Author Topic: What do you think of this CP layout? (dead question now) (Read 2334 times)

AlanS17 · « **on:** June 19, 2003, 11:21:39 am »

Hi yall. Well when I posted my cab picture a couple weeks ago I said I needed to rebuild the control panel among other things. Well what do yall think of this layout idea? I need it to be rounded to match my marquee. (Pic of cab is in "Project Announcements" forum).

Anyways, I'm sure yall can identify the trackball and spinner. The top left joystick would be a 4-way. The top right joystick would be a top-fire. I set buttons on both sides of the trackball for rightied and lefties (and to balance it out). The notches on top are where it fits onto my cab.

What do yall think? Please be brutal if you must. I want this to be a good one...

P.S. I never realized how heavy MDF is! Will I have a hard time supporting that much weight??? It's 3ft wide and 15" deep. I'm using zinc heavy guage angle iron brackets so it will be removable for doorways...

AlanS17 · « **Reply #1 on:** June 19, 2003, 11:25:13 am »

Ok I finally got the CP up. I was having trouble with it loading... What do yall think? (It HAS to have the curve...)

Hoagie_one · « **Reply #2 on:** June 19, 2003, 11:27:12 am »

It may just be me but the set of three buttons left of the trackball would bother the piss out of me if I was player 1 while playing Street fighter. My arm would be resting on those buttons all the time.

BillyJack · « **Reply #3 on:** June 19, 2003, 11:28:37 am »

Yeah i'd probably kill myself if i had to play SF2 with those buttons down there... but i like the curve. what are those CPU fans doing in the corners... what do you mean joysticks? what?

AlanS17 · « **Reply #4 on:** June 19, 2003, 02:45:31 pm »

Well I put the buttons on the left to sort of even it out. Looks kinda lopsided with buttons on just the right side. If I were to take out the buttons on the left I would have to move the buttons on the right to be more properly centered. It's just this thing I have. I've seen some with the buttons on the right and it looked wierd. What if I were to put the TB buttons vertical along either side of the trackball? How do you think that would look? Too different?

My hand never touches the table when I play though. I usually bruise the tip of my middle finger and wear blisters in between my the fingers on my right hand when I play. I get way too into it. But I know other people have complained of that before...

I was also thinking of moving the SF "blocks" more towards the center and an inch up to get further away from the edges.

bionicbadger · « **Reply #5 on:** June 19, 2003, 03:34:38 pm »

The left joystick looks like it is mounted right on the edge of the CP. You will need to give yourself a bit more room on the edge so that you can put a box underneath to hide the guts. And even the outermost of the 3 trackball buttons on each side look too close to the edge if you are covering the bottom with a standard kind of box. You want to leave some room to work on it if you have to.

Also you dont need redundant trackball buttons, it just clutters up the CP. What about moving the trackball buttons to the top by the other 3 buttons in the center?

mccall · « **Reply #6 on:** June 19, 2003, 04:53:31 pm »

My thoughts:

I agree that the left joystick looks too close to the edge of the panel. It certainly looks like you'll have a problem.

I don't like the fact that you have no panel space under the left joy. I like some panel space to rest my arm, but you said you don't. Will the other people playing your cab want some space? If so, since you said have to keep the curve, perhaps you can move the joys forward some on the panel or make the panel a little deeper?

I don't like two sets of TB buttons, and don't like the placement of either set you have there. Do you need the TB buttons to act as mouse buttons? If so maybe you can place them above and to the right? If you don't need them to act a mouse buttons can't you just use player 1's buttons when using the TB?

What are the 3 buttons above the spinner? Are they for game play? If they are, wouldn't they be awkward to use while using the spinner?

AlanS17 · « **Reply #7 on:** June 19, 2003, 05:06:01 pm »

The 3 buttons at the top are for "enter", "exit", and "pause". I should have clarified that. As for the joystick, I know it's far over. It was a rush job in AutoCAD before I left work, and I noticed it immediately. Lots of buttons aren't perfectly lined up. It's just the general locations of things.

I plan on moving both sets of "street fighter" setups further up and more towards the middle. This will add room beneath for resting palms. (Especially on the left side.)

I couldn't put the mouse buttons to the upper right of the spinner because the joystick would get in the way.

I was reserving the 2 inches below the trackball as empty space, but I suppose I could move the trackball down and sandwich the 3 mouse buttons laterally between the trackball and spinner. What do you think of that? That would even add more room between my trackball and spinner so I could pull off my 400-yard Golden Tee drives. (I wish!)

AlanS17 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 19, 2003, 05:07:46 pm »

I jusr realized how many buttons I've crammed into such a small space. It's gonna be hard to make artwork for this thing...

(That and the fact that I have no artistic talent.)

SirPoonga · « **Reply #9 on:** June 19, 2003, 05:34:54 pm »

First, is that a spinner directly above the trackball. Personally I hate anthing in the line of the trackball. for golf, bowling, shuffleboard, and horse shoe games it gets in the way.

BTW, I've been starting to like people how hook up the mice buttons with normal buttons instead of dedicated buttons. It cleans the look up.

AlanS17 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 19, 2003, 05:39:01 pm »

Yes it's in line, but it's a good 3 or 4 inches above the trackball. I was thinking of just using the player 1 buttons, but i may use the mouse for other purposes. I was doing it as a precautionary measure. ("future proofing")

I really don't want to offset the spinner. I happen to like it centered. I could move the trackball down an inch, though. Would that be far enough south? That would put a full 12 inches between the trackball and the front glass and probably 6 inches between the trackball and the spinner.

bionicbadger · « **Reply #11 on:** June 19, 2003, 05:42:34 pm »

You could just extend the 3 button row at the top to a row of 6 buttons instead of a second row of 3. That would save you some space.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #12 on:** June 19, 2003, 06:04:32 pm »

Quote from: AlanS17 on June 19, 2003, 05:39:01 pm

Yes it's in line, but it's a good 3 or 4 inches above the trackball. I was thinking of just using the player 1 buttons, but i may use the mouse for other purposes. I was doing it as a precautionary measure. ("future proofing")

I really don't want to offset the spinner. I happen to like it centered. I could move the trackball down an inch, though. Would that be far enough south? That would put a full 12 inches between the trackball and the front glass and probably 6 inches between the trackball and the spinner.

