Rotating Control Panel and LuSid's Plans

[Aceldamor]

Ok,

I've had my cab built for a while, using LuSid's plans...I've since discovered that 1 18"x36" cp isn't going to cut the mustard for all the shiza I have. I want to make a rotating cp (a la 1up) and am slowly losing faith in the physical possibility to actually have this happen.  

I was wondering if anybody else would have any ideas or could produce any idea for making this possible...I'm trying to avoid rebuilding a new shell if possible.

[Frostillicus]

I would think it's possible - You may have to settle on a type of rotating panel that isn't flush with the front...IIRC the lusid plans have a short shelf for the CP to rest on.  

Though you will have to gut the shell so you can lay it on it's side.  I would suggest routing out two .25"-.5" holes directly opposite each other for the axle.  This is assuming there is room on the inside side panels to do this.

Most likely you will have to move your monitor up to clear the panels when they rotate.  Mine is very high up indeed.  It would take some doing, but they don't have to be really deep rotating panels.  

[CanStick]

Another option you might want to consider is having removable, hot swappable control panels.

Mount your Ipac/encoders inside the cabinet, and then use regular DB25 connectors (or similar) to connect them.  You can use some type of slide rails to slide them in and out, and some type of locking mechanism to hold it in place.  That is actually something I am going to try to incorporate into the cab I am building for myself...

Hope this helps!

[REBIRTH]

I'm not all familiar with Lusid's plans, but if you have a 18" x 36" panel now I assume my way of rotating will work for you.  My way of rotating is different than 1UP's (for no reason other than I didn't discover 1UP's plans until after I started building mine).  You can check out my website, down towards the bottom (link on the left of this message, or click REBIRTH logo at the bottom).  I don't have a ton of detail there yet, I am still trying to gather my webspages and finish putting all the detail in.  I have a 12" x 30" control panel with 3 sides, together in the shape of a triangle (with the triangle points flattened - see the site).  I have a 4" lazy susan on either side to let it spin.  It was rather easy to make actually, after thinking through the details.  

With my way, you do not need any clearance above the CP, so the monitor should not be in the way (assuming the monitor is not sitting lower than the CP).  My CP's are flush with the glass covering the screen (when it spins, the joysticks go in the clearance under the monitor, in the guts of the cab).  In the front, by your waist I have a non-rotating 2 inch shelf on top which covers the 2 inches of clearance in the front = which provides the cleance for the joysticks in the front fo the cab (this 2 inch shelf is pefectly flush with the CP, os it actually looks like the CP is 14" deep when they are locked in place, the 12" of real CPO and the 2" of this stationary shelf).  If you look at the top animated badly drawn picture on my website now you'll see what I mean about the clearance on both sides of the CP.

One caveat, with my way of rotating, you can't have tall Tron-like joysticks (unless you make the CP's deeper).  I use your normal HAPP Ultimates and have plenty of clearance, with room to spare - but something that is going to stick up 6" or so won't fit.  If you have anything this big you'll need something like 1UP's way of doing it.

If you are interested and think that my way of doing it might work, I'll get off my butt and finish up that section of the website for you to look at.

PS:  I just took a look at Lusid's plans.  If you built them exactly to his spec my way may may not work perfectly for you.  It looks like the depth of the side of the cab where the CP sits is 12 inches (from the glass to the front of the side)?   The way I built mine, I have 14 inches (I have to measure again when I get home, I think I have 2 inches more than the CP depth to allow for clearnace; 12+2=14").  To fit my way of doing it without modifying the cab too much you could make your CP's only 10.5-11" deep.  This still might work for you depending on how high your tallest controller is.  On mine, my 12" CP in the 14" deep space allows about a 4" high controller.  If you were to go down to a 10.5" CP on a 11.5"-12" deep space you would shorten that highest controller to more like 3"-3.5" (I'd have to break out my calculator to be certain).  When I talk about the height of the controller, I mean the height from the surface of the CP up.  The width of Lusid's plans are 26" compared to my 30", but that does not affect much.  So if you think having 3 rotating 11"x26" (or so) panels will work for you let me know.

[shmokes]

Hmm...how does that lazy susan work?  I'm following 1up's design, but haven't made the control panel yet.  Perhaps that would work better than the axle he used.  Any thoughts?

