How do you make wires going into the cabinet look good?

[nugarp]

Hi guys,

I'm thinking about the design of how my aimtrak wires will go into my cabinet. Each gun has 3 wires (USB, v+, v- for recoil) and I currently have 3/8 sleeving wrapping them. A bit of a digression but I've also ordered wire loom and spiral sleeving to try and make the sleeve look more rounded (right now the wire looks kind of bumpy because of the way the 3 wires are arranged along the length of the sleeving). I can report back on how I chose achieve , IMO, the best looking wiring for that.

What I was wondering was - what's the cleanest way you guys have thought of for the wires actual entry point into the cabinet? I was going to drill a 3/8" hole and feed it through but that would require feeding the USB header and voltage tips of the wire through the hole but that would require desoldering and resoldering the aimtraks if I wanted to disconnect them from the cabinet. Also - a plain hole doesn't look nice. I also tried to find grommets that would look good for the sleeving but couldn't. I also had the idea of feeding it though a pushbutton with no plunger but the smaller PBs seem to be designed for metal sheets and not wood.

Ideally I could drill a larger hole (5/8 or 3/4 or so) that would fit the USB connector and associated wires with QDs and sort of snap a grommet around the hole (do these exist? Where it's like 2 halves of a circle you can snap together so you don't have to worry about fitting connectors through the inner diameter?). Does that make sense? It would have an outer diameter of 3/4 or 5/8 with an ID of 3/8.

Happy to upload diagrams of what I mean when I'm home but curious as to how everyone else handled visible wiring entering the cab (from a very visible place - eg front or side)

[shponglefan]

One option is to fasten pass-through ports on the cabinet and then plug the gun directly into those.  Then on the inside, the ports are connected to whatever internal h/w you have them running to.  The advantage of this is the option to disconnect your guns from the cabinet whenever you want.

For USB, you can use something like this: http://www.avshop.ca/wire-amp-cable/connectors/type-panel-mount/neutrik-usb-a-b-pass-thru-blacktype

For the +v, -v, I'd probably look at using something like a standard DC 9v connector/port.

[nugarp]

Yeah, thanks for the suggestion. I actually ordered a couple of those USB adapters as I wanted to have two spare ports for extra 360 controllers (e.g. ddr mat), but I wanted the arcade to feel as authentic as possible and did not want the guns to be removable. There is also a hassle associated with aimtrak guns connecting/reconnecting and joystick assignments. As it is right now I have the cabinet fully set up for 2 players on joystick and 2 aimtraks or 2 wireless 360 controllers working at once. I also have a 2 and 4 year old niece/nephew running around and I don't want them plugging and unplugging wires.

I guess one option would be to try and use a regular usb pass through, take out the USB connector & use bondo to achieve desired effect. Would much prefer a premade solution since I can't paint for my life!

[nugarp]

I believe that this may be what I am looking for.

http://www.heyco.com/Liquid_Tight_Cordgrips/product.cfm?product=Liquid-Tight-Cordgrips-NPT

Heyco M3231 has a 0.62" thread length, which means I can at least keep my MDF at 1/2", and is designed for cables between 0.150 and 0.450 in diameter. Since I'm around 3/8 +/- 1/16, this is probably as good as I'm going to get. Ideally, you'd want the max diameter of the cord grip to match that of your cable, but I think this will be close enough. I've placed an order in for a few with mouser, along with their locknuts (Heyco 8463).



Requires a 7/8" mounting hole - no problem.

[ChanceKJ]

I've been toying with the idea to add a pair of these guns to my Flynn's build.

I was thiking running a 8 circuit cable and crimping my own USB connections to it. then using a desk mounted cable retractor to hold it all.

http://www.legrand.ca/wiremold/work-surface/integreat-cable-retractors/tbcr-integreat-cable-retractors.aspx#.U2svCl6z1go

This way i'd have power and USB all in one line, and it would be neatly tucked away in a retractor.  I'm designing a small horizontal door under my CP for quick access to the CPU and possible future storage for the guns.

[nugarp]

Yeah no doubt a single cable would be ideal. It's probably worth it to note that Andy has said he's working on a data+recoil single cable solution for AimTraks which would be awesome. Meanwhile, I got my connectors in the mail and for now have wrapped my cables in 1 red 1/2" split looming, covered with 3/4" red super tight weaving. I found the split in the looming to help with flexibility but tv setup is still not ideal. I'll post back with pictures probably next week with the setup of how my cables look if I get a chance to work on it.