What's the best type of wood for this type of Arcade Cabinet?

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I'll be building a MAME project in the summer, and I'll be using an X-Arcade Dual Joystick(the type with the Track-Ball) as the controls for the MAME cabinet. I know that the X-Arcade Dual Joystick with the trackball is about 20 lbs. So I just wanted to know, what type of wood can support the X-Arcade Dual Joystick controller best without putting too much weight pressure on the wood so that the wood wouldn't break?

[GregD]

20 lbs is not a lot of weight.  You can use anything you want.  Plywood, mdf, mdo, melamime.....  Do you already own the tankstick?  If not, why not just build your own controls?

[kahlid74]

That's really not a lot of weight.  Like ArcadeSeeker said any wood would work for you weight wise.  There's lots of other things to consider as well when choosing wood.

[ArcadeSeeker962]

20 lbs is not a lot of weight.  You can use anything you want.  Plywood, mdf, mdo, melamime.....  Do you already own the tankstick?  If not, why not just build your own controls?

I do not own the tankstick yet. I'm don't really have any skills in electric soldering(unless if it's easier than what people make it sound), so I might not be able to build my own controls. 

I'm basically going to build my MAME cabinet around a computer monitor & hard drive, so I'm kind of using the easier method for building an arcade cabinet.

I'm sorry, I'm just new to all of this, so please forgive me if what I'm describing sounds odd.
   

[drventure]

As has been said, just about any wood will work.

I'd stay away from 1/4" stuff, though, 1/2" is better, 3/4" is pretty typical for control panels, esp if you'll lean on it, bang on it while playing etc.

For the cab sides, whatever you want, YOu'll likely go thinner on the sides to save weight. Ply, Luan, thinner MDF, all would work, esp if you frame things internally.

If the sides WILL BE structural (and in many cabs they are), you might want to go with thicker ply or MDF.

Soldering a CP, connecting the wires etc isn't anything to shy away from. It's pretty easy once you get going. Might take a little while, that's all.

If you throw in RGB lights everywhere, that gets a little more crazy, but again, nothing to be afraid of.

Good Luck and have fun!

[Rando]

20 lbs is not a lot of weight.  You can use anything you want.  Plywood, mdf, mdo, melamime.....  Do you already own the tankstick?  If not, why not just build your own controls?

I do not own the tankstick yet. I'm don't really have any skills in electric soldering(unless if it's easier than what people make it sound), so I might not be able to build my own controls. 

I'm basically going to build my MAME cabinet around a computer monitor & hard drive, so I'm kind of using the easier method for building an arcade cabinet.

I'm sorry, I'm just new to all of this, so please forgive me if what I'm describing sounds odd.  

It's not as easy as the people on the boards will tell you, but it's definitely doable.  I have minimal electrical and no soldering skills, and was able to wire a CP with 2 sticks, a dozen buttons, and a trackball, without major issue.  You can checkout my project thread for the details of how I was in grave fear when faced with a tableful of buttons/wires, but in the end it wasn’t awful, and everything worked pretty quickly.

My setup isn’t as neat/pretty/well organized as others, but I’m only interested in it working, not how it looks underneath! 

Take a look and give it a shot!  And ask lots of questions here! 

[ArcadeSeeker962]

20 lbs is not a lot of weight.  You can use anything you want.  Plywood, mdf, mdo, melamime.....  Do you already own the tankstick?  If not, why not just build your own controls?

I do not own the tankstick yet. I'm don't really have any skills in electric soldering(unless if it's easier than what people make it sound), so I might not be able to build my own controls. 

I'm basically going to build my MAME cabinet around a computer monitor & hard drive, so I'm kind of using the easier method for building an arcade cabinet.

I'm sorry, I'm just new to all of this, so please forgive me if what I'm describing sounds odd.  

It's not as easy as the people on the boards will tell you, but it's definitely doable.  I have minimal electrical and no soldering skills, and was able to wire a CP with 2 sticks, a dozen buttons, and a trackball, without major issue.  You can checkout my project thread for the details of how I was in grave fear when faced with a tableful of buttons/wires, but in the end it wasn’t awful, and everything worked pretty quickly.

My setup isn’t as neat/pretty/well organized as others, but I’m only interested in it working, not how it looks underneath! 

Take a look and give it a shot!  And ask lots of questions here! 

Thank you for the advice about the control panel, I'm actually doing the MAME cabinet with my father, so I'll talk to him about it(I'll also check out your thread). If I'm guessing my fear of electric soldering was the same as yours Rondo, my fear was of having my fingers burnt or shocked by the wires. I thank you all very much for sorting out this issue. 