[bdsjake]

...just wondering why can't have tall Tron like handle?  Suppose only rotated the tron panel with tall joystick *backwards* so it just has to clear front door when door is closed.  Then to get back to tron panel, reverse rotation?

[Xiaou2]

I dont see lusids cab, so im not sure whats involved...

 But... my guess is that youd have to cut the frontmost part of the cab off and then you could mount a rotating section that is one board board thicker on each side (overlap)  to cover up any rough cut... and also would provide a nice way to bolt & unbolt it for easier assembly/dissasembly.

  There are also a few options that you could to to rotate larger controls... and that would be to use a nice velvety black curtain to cover the other controls that are behind the current panel.  

  For corner edges, my plan was to make custom wrist pads that are velcro'd on the two edges of joining panels.  These would cover the corner crack and provide wrist comfort.  This depends on your design of course.

   

[REBIRTH]

Hmm...how does that lazy susan work?  I'm following 1up's design, but haven't made the control panel yet.  Perhaps that would work better than the axle he used.  Any thoughts?

Below are two pictures from my website, check out the whole site for more details (though the site isn't anywhere near done, it's a very rough qucik draft).  Basically the sides of the rotating assembly are two triangles of wood.  The 3 CP's bolt into the 3 sides of these triangles.  So now you have a 3 dimensional, 3 sided control panel.  At either end, on the right and left sides when looking at the front of the cab, there are two 4" lazy susans attached on the centers of the two "axis" triangles.  The lazy susans are just two square plates attached by ball-bearings so they spin.  One plate is attached to the side of the triangle "axis" and the other plate is attached to the side of the cab.  This is done on both the right and left sides.  That's it, now the thing spins like crazy.  Each lazy susan can hold 350 lbs, so the two together are plenty.  

The middle of the lazy susans is about a 1.5" diameter open circle.  I drilled a hole into each side trangle "axis" the same size as these holes, for the button/joystick wires to feed through.  The then run down the inside wall of the cab (I routed out a trench in the side of the cab for the to run through) to the computer.

...just wondering why can't have tall Tron like handle?  Suppose only rotated the tron panel with tall joystick *backwards* so it just has to clear front door when door is closed.  Then to get back to tron panel, reverse rotation?

When I said above you can't have tron sticks, I meant with my rotating panesl since the tron sticks are too long for my clearance (I have about 4" clearance, tron sticks are like 6"?).  1UP's plans easily allow something the height of a Tron stick due to the way he made his panels.  1UP's is a great plan too.  The one benefit my plan has is that you just spin the thing and lock in place, no need to open the front door of the cab.  I am assuming when you say "when door is closed" you are thinking of 1UP's way of doing it? Not a big deal really, so whichever one looks best to you, go with it...

[1UP]

Seems like you could possibly use Rebirth's design and still use larger controls, IF you make the front panel into a door.  But even if you do this, and put the Tron sticks on the "3rd" panel, and only rotated it until the tron sticks cant go any further, you still have to worry about whether there's enough clearance INSIDE the cab for the tron sticks to not hit the coin door or front panel.  Maybe Rebirth can answer this.

BTW, I originally considered using lazy susans for my bearings, but I foresaw that it would be troublesome to mount.  You have to drill holes in the sides of the rotating assembly in order to screw the bearings to the sides, and you'd need something to support it while mounting, or else do it early on in construction while you can lay the whole cab on its side.  I decided on using pipe sections because, A) the lazy susans would interfere with the roller-lock mechanism I wanted, B) they could easily be inserted thru the inside of the CP assembly, C) the 5" lazy suzan bearings (couldn't find the 3" ones) could not be mounted on my CP hubs without the LS corners protruding.

I like the idea of Rebirth's design, since if you have a low-mounted monitor, it seems the best solution.  But 2 advantages of mine are that A) I can fit larger controls such as Tron sticks and Star Wars yokes (yes, I finally have it mounted ) and B) there is very little indication that the cab is not a normal cab because there are no external latches or noticable gaps.  The front access door does all the locking.

I am still reworking my PVC pipe axles to add a simple rotation-stop mechanism, but I think they are a viable option for what they need to do.

[Aceldamor]

Ok,

I've finally had the chance to measure the area I have to work with.

I have 5 1/2 Inches from the bottom of the Monitor shelf to the bottom of the cp shelf cutout.

I have 12 inches from the back to the front of the cp cutout

and I have 26 inches width for controllers....

