Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: NIVO on June 27, 2006, 09:05:58 pm
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well its about time i finally got around to gettin this badboy finished to the point where i felt i could show pics. The camera is not of the greatest quality(it was 3 years ago LOL) and i dont think the pics do this justice at all. But this is my latest meager creation called BIGTOP. I simply wanted a large tabletop and this is what design i had in my noggin. It is not completed of course(are they ever? :) and I've plans for a base cabinet as well, to house the sub, coin door, shelves for extra panels etc etc. Lots of items were handbuilt/crafted. For example, speaker grilles, marquee assembly, spinner knob(not shown), control panel(s), the access panel, and many others areas. The grey panel above the controls flips forward, which hides all control aspects(sound, monitor settings, dvd drive, power/reset. Control panel is attached with thumbscrews for quick changeouts of other panels(not completed). I do plan to get a website up in the near future, but this is all i have to show for now. I cant stop playing :cheers: Talk to you soon fellas. Game On.
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more pics below
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and a few more
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Well Nivo,
Let me just give you gratz for FINALLY finishing this baby off. Good job. And like i said before, she looks smooth as @ss. Btw, woot! first to reply! ;)
Mikey
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thank you sir. Yea many moons have passed, but im on the right track. Hopefully more work to come soon on this.
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got another pic. this one show the interior below the control panel and access panel. Dvd, power switch, monitor controls and sound remote all mounted under monitor shelf. Mobo is mounted to slide out if repair or mods are needed. Power supply is tucked underneath, and in the front you see a piece of metal mesh(this is the fresh air intake). The fan(pic above in another post) mounted in the the top of the cab is 120mm blowhole. Pulls all hot air out(turned out to be a perfect fit as it pulls 100% heat off the monitor.
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Hardware specs:
WG9100 monitor(new)
Abit VA-10 mobo
Athlon XP 2800(o'clocked to 2.3)
2 x 512mb Kingston 333 DDR
Toshiba DVD-Rom
Geforce FX 5500 128mb
Creative Audigy 2(softmodded to Audigy 4)
Logitech Z-340 speakers
Xp pro SP2 running regged version of GameEX fe.
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I love the quality of the metal working. Could you go into more detail on how you made those parts? You have access to a metal shop don't you? Also, are the spinners located above the joysticks? :applaud:
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thx ben, woot go bucks!. The items above the sticks you refer to are button fillers. I actually was gonna use admin buttons, but they looked out of place and cluttered, so I just enclosed them to retain the smooth surface. I am currently working to build 2 more metal panels. The next will be my trackball panel with a 3" betson, and ambidextrous 3 buttons per side. The 3rd panel will be a multipanel. It will consist of a 4way/8way switchable stick, 6 button layout, and spinner with button layout. I have my own spinner knobs made for several years now, and will use that as well. Ive got to get someone to work on sideart for me hehe.
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Thanks for the reply. Please try to document the metal work as much as possible. I am really interested in that stuff. :applaud:
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will do, i'll write up a metalology mockumentary on this next panel(trackball) and try to walk you through it. It's gonna be a slow ride, as I work alot, so betta get your snacks ready :cheers:
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Nice one!
(And yes, a "metalology mockumentary" would be much appreciated.)
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a "metalology mockumentary" would be much appreciated.
What, like "This is Spinal Tap" ?
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Well ..
You said/wrote that, not me :)
PS. Maybe, just maybe.. a documentary would be of more use to all of us ...
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hehe, well, i have the blank panel bent and cut to size. But I cant take pics where I do the work as strobes are not allowed inside. So, I'll need to get it home, and if I can borrow the punch long enough to use at home ill have something to show soon enough. Cheers
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NIVO, that's a sweet tabletop! I'm using swappable metal CP's for my upright and I'm debating whether to use thumbscrews or industrial strength Velcro. My only concern is grounding the CP. Is your CP grounded or do you think it's not necessary?
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hi, thx for the comments. The cp is not grounded itself, rather the controls themselves. Not necessary to ground the panel at all. As for using thumbscrews or velcro, all I can say to this point is that the screws work perfect and allow fast change outs. With the velcro, I plan on doing some work in the future that may indeed use velcro applied to an idea I have.
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Very cool! Nice work, that CP looks very smooth, good job.
Where did you get those little legs your hard drive is mounted with?
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hello, thx. Those legs are actually drawer slide mount brackets. All you need to do is drill yourself some side holes corresponding to your hard drive dimensions and your all set, I then just used self tapping screws to the floor. Its very solid and lets air move around the drive. Just the right height if you needed to add a second drive. :)
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Hey, Nivo, how did I miss this one? Great job on that Bartop.
Did you make the documentary on metal work? I'm interested, as well.