[drventure]

my fear was of having my fingers burnt or shocked by the wires. I thank you all very much for sorting out this issue. 

You might burn a finger soldering, but once you get the hang of how to hold the solder and iron, about the only way you'll burn yourself is by accidentally bumping the iron as you reach across your desk (not that I've ever done that  )

As for shocked. Never EVER solder anything with power connected to it! Hell, it's best never to work on electrical equipment with power on.

DON'T DO IT!

Now, with that said, the thing to remember about USB and the internals of a control panel is that it's all 5v dc. You'll get more jolt from touching your tongue to a 9v battery.

BUT I REPEAT, DON'T WORK ON ELECTRICAL STUFF WITH IT POWERED UP.

It's always possible you could get shocked, but it's much more likely that if you do short something out, you'll ruin whatever it is that your working on, ie joystick, motherboard, CPU, etc. Having to buy replacement stuff sucks.

And just in case you don't already know, if you find yourself messing around with arcade monitors or TV's of the older TUBE style, unless you're VERY FAMILIAR with what's in those things, just don't. Leave the case on, and continue on. Or better still, use an LCD monitor.

I say this because Tube tv's have a flyback transformer in them that can store a LETHAL amount of voltage. And they can stay energized for years after being unplugged. So if you do end up messing with one, be VERY CAREFUL with them.

[ArcadeSeeker962]

my fear was of having my fingers burnt or shocked by the wires. I thank you all very much for sorting out this issue. 

You might burn a finger soldering, but once you get the hang of how to hold the solder and iron, about the only way you'll burn yourself is by accidentally bumping the iron as you reach across your desk (not that I've ever done that  )

As for shocked. Never EVER solder anything with power connected to it! Hell, it's best never to work on electrical equipment with power on.

DON'T DO IT!

Now, with that said, the thing to remember about USB and the internals of a control panel is that it's all 5v dc. You'll get more jolt from touching your tongue to a 9v battery.

BUT I REPEAT, DON'T WORK ON ELECTRICAL STUFF WITH IT POWERED UP.

It's always possible you could get shocked, but it's much more likely that if you do short something out, you'll ruin whatever it is that your working on, ie joystick, motherboard, CPU, etc. Having to buy replacement stuff sucks.

And just in case you don't already know, if you find yourself messing around with arcade monitors or TV's of the older TUBE style, unless you're VERY FAMILIAR with what's in those things, just don't. Leave the case on, and continue on. Or better still, use an LCD monitor.

I say this because Tube tv's have a flyback transformer in them that can store a LETHAL amount of voltage. And they can stay energized for years after being unplugged. So if you do end up messing with one, be VERY CAREFUL with them.

Thank you for warning me about soldering and working with arcade machines, I'll keep all of that info in mind.

[drventure]

No problem.

Not trying to scare you off or anything, just a few things to be aware of, that's all.

[Yenome]

you could buy the Value edition of the ipac2 from ultimarc. it uses simple euro design screw down terminals. Or better yet the xin mo from groovy game gear. It comes with a wireharness and all you have to do it connect the ends to the right button. Or the mini-pac from ultimarc has the same deal as the xin mo going on. bonus on the xin mo is its ps3 compatible. But i had 0 soldering skills and was still able to with out burning my self but once(reaching across the table) was able ot wire two controllers and two keyboard hacks.

[ArcadeSeeker962]

No problem.

Not trying to scare you off or anything, just a few things to be aware of, that's all.

Well, I'm glad you made me aware of a few things. I also have a high tolerance for pain as well. 

Thank you to everyone for helping me out so far. Me and my father are going to start the assembling of my Arcade Cabinet and Control Panel once the weather gets better in the area I live in. However, if I have any more questions about building a MAME cabinet, I'll post them. 

[kahlid74]

Learn to solder.  It's an invaluable skill and about the finesse/accuracy.  Don't let it scare you.

[GregD]

Why are we talking about soldering?  You don't need to do any soldering to wire up a control panel.  The buttons accept female crimp connectors and most keyboard encoders use screw terminals to accept the other end of the wire.  There is no need to do any soldering at all. 

[lordnacho]

While soldering may be good to know, I haven't had to do it on my arcade stuff.  Did fix my tv though and saved a grand when a capacitor blew.

Wired an ipac2 last night, switched out a u360 with the button harness.  Fingers are a bit sore today, but was more time consuming than anything.  Worse thing that happened, is I wasn't paying attention(watching Game of Thrones) and wired one of the buttons to the NC connector, windows was freaking out, I think it was the alt key so every left click was registered as a right click or something.  Then getting it off, it was so snug I nearly bent the microswitch.   