It looks like I could go with 1 ups plans, however that means that my cp will be about 33 inches from the ground at the low point and only slightly higher at the high point.

If I go with Rebirth's I will be in the same situation with cp height.

My cp now is a little under38 inches at the low point and 39 inches at the high point.

Of course this spawns a new question.  What Height do you guys have your cp at?  I'm 6'0 tall, which makes the 38" cp comfortable for me, the 33" height isn't as comfortable, but dosen't really bother me. It just seems a little more akward (sp?).

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone so far for the suggestions and advice, I really appreciate it. All the help you guys are givin' me are helping me out tremendously.

[1UP]

Of course this spawns a new question.  What Height do you guys have your cp at?  I'm 6'0 tall, which makes the 38" cp comfortable for me, the 33" height isn't as comfortable, but dosen't really bother me. It just seems a little more akward (sp?).

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone so far for the suggestions and advice, I really appreciate it. All the help you guys are givin' me are helping me out tremendously.

I don't remember exactly, but I think my CP is 35-36" high at the front (low) edge, at a 15^o slope.

Aceldamor, the rotating CP should not really affect the height.  If you can show me the plans you're using, I can probably throw it into 3DSMax and slap together a CP design for you, that you could print full scale and use as a template to cut your end pieces, and figure out your CP depth etc.  Email me if you're interested.

[REBIRTH]

1)  I did some measuring... my CP is 37" in the front to 38.75" in the back (sloped, obviously).  I am 5' 11" and this felt most comfortable to me.  

2)  To answer 1UP's questions:  (a) You are right, the only way to fit a 6" Tron stick would be to have a front door that opens like yours.  I do not have a real coin door so that would no't get in the way (I have coin buttons where the coin door would be). (b) lazy susans - you are right there, the best way to install the lazy susans's is lay the arcade on it's side, which I did early on.  I could do it now too, everything is "locked down".  I just attached the 2 triangle "axis" boards at that point, then attached the actual CP's later.  (c) Lazy Susan size - you could fit up to a 5.5" lazy susan.  Home Depot only had 6" which would have forced me to snip the corners, but I found a 4" in a local True Value store.  

3)  Below are some pix of my cab before mounting most of my artwork (bezel, side artwork, artwork by the "miscellaneous" buttons like start buttons, ESC, etc..).  The artwork is going on this weekend.  I also don't have the T-molding all on yet, since I wanted to wait for the side art before finishing that.  So right now it looks a rather boring black (I am redoing the CP artwork too since I have already become bored with them!).  I show a front view, a closeup of my 2 player/trackball CP and a side view with the panels rotated haflway.  As 1UP says, when everything is in place you do see 2 small eye bolt heads on the side which lock the CP in place, which are coated with black pastic.   But they really do not show much.  You can barely see them in the pictures below.  With 1UP's you don't even have those small eye bolts showing, so that is an advantage of his.
No gaps at all really.  I only have 1/16" gaps at the front and back of the CP, which you can barely see even when looking for them since it is black beneath them as well.  

BTW:  Those things on the top of the cab are two speakers which sit 4' out from the top of the cab - so they sit behind you when playing to get a full surround sound going.  They are 6'2" off the floor so I never walk into them (though I have some basketball player friends who have to watch themselves   )

Peace

[Aceldamor]

I'll send you an e-mail tonight 1UP.

Thanks  

[1UP]

As 1UP says, when everything is in place you do see 2 small eye bolt heads on the side which lock the CP in place, which are coated with black pastic.   But they really do not show much.  You can barely see them in the pictures below.

Ah, but you do see the black square thing on the side (what is that Rebirth?)  Might not bother some folks much, but it would really bother me!    I really wanted to make sure that nothing to do with the rotating setup would be visible from the outside.  BTW, lest someone get the wrong idea, this is not a contest between the Rebirth cab and mine, we're just pointing out pros and cons to both designs so folks can decide which is right for them.  I'm really surprised that the same problem could be tackled in 2 completely different ways!

Got your email Aceldamor.  I'll get back to you...

[Frostillicus]

As 1UP says, when everything is in place you do see 2 small eye bolt heads on the side which lock the CP in place, which are coated with black pastic.   But they really do not show much.  You can barely see them in the pictures below.

Ah, but you do see the black square thing on the side (what is that Rebirth?)  Might not bother some folks much, but it would really bother me!  

