Help with LED and getting started

[kupermanp]

Hi.  I've been lurking around for a couple of weeks and I finally decided to bite the bullet and build my own MAME cab    I've got a couple of questions.  Sorry if they have been asked a jillion times before the search function wasn't working for me.

1)  I'd like to do the LED buttons and integrate them into the MaLa front end.  From what I can tell there are two products I can use.  The keyWiz and the Ultimarc product.  I'm leaning toward the keywiz but I'm having a hard time figuring out if the LED are integrated into the encoder or will I need to get a separate encoder module.  The ultimarc appears to be a separate module.

2) Joysticks- My wife is a Mrs Pacman fiend and will be most disappointing if I can't recreate the true pac-man feel.  So I figure a dedicated four way is a must.  What is the best way to get the pac-man feel (I can't fit a true pacman stick due to space).  Will a restrictor plate  work.

3) When you wire the 4 way do you just wire it into the same part of the encoder as the 8 way i.e both the player one 8 way and the dedicated 4 way share the same terminals on the encoder.  the 4 way just cant send the diagonal

As far as my setup- I bought a project someone else had given up on (well never started).  I have

1) konami cabinet in good condition  (no artwork or marquee)
2) control panel/box pre drilled for 2 8 ways with 6 buttons each for fighting.  a 4 way with 2 buttons.  a spinner and a track ball. with six other buttons available.
3) P4 computer with 20" samsung crt monitor
4) Control panel artwork (lightning)

Thanks

Paul

[shatteredzman]

1.
I dont know anything about ultimarc products but I think you may be mistaken about what the keywiz does. To directly control your LED's you need something called a ledwiz.
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=82&products_id=239
The ledwiz gives you control over the color of the led if you got the RGB drive.
To control the pushbuttons you use the keywiz, it will not do anything with the leds. If you just want the LEDs to constantly be on then just connect them in a series to your computers power supply and you will not need the ledwiz.

2.
I would suggest getting one of those sticks that let you twist them to make them go from 4 way to 8 way, this way you get the best of both worlds without having to sacrifice anything.

3.
Yes you wire it the same way. The only difference between 4 ways and 8 ways are the restrictor plates.

[kupermanp]

Thanks.  Didn't quite get my LED question right.  There appears to be a LED/wiz which is also an integrated encoder (for 16 inputs).  I don't want them to light up all the time.  In MaLA you can let the front end light up the buttons for that specific game and even have it say what each button does before you start the game.  Its useful for me because I play a lot with  my son who chooses random games so I usually spend the first couple minutes trying to figure out what button does what.

[shatteredzman]

I dont know of any LED/Keywiz combo, can you link me the item you are talking about?

[kupermanp]

Here you go

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76_81&products_id=306

[Endaar]

With the number of buttons you indicated, you will need more than 16 inputs. Likewise, 16 LED outputs may not be enough, depending on how many buttons you're lighting.

[shatteredzman]

Oh you are right, it took me a while to realize it also worked as a keywiz. Based on your earlier design you will need 20 inputs. Also if you want a spinner you can get the keywiz/rotary combo. Maybe you can use the led/keywiz for extra inputs for admin settings or something, just be sure to put the buttons somewhere other than your control panel to reduce clutter. Whatever you do keep it simple and dont clutter your panel!

[kupermanp]

Yeah I thought I needed more controls.  I am only planning on lighting 14 buttons at the moment.  Does anybody have an opinion on the LED buttons from GGG vs ultimarc.  The ultimarc ones seem a little easier to install.

[njay]

well i recently modded my x-arcade with the novagems from ggg.

im not a techie or a tech wiz but i managed this fairly easy

the novagems include the led of choice already soldered on the driverboard with the two wires already attached to them so you can connect them straight away to your ledwiz and your terminal strip for power

[Kman-Sweden]

I modded my X-Arcade Tankstick.



I have more pics of the installation on my webpage.. See URL below.

[shatteredzman]

Yeah I thought I needed more controls.  I am only planning on lighting 14 buttons at the moment.  Does anybody have an opinion on the LED buttons from GGG vs ultimarc.  The ultimarc ones seem a little easier to install.

I bought a lot of electric ice buttons from GGG and I gotta say that I really do like them. Here are pictures of my control panel.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93077.msg996220#msg996220

The LEDs come on a little circuit board and are a little difficult to get in place but its not hard or complicated. They come pre-wired so you dont have to solder if you dont want to but I did to cut down on excess wires. The little boards are very similar to the RGB drives.

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=240

I also bought little diffuser disks to scatter some of the light because the LEDs are super bright and hurt if you look directly in them without a diffuser. Here are the diffusers I am talking about.

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=73&products_id=300

I dont know anything about the ultimarc buttons except what I read from reviews(do some searching). The reason I did not buy them is because they are flat and not concave so they do not have the real arcade feel.

[kupermanp]

Those pics look awesome.  I definitely want a concave button so that takes out the ultimarcs.  GGG is out of the electric ice buttons are the novagems concave?  Its hard to tell from the pics.

BTW- how are you guys searching.  Every time I enter anything into the search engine I get no results even if I use words I know have threads.

[shatteredzman]

The novagems are concave, they look and feel exactly like a standard arcade button.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=search
Works fine for me.

[kupermanp]

I think I'll go with the novagems then.  I like to be able to push the button with a flick of the finger catching the edge and you can't do that with a flat button.

Just tried the search and its working for me too.  Woo hoo.

[kupermanp]

Thanks to everyone here for the help so far.  I put in my order.  Magically the electric ICE buttons came back in stock right when I went to put the order in so I went with those because of the cool choose your own color thing.  

Right now I have

Konami Cab
P4
20" monitor
Ipac2
LEDWiz
2 8way
1 terry tornado dedicated 4 way
Happ 3" trackball
Spinner

My layout is 6 buttons for the two main sticks and two four the four way -- All Electric Ice
6 extra buttons - which are unlighted with plyer 1, player2, 2 black and 2 green buttons
I splurged on the pre daisy chained ground wire connector as well.


Still need to get a power strip and artwork

Am I forgetting anything?

Thanks
Paul