[drventure]

+1 on soldering


If you're thinking of wiring up LED's, yeah, you'll likely need to solder a little.

But for just sticks and buttons, you really shouldn't need to solder at all. Quick connects and a crimper is all you need.

[Rando]

+1 on soldering


If you're thinking of wiring up LED's, yeah, you'll likely need to solder a little.

But for just sticks and buttons, you really shouldn't need to solder at all. Quick connects and a crimper is all you need.

-1 on soldering

I haven't soldered a thing yet, and have no intention to!

[kahlid74]

I was more speaking from a skill to learn for life perspective.  You don't have to soldering anything if you don't want to for Arcade stuff, but if you start retrofitting old machines or messing/hacking stuff you'll need to then.

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I'm actually considering going into electric engineering as a career(even though I'm 19, I'm still a bit behind in high school), so I would really like to learn how to solder. However, I discovered that I don't need to learn how to solder when it comes to building a control panel for my MAME cabinet(I'm planning on not including LED's in my control panel). It will be a USB-powered control panel. From reading previous threads, though, it sounds like that soldering Isn't required. Either way, electric soldering/engineering is one of my choices for a career, so it'll probably be my career choice.

[lordnacho]

Don't buy a soldering kit from Radio Shack like I did.  (Was in a bind)  It's main and only purpose is to melt solder and couldn't. 

[ArcadeSeeker962]

Thank you for the warning. Is Home Depot a good choice for buying a starter kit in soldering? I saw starter kit there awhile back.

[Vigo]

Home depot should be fine for a soldering iron. I think they sell Weller brand ones, and I still use a weller as my primary iron even though I accidently stepped on it and it is a little cracked. My other iron is a cheap radio shack one. It works fine, but I swear you have to wait 15 minutes before it is hot enough to use. Must have been the same model lordnacho had. 

I have been soldering for about 8 years now, and my work fine, but is still often ugly looking.  Still, I am proud of my skill and am glad I know it. If you go into Electrical Engineering, best of luck! I probably would have liked that much more that what I ended up going to college for.

If you want to get the hang of soldering, what I did was grab a random old circuit board from a broken stereo or whatever you can find that was destined for the trash. Then just "play around" Melt connections and remove parts. Put them back on. soldier a piece of wire from point A to point B. 

[ArcadeSeeker962]

Home depot should be fine for a soldering iron. Still, I am proud of my skill and am glad I know it. If you go into Electrical Engineering, best of luck! I probably would have liked that much more that what I ended up going to college for.

If you want to get the hang of soldering, what I did was grab a random old circuit board from a broken stereo or whatever you can find that was destined for the trash. Then just "play around" Melt connections and remove parts. Put them back on. soldier a piece of wire from point A to point B. 

Thank you for letting me know about my choice for buying a soldering iron from. I think electric engineering will be my choice for my career. My mother(yep, she's involved with all of this to some degree too!  ) is going to call the local tech school in my area to look to see if an appointment can be setup for me to see what the tech school has to offer. It was going to be either electric soldering, or go to a game design school(since I'm designing my own video game from scratch by drawing everything out). However, I heard game design schools are very hard to be accepted into, so I'm going to choose electrical engineering as my career choice(so that I can solder all sorts of things). I do have a SNES controller that I was going to use with RetroUSB's adapter, but it's not really working out too well, so maybe I'll solder that and turn it into an SNES fighting stick. Also, thank you for wishing me luck for my career choice.

[EvilNuff]

Speaking as an EE degree holder, EE is not all about soldering and wires.  There can be mostly or all theoretical and computer designs without really prototyping anything.  That's not to say that soldering and wires isn't fun, because it is, but that was a small part of my degree. 

FYI I am certainly biased but I think its a fantastic degree choice.

[ArcadeSeeker962]

Thank you for your approval of my career choice. I'm guilty to admit that I actually don't go to a high school, but a home-schooling co-op(a school for home schoolers).    As much as a lot of people I know at the home-schooling co-op(including my teachers) suggest I go to game design school, I feel like that electric engineering would be a better choice, due to the fact that the game design field is highly saturated. However, I had to make a Tri-Fold, so I chose game design(since I put it together nearly last-second) for my career class at my home-schooling co-op. Either way, I know for sure that electrical engineering will be my choice. 