That looks like the cupholder.  I have the same kinds on the sides of my cabs.  Always a eyebrow-raiser when you flip those bad boys up!

[1UP]

Cupholders eh?  That's why there's nothing like that on my cab -- I have a strict 6" radius "no drink zone" around my cab!  That CP art is not waterproof, and neither is my cab!  I know the holders are a ways back, but cold cups are bound to drip condensation when you lift them to drink (usually right above the CP), and I'm a firm believer in Murphy's law...  

Actually, I do have cupholders...it's called THE BAR!  It's right behind you when you're playing my machine, all you have to do is pause and turn around.  

[Frostillicus]

Cupholders eh?  That's why there's nothing like that on my cab -- I have a strict 6" radius "no drink zone" around my cab!  That CP art is not waterproof, and neither is my cab!  I know the holders are a ways back, but cold cups are bound to drip condensation when you lift them to drink (usually right above the CP), and I'm a firm believer in Murphy's law...

I thought the same thing, which is why I had all my artwork laminated and covered it all with lexan.  Though if it was a major spill there's no avoiding running down the joystick/ trackball/spinner hole.

[REBIRTH]

Yes, I have a cup holder on either side of the cab.   I know what you mean about the drink radius. My kids aren't allowed to bring drinks in the same room as the cab, and just to be safe I encase them in giant plastic bubbles just in case they accidently urinate or something.  But for the adults I allow the drinks.  I do make a point to say they can't drink while actually playing - they can drink when standing off to the side waiting their turn, then must place the drinks in the holder before moving in front of the machine.  I feel like quite the anal jacka$$ when doing it, but they can bite me if they have a problem.  There is a bar in the same room about 10 feet away, but nothing like having your brew at arms length.  They are mainly for me though since I need a place for my brews, and two so that I have one for my backup beer

Honestly though, if one were to spill a good amount of drink on the CP I don't think it would harm much at all.  The CP is covered in Lexan, I don't see a way the drink could leak into the inards of the rotating CP "box" to get to the wiring, all it might do is drip down into the guts of the cab.  One benefit to the triangle shape, the liquids would just spill off the top of the CP being used and down the sides of the other two CP's  ... Right underneath the CP is my keyboard/mouse drawer so they would get wet and ruined, but I have a ton of those around.  The computer is no where near a place where they could get a drink on it without them opening the back door of it and spraying it in there.   Though if I witnessed someone spilling a drink on there I think the primal fear that would shoot through might kill me before I could ever see if it did hurt anything or not.

[Frostillicus]

since we are slightly off topic...
I have thought on this weird conflict for some time:  I, like most people here, have built one (or more) of these cabs so not only I could enjoy it but others, as well.  So isn't it strange that we get so anal when other people are around it?  God help the person that actually smokes near our mame cabs...or set's his drink on it.  *shudder*.  My biggest fear would be someone rotating the panels the same way like 3 times, and in doing so yanking the wiring apart inside (gawd that would suck).  Just hard to completely enjoy the gaming moment with that 60 ton weight of potential destruction hanging over your head...

[REBIRTH]

My biggest fear would be someone rotating the panels the same way like 3 times, and in doing so yanking the wiring apart inside (gawd that would suck).  

Oh boy, you got to put a stop in there so it can't go more than 360!  I have a small metal tab sticking out between CP#1 and CP#2 of my 3 CP's, so I can go from 1-to-2-to-3 and then that metal tab hits a stop on the cab.  Same with 3-2-1, the metal stop hits again.

[1UP]

What I'm mainly worried about is at the edges.  Unless your artwork is laminated, it wouldn't be hard for a nice big well-placed drop to seep  right in between the lexan and CP, and make the ink run, or at least a little discolored.

I don't care if people think I'm anal or not, this thing is my baby, I worked myself to the bone for a month to build it, and the artwork isn't exactly cheap to reprint (not to mention it takes a day or two to get it back from Kinko's, and 2 ten-mile round trips to pick it up.)  

My rotation setup is not quite ready for public access...I need to bevel the inside edge of my front door so it won't scrape up the t-molding of the lower CP when closing.  My guests don't know about this, so I have to operate it for now.  That's one reason I'm glad that I can restrict access to the rotation by just locking the door!  

[Frostillicus]

My biggest fear would be someone rotating the panels the same way like 3 times, and in doing so yanking the wiring apart inside (gawd that would suck).  

