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Power, Admin and Volume button placement???
cmoses:
Been working on my control panel and layout and was hoping to get some input on the placement of some buttons. I have a Mortal Kombat II cabinet that has a NFL Blitz 4 player control panel. I am only doing a 2 player control panel so I have plenty of options.
I have a power strip and am using the computer power switch to turn on and off everything. I want to place a button on the cabinet for powering on and off, but am not sure where the best location is. I have been giving some thought to the top, so that it is out of the way and not accidentally turned on or off. I also see that some people put them on the front near the coin doors.
As far as admin buttons, I am thinking 3 buttons in the top left and top right corners of the control panel. In the top left corner - ESC, P1 Coin, P1 Start. In the top right P2 Start, P2 Coin, Pause. I will be using the Mini-Pac and it has a shift option, but I think I would make the shift button hidden and not one on the control panel. I hear it can cause problems sometimes with people pushing a lot of buttons.
I would like to have volume buttons as well since it seems like the is a very wide variety of volumes in the MAME set. Some games seem to soft and some to loud. I think having easy volume access would be good. Not sure where the best place to put these would be? Possibly on top and out of the way, possibly out of the way on the front panel under the control panel (it hangs out over). Possibly on the back of the control panel, the 4 player CP extends past the cabinet on both sides.
Any thoughts on these ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks
TelcoLou:
I have my power and admin buttons on the laft side panel of my CP box .. where one would put the pinball buttons.
Since I'm always player one, any guests wouldn't have access to these buttons to "accidentally" press anyway 8)
Benevolance:
I took my lead from Mountain and placed all of my administration buttons on an admin bar, located on the bezel beneath the monitor. It works out well. It's far enough out of the way that nobody will accidentally hit buttons in a fit of gaming panic, but close enough that it is still convenient to access.
I didn't put a power button on the admin bar (I leave my cabinet on, and the computer power button is fairly accessible besides) but I did include load/save buttons and soft reset/exit on the bar.
brock.sampson:
I located my power button inside the coin return. I drilled a hole through the metal return and I'm just using a radio shack momentary button wired to the mobo. Stick your finger inside the reject and hit the button. I don't have standard coin mechs though I just made a wood chute that funnels any and all coins to the coin box. So no chance of a coin ever showing up there. I have a rocker switch in the other return to turn on the led bars for my top guns. If you are going to have a spinner you could use cabvol. On mine you hold down player 2 start and turn the spinner to adjust the volume. Not sure what you are using for speakers but I have seen people extend a volume knob out the marquee area. Fairly hidden but still accessible.
severdhed:
i have a standard pushbutton that is the bower button...it is mounted on the top of the cabinet, towards the front on the right side. i extended the volume knob from the speakers and it is also on the top of the cabinet, on the left side
my exit button is at the back left corner of me control panel, and pause is at the back right corner. i have no coin buttons on the panel. you have to either use the coin slots, press the coin reject buttons, or hold start and press button 1 to enter a coin