[Unstupid]

Thank you for your approval of my career choice. I'm guilty to admit that I actually don't go to a high school, but a home-schooling co-op(a school for home schoolers).   As much as a lot of people I know at the home-schooling co-op(including my teachers) suggest I go to game design school, I feel like that electric engineering would be a better choice, due to the fact that the game design field is highly saturated. However, I had to make a Tri-Fold, so I chose game design(since I put it together nearly last-second) for my career class at my home-schooling co-op. Either way, I know for sure that electrical engineering will be my choice. 

Wow... You are smarter than your teachers!  Besides electrical, I'd also check out mechanical engineering... There is a lot of money there! 

[ArcadeSeeker962]

Wow... You are smarter than your teachers!  Besides electrical, I'd also check out mechanical engineering... There is a lot of money there! 

Thank you for the compliment. I'll also look into mechanical engineering as well. Thank you for the recommendation. I know I said that I'd be offline for awhile, but I wanted to post this just to be polite.  Anyways, the reason I'll be offline for awhile is because of the fact that I want to read the book that saint published, along with sitting down with my father and talking about my choices for the cabinet design and control panel. Anyhow, see you all again soon!

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I learned how to crimp and cut wires, and I really enjoyed doing it, so I'd have to say that electrical engineering would be a good choice as a career(as long as cutting and crimping wires is a part of electrical engineering) for me. 

[walterg74]

Kudos on finding your path, however, I'm puzzled as to why you keep calling it "electrical" soldering.... Afaik, that is the one with the electrodes and stuff and that leaves you blind if you don't use the mask   if you want to categorize it, maybe "electronic" soldering would be more appropriate. The "electric" field is usually so termed for the high power/industrial aspects of electricity, and is a completely different field than electronics engineering.

Cheers!

[ArcadeSeeker962]

Kudos on finding your path, however, I'm puzzled as to why you keep calling it "electrical" soldering.... Afaik, that is the one with the electrodes and stuff and that leaves you blind if you don't use the mask   if you want to categorize it, maybe "electronic" soldering would be more appropriate. The "electric" field is usually so termed for the high power/industrial aspects of electricity, and is a completely different field than electronics engineering.

Cheers!

I'm sorry, I actually meant to call "electrical soldering", "electric soldering". However, if you're referring to "electrical engineering", than I heard that was the correct term. However, when I do learn to solder, I am plan on wearing the mask to protect my eyes(I already knew that it was a safety requirement).

[mcseforsale]

Zero solder control panel:





Really, just find where the encoders go and do one wire at a time.  On a suggestion by Knievel, use solid-core doorbell wire since it's stiff and holds its shape.


The only thing I soldered on the entire cab was the LED leads on the speakers...and that's only because they were already soldered together with the speaker + and - leads, so I had to de-solder them.

No soldering:



AJ

[ArcadeSeeker962]

Thank you for clearing that up for me, mcesforsale. I'm choosing the IPac 2 interface, so I hope it's compatible with solid core wires. I heard that the IPac 2 isn't compatible with solid core wires, is that true?

[mcseforsale]

You should be ok with the ipac. Mines an ipac4. The only issue with solid core wires is they can fatigue. But mine won't ever move so...

If you look at the top pic you can make out an ipac4.

AJ

[ArcadeSeeker962]

You should be ok with the ipac. Mines an ipac4. The only issue with solid core wires is they can fatigue. But mine won't ever move so...

If you look at the top pic you can make out an ipac4.

AJ

Yeah, I did notice the IPac 4 on the inside of your control panel. I was actually considering the IPac 4 over the IPac 2, because it looks like it's better for a two player setup.

Here's the two player set-up I'm going for:

Controls:
2 Omni II 4/8 Way Joysitck with Economy Black bat Tops,along with Smooth Joy Switches(from Groovy Game Gear)
6 Red Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
6 Blue Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
1 U-Trak(Pearl White), from Ultimarc
1 Optional Trim Bezel for U-Track(from Ultimarc)
1 Player 1 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)
1 Player 2 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)

The joysticks on the control panel will be automated.

[GregD]

You should be ok with the ipac. Mines an ipac4. The only issue with solid core wires is they can fatigue. But mine won't ever move so...

If you look at the top pic you can make out an ipac4.

AJ

Yeah, I did notice the IPac 4 on the inside of your control panel. I was actually considering the IPac 4 over the IPac 2, because it looks like it's better for a two player setup.

Here's the two player set-up I'm going for:

Controls:
2 Omni II 4/8 Way Joysitck with Economy Black bat Tops,along with Smooth Joy Switches(from Groovy Game Gear)
6 Red Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
6 Blue Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
1 U-Trak(Pearl White), from Ultimarc
1 Optional Trim Bezel for U-Track(from Ultimarc)
1 Player 1 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)
1 Player 2 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)

The joysticks on the control panel will be automated.

