My standalone CP project

[llars]

I'll start off with a little background. Like most people here one of the things I have always wanted was a game room with a pool table, bar, pinball machine, Tron Cabinet (favorite game growing up), Mameroom UAII Cabinet, and a projector. Being impulsive I bought a blank quad panel from arcadesrfun a few years back when they were still selling them with the intent of building it after I bought a place. Well as luck would have it I ended up buying a condo instead of a house and the panel is still unassembled waiting for the day I have space for a true dedicated game room.

Being that still is quite a ways off I decided to build a stand alone control panel to bide me over. For controls I want to have a trackball, spinner, dual sticks for Smash TV, and a Capcom layout with an extra row for Neo Geo. I also wanted something somewhat portable and a limited number of cables to plug in since this won't be attached to a cabinet. I already own an Ipac4 (part of the quad blank impulse buy) but that's overkill for this and I'd still need separate USB cables for the trackball and spinner.

One of the downsides of having a condo is a distinct lack of space. My garage is big enough for my car and some metro shelving but that’s it. That means all I have are basic power tools, no router or table saw. So I figured I would draw up plans for the panel and have someone build the box for me then do the rest myself. So that brings me to the present, I have the plans finished and a fellow BYOACer is in the process of building it.

Here are some renderings I made up for the panel. This is basically a Capcom layout with an additional stick to the right for Smash TV. I opted for two rows of four buttons as opposed to the standard seven button layout most people use. Although button 8 probably won't get much use I like the uniformity of the layout better and I am OCD about those kind of things. The top row contains coin and start buttons, admin buttons, and a spinner. This panel is strictly for solo use but I figure with two sticks and 8 buttons I can play older games like gauntlet and control P1 and P2 myself if I want to.

[llars]

During the design process I started looking around at a lot of the different vendor sites trying to figure out the best way to approach the hardware while minimizing the number of cables coming out of the box. A standard setup would have three USB cables coming out and I definitely don’t want to have to plug this thing into power. While looking around the Ultimarc website at the Ipac2, I discovered their Mini Pac product which basically combines the functionality of the Ipac2 and the OptiPac into one board so you have inputs for 32 switches plus their trackball and spinner.  I also decided on using Sanwa JLW-UM-8 joysticks because I prefer the bat top and I wanted something that wasn’t as boring as the look of the standard bat top (more on this in a future post). With this hardware in mind I finalized my plans for the box and it is in the process of being built.

So far I have ordered a U-Track with a red ball, the two sticks, a mini pac, and mounting hardware. I also ordered two Ultralux pushubttons to see how those feel vs. the standard convex pushbuttons. Electric Ice is not an option because the LEDs are 12v and I don’t want an external power source and they are significantly more money in bulk. If I like them I will order the rest and possibly a Pac Drive to power them. I still need to order the spinner and some other odds and ends I will get to as the build progresses.

[llars]

And here’s the overlay I am going to use on this panel. This is a modified version of the Space Paranoids artwork found here

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=39025.0.

[borals]

looking good!

Great idea as well, might make one for the old man 

[Donkbaca]

You are going to need another cable for the pac drive to drive the LEDS.  IF cable management is a concern, why didn't you just get a little non-powered 4 port USB Hub?  You put the hub in the box, only the uSB for the hub comes out.  YOu could plug ipac, trackball, spinner and Pacdrive all into the hub.

All in all a pretty good design, though I think the 8 buttons are a little much, but I understand the reasoning.

[drventure]

+1 on the hub idea. Works great and reduces the cables. Beware that you MIGHT need to use a powered hub though, and that means one extra cable (a power cord). But maybe not. Just have to try and see.

I like the layout and artwork, but that spinner looks like it'd be kind of oddly positioned for comfortable use. But then, my cp is likely no better so take that with a grain of salt 

[llars]

Hmmm. Are you sure about that? I was under the impression that a non powered hub has a 500ma limit across all devices and if I light all push buttons and the trackball that's 420ma alone.

[llars]

Box construction started.

[llars]

Got my latest Ultimarc order in today, here's a little teaser for later. I hacked the business end
off of a USB cable and wired the +5v and ground directly to the LED (insert kids don't try this
at home disclaimer here) just to see how it lights up for now.

[llars]

Ok time for tonight's update. First item from today's order are two white Ultralux pushbuttons.
I grabbed a couple so I can see how I like flat pushbuttons vs the standard convex I am used
to. I have more than enough standard pushbuttons to fill the CP. In retrospect I should have
ordered a red and a white so I can see how the red lights up, perhaps I'll gt one with the next
order.

For the time being I am going to splice them into a USB cable to play with the lighting. First i
took a standard AB cable and hacked off the end. Red is +5v, black is ground. Green and white
are for data xfer so they aren't needed in this application.



