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paulscade - First Build - MAME - Blastoff!
paulscade:
After spending 7 hours last Sunday: Control Panel Wiring Complete.
It wasn't difficult... but my hand was killing me from all the crimping.
I started by daisy chaining the grounds. I decided to create two ground loops... one for the left side of the panel and one for the right side. For no particular reason other than it made the wiring a little neater.
Here's shot of some of the daisy chaining.
I stripped each wire end about 3/16" before placing it in the connector for crimping. I found that stripping about 1/4" made it easier when trying to place two wires into one quick disconnect (for the ground chain).
I couldn't find any wire at Lowes or Home Depot. They only had the bigger stuff... for home electrical wiring... and some for alarm wiring.
I was looking for (and found) 20AWG, stranded wire.... at, where else,... my local Radio Shack. I picked up three rolls in a pack (they call it "hook-up wire"): Red, Green, and Black.... 20 feet each. It was just enough for the job. I didn't have much left over.
For quick disconnects... I found that the best deals could be had on e-Bay. I purchased both .187 (for the button microswitches) and .250 (for the Magstik microswitches).
Me, hard at work:
I'll tell you what... my hat's off to you guys that have those showcase panels... it's really difficult to make the wiring look really good. I suppose part of the good looks comes from pre-planning... doing things like laying out controls so that wire runs can have perfectly horizontal or vertical runs.
No matter, I'm happy with the way that it turned out:
koinsatx:
Paul,
Looks fantastic... I was just at Radio Shack tonight and spotted the same wire... lol I am hoping to find the quick connects locally but not having much luck. The package never seems to use the size .187
Again, looks great... look forward to seeing some more.
Kevin
paulscade:
My U360 Experience:
When I realized that I had mounted the U360 "wrong", I didn't think it would be much of a problem as the joystick is programmable.
I spent about 30 minutes yesterday reprogramming all the stock maps to account for my mistake.
Remember, I mounted the U360 90 degrees rotated counterclockwise. :o
So my thinking as I'm programming went something like this:
"OK... let me see... when I push the stick to the top right... I'm actually pushing it to the bottom right... so... in the map... I need to make anything in the bottom right send the signals for top right.... etc. etc."
When I was done, the maps were confusing but functional.
UNTIL... I got the the analog setting. You can't program the analog portion... so I was starting to feel the pain of the incorrectly mounted stick.
I was thinking... maybe there's a custom driver that I can install (ouch)... or maybe there's a firmware hack that I can get from Andy to make this work. I wasn't about to remount the stick.
I wrote Andy at Ultimarc (and he promptly responded with the answer).... it was staring me in the face all along....
Unscrew the 4 screws on the bottom of the U360, remove and rotate the board 90 degrees, reattach the board. Done. Such a simple fix to my rotated mounting problem.... it looks like it wasn't actually a problem at all.
I reloaded all the maps that I had modified back from the original install... and everything was normal.
Sometimes, it's the simple things that you overlook! :-\
cmoses:
Is there a "TOP" marked on the U360's someplace? Did you just miss it in your anxiousness to get the joysticks mounted?
javeryh:
Very very nice. I love wiring a control panel. It is so relaxing for some reason to just sit there and not have to use any power tools. Looking good! :cheers: