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paulscade - First Build - MAME - Blastoff!
MacGyver:
I have been reading these boards for months now, waiting for my stuff to arrive, I have had alot of time to think of ideas for my daughter's cabinet, I thought I'd share one of them, since you posed a question I had thought of as well.
"While these sticks can be switched from the top of the panel, you can't easily tell if you're in 4 or 8 way mode. It would be nice if there were some sort of indicator. "
Have you thought about using another microswitch mounted at the end of the white levers path on the magic stiks. ie. when it's set to 4-way light up an 8-seg led display reading "4" and "8" when the white lever moves (by changing the mode) and presses the microswitch.
My idea was to use 8 3-way leds embedded under the cpo around each joystick, and a microswitch controlled by that white lever, and have the control.ini via ledwiz and that switch light the 8 leds red or green, depending on whether or not it's in the correct mode for the current game.
I have a question, did you bondo over the plates and trackball mount before putting the overlay down? I can't seem to figure it out from the pictures. Or did you have your artwork printed backward on the back of a clear, self adhering vinyl, and stick it to your lexan?
BTW, you have great wood working skills. :applaud:
paulscade:
Hey MacGyver,
Now that you mention it... I did actually consider a similar addition (albeit yours is more elaborate). I considered using a microswitch to detect the position of the white lever... but instead of lighting a display with a 4 or 8... I just wanted to light a single LED. So "LED on" might mean 4-way. I haven't ruled out the idea... I could even mount the LED under two of the admin buttons (so I don't have to drill into the panel). It wouldn't require any external controlled (i.e. LedWiz).
Just FYI... they make a number of 7 segment displays that you could use instead of using discrete LED's. I'm sure that you could find them at DigiKey or some place similar. I have a few of these "better than 7-segment" displays (attached photo). They require only 5v. It's a Hex display so you can light up anything from 0-F. The segments are not "boxy" so you get a nice round cornered 8.
re: your questions
I routed the trackball plate recess 1/16" deep. So when the plate was installed, it was flush with the top of the panel... no need for filler. The recess for the joystick mounting plates was routed 1/8" deep to allow for the mounting screws and because I wanted the dust washers to be under the CPO (I had to allow some clearance for them to move freely).
The Control Panel Overlay is printed on "indoor sign material" from Kinkos. It's thin and sort of plastic'ie. There's no adhesive. It's not printed backwards (i.e. printed normal like any printout). This CPO is sandwiched between the wood (on the bottom) and the Lexan (on top). It's all held together by the buttons (as the buttons all go through the panel and are secured with the button-nut on the bottom of the panel).
DaOld Man:
Great job Paul!
:applaud: :applaud: :applaud:
I especially like your wiring job. Very professional. In my own projects, I get in a hurry near the end and wind up with a sloppy wiring job. Seeing your work makes me want to do better next time.
paulscade:
Tkx! DaOld Man.
Marquee Retainer:
I spent a couple of hours mounting the marquee retainer. This is the marquee retainer that you can buy from Happ (which I bought through Divemaster). The specs for this product on the Happ site are nonexistent. Similar to: it's PVC and 10 feet long.
http://www.happ.com/accessories/49100000.htm
Once I received the retainer, I realized that it was a little wider than I had expected (1.5 inches wide). The retainer is an extruded J shape. It's nice and thick PVC so it won't bend easily. On the side opposite of the J bend, there's a raised line that runs the length of the retainer. It looks to be a guide for mounting on the edge of the wood.
(difficult to explain) If I had left it stock... it would have allowed the marquee to extend (IMHO) too far above and below the lighted marquee area... and it would have left a wide dark stripe at the top and bottom of the marquee (where it would be blocking the light from behind).
Bottom line... I decided to cut it down.
I considered using a hack saw and a utility knife but this stuff is pretty thick and I wanted a nice straight edge. This might be a good time to mention how handy routers are... :)
Here's the marquee retainer before and after (the top is the original retainer):
I drilled a few mounting holes in the retainer (since I would need them anyway) and I used them to secure the retainer to a piece of scrap wood. I added another piece of wood for the router to slide across. Using a pattern trace router bit, I trimmed the retainer down to size. You can see the bits of black plastic "snow" from the first cut:
paulscade:
With trimmed the down marquee retainers in hand, I ran into another problem.... how to attach them to the cabinet.
The bottom retainer would be easy... just screw it into the wood. On the UAII and probably other cabinet designs, the marquee is recessed.... so there's no way to slide in a marquee once the retainers are attached.... and if I slide in the marquee first, I wouldn't be able to get to the screws. The top retainer needed to be detachable. I considered using Velcro but I wanted something more "sturdy".
On the top retainer, I used an aluminum angle iron and mounted the retainer to it. The angle iron will sit on top of the cabinet and be attached with a couple of screws.... easy on, easy off.
It looks like this:
And the finished retainer mounting looks like this:
.... now... if I only had a marquee to put in it... <that's next>