Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: ChanceKJ on November 02, 2013, 08:45:29 pm
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That's how I did mine two years ago. Good job!
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Thanks,
It seems like the popular way to do it. And i'm starting to get the feeling a lot of people like these IL translucent buttons. Neph was on to something.
Yeah, Neph was my inspiration on that one as well. :cheers:
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Thanks,
It seems like the popular way to do it. And i'm starting to get the feeling a lot of people like these IL translucent buttons. Neph was on to something.
Yeah, Neph was my inspiration on that one as well. :cheers:
+1 I did the same with my cab. You will find out there is some light bleeding. He used wire shrink wrap and I used the extra nuts when I bought 50 black buttons to use the centers out of.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2
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Thanks for creating this! It helped me out when I made a fightstick out of an NES. Would have never have thought to use extra locking rings to stop the light bleed (need three on each). :cheers:
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great wanted to buy 16 and there is only 1 left :badmood: (buttons)
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great wanted to buy 16 and there is only 1 left :badmood:
:laugh2:
You know, back in my day, I had to buy twice as many buttons as I needed to make this setup. You kids and your ready to go, off the shelf parts... Pfft.
:oldman
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Does the spring come into contact with the LEDs? Is there any chance of it shorting out the terminals?
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OK, that pic helps a lot. Thanks.
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Beware! I did mine this way and the spring did touch the contacts and fried one of the leds. It has only happened to one out of 16 so far. But some of the buttons hardly get used. The bad part is the leds are out of stock and no idea when the will be back in. Anyone have an idea what to use instead that would match these?
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If you're worried about shorting out the LED, you can strip the isulation off some 20AWG wire and cover the entire bottom coil of the spring.
22AWG insulation (shown) is a really tight fit, but you might make it work in segments.
Scott
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I was thinking some small heat shrink, but using the jacket off a stripped wire is genius..
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Thanks for sharing all this. Scott, I'll try that insulation trick when I go to mod mine in a bit (as soon as PA gets these back in stock ...)
... speaking of which, Bob, when I contacted Susan earlier this month about the IL LED units, she indicated they should be available around first week of September. So hopefully not too much longer to wait!
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I just want to point out to anyone who's found this thread helpful: If you are planning on mounting your buttons on ¾ wood, buy yourself an extra set of button lock rings (as mentioned above). With the IL buttons a pair of rings per button should cover the extra threads exactly to the base of the button. I was able to order them by contacting Susan at Paradise Arcade. I had planned (and already spent money on) large enough heat shrink. However once i discovered the price of the rings, and the possibility of having a less "permanent" masking on the buttons, I couldn't say no. I ordered an extra few LED packs as well, just for spare parts. You never know right.
;)
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3806/11616950706_00e1b4db71_c.jpg)
Yay! I had a good idea for once :applaud:
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Good idea for the insulation of the spring. On my led there is burn marks on the contacts on one side and the spring had burn marks on it also. The worst part is taking apart all the other buttons to fix it. Here is the control panel lit up.
(http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm219/rykerjenbob/arcade/IMG_0617.jpg)
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Sorry typing on my phone.
This was a design change by the manufacturer that we didn't pick up, but corrected on Howler and the new batch.
The leds arriving this week have no contacts except the led on the spring side. Original placement didn't touch the spring but the board layout was slightly modified in manufacturing. Once we became aware all contacts we coated.
If anyone wants to exchange problem leds, we will do that
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Sorry typing on my phone.
This was a design change by the manufacturer that we didn't pick up, but corrected on Howler and the new batch.
The leds arriving this week have no contacts except the led on the spring side. Original placement didn't touch the spring but the board layout was slightly modified in manufacturing. Once we became aware all contacts we coated.
If anyone wants to exchange problem leds, we will do that
Any way from my pictures you can tell me if the 40+ LED packs I bough are from the problem batch??
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What did you coat them with? I would like to exchange all 16 of mine but I don't want to have to cut all the wires and do everything over again. Once you were aware of the problem it would have been nice to notify any customers that got the bad batch. The one that fried on mine definitely has no coating on it so I'm going to assume the other 15 don't either. Looks like I got alot of work fixing this mess.
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What did you coat them with? I would like to exchange all 16 of mine but I don't want to have to cut all the wires and do everything over again. Once you were aware of the problem it would have been nice to notify any customers that got the bad batch. The one that fried on mine definitely has no coating on it so I'm going to assume the other 15 don't either. Looks like I got alot of work fixing this mess.
It's not as bad as you think -- you don't need to remove/redo any wires or switches on your panel.
Squeeze the legs together and push up to remove the plunger and spring.
Either insulate the bottom coil of the spring with ~2" of wire insulation (like the pic above) or use a thin plastic washer as an insulator or use a small paintbrush to apply clear nail polish to the exposed contacts and allow time for it to dry fully.
Reassemble button and you're back in business. ;D
Scott
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I'm mainly creating this thread to share my experience with IL Translucent buttons and the RGB modules designed for them you can find at Paradise Arcade. There are no official instructions for adding these simple LED's so i thought i'd make my own. This is just the way i chose to do it, and it involves modifying the button even though the product states you can install them without modification (drilling). Those of you who choose this method will be drilling two small holes into each button. I personally believe it gives a better fit and avoids damage to the wire leads on the LED module during installation and prolonged use. Also a huge shout out to Nephasth, his buttons on the Two-Headed Beast (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108719.0.html) were the inspiration for this tutorial.
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2854/10635309524_445fd7f6a2_z.jpg)
General Tips:
-Patience. Seriously. This isn't hard at all. just take your time and you'll have a nice clean looking install.
-Do large batches of buttons for each step. I found it was way more fun and less time consuming doing 10 buttons at a time for each step. (I had 36 to do).