You do not need an Ipac4 for a two player setup.  That would be overkill.  It has 32 inputs and your list of controls only utilizes 22 inputs.  Plus, you still don't list buttons for Player 1 Coin and Player 2 Coin.  Buy extra buttons just to have in case you get a bad switch or break the button when installing the microswitch. 

[alfonzotan]

Home depot should be fine for a soldering iron. I think they sell Weller brand ones, and I still use a weller as my primary iron even though I accidently stepped on it and it is a little cracked. My other iron is a cheap radio shack one. It works fine, but I swear you have to wait 15 minutes before it is hot enough to use. Must have been the same model lordnacho had. 

I have been soldering for about 8 years now, and my work fine, but is still often ugly looking.  Still, I am proud of my skill and am glad I know it. If you go into Electrical Engineering, best of luck! I probably would have liked that much more that what I ended up going to college for.

If you want to get the hang of soldering, what I did was grab a random old circuit board from a broken stereo or whatever you can find that was destined for the trash. Then just "play around" Melt connections and remove parts. Put them back on. soldier a piece of wire from point A to point B. 

"The bigger the blob, the better the job!"

[mcseforsale]

+1.  Don't do the iPac 4 if you don't need it.  It's pretty huge and I have a BUNCH of stuff not being used.  I bought it used off ebay along with my joys about 5 years ago...that's why I'm running it at all.

AJ

You should be ok with the ipac. Mines an ipac4. The only issue with solid core wires is they can fatigue. But mine won't ever move so...

If you look at the top pic you can make out an ipac4.

AJ

Yeah, I did notice the IPac 4 on the inside of your control panel. I was actually considering the IPac 4 over the IPac 2, because it looks like it's better for a two player setup.

Here's the two player set-up I'm going for:

Controls:
2 Omni II 4/8 Way Joysitck with Economy Black bat Tops,along with Smooth Joy Switches(from Groovy Game Gear)
6 Red Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
6 Blue Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
1 U-Trak(Pearl White), from Ultimarc
1 Optional Trim Bezel for U-Track(from Ultimarc)
1 Player 1 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)
1 Player 2 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)

The joysticks on the control panel will be automated.

You do not need an Ipac4 for a two player setup.  That would be overkill.  It has 32 inputs and your list of controls only utilizes 22 inputs.  Plus, you still don't list buttons for Player 1 Coin and Player 2 Coin.  Buy extra buttons just to have in case you get a bad switch or break the button when installing the microswitch. 

[ArcadeSeeker962]

I apologize, GregD and mcseforsale. I was just confused about how many inputs each Joystick/Button produces. Here's an updated list on what will be on my control panel/cabinet:

iPac 2 Interface
2 Omni II 4/8 Way Joysitck with Economy Black bat Tops,along with Smooth Joy Switches(from Groovy Game Gear)
6 Red Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
6 Blue Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
1 U-Trak(Pearl White), from Ultimarc
1 Optional Trim Bezel for U-Track(from Ultimarc)
1 Player 1 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)
1 Player 2 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)
2 NovaGemCDR Coin Drop Replacement Buttons(From Groovy Game Gear)

Does this sound better?

[mcseforsale]

You're still good.  Here's a better picture of the iPac and what I'm not using.  It's a shame really.  It's the encoder on the right with all the yellow going into it. 



AJ

I apologize, GregD and mcseforsale. I was just confused about how many inputs each Joystick/Button produces. Here's an updated list on what will be on my control panel/cabinet:

iPac 2 Interface
2 Omni II 4/8 Way Joysitck with Economy Black bat Tops,along with Smooth Joy Switches(from Groovy Game Gear)
6 Red Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
6 Blue Classic Pushbuttons(Happ-sourced), from Ultimarc
1 U-Trak(Pearl White), from Ultimarc
1 Optional Trim Bezel for U-Track(from Ultimarc)
1 Player 1 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)
1 Player 2 Pushbutton(From Groovy Game Gear)
2 NovaGemCDR Coin Drop Replacement Buttons(From Groovy Game Gear)

Does this sound better?

[ArcadeSeeker962]

That looks like an awesome control panel. I hope you can figure something out with the iPac 4. 

Here's what I found for solid-core door bell wires:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202278735/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=door+chime+wire&storeId=10051

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=100626756&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&MERCH=REC-_-product-2-_-door%3bchime%3bwire%3b202278735-_-100626756-_-N

The only problem that I read with the green door chime wire is that the actual color for the wire is yellow, but I'm guessing that it won't be a problem. I noticed that it said that the one roll of wire was "single strand". Is that another term for solid core wires?