First, the buttons. You could use a a relay to switch from ipac to buttons. Though lately I have permanently left my buttons to mouse. My switch is hid underneith. Though once I get a windows machine in my cabinet I will use player 1 button 1 as enter more often. I also only have two mouse buttons, didn;t see the need for three.

Ok, trackball and spinner. NO, anything in line of the spinner get in the way

Lessons I have learned on my cabinet. My shelf sucks, we stub our fingers too many times. And them even sometimes on the monitor, but that can't be helped.

AlanS17 · « **Reply #13 on:** June 20, 2003, 12:11:09 am »

Well I just cut the outline of my CP tonight. I drew some of the controls on it to get a feel of what it would look like. I had a friend (BIG Golden Tee fan) take an imaginary whack on the track ball and he splatted right against the screen...

I'm afraid a spinner in that position won't work at all. But where would I put it? Off-setting to either side still doesn't work because of hook shots. Hmmm...

mccall · « **Reply #14 on:** June 20, 2003, 12:14:12 am »

If you plan on playing golden tee I would suggest nothing above the TB except buttons. With the way people whack that ball anything above it will get hit by you or one of your guests. You might want to watch how close you put the right joy also, for the same reason. One of those guys who use the "thumb" method will whack it with a forearm if it's too close. From the center of my TB to the center of my right joy is 7 inches. I might have been able to cut that down somewhat but I wanted to make sure it wasn't in the way.

AlanS17 · « **Reply #15 on:** June 20, 2003, 12:17:45 am »

Quote from: mccall on June 20, 2003, 12:14:12 am

If you plan on playing golden tee I would suggest nothing above the TB except buttons. With the way people whack that ball anything above it will get hit by you or one of your guests. You might want to watch how close you put the right joy also, for the same reason. One of those guys who use the "thumb" method will whack it with a forearm if it's too close. From the center of my TB to the center of my right joy is 7 inches. I might have been able to cut that down somewhat but I wanted to make sure it wasn't in the way.

Right now the distance between the TB and the right joystick stands at about 6 or so inches. I don't rememebr. I'll check tomorrow. I know what you mean,t hough. I "thumb it" all the time and I thought about that already.

mccall · « **Reply #16 on:** June 20, 2003, 12:23:59 am »

Because of your space limitations you might not be able to fit 3 joys for player 1 and a 3" TB on the same panel. Ask yourself if you really need a dedicated 4 way or could you live with a restrictor plate?

AlanS17 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 20, 2003, 12:29:32 am »

The 2 other joysticks aren't in the way. They're not hurting anything. That's one place I haven't found a problem.

mccall · « **Reply #18 on:** June 20, 2003, 10:01:41 am »

Well I was thinking if one of them wasn't there you now have a place for your spinner.

AlanS17 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 20, 2003, 10:06:50 am »

Quote from: mccall on June 20, 2003, 10:01:41 am

Well I was thinking if one of them wasn't there you now have a place for your spinner.

I think I'd rather have the dual joys than the spinner. They're cheaper and I'd probably get more use out of them.

AlanS17 · « **Reply #20 on:** June 20, 2003, 10:09:52 am »

I know this probably sounds pretty awkward, but how wierd would it be to mount the spinner to the front of the control panel. That's about the only place I have left for it!

(I know... It sounds odd...)

But on the plus side I get a 1.5" steering wheel for driving games.

(Don't take this post too seriously. It's a bit of a joke.)

AlanS17 · « **Reply #21 on:** June 24, 2003, 09:42:50 am »

Ok here is finally a modified design. I moved the spinner off to the side and on the right what you see is a srotary switch that would alternate the right (top-fire) joystick between P1 and P2 so you could use it for multiple situations depending on the game.

I also move the Street Fighter setups in more and up more to give mroe resting room below the controls.

As for the 3 buttons above the trackball, they would be the TB buttons. The 3 at the very top would be game control buttons.

What do you all think of this setup? (be brutal)

AlanS17 · « **Reply #22 on:** June 24, 2003, 10:42:41 am »

Here is yet another variant. This one leaves a big hole up in the middle with no controls in it. A great place to put some good artwork.

ahofle · « **Reply #23 on:** June 24, 2003, 10:49:55 am »

Your design is very similar to mine, with the offset joysticks. Except I have two top fire joysticks (for assault, battlezone, robotron, total carnage, etc) and of course tron. And the spinner does not get in the way for me (I made sure of that). Of course I have a highball trackball, so that might help. The only thing I can say is get a large piece of sturdy cardboard (like from a washing machine box or something) and make a full test CP. Just screw in the joysticks from the bottom, they will hold enough for the test. Then mount it in a playing position and try it out. There is no way you'll be able to forsee everything in an AutoCAD program, you'll always discover something by trying it out.

AlanS17 · « **Reply #24 on:** June 24, 2003, 10:54:23 am »

Well my joystick on the right will be a 4-way, but I suppose I could make it a 4-way with a pushbutton in the top of it. I don't have the room for a 5th joystick like you do.

I don't even have the parts yet. Haven't ordered them so I can't create a mock-up. Otherwise I would. Wanted to design my layout first and then buy the appropriate parts. Know what I mean?


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