New Dual Spinner Panel - Pics Included

[Zeitgeist]

I just put the finishing touches on my new stand alone dual spinner panel.
This serves more or less as a test bed.
I hacked a USB mouse & relocated the optics using a couple of small project boards.
The encoder wheels are homemade as you can no doubt tell.
I came up with the idea after spending a lot of time reading all of the how to's & looking at pics of Oscar's designs.
The panel itself is covered with the self-stick vinyl that Oscar discovered over at PartsExpress & it's finished off with the obligatory T-molding.
Why dual spinners; why not?
Hope you like it!
Z

[Zeitgeist]

Here are more detailed pics of the spinner assembly:

[Ghoward]

That is way cool, it looks really good and a neat wiring job on the inside too.

But tell me how did you make the encoder wheels?

Gary

[Zeitgeist]

Thanks.
It was really simple.
I got the idea from this website:
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/files/Miscellaneous/spinner.pdf
What you do is print an encoder template on a sheet of paper, glue the template on to a piece of sheetmetal, & then cut it out with a band saw or just invert your jigsaw like I did.
Use a bench grinder to dress the edges.
There is a printable template available Nathan's pdf (above).
The one on his tutorial was made with plastic, but I prefered the weight gained by using metal.
I made one encoder (on the left) using his template but then I decided that I wanted more sensitivity so I had a friend make a new template up with more spokes using Autocad.
I will soon be making a couple more with differnt spoke amouts to try to get the best feel, hence the "test bed" comment.
Of couse I could always adjust sensitivity in the setting menu but I like to tweak.
Another great site with lots of info on the shafts, bearings & other hardware to use was:
http://www.gearheadlabs.com/spinner/
With the weight of the flywheels & encoder wheels, these things really spin freely.
I used the Spinner Roundup video to compare the spin times & I'm pretty happy with the results to say the least.
Hope this helps.
Z

[MameMaster!]

...OK....here's a dumb question....but I have to ask....what could you possibly play that requires 2 spinners?

The MameMaster  

[IceCold]

...OK....here's a dumb question....but I have to ask....what could you possibly play that requires 2 spinners?

The MameMaster  

2 player warlords, an atari 2600 homebrew game called Marble Craze and probably a bunch of other games I'm not thinking of.

[Edgedamage]

Great work nice and neat looking panel. Add a few more buttons and you could play two player Blasteroids.  

[hooded_paladin]

play missle command on that, etch-a-sketch style.  hahaha.

that's really nice

[MameMaster!]

...OK....here's a dumb question....but I have to ask....what could you possibly play that requires 2 spinners?

The MameMaster  

I guess since I never play Warlords I didn't think of that one. But regardless.....nice job (super neat wiring too!).

[Zeitgeist]

Sorry for the slow reply.
I didn't really have any games in mind when I decided to make this a dual spinner, but it was just as easy to build a dual as to build a single.
Thanks for all of the kind words.
Z

[Raider]

Use 'em as an alternative to those rotary stick games like Ikari Warriors as well. Although obviously the cp isn't set up for it.

Also they good little steering wheels. Feel much like that of an RC car controller. So add a lot of racers to the list also.

[paigeoliver]

Puchi Carat is a dual spinner game, I believe there are about a half dozen of them al together.

[soslo]

echo that Raider...a lot of driving games.