KenToad
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hi thx for the comment. No sir I havent gotten to that yet Ken, I still plan to do a writeup as best i can hopefully soon. I am however modifying the access panel for navigation using a small trackball and small pushbuttons to act as the mouse buttons. Simple in design yet effective to almost eliminate the need for a keyboard(with the exception of typing in words and such). Hope to update soon as I get the chance to progress. Real life keeps me busy. Cya soon. :applaud:
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Hardware specs:
WG9100 monitor(new)
Abit VA-10 mobo
Athlon XP 2800(o'clocked to 2.3)
2 x 512mb Kingston 333 DDR
Toshiba DVD-Rom
Geforce FX 5500 128mb
Creative Audigy 2(softmodded to Audigy 4)
Logitech Z-340 speakers
Xp pro SP2 running regged version of GameEX fe.
Can you plz PM the details on the softmodded Audigy. Thx!!
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heya. Well good news and bad news on that front about the softmod. Good news is, the mod works. Not all THAT noticeable in terms of performance, but seemed to be a wee bit better at bringing out more spectrum in music files. Now for the bad; I uninstalled audigy 4 file(s) and reverted back to audigy 2 simply because it wouldnt play nice with Pinmame/Vpinmame or Future Pinball. :( I never did locate the problem as to why it F'd things up. Reverting back though and all was back to Norman :) Simply do a google search for Audigy 2 softmod, and youll get tons of links which cant point you in the right direction my friend. Im afraid I have since deleted all file info pertaining to it on the Bigtop. It did indeed work, so good luck if you give it a shot.
***make sure you set a restore point just in case, and if possible use driver cleaner to get rid of all creative lab remnants before proceeding with the hacked driver package that you will find.***
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wow looks like I havent updated this thing in quite a while. I cant show you any cuts as they are being made where I am doing this as no strobes are allowed inside, but I can atleast show you effects as they progress.
OK, finally got going on this thing after a long layoff im sorry to say. But real life takes turns you cant account for...good or bad. You start off with a raw panel, unfortunately it was 22" exactly. Now in this case I didnt need it to be an exact 22" so I had to shave some off to get it to a width of 21 7/8" which will be a perfect fit once its finished and coated. Ive gone and marked the panel with a pencil to give me my center. Ive also marked in on the sides 1", which is taken in consideration for the mounting underneath. I cant put any buttons/devices outside of these lines. So next up is to get this trackball hole punched out.
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Me rikey a rot! Looks good man. I hope to see prenty of pics as this goes along. :cheers:
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now for another part, my access panel/nav panel:
OK, here is my access panel for the bigtop. I have decided to add Navigation natively instead of using an external mouse(for us folks who like to use a mouse to navigate in stead of always using a joystick/button combo.) I personally love more options to choose from so this is it. I am hacking a Fellowes thumb mouse. I had to specially order and cast 3/4" clear acrylic balls for this as it will be lighted. I wont even tell you how obscene the cost was for having these made special(they have no seams and are perfect). You'll have to locate a shop near to have these done as well. I have drilled my 3/4" dia hole as seen in the panel on the drill press. It did however scar my panel slightly, but no worries as I can fix that with ease. It did leave a slight inflection on the outer rim of the cut as well, No matter, a few careful passes with the countersink and the burred edge was cleaned up. The next step will be in soldering the mouse pcb for extensions to some external mini buttons which will of course be left/right buttons. Once this is completed a custom bracket will be made in which the pcb will be hot glued to the bracket. The bracket intern will be mounted to the Nav panel using velcro, as I wish to retain a smooth panel with no screws involved(except for the bottom of the panel which is where the hinges are attached). The height of the ball will appear to not protrude much from the surface of the panel. This is the intended height as it prevents accidental movement occuring as well. More pics will follow as I progress(which may be slow to come).
1st pic is what a thumbmouse looks like stock(mine was translucent blue/silver)
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Cool; I look forward to seeing how the Fellowes thumb mouse hack works out!
I almost bought one of these for my bartop project I am working on but went with a Kensington Orbit 1.5" translucent blue trackball instead... Not ready to install it however.
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*update* im still puttin along here. Busy busy with work, etc etc. Here is an updated pic of the trackball panel. okie dokie, got the 3" hole punched out. Marked where i want my buttons, now its 3 stages to go from here. 1/4" pilot hole for every button. Next is a 3/4" unibit to drill those out. Last is the punch itself and that part is finished. The two final stages will be coating of the panel, and finally wiring(which wont be much at really as the buttons are pre-wired for the trackball) only needed to do will be to wire start buttons and ground to my harness adapter. Piece o' cake really. I also might even make this panel screwless on the surface for control mounting, but ill come to that once this stage is completed. Nav panel hack is on hold until this panel is completed. Then prepping for 3rd panel will commence. Pic below showing the hole cut for the trackball, the pattern is jaggy, not the hole, it is smooth and perfect.
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well well been awhile :dizzy: just busy with life as it is im afraid. Good news is that i finished the access/nav panel to solve navigation problems. I found a slick little device called an "ergonomic touchpad". It is basically a glidepoint device, only 100x sexier ;) It does NOT have a plastic housing or chunky buttons which is what i wanted. Mounted with industrial velcro, it sits very securely and feels comfortable to use. Does everything you'd need it to do while working on your cab and setting it up. No mouse to pull out, or hook up this solves that problem once and for all(and even solves situations where you might not have a trackball or have one hooked up). This is where I have purchased it http://www.ergonomictouchpad.com/ergonomic_touchpad.php (http://www.ergonomictouchpad.com/ergonomic_touchpad.php) and for $30 it cant be beat in my opinion. Watch the how-to video while you are there to see how it works. Here below is a pic of it mounted to my access/nav panel.
