Help Mounting a X-Arcade stick

[zaktallica]

Hi im new here and new to the whole mame cab experience. Im building a mame cabinet from a gutted mortal kombat 2 cabinet. I dont have the funds to spend boat loads of money on this project I got the cab for 40 bucks. Im going to put a 27 inch tv running s-video in the cab and to make thing's simple im going to buy a x arcade tank stick. My question to everyone is are there any ways to mount the x arcade stick in the cabinet without having to re-wire everything? I want the stick to look integrated into the cabinet and not just sitting there where the old stick set up was. I saw this http://www.mameroom.com/ProductDetail.asp?ID=XBASE but the seems a little spendy. Any help would be appreciated..Im not very wood handy but perhaps I can get some help from friends. Thanks

[severdhed]

do yourself a favor and skip the xarcade.  they are great units for what they are, but i can tell you from experience, you will regret it in the long run if you go this route. 

i bought an xarcade 2 player unit a few years ago.  when i got around to building a mame cabinet, i attached the xarcade unit to the cabinet...it worked, but looked like crap.  then i decided to cut my own panel and use the components from the xarcade unit.  this worked much better, however due to the way these units are wired, they are a nightmare to work with.  the wires are too short, and they dont use a common ground like most encoders, so the wiring is quite messy.   i have used it this way for about 2 years now and i am finally sick of it.  i am on the verge of placing an order for new sticks, buttons and encoder to do it myself, the right way.  the sticks and buttons arent bad, and can be purchased for a reasonable price.  i dont know what their trackball is like.  it may seem overwhelming to think about doing it yourself, but this forum is an immense help.  button wiring is easy once you have a very basic understanding of how it works.  get yourself a real encoder and do it right. 

the woodworking aspect is much easier than it sounds too.  when i did my project, the only tools i had were a dremel, a $20 single speed drill, and a borrowed jigsaw.   just take your time, search the forums and dont be afraid to ask questions.  do you have any friends/family members that could help you?  I have a strong background in computers, but very little woodworking experience, and very little knowledge of mame.  but i found this forum and asked questions, looked at the project announcements for inspiration and i managed to make my own and i am pretty happy with it.  sure it isn't perfect, and that's why i am redoing it.  you learn as you go...don't expect perfection your first time through.  build it, try it, tweak it, rebuild it, repeat until you get it just the way you want it.


teh xarcade units are great for someone who wants a desktop control panel, but for use in a cabinet, they are more headaches than they are worth.  check out the many places to buy parts, ultimarc, groovygamegear, and teh buyselltrade forum.  i have purchased from divemaster and he has been great.    when you break it down, you can buy the parts for around the same amount of money, or less and have it be the way you want, with the colors you want. 

just a suggestion....i just know that if i had to do it all over again, i never would have used the x-arcade, i would have made it myself the first time.

[zaktallica]

Ya that's a good suggestion and appreciate your help. I guess it all depends on if I get any help from anyone else or if I can borrow some tools because im in the same boat as you were, Im pretty computer savvy but not to good with work working. The only thing I know about wiring things your self is there something called IPAC I think and you can buy happ buttons etc lol. But do you have any pics of you current setup? I know you dont like it right now but I would like to get a good idea of what the stick looks like in someones cabinet. Thanks

[severdhed]

well, here is the way my cabinet is now... the red balltop stick is a 4way stick and is wired up in parallel to the player1 8way stick.  it will be going away when i get my new stuff, and a 3" trackball will be in it's place

i will hopefully be ordering my new parts later this week, so it will be changing.



this is my 4th custom made control panel..soon to be 5th.  some were just temp panels to test layouts and things...my point is, give it a shot, and be prepared to make a few revisions.  don't do artwork and fancy stuff like that until you are happy with the layout of everything.

here is a rundown of how my cabinet progressed...it is a little outdated...but you get the idea. 

http://www.severdhed.com/arcade.html

if you do it yourself, you have all kinds of options, you can put the buttons where you want them, you can install whatever joysticks you want, and whatever buttons you want.  you can get happ competition sticks for like $10 each, and happ buttons are about $1.40/ each.  and they come in all different colors.  you can also go with more expensive stuff like translucent illuminated buttons and switchable, or programmable joysticks... i am going to the bank to deposit some money tomorrow, and as soon as i can put it in my paypal account, i will be ordering two U360 sticks and some blue and yellow buttons.  i can't wait to build my new panel.  i am finally to the point where i am going to take it a step farther and install T-molding on the control panel.  (if i can manage to find a 1/16" slot cutter bit)

[zaktallica]

Looks good. What kind of paint/methods do  you use when painting a cabinet?

[severdhed]

i didnt' paint my cabinet..it was black when i bought it.  someone painted over some sideart that i would like to remove eventually, but for now i just dont care that much.  my control panel box i spray painted.  i think when i build the new one i am going to use a foam roller, since it gave good results on the shelving i built recently.   now that i have an orbital sander, it should make painting alot easier.

there are lots of people here who do fantastic paint jobs that i'm sure can provide some insight...and there is always the search feature...there have been quite a few topics on this subject

[ivwshane]

I say skip the xarcade stick as well.

If you want easy then get yourself a u360 from http://www.ultimarc.com/ and the button harness. The u360 supports 8 buttons on it's own so no encoder needed and windows sees it as a standard controller.

Buttons are pretty cheap as well.

Use the original mk control panel box and you have yourself a pretty cheap, very functional, and original looking control panel.

[Spinach]

Hey, just resurrecting a thread here.

I went with the X-Arcade Tankstick because I wanted to finish my cab soon.  I figure I can always go back and make a CP, but to finish first, you must finish 

Anyway, all I did was drill six little depressions into my CP shelf so that the X-Arcade rubber feet would seat right into them.  This makes the unit flush with the shelf and easily removeable.  I haven't played it yet, that will be done this weekend, but so far it feels very steady, and I can use the shelf for another CP with no problem.

Hope this helped.

[zaktallica]

Do you have any pictures? I made this topic a long time ago and since then bought the x arcade and got a gutted mortal kombat cab. I ended up taking out the old control panel and just laying the x-arcade in the box and cutting two oval shaped holes on the side for coin/pinball button access. I will post pics later if interested. But what I want to do is get a overlay for the stick and change the color of the buttons so it goes with my black and blue theme I will be doing.

[Spinach]

Sure.  Nothing special or especially difficult, and it works pretty well. I used a 3/4 inch woodbore bit.

OK.  Looks like I'm not posting a pic tonight.  I thought you could just upload a file. 

PM me with an email address and I'll gladly send a few over.  Otherwise, I'll have to join the 21st century and upload to a site then link to it.  Why do you think I play 80's games! 

OK. just found the "Additional Options, , , " tab.  Here is a pick of my sub par woodworking.  The CP lays flush now, which is great.

[zaktallica]

I went the lazy way out and im just going to lay it in the box and I cut holes for pinball access. Meres what I got so far..