use. All you'll see is a little thumb slot where you will stick your thumb in and open the door up when needed. I'll put my cheat button, service mode button, dip switch button, etc. in the hidden area, and to exit I'll press one of the hidden buttons and Player 1 Start.
Also, I'll be able to shrink the panel down a little bit in size from my mock-up and still have it work. (Right now, the cardboard panel is about 35 inches wide. I can shrink it down by about 6 inches probably and still have plenty of space. My spinner will be able to use Player 2 controls for its buttons, and my 4-Way will have three buttons of it's own. (I'll set it up so it can have four if it wants with the fourth being the left trackball button).
But seeing it in person really made me want to play with it. I've been messing around with the joysticks and buttons and just drooling to have it up on my cabinet. Once the end of the month hits and I get paid again, i'll pick up my trackball and keyboard encoder and then actually start building the control panel. (Though there might be a delay since it looks like I'll need to fill my oil tank soon. :hissy: )
Jdurg:
This is too cool. My father stopped by the house today to pick up some of the items I'm letting him store here, and while we were talking he saw my mock-up control panel. He took a look at it and said "Wow, that's pretty neat. Is that a control panel for video games?" I then told him of my plans for building the cabinet and how that was just a mock-up. He then said "That sound really cool. If you need any help with anything, let me know. I can cut the MDF for you since I've got the table saw and all the tools you might need."
When I was a kid, I recall on occassions going to an arcade and my dad coming with me to "watch over me". We'd play Mortal Kombat and SF2 every now and then. I showed him my plans for the cabinet and he seemed really interested in it.
So now i have even more help available to me. Sweet!!!! :applaud:
Jdurg:
A very small update here. The small MDF panel that I bought for only about $8 is no more. It got a bit wet and has started crumbling apart. You get what you pay for, I guess. Besides, I now realize that with my limited space and work area using MDF would only create a massive mess that I just don't want to deal with.
I went to Home Depot yesterday and took a look at their plywood selection. I saw a 2' x 4' panel of 0.75" Poplar Cabinet Grade Plywood. The sheet cost $16 but it is very smooth, VERY straight, and it's about 8 or 9 ply from what I could count. I got it as 0.75" for the CP top since I plan on top mounting the joysticks now and couldn't imagine the 1/2" plywood being able to stand up to heavy use. The 0.75" plywood will make routing for the T-Molding much easier, and for a cover I'll just use a very thin 1/8" layer of Lexan/Plexiglass. I'm just very happy with the fact that the board is very light, very straight, and appears to be quite durable. If I'm able to get the tools I asked for for Christmas, I should be able to get the CP built by New Years.
Now for the frustrating part. Based upon the size of the panel I picked up, I'm now wondering if I should add two more joysticks to my CP and make this a four player panel for games like Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, X-Men and two player for Smash TV? My CP is already going to be fairly big, so why not just add these couple of controls to it?
Anyway, the MDF that has been looking like crap will probably wind up just being thrown in the shed and not worried about, or have someone else cut it into little blocks which will be glued in as support blocks.
Jdurg:
Okay, all the controls have been ordered! :applaud: I went on E-Bay today and found a Happs 3" USB Blue Translucent Trackball w/ USB/PS2 connectors, plus a mounting plate for only $101 including shipping. The trackball alone goes for $165+ on Happs' website. I then went out and got me a Tornado Spinner w/ USB/PS2 connectors as well. By getting both of these parts with the USB/PS2 connector I'm able to avoid having to purchase an Opti-Pac for my cabinet. Plus, each of these parts can connect to three buttons, so I'll be able to connect the Trackball buttons to the trackball itself and use them as mouse buttons if I want. For the spinner, I could mount buttons to that as well, but it will all depend on location.
I also picked up a couple of other buttons for the cabinet since I plan on putting a shift button on the left side and another button on the right. This way I won't need special admin buttons. I can just hold the shift button on the side and press one of the buttons on the CP top to get to the rarely used admin areas. (Though I may still have the F2 Service Menu button and F3 Reset button mounted on the top of the cabinet where they can't be easily pushed). Now to hope that Santa brings me the power tools I asked for. ;) ;D
Jdurg:
Okay, attached to this post are the dimensions of my final control panel layout. I don't have the locations of the joysticks and buttons/etc. on this layout, only the dimensions. I just want to run this out there to see if anybody has any suggestions or comments. My big concern right now is if 16" is deep enough for the CP if the trackball is going to be used. I think it will be just fine as long as the trackball is used appropriately. It's just that on my layout everything seems really comfortable and I didn't want to have a huge amount of empty space if I could avoid it.
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