Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: Buddabing on May 18, 2006, 11:22:20 pm
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Inspired by MameMaster, I've decided to take his route towards swappable panels.
I'm going to take a HotRod SE controller and mod it to have one joystick, three buttons, and a trackball. I've got the parts necessary, I now have a T-Stick Plus but I may change it to a true 4-way later on.
I should have thought of this idea quite a while ago, I was trying to replicate the HotRod shape using plywood. I wasted a good bit of time and money on it. This way will be much easier.
Here are some pictures of the parts.
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Well, I was expecting something different...
>:D
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I hate to say it...but you may be better off with picking up the new dual xarcade with trackball....then you can just swap in the new parts you have! :cheers:
but a 1 player panel with a trackball and 4 way would be pretty cool too...you can probably squish in an Oscar spinner too....it has a tiny footprint.
....I actually inspired someone to do something....go figure. :laugh2:
good luck!
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My cabinet already has a HotRod in it, so this is the only way to go, unless the dual x-arcade has the same exact bottom dimensions as the HotRod.
The third panel will have a Defender up/down joystick, a spinner, 6 buttons in a mostly-Stargate layout, and a flight stick.
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All-righty!
The first thing necessary to do in this project is to move the keyboard connectors from the right hand side of the controller to the left hand side. This is because the trackball won't fit if the PCB if mounted on the right hand side of the box.
The guts of the controller looks like this:
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The outer frame of the controller looks like this. The part where the PCB is mounted is routed out of the frame, so I'll have to borrow the woodworking expertise of my next door neighbor. Basically, I'm going to route out a part of the frame on the left hand side so that it looks like the right hand side. Then the PCB will be mounted over on the left and side. I'll also make some extra holes for a molex power connector and a parallel port connector.
Maybe it'll take less than seven months for me to make more progress. Since my cabinet is down until this is done, that'll be an incentive.
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Well, it's been a while since I posted on this topic.
I put aside this project to pursue other projects. But now I'm back in business.
I got a 1 1/8" dowel and had my across the street neighbor cut it up into hole-sized pieces with his table saw. Then I glued them into the holes I wanted to plug.
After drying, the ends of the dowels were not exactly flush with the edge of the wood (melamine). That's where I left off some months ago.
Yesterday I bought a random orbit sander for another project so I used it to sand down the ridges so now the edges of the dowels are flush. It worked well because melamine doesn't sand and is already smooth. The sanding process also removed the remaining glue residue which was very laborious to remove.
Now I need to finalize the new control placement (a joystick, three buttons, a trackball, two start buttons and the two side pinball buttons).
I left a couple of the holes on the right unplugged because the trackball hole will go there.
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Part 1 of this project has finally been completed. The keyboard connectors have been moved from the right hand side of the back of the HotRod over to the left hand side.
There was quite a bit of fiddling around with the wires, I also had to route out an area of the frame in order to relocate the PCB. But, I guess the main reason I have taken so long with this project is that I got interested in other things like Guitar Hero and working on Khameleon.
All I have to do now is reconnect everything and the Purple Monstrosity will be back in business. I took the opportunity to upgrade the hardware to an Athlon 64 and a PCI-Express ArcadeVGA card. Now I am working on the software. I played a game of Robotron today for the first time since spring of '07!
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I thought I would raise this project from the dead. :police:
I moved a few months ago and found parts from this project in a box.
As a Coronaproject (tm) I am going to finish the swappable panel project. I'm going to convert the existing control panel to USB and finish two more panels.
Since I do not have a router or a handy next door neighbor, and I wanted to recess the trackball mounting bracket, I cut a hole to fit the mounting bracket for the trackball, then I put pieces of ruler around the hole to support the bracket. I need to find suitable screws to attach the trackball to the bracket.
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I read somewhere that painting melamine was very difficult, so I ordered some purple vinyl.
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Awesome.
So... see you in 10ish years for the unveiling pics?!
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I worked on my control panels this weekend. For Panel 3, I stripped off the existing graphics which were beat up. It took a lot of elbow grease and Goo Gone to get the panel down to the bare melamine.
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I could not find 1 1/8 dowels at the local hardware store, but they had a broom. I measured it and it was very close to 1 1/8 diameter. I bought it. Why not? Turns out it was perfect.
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I glued in the dowels and now panels 2 and 3 have the woodworking part done.
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Keep it up!
I had a 1.125 hole saw that I used to cut holes in metal CP’s. Turned out it made nice plugs for wooden panels too.
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I put vinyl on Panel 2. I have the tools necessary pictured here except one key one. I didn't understand that for this type of vinyl you have to transfer the vinyl onto what is called "transfer paper" and then transfer the transfer paper to the surface.
This resulted in panic when it didn't work.
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To apply the vinyl, the first step is to thoroughly wet the surface of the vinyl, peel back the backing of the transfer paper, wet that thoroughly, and align the transfer paper to the vinyl. Easier said than done because both the transfer paper and the vinyl were 24x12"
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Next step, you squeegee all the liquid out and let it dry.
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You now have to peel back the transfer paper, wet it with the solution, wet the surface of the control panel, and place the vinyl. Squeegee that out and let it dry. You can still see grid lines on top. Once it is dry, trim the excess off and then peel the top part off, revealing the finished vinyl.
I cut the vinyl from the bottom, sort of in a radial pattern, then pushed the excess down into the button holes.
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Controls added. The results was satisfactory, not perfect. There are some places where the plugs I used for the extra buttons show through. And there are some air bubbles.
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Okay, this panel (Panel 2) is done. I hooked up the buttons, trackball, and joystick.
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Then I neatened up the wiring a little bit. The panel is a bit crowded inside.
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I had finished Panel 1 a month or so back. I replaced the controller with a GPWiz-40 and wired everything up. For the outside connector, I found a suitable female USB plug, created a hole suitable for it, and hot-glued it in. This panel is finished.
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For Panel 3, I had the bright idea of trying to smooth the surface of the panel by putting a thin layer of epoxy on the top. So I cut up some index cards and taped them into the button holes. This was unnecessary and messy to remove. Then I cut up some rulers and screwed them into the sides of the panel to stop the epoxy from overflowing. Again, unnecessary.
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The epoxy experiment mostly worked. There were a few areas where the epoxy would not adhere, so I used some wood filler to smooth that out. Then I sanded down any areas. The panel is ready for vinyl.
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I ended up blowing off the epoxy and just directly applying vinyl without transfer paper. It worked. Once it dried I cut holes for the flight stick, spinner, and buttons.
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Wiring done. This Rod is Modded!
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I bought some closet shelving and modified it to put the control panels on. There is even room for Panel 4, which will be driving and light guns.
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This project is done. I started in May of 2006, so I was able to get it done in under fifteen years. :applaud:
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Good job - 15 years is not the worst around here. At least you finished! There are hundreds of projects that people start and abandon...