Oh boy, you got to put a stop in there so it can't go more than 360!  I have a small metal tab sticking out between CP#1 and CP#2 of my 3 CP's, so I can go from 1-to-2-to-3 and then that metal tab hits a stop on the cab.  Same with 3-2-1, the metal stop hits again.

I've thought of that but the problem is that there isn't anyplace I could put a stop on the outside of the panels that wouldnn't stick out somewhere like a sore thumb.  Plus there's no place for clearance.  It's only an issue if someone else tries to rotate it, and that's not gonna happen  
I'll think of something I'm sure.

[Nannuu]

I'm also working on a rotating control panel and have come up with a way to lock the panel that is hidden.  Not too sure if it will work yet as I have months (or is that years?) before I start building.

Anyway my plan is to add a foot pedal hidden behind the front of the cab that can be accessed to move the locking mechanism.  Why a foot pedal?  So that I will have both hands available to spin the panel without damage.  If you attach cable(s) to the pedal and some pulleys (or something similar to pulleys....dowels, plastic block....) to route the cable to a rotating metal bar.  Granted my sketches are not so great/to scale but I think it will work.  Since you will probably have a very small gap between the cp and the side of the cab (1/8"?) a flat bar should be able to squeeze in there if you route a groove.  But you have to keep the axis point below the lowest part of the rotating cab and allow the bar to rotate into the side of the cp.

My sketches seem to have changed as I drew them but they should get the point across ok.  And of course it wouldn't have to be a bar with a slot and pin, but maybe a bar that narrows and fits between two blocks....?

You shouldn't have to route out more than 3/8 to put the mech in.  And it doesn't necessarily have to be placed in the cab vertically/horizontally, really whatever "works" in there.

  I think the most important part of this is to make sure that the axis itself is strong since it will be holding all of the pressure applied to the cp.  The longer the metal bar arm, the more moment you have to twist the arm or the axis.

The bar would have pressure applied back into the cp when you let go of the foot pedal.  Maybe springs attached to the axis?  Or just bent sheet metal applying pressure to the bar (that won't deform when the pedal is pressed).

I have tons of sketches lying around for other ways to hold the cp but most require some ugly pin or hinge or something showing outside the cab.....ech!

Alrighty then, this is starting to make no sense.  Maybe the sketches will help.

[Nannuu]

Another.....

[Nannuu]

and another....

[Nannuu]

and more....

[Nannuu]

AND doctor.

[Nannuu]

Forgot to mention that if you wanted to do an enclosed design like Rebirth you could always place a handle on the top of the cab and route the pull cable back and around to get the same effect.  

[REBIRTH]

My biggest fear would be someone rotating the panels the same way like 3 times, and in doing so yanking the wiring apart inside (gawd that would suck).  

Oh boy, you got to put a stop in there so it can't go more than 360!  I have a small metal tab sticking out between CP#1 and CP#2 of my 3 CP's, so I can go from 1-to-2-to-3 and then that metal tab hits a stop on the cab.  Same with 3-2-1, the metal stop hits again.

I've thought of that but the problem is that there isn't anyplace I could put a stop on the outside of the panels that wouldnn't stick out somewhere like a sore thumb.  Plus there's no place for clearance.  It's only an issue if someone else tries to rotate it, and that's not gonna happen  
I'll think of something I'm sure.

Does the PVC axle thing rotate with the panels or is it fixed?  If it is fixed, could you attach something to that (like a bolt) that would remain fixed and then a metal tab or another screw underneath on of the CP's on the side (inside the CP unit) that would hit the axle bolt at 360 degrees?

After writing this I took a look at 1UP's website and in his "rotating panels" page he has a plan to do something basically exactly like this.  Would this not work?

Also, Nannuu your plans are cool.  I have to digest them for a bit to see how that works....

[Frostillicus]

Does the PVC axle thing rotate with the panels or is it fixed?  If it is fixed, could you attach something to that (like a bolt) that would remain fixed and then a metal tab or another screen underneath on of the CP's on the side (inside the CP unit) that would hit the axle bolt at 360 degrees?

After writing this I took a look at 1UP's website and in his "rotating panels" page he has a plan to do something basically exactly like this.  Would this not work?

Hmm...I suppose that could work.  For some reason when I was looking at  1UP's site I thought I couldn't do it that way.  Now after further study, I don't see why not.  