Next we have your run of the mill Cat-5e cable. I am going to be using two pair to wire up the LEDs.



And some odds and ends to splice the cables together.



Quick Connects crimped to the Cat-5e.



And the two cables spliced together.



Here's the Ultralux fully disassembled.



Wired up to the USB cable.



And the money shot.



I am happy with the brightness of the push buttons. They aren't blinding but do give off a
pleasant glow.

[llars]

Next items up for bid are two longer shafts for the JLW and some harder springs. I suspect I will be needing these once I am done fully modding the sticks.



The extended shaft is 10mm longer than the standard shaft. Doesn't seem like much but every little bit helps in a wood CP.



Here's the JLW fully dissassembled. The restrictor is a bit of a bear to take off but it does make it easy to switch from 4-way to 8-way.



JLW reassembled with the longer shaft. I also put a nut on the threads to make the bat top sit a bit higher. It's all about the length. 



And with the bat top back on. Don't have the other one here atm to show a height comparison.

[llars]

The last item in the order is the Mini Pac. It comes with three wiring harnesses; one for the pushbuttons and sticks, one for a trackball / spinner, and a ground harness. My one gripe about the entire order is the Mini Pac did not come with any mounting feet given its cost. 300 dollars in Ultimarc products so far, would have been nice if they were included. I'll have to add that to my next order...



Here you can see how small the encoder really is. I was suprised when I saw it.

[llars]

Latest CP progress

[llars]

Small update today. I placed my third Ultimarc order this week for the spinner and two of the red Ultralux pushbuttons. Assuming I plan to light the panel, my last order would be for the rest of the buttons, a lighting module for the trackball and a PacDrive. My HTPC (Dell Zino) has two USB ports on the front so I am cool with up to two USB ports if I decide to light the CP.

I removed 8 of the wires coming off of the main harness for the MiniPac that will not be used.



Two of these wires were added to the optical harness for the mouse buttons. The harness does not come with these wires.



I also created a new wiring harness to accommodate 4 LED's.



And I dug out enough push buttons to fill out the CP for the time being. The blacks came off a Hot Rod stick and the rest are Happ. They all have Zippy switches on them.

[llars]

Latest order came in today. Ultimark SpinTrak with red top and the big flyweight. In another thread it was shown that the standard top has a machined look to it. The red top is very smooth. Smexxy.




Two red Ultralux pushbuttons. First pic is the buttons, Second picture is lighted with flash, third is without flash.





I decided to stick a white LED into a red pushbutton to see what kind of a difference it made. Doesn't look as bright.




I have a few other odds and ends I either need to order or are on the way but they are not necessary for getting the CP up and running. I am holding off on getting the overlay printed until I get the CP which is close to completion.

[llars]

So the other night I was bored and of course I have all these new toys sitting around waiting for a CP to go into. I decided why not put some of them to use! I grabbed a plastic layout and drilled out holes for a neo geo type layout plus the spinner. I only have 1" and 1.25" hole saws so the holes were slightly larger than the buttons. I had to clamp them down pretty tight against one side to keep them in place. It's not pretty but it does work. Few things I discovered from this experiment of insanity:

I was originally going to mount the Ultralux pushbuttons but the nuts do not screw all the way up against the flange around the pushbutton so they floated loose on the plastic. I think the gap is around 1/4" if memory serves so that could pose issues with metal CP's unless you put a spacer above the nut.

I also discovered that the nut on the Spintrak goes on very tight onto the base and rubs against the wires. It looks like it did a bit of damage to the wires before I realized what was happening but it works fine presently.

[llars]

Been a while since my last update but I finally have some new stuff to post. The control panel arrived today and it looks great. Each piece is pre-drilled with holes for dowels aside from the other holes for the buttons and such. The top panel looks dirty in the pics because there is sawdust between the wood and plexi.

[llars]

First thing I need to tackle is installing the t-molding. All of the pieces that will be getting t-molding are 5/8", the rest is 1/2". On the top panel there is a 1/8" sheet of plexi so 3/4" t-molding fits snugly on that. The problem with the sides is that I can't find 5/8" in the black leather so it is about 1/16" wider on each side. On my first attempt, I tried trimming down the sides of the t-molding but it looked uneven so I decided to leave it uncut.

[llars]

Next up is the back panel. I purchased two USB passthrough adapters to mount into the CP. The ends are reversible so I oriented them to have the A end facing out of the CP.




These adapters have a very weird diameter, 23.6mm, or 0.929". I used 1" holes and wrapped electrical tape around the adapters so they would fit more snugly into the holes and then fastened them with screws.

[llars]

Now I am ready to start assembling the box. Started with the back and bottom, then added the front, then the sides. It feels relatively solid but I might add some L-Brackets to it.

