Main > Main Forum
Modular controls panel discussion
telengard:
--- Quote from: DougHillman on March 12, 2004, 01:38:44 pm ---Bah. I no longer have any interest in Dzus fasteners.
telengard, I'd seen your site before and really like the idea of using rack mount stuff. Donno why that never occured to me in the first place, as I'm a DJ. :)
--- End quote ---
hehe, I used to be a DJ quite a long time ago but never dealt w/ rack mount stuff until I started working with computers. All I knew was the turntables and mixer. ;)
--- Quote ---What I don't want though, is much in the way of visable hardware. I'm not overly keen on the abundance of rack mount screws that are on the modules. I'd also like something that's quicker and easier to change.
--- End quote ---
I think you'd be surprised how easy it is to change the panels I have. I have really short screws and a hand held battery powered screwdriver. Doesn't take long at all. The molex connectors are pretty straight forward too. I used colored wires to make that easy. I do agree with you on the visibility part though. I have also found that I only really need two screws for each panel ( at least the smaller ones ) one at each diagonal.
For me it was *all* about stability. I'm seem to be a rough player and ( unconsciously ) pull and push joysticks really hard. What I did had to stand up to my beatings while playing Robotron! :)
--- Quote ---While discussing this with my girlfriend she pointed me in a good direction. She talked about some sort of friction fit. Her approach was a little different than what I'm thinking of now, but it got me going in this direction.
What I'm invisioning now is a system with something like the rack mount rails in the base control panel shell with sets of pins imbedded in each module. What I see are some sorta pins with the springed ball bearings at the end. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Any idea where to get something like this?
--- End quote ---
I looked for something like this, never found anything. That would have been ideal. The nice thing about the rack screws is that they aren't a specialty item. But I can appreciate your idea. That would definetly be easier to swap modules around with.
telengard:
--- Quote from: DougHillman on March 09, 2004, 12:43:54 pm ---Paige, sounds more like you're going with swappable panels. Modular is having seperate pieces for things like your buttons, sticks, etc and the assembling them in whatever order you need at the time. Here's a view of the seperate pieces I plan on having, along with the CP cutout which they will fit into. SO I can have all those different layouts without having to store a half dozen full sized panels. I only need to make room in the cab (or wherever) for the small seperate pieces that aren't being used.
Is anyone familiar with Dzus type 1/2 turn fasteners? Are they available in depths deep enough that they'd be usable on a CP?
--- End quote ---
Wow this looks just like what I've done. I have small 1U and 2U spacers also. That wood thing looks exactly like the metal frame I had laser cut too. Is this something you've built? I'd love to see pics.
I keep hearing about these Dzus connectors and think they are mis-typing Dsub. :P
I wanted to use some kind of half turn screws but they probably wouldn't work with the rack rails I'm using.
You bring up a good point about storing them too. I haven't figured that out yet although storing the smaller modules is easier than storing the 8 separate panels I had. ;D
DougHillman:
Haven't built it yet. Well, not outta wood at least. I'm in the process of making a foamboard mockup to finalize the sizes & stuff.
I've got a friend's cabinet to finish before I can get to mine. I'll post some pics of both when I get them.
Here's the home page for Dzus Fasteners
http://www.boomerangracing.com/Dzus.html is one of the multitude of places that sells them online. Donno if they'd be something that can be picked up at a local auto store or not though.
GGKoul:
Hello
I just thought I'll add my 2 cents to this discussion.
I'm panel on making modular panels as well, but with a twist.
Mine panel is presently is a 4 player cab with a trackball in the middle and a row of start & coin bottons along the top.
My plan is to keep my existing trackball in the middle and row of start buttons on the top. Therefore forming a "T" Shape when all modular panels are removed. See attached picture. The area in red will be removable.
So I'm planning to connect my modular panels to the existing "T" support mounts on the side and top of the panel. Therefore I can quickly slide a panel off and on with out losing trackball / Mouse support in Windows and I dont need to purchase a new set of player buttons.
I'm still in the planning stages as I'm still wiring everything is parallel cables. But I plan on making the following panels.
1) 2 player per side - For 4 player games
2) 1 player per side with 2 joysticks each & six buttons in between the joyticks
3) 1 Rotary per side with 4 buttons per player
4) 1 - 270 Steering Yoke wheel per player & High/Low/Turbo Shifter for player 1
5) 1 - 360 Steering wheels per player
6) 1 - Trackball with 3 buttons per player
Once I get the IPAC & Otipac wired up with parallel cables, I'll start wiring up the panels.
-GGKoul
Garrett:
Just wanted to say great ideas all around here, it's really cool to see what different people come up with while trying to accomplish the same thing. In fact, I think it would be a cool idea to have specific section for modular designs here at the byoac site.
Doug - Trust me, I tried for a long time to come up with an idea make my panels totally clean and hide the latches at front, but finally just decided to push forward to get the project done. I'm still considering some kind of flip down compartment that covers them, maybe something spring loaded so you could just pull it down, attach, and then let it go.
I also thought it would be nice to have the panels kind of snap down into place, with some kind of button for release. Alas, that's as far as I got, couldn't figure out a way to do it.
:(
I used the metal bar w/hooks idea to attach because I wanted to be able to put any control any place I wanted on the CP, and not be limited by slots or tracks or screw/bolt holes. It works great, I highly recommend it.
Nice wall of stuf you have there. I collected vintage figures for a long time. What's turned out to be a rather costly arcade cabinet was actually funded entirely by selling them all on ebay.
But the pin I will never give up... ;)
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version