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Planning first project. X-Arcade or not?

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RandomCitizenX:
I have finally decided to start a project after lurking here off and on for about three years. The problem I am currently facing is whether I should completely scratch build or if I should buy an x-arcade to gut. It seems like the x-arcade may be the cheaper way to go, but I am not sure of the quality and know I want to do illuminated buttons eventually. I have already worked up a very rough sketch (attached below) of the cab I want to build in Sketchup. It is based off of the excellent Terminus, slim cabinet by markc74. I have a graphic designer buddy who is going to help with some custom art for the cp, marquee, and sides. I appreciate any advice that some of you more experienced builders may be willing to offer.

Epyx:
X Gaming sells two decent peripherals:

WG D9800 (Which they are a reseller for)
Betson Imperial Trackball Clone

Rest is junk.

I would buy your own parts and build your own CP...it isn't as difficult as you would think and is the main point of this website..build your own :)

Ginsu Victim:

--- Quote from: Epyx on March 25, 2010, 02:16:17 pm ---X Gaming sells two decent peripherals:

WG D9800 (Which they are a reseller for)
Betson Imperial Trackball Clone

Rest is junk.

I would buy your own parts and build your own CP...it isn't as difficult as you would think and is the main point of this website..build your own :)

--- End quote ---

Everything Epyx just said is the truth.

It's a good deal on a trackball, and I've heard it's actually pretty good.

Everything else, just buy the parts elsewhere and you'll be much better off.

mwong168:
If you are building the cabinet from scratch yourself might as well do the control panel from scratch too.  If you have one or access to a router that would be great since you need it to make the slot for the t-molding and recess from underneath for the HAPP or iL competition stick like this:




By doing that you get the proper height once the joystick is installed, it really bothers me when I see HAPP/iL sticks look like stubbies  :dunno

From the cost perspective you aren't really saving much and actually paying more for inferior quality arcade parts since X-Arcade makes their own HAPP knock offs in china.

KeyWiz40-ST PS2 Interface $35.95 (from groovygamegear.com)
iL 8-Way Eurojoystick $9.95 x 2 = $19.90
Happ Pushbutton with Horizontal Microswitch $1.55 x 16 = $24.80 [this will cover P1+P2]
Happ  Player Imprint, White Pushbutton with Horizontal Microswitch $1.95 x 2 = $3.90 [this will cover P1+P2 start buttons]
Happ Pushbutton with Horizontal Microswitch $1.55 x 2 = $3.10 [if you care for the side buttons for pinball games]
Wiring and pack of 100 quick disconnects $10
MDF wood required to make a stick enclosure $10-15

Total so far is ~$112.65 plus shipping where as an X-Arcade dual stick is $129.95 plus shipping.  In the end, you will end up with something that suits your needs 100% without having to settle and also a sense of accomplishment once your cab is done.  Also you won't get any grief when you post your project thread and people posting stuff like:

"ugh... x-arcade sucks!!!"
"nice cab but fugly control panel"
"how come you didn't make your control panel from scratch?"
"only a matter of time before the joystick or buttons fail  :banghead: "
etc....

mwong168:
Don't get intimidated with the wiring cause it is very simple to do, trust me I've done enough wiring in the past 9 months and I get better at it each time such as finding a better way to organize wires or orient the microswitches.  For example, I re-wired this X-arcade which I bought partially gutted from a friend of mine for $20 and I put in a GPWiz and dropped in some HAPP buttons for my cousin in Miami.  Took me just under 1 hour to wire using network cable and everything worked on the first try.



Now after doing a few panels I have learned that orienting the micro switches shown below as opposed to diagonal in the same direction makes for cleaner wire grouping.  Also didn't use network cable which allowed me to make the exact perfect length to each button's microswitch.



The only difficult part of wiring is the ground.  Depending on how many you are daisy chaining because once you have one bad connection in the middle your while sequence is affected and you have to trace one by one.  Fortunately I have been very lucky in all my panels and haven't had to spend too much time checking but aside from that the encoder boards such as the KeyWiz, GPWiz or I-PACs all come with screw terminals so just invest in a nice wire stripper (shown below), it was the best $3 I have ever spent next to the HAPP nut wrench aka  "knuckle saver" for $2  :laugh2:



Please start a new thread in the projects section and post pics once you get things started.  Good luck and welcome to the board.

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