[1UP]

I'm also working on a rotating control panel and have come up with a way to lock the panel that is hidden.  Not too sure if it will work yet as I have months (or is that years?) before I start building....

One question.  If you have to open the front door to step on the pedal to unlatch everything, then why not use the same method I use to lock my panels?  That way, the door IS the locking mechanism.  With it closed, the panels can not rotate either direction.  This is much simpler, and there are no externally visible latches etc.  My roller latches hold the CPs in place while opening or closing the door.  Simpler also means that you get to use your cab sooner eh?  

[Ben]

As for the rotating the panel to many times. Could't some sort of slipring be put in the axis of rotation to deal with that?

I was just looking at a webpage where someone made a slipring out of one of those Radio Shack telephone cord untanglers (for a lego robot, I think). If you were using USB, you could probably rig something that would work with that, since they are both 4 wire connections...

I would think you could then just spin the thing forever, couldn't you? Now, this is all theoretical on my part, since I don't even have a cab yet, let alone rotating control panels... Is there a reason why this wouldn't work though?

Ben

[Frostillicus]

As for the rotating the panel to many times. Could't some sort of slipring be put in the axis of rotation to deal with that?

I was just looking at a webpage where someone made a slipring out of one of those Radio Shack telephone cord untanglers (for a lego robot, I think). If you were using USB, you could probably rig something that would work with that, since they are both 4 wire connections...

I would think you could then just spin the thing forever, couldn't you? Now, this is all theoretical on my part, since I don't even have a cab yet, let alone rotating control panels... Is there a reason why this wouldn't work though?

Ben

well I suppose, tho it becomes impractical once you realize how many wires are coming out of the panels.  I have a lot for instance:
ps/2 cord for ipac
serial cord for optipac
+5V wire
PC power supply GND wire
2 Dreamcast controllers
2 coin door switch wires
1 extra set of 4 wires for future use (like a dedicated ESC or something).

Anyways - bundled up that makes for a lot of different connections...in my personal case I doubt that would be practical.  

I don't know if it exists or not - but what I thought would be really cool is some type of system of conductive rings circling the axis of rotation on the outside part of the CP.  Like a lot of them.  Then on the inside of the cab, directly above the axis would be a series of contacts that lined up perfectly with each ring.  You could spin to your heart's content. Similar to a slipring idea.

[Ben]

Heh, I guess I'm just not ambitious enough  . I was just thinking of a single USB IPAC or the like. Now, there are sliprings with more connectors, but I suspect the price would go up considerably.

I had also been thinking about something like you mentioned, with a set of contacts that lined up for each panel, but I thought that might be difficult to get good conections. I'll have to ponder on that one some more...

Ben

[Nannuu]

1UP,
  Yep, you are correct.  The metal piece on the door would work too.  I didn't want to add a lip to my door as it might seem out of place on my cab.  And I know it wouldn't have to be silver, but even then I didn't want to tack a piece on there.  I'm not saying I won't end up with that   but I still haven't given up hope on another solution.

And based on Frostillicus's cab I could probably just put the door on there to keep it from rotating forward and trust friction to stop back motion.  But I am still trying to stick a Happ's 360 steering wheel on the third panel which weighs about 234 pounds so I think gravity will rule friction there.  But maybe I could add counterweights to the other two panels to fix that, in which case the entire cp will weigh more than my house.  Which brings me back to trying something new still.

And I could probably make the steering wheel detachable but I don't want to.  I am trying to steer clear (heh heh) of detachable pieces so I can just rotate and play.  Again, this mentality may change as well if I find it necessary to play more variety of games that my cp won't cover.

But since you brought it up, did you add felt or padding to the area that is pressing against the CP?  I am thinking that playing/jiggling over years would eventually wear a mark on some portion of the laminate of the CP.

[1UP]

But since you brought it up, did you add felt or padding to the area that is pressing against the CP?  I am thinking that playing/jiggling over years would eventually wear a mark on some portion of the laminate of the CP.

I have non-skid added rubber pads on the inside of my "security bar" to hold the panels from rotating (felt is not non-skid enough...)  It wouldn't really be necessary, mind you, if I hadn't been a little off on my measurements...there ended up being about 1/16" space between the bar and the front of the rotating CP assembly.  I really don't think the panel would be moving around that much if the fit were closer.