-The LED Module will slightly change the feel of your buttons as they sit wedged under the spring in the button housing. taking your time and making sure the wires are nice and neat will limit the change in feel. I personally found the buttons a tad bit better once i added the LEDs as it removes a bit of the play in the spring.
This is an old post but I am hoping I can still get an answer. I thought this was a great idea so I bought the parts and put it all together. However, I am having trouble figuring out how to connect the teeny-tiny led wires to my ipac board. I have the Ultimate whatever from Ultimarc. I tried soldering them but the pins on the ipad board are too small. I have 18 buttons so soldering to each pin won't work. Any ideas?
EDIT* Answered in another thread. Thanks.*
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You're looking for 2.54mm (.1") "DuPont" style connectors (just google it). There's a special crimping tool for them that takes a while to figure out how to use well, and you buy the pins and the housings separate. You can get housings in different configurations, 1x1, 1x4, 2x4, etc.
Personally I would be careful with which LED and which board.. I mixed GGG's electric ice LED's with an Ultimarc UIO and after a few weeks the LED's started to degrade (some colors got dim on some LED's).. The LED's were rated for a slightly lower current than the regulated board kicked out (don't recall the numbers but I think it was something like .7 ma too much current). Unregulated controllers (that require resistors inline) don't have this issue, you just match the voltage to the LED and use the right resistor and no worries. The Ipac UIO is current regulated though, so no matter what resistor you use it will adjust the output to send the same amount of current to every LED. Great if you have the right LED's, not so great if you don't.
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You're looking for 2.54mm (.1") "DuPont" style connectors (just google it). There's a special crimping tool for them that takes a while to figure out how to use well, and you buy the pins and the housings separate. You can get housings in different configurations, 1x1, 1x4, 2x4, etc.
Personally I would be careful with which LED and which board.. I mixed GGG's electric ice LED's with an Ultimarc UIO and after a few weeks the LED's started to degrade (some colors got dim on some LED's).. The LED's were rated for a slightly lower current than the regulated board kicked out (don't recall the numbers but I think it was something like .7 ma too much current). Unregulated controllers (that require resistors inline) don't have this issue, you just match the voltage to the LED and use the right resistor and no worries. The Ipac UIO is current regulated though, so no matter what resistor you use it will adjust the output to send the same amount of current to every LED. Great if you have the right LED's, not so great if you don't.
Expanding on this, I have tried to find the output of the Ultimate I/O Board and can't see it. I want to use this board with the ParadiseArcade 5V LED's (https://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/button-leds/100-il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led.html (https://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/button-leds/100-il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led.html)). Will this be OK?
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You're looking for 2.54mm (.1") "DuPont" style connectors (just google it). There's a special crimping tool for them that takes a while to figure out how to use well, and you buy the pins and the housings separate. You can get housings in different configurations, 1x1, 1x4, 2x4, etc.
Personally I would be careful with which LED and which board.. I mixed GGG's electric ice LED's with an Ultimarc UIO and after a few weeks the LED's started to degrade (some colors got dim on some LED's).. The LED's were rated for a slightly lower current than the regulated board kicked out (don't recall the numbers but I think it was something like .7 ma too much current). Unregulated controllers (that require resistors inline) don't have this issue, you just match the voltage to the LED and use the right resistor and no worries. The Ipac UIO is current regulated though, so no matter what resistor you use it will adjust the output to send the same amount of current to every LED. Great if you have the right LED's, not so great if you don't.
Expanding on this, I have tried to find the output of the Ultimate I/O Board and can't see it. I want to use this board with the ParadiseArcade 5V LED's (https://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/button-leds/100-il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led.html (https://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/button-leds/100-il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led.html)). Will this be OK?
I believe the output on the Ultimarc controllers is 20mA constant, regardless of what resistors are used inline. Off the top of my head (nearly a year since I looked at the numbers), the GGG LED's are rated for like 16 or 18 mA, but I am not sure what the Paradise LED's are rated at. That little extra current did degrade my LED's and some of the colors are WAY off now. I have all the replacements from Ultimarc but I never got around to installing them (and back then, Randy at GGG offered to refund the full price on the LED's that degraded, even though it was my mistake and not a product failure.) Perhaps some day I will get around to it, lol.
If those Paradise LED's will handle 20mA without degrading, then you should be fine to use them. Not sure if the buttons in question are too shallow for the Ultimarc LED's, but I think they would fit easier since they ride inside the spring. Plus they are already terminated with the 2.54mm ends (you just clip them into the 1x4 housings after you put the button together and then plug them right in to the UIO or PacLED64. You can even get 10-20cm extensions with 2.54mm ends off ebay or amazon for cheap if you need longer wires.
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Thanks to Chance for putting together this tutorial. I'm interested in modding the IL translucents shown here with LEDs and Rollie leaf switches. I found a thread showing the same LED units Chance used with the Rollies. The poster "notched" the Rollies to allow a little more room for the wires.
Has anyone tried using the other LED units from Paradise with the Rollies? (https://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/button-leds/100-il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led.html (https://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/button-leds/100-il-lumination-rgb-5vdc-led.html))
I'm concerned the Rollies sit too high to use with these units, but it's hard to tell. Couldn't find any examples from searching.
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hmmm...it'd be a tight fit with that version of the LEDs. Depending on how thick the PCB is how far it actually goes over to the other post. The Rollies require a bit of room and actually reach nearly all the way to to the bottom of the button unlike a microswitch. Couple pics for ya.
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Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of. Thanks for the snaps. Gives an even better idea of how close the Rollies sit. I may send a question to Susan/Bryan just to confirm, but I'm thinking it's a no-go.