Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: buges on May 13, 2004, 04:04:03 pm
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Here we go 1st post n all that!!!!.....
Im in the middle of converting my cab to rotate my monitor. i would like to have a motor rotate the monitor from H to V & visa versa with a motor witch would get the signals to the relay for the motor from arcade os using Ltp1:
so had anyone got an auto rotating monitor working with arcade os??
if so pls could u share how u did it.
what type of motor?
the relay curcit for the cut offs
& the interface to drive the relay curcit from arcade os..
thanks in advance
Buges
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Theres a guy in Germany who put a rotating monitor in his cab (http://www.retrospieler.de/). He was lucky, cause he already had the mechanism (from another game). I think the type of motor you are looking for is called a stepper motor (correct me if I' wrong." Check out this site (http://steppercontrol.com/index.html) for additional information. The advantage of stepper motors is that you can specify the amount of rotations, that way you get either horizontal or vertical.
I'm building my cab with a manual rotating monitor... the motor drive will be a future "tweeking" after my hands get sore from playing.
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I will be using a garage door operator. Not just the moter but the whole unit. (that is except for the boom) The cheap sears units are perfect but any kind will work. The reason why these would be perfect is because you would be able to adjust how far the monitor rotates by using the open and close limit switches. You adjust them by turning the two screws and you could rotate the monitor either way with one of these. Another benefit is that you would be able to actuate it with a battery powered transmitter (remote) otherwise known by homeowners as a "clicker". How cool would it be to rotate your monitor using a hand held remote ? I say very cool. I install garage doors and electric operators so I get tons of old ones that work fine and if they are broken I just fix them. If anyone is interested in one of these to moterize their monitor I could set them up with a fully working unit and a brand new handheld remote or even a keyswitch or keypad for like $50.00 plus shipping. If a keypad was used you would have to enter a code to activate the rotation. I also have keychain remotes. I haven't started my third cab yet as I am finishing up on my second but my third cab WILL have a moterized monitor and I'll definately be using one of these to do it.
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Motor would be cool. I went with a manual turning monitor and have no problems with it. Takes no more than 3 seconds to rotate. If you go to my webpage (which is being biult) and then click the link to my "old" web page, you'll see a bit of what I did. You may want to look there for an idea of what you may be able to incorporate into your build - most of the dynamics would be similar to what I did I would think, just with a motor on it. Hope you get it working, would love to see the final product!
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Can you show a diagram of how you plan to do it? Some kind of gear drive?
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Can you show a diagram of how you plan to do it? Some kind of gear drive?
The germany guy has the axle of the motor with a rubber piece and it just maked contact with the disk that the monitor is attached too.
I think ultimately having it hooked up directly to the computer so that when I select pac man, the monitor automatically goes vertical and then degausses... oh how sweet it'll be. 8)
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Thanks 2 everyone
i'll keep u posted on how i get on.
Buges
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Stepper motors do give precise control, but steppers with enough torque to rotate a monitor would be really expensive!
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ummm i dont like the word expensive! ha ha ha
looks like i'll be using cutoff switch's for H&V posistions & relays then.
buges
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Would a stepper motor from an old inkjet printer be powerful enough?
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Would a stepper motor from an old inkjet printer be powerful enough?
I seriously doubt it. I work in a sign fabrication shop, I know we've used stepper motors for a few big mechanized signs in the past that were small, cheap and high torque. If I get the chance to talk to one of the engineers today and I'll try and get more details.
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It might be just a matter of gearing though.
It's just that the way I see that print head flip back and forth I assume there must be some power in there. My old HP 1200 would make the whole table, it was standing on, shake.
One problem I can't see how it will get fixed is how the monitor will stay locked in place. I understand a motor will be able to turn the monitor into the desired direction. But when you switch the motor of won't it wobble away from vertical. Might be less of an issue for a CRT monitor though and I'm thinking about a rotating LCD monitor (which spins quite easily)
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The way I did it was to use a DC gearmotor from Grainger. ($50) I used a STDP relay and 2 limit switches to run the mechanism back and fourth.
I useda a sprocket and a chain drive to pull it in either direction.
It works pretty well but I wish the motor was a bit bigger than the 1/25 hp that it is. It seems to almost stall out some times. I might boost the votlage to see what happens...
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see my site for what i did:
http://dannygalaga.com/mame.htm
i used a tamiya planetary gear-box kit ($27 Australian, should be less than $20 USD). I used a 1/12 scale r/c wheel to drive the monitor base plate. this is on a 15" in a cocktail though. The total ratio is somewhere in the region of 2000/1 which rotates through 90 degrees in less than three secs. Good thing about this method is that if something goes wrong, the drive wheel will just slip instead of the motor stalling and burning out. I use an on/on toggle to activate. powered by the speaker transformer. No need for relays or anything.I d love to hear from anyone who has theirs switched by software!
larger monitors in an upright i would suggest hacking an electric screwdriver. theyve plenty enough torque.
Also, where I have stop switches for the motor, i also have switches to turn the monitor on and off. being a 15" pc monitor it normally degausses in the three seconds or less time it is off. But i will add a relay with a capacitor to delay it switching on for another second after it stops moving. Commando in particular seems susceptable to problems- the corners go purple.
here is a GIF of the beast. for a short movie of it in action go to the bottom of the 'craftwork' section on my site.
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forgot to mention my thoughts on stepper motors. i think to have one powerful enough would be quite expensive. remember you wont just need the motor, but a controller as well. in industrial applications they are ideal because of their accuracy. But here its not that neccessary. you dont need to get within 1/60 of a dgree or anything!
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here you go!:
http://www.retrospieler.de/
i think i got this link from above somewhere. what isnt mentioned is that he is using an automotive wiper motor. you could pick one up really cheap from a car wreckers. HEAPS of torque, only drawback is that with that torque comes the requisite power consumption. so youd either have to get a largish power supply for it or what i would do (and i think i will if i build an upright) is have a small 12v gel-cell being trickle-charged by an existing power source. my speaker power is 15v for instance so that would be fine
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You can get the Tamiya Planetary Gearbox here:
http://www.pololu.com/products/tamiya/0070/
for only $18.00 with free shipping. I'ver ordered there before and they are great.