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unfortunately i could not use the micro trac idea i had above in this thread. Too many tiny parts and much more hassle than it was worth. I am very satisfied with the touchpad and the clean look it presents.
OK, now for trackball panel news..............
I have finally gotten to the point of having the panel punched and ready(still need to drill five small holes for thumb screw mounting, i wont bore you with those details). Now I am ready to go have it coated with the same finish as my nav and control panel. I sure hope to have it done by the weekend as I want to get wiring run so that I can test it out with some Crystal Castles. I'll post more as it comes along. Here is a pic below of the panel in raw form.
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UPDATE: trackball panel completed. Big thanks to RandyT for sending out the Electric ICE™ RGB Trackball Lighting Upgrade Kit V2.0 so quickly to me this past weekend! A quick wiring mod to the led leads and I was lit up hehe. Using a quick disconnect 4 pin molex(using red and black wires of course), I am able to plug in disconnect quickly when changing panels. I dont have the best of cameras, but the pics below will show it lit and unlit. Havent decided if'n i want to light the buttons or not, im satisfied with it at this point(of course i change my mind near daily hehe). Buttons are wired up parallel so that they are ambidextrous for anyone who plays. This allows virtually anyone to play a trackball game and not be concerned which hand to use on either the buttons or trackball. Guests will point out they like this option(atleast they have here :applaud: )
Next on the horizon will be finally building the base cabinet which will have the coindoor, subwoofer, and house a shelf or 2 for my panels to reside in neatly. A very basic cabinet, laminated and clean and minimalistic.....just enough to do the job. Lastly I'll build my 3rd panel which will be a combo panel of an 8-way/4-way switchable ultimarc stick, spinner and of course buttons. Hope to update this in the near future as time allows me to do so.
Game On! :cheers:
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If you ever try the microtrac idea again, you can get 3/4" acrylic balls at mcmaster.com, about $15 for 25 of them. They are extruded, not cast, but I use them for a bunch of things and can tell you that their sphericity and clarity are very good. They also have translucent polycarbonate balls that are more expensive, $10 for 1, and I've never tried one so I don't know anything about its properties.
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Ive got a ton of those things i bought from a local place here. They look pretty much like glass and are great when lit. The trouble is the micro tracs tiny cheapo springs inside that hold the encoder wheels, they will not stay in place, and you of course cannot glue them. There might be a situation where i can try to make it work down the road, but i have seen similar hardware that appears to be much better on build quality. As for the arcade though, the ergonomic touchpad has been brilliant.
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wait, so why did you pay an arm and a leg to get a specially made cast acrylic sphere? what was different/special about it?
and have you come across any quality trackball assemblies that size that don't cost $200?
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i think you misread what was posted above. I'll clarify....I bought the ice upgrade(3" ball and lighting kit) for $37 to upgrade my new imperial i already had. As for buying the small acrylic spheres, they were reasonably affordable and can be used for future projects or some fruity interior decorating job. Hope that clears that up, as im not sure what arm and leg you are referring to good sir :dunno
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this could also serve purpose for navigation on an arcade/juke as well. You'd need pinouts to see if its even possible though
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I was referring to this:
I am hacking a Fellowes thumb mouse. I had to specially order and cast 3/4" clear acrylic balls for this as it will be lighted. I wont even tell you how obscene the cost was for having these made special(they have no seams and are perfect). You'll have to locate a shop near to have these done as well.
So I was under the impression that you were doing the mouse hack, had to special order a 3/4" acrylic ball for a lot of money, and then found that it didn't work so well and went with a 3" trackball instead.
right? no?
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well i did order them special yes, but turned out to not be expensive as i did some custom work for them as well so the cost was offset. No loss on my part except time and brain cells :banghead:
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sounds like a fair trade
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yes, they needed a arcade machine in the back office so i helped em through it. I love having friends in this hobby :applaud:
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Hello from beyond ;D been almost 2 years since a posting in here and felt frisky this morning to go ahead and get my third and final panel for this done. Well, not done exactly but to the point where i can get it coated and populated and wired. Then ill be done. This one is my multipanel which consists of an ultra magstik 4/8-way, 6 button arched layout, singular hole for the Turbotwist spinner from Groovy Game Gear, 3 button arched layout(this will tie to the 6 button bottom row for ambidextrous play with the spinner). And then what you see above the 3 arch layout is player1/player2. Very basic in design but spacious and not cramped. Should serve me very well. I hope to get more pics up as I progress along. Game On. :cheers:
Oh yea, big thanks to Franco for making my template custom order for the button layouts. If you need something like this and he's still doing them, get in touch. He is a great guy and he will get you going in the right direction. Thanks to Andy for getting me my stick(s) and balltop shafts. And a big thanks to Randy for getting me the spinner assembly so quickly. Looking forward to getting this going.