[llars]

Here's a few test shots of the control panel sitting in the box. It's going to be mounted to the front of the box with hinges. I ran into a bit of a hitch here. My measurements were so exact that the control panel rubs against the molding on the sides because it sticks out a bit. So I had to trim back the edges along the inside to keep it from rubbing when lifting off the control panel. I may get some dark blue or possibly red molding down the line since I can get that in 5/8" It should still match with the graphics.





And here's some shots of the bottom showing the mounting for the sticks and trackball.

[llars]

Next is installing the hinges. When open the panel will sit at a 90 degree angle to the bottom. The hinges are also pretty strong so I don't have to worry about the panel flying open during an intense gaming session.

[llars]

Finally here's some test mounts of the trackball and one of the joysticks. The trackball appears to be dead on from what I can tell.




This is the JLW with no modifications, so it will be a bit longer than this once I am done. That's it for tonight. I have not yet ordered the overlay so I am in a bit of a holding pattern again as far as assembly. I can mount buttons temporarily to play but I won't do a full assembly till I have the overlay.

[emphatic]

Very nice work! 

[Benevolance]

It's looking good. I love those money shots of the CP construction. It's pure, unadulterated BYOAC pr0n.

The trackball on the far right is an interesting choice. Curious if you've that layout before?

[BobA]

Looking good.   

[TopJimmyCooks]

Great looking build.  Was there an advantage to using 2 USB passthroughs rather than using a usb hub inside the CP? 

[llars]

The placement of the trackball was based on this only being a 1p panel. If I was doing a full 2p layout then I'd definitely have put the trackball in the center. After some playtesting it probably would have made more sense to put the trackball on the left and the P1 controls on the right so I'd have more room for my left hand to rest on. That's one of the downsides of not being able to cut scrap to do play tests. After it's all said and done I am still happy with the layout of the cp and it is usable for me.

The problem with the USB hub is I would still be restricted to 400ma per cable (to the computer) unless I used a powered hub. Since this is going to move between my home theater and office I didn't want to have to mess with power. My HTPC (which also moves from room to room) has 2 USB ports on the front so I figure I'll take 2 AB cables and zip tie em together.

I decided to order some red t-molding, so I'll be replacing that relatively soon. Also I decided to whip up some graphics for the sides and placed an order for it today. Still need to order the overlay.

[llars]

Here's a side by side shot of the JLW's. On the left is the standard unmodified JLW. On the right
is the JLW with the extended shaft and the hex nut under the bat top. Side by side you can see
a significant height difference.



I really didn't like the look of the boring plain old bat tops and I can't play fighters with ball tops,
so lighted bubble tops were out of the question. I managed to find a happy medium on the SRK
forum. Someone found a local shop to anodize bat tops in large quantities so he resells them
through a couple of vendors. They are pretty impressive looking compared to the standard top.
For them to fit on a Sanwa I had to use an adapter.



Here's both shafts mounted into the CP. You can see the shafts are sticking out fairly well.



I also got some clear dust washers with a hadouken arrow pattern on them. They should look
good sitting on the acrylic. The nuts and adapters are threaded onto the shafts.



And with the bat tops on. The bat tops (and usb pass through) were purchased from Lizard
Lick. They stock around 7 different colors for the bat tops. I was going to get matching shaft
covers but the pre made ones won't fit on the wider JLW shaft.

[emphatic]

Looking good! 

[llars]

Wow, only three weeks since the last update? Slacker!

I've had the side art and new molding sitting here for a good week and a half and I finally
decided to get some work done on this. Here's the finished side art. It came out very nice.



Since the old molding stuck out from the edge of the wood I figured it would make a good
guide for mounting the siding. So I removed the old molding, cut it down, and put sections
along the bottom and one of the sides.



After getting the siding applied, I removed the molding and trimmed down the siding to
match the wood.




Here's the new 5/8" molding. It's a nice crimson color.I cut it to size and mounted.
Rinse and repeat for the other side.

[llars]

So here's the box with both sides complete. The red provides a nice contrast to the black wood.




Next up is putting the new 3/4" molding on the top panel. It's a simple matter of peeling off.
the old, and trimming and mounting the new.




And here's a few shots of the current progress. Trackball and sticks are mounted and I put in
the 4 LED buttons I have currently to hold the plexi in place. One issue that has arisen since
starting assembly is the plexi has started to bow a bit. I am afraid I may have to bolt the plexi
to the wood if it doesn't flatten out because it doesn't look so good as it currently lays.

Next item I need to order is the overlay, then the remainder of the LED pushbuttons.

[emphatic]

That looks superb! 

[TopJimmyCooks]

Great looking box, very classy.  Is the side overlay laminated?  You may get handwear on the sides with no protective covering.

[Nacimroc]

Great job! Nice and neat! Those battops look fantastic! (Off to order myself a few) 

[BobA]

Great looking CP.