Author Topic: My First Project, officially started (Read 8945 times)

topher0002 · « **on:** January 05, 2006, 05:42:01 pm »

First of all I would like to thank everyone on this message board for all the great information and suggestions provided. Without it I would be lost and would have had to make many unforseen trips to Home Depot already.

With that said I figured it was my duty to document and show anyone that cares my project. I ordered all my Happ parts about a month ago, a trackball off ebay amoungst a few other things.

This last monday the first building took place. I started with the top to the control panel, trying to emulate the slik stik quad with a few adjustments and for my first one I believe so far its looking great. Other then the fact that I didnt drill the trackball hole QUITE big enough ...who know a 1/16 of an inch would P*** me off this much. This will be fixed shortly and the trackball mounted. The rest of the box will also be completed this weekend.

I am currently awaiting an IPAC4 to begin the wiring. Still debating whether to use Cat5 or 18 gauge wire from Home Depot. Any thoughts on this or anythinge else ive done are welcome. Will post new pictures as project progresses.

Oh yeah , I better thank my daughter for temporarily borrowing her bedroom for the pics

. Minnie mouse there in the pics sure seems to be happy with it.

Thanks everyone!

topher0002 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 05, 2006, 05:55:36 pm »

Also in light of the whole "Project Documentation" portion of this project here is what I used to build the control panel.

-I used visio 2000 to created each control and button templates myself using dimensions mentioned on Happ Controls.

-I bought 1 sheet of 2' x 4' of MDF ($7.99)
-1 can of black matte spray paint ($3)
-1 can of lacqur spray ($5)
-1 router bit to round the edges ($10)
-1 paddle drill bit at 1 1/8 inch to trill out all button holes. ($5)
-All buttons, joysticks, trackball (and mounting kit) shown from Happ Controls Website ($220)

-Time spent on actually drilling and painting. Approx. 2 hours.

Harpal · « **Reply #2 on:** January 05, 2006, 07:52:39 pm »

the control pad looks great, but that is alot of buttons, as most 4 player games only use 3 buttons, so there wont be used at all....
but now it is done it looks fine......
you got the designs of the cab fully done??

CheffoJeffo · « **Reply #3 on:** January 05, 2006, 08:13:26 pm »

Quote from: Harpal on January 05, 2006, 07:52:39 pm

the control pad looks great, but that is alot of buttons, as most 4 player games only use 3 buttons, so there wont be used at all....

Console games ?

Cheers

Harpal · « **Reply #4 on:** January 05, 2006, 09:29:55 pm »

cheers

topher0002 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 05, 2006, 09:39:59 pm »

This is built mainly for mame.

topher0002 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 06, 2006, 11:53:28 am »

Anyone have any suggestions on wiring control panel? Anyone used both category 5 and regular 18 gauge wire? what works better? is theres a difference?

markrvp · « **Reply #7 on:** January 06, 2006, 12:04:59 pm »

18 guage wire is a little too large and Cat 5 is a little too small. I would recommend getting .22 guage stranded wire from either Fry Electronics or Radio Shack.

BTW, .18 guage is good for running 12v DC power, it's just a little cumbersome for the buttons.

topher0002 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 06, 2006, 12:11:26 pm »

Thanks much, will take your advice!

Lilwolf · « **Reply #9 on:** January 06, 2006, 01:01:37 pm »

and dont use solid core. SUCKS! I've rewired my cabinet many times...

For cheap wire that works great (but one color). Home Depot sells a red wire that used / sold to be barried for invisible dog fenses. It works great. Then after that, if you want to get fancy, order some of the colored wire sets from bob roberts. Very nice to have 20 color combinations for wires. I personally bought some colored tape, but wish I went the other route.

And player 3 and 4 can have up to 4 buttons each (D&D 2 whatever it was called). But since it seems like you've already cut everything, what you have seemed perfect

topher0002 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 06, 2006, 02:01:52 pm »

Thanks for the advice...I will check out HD this weekend for that stuff. Anyeone know anyone besides ultimarc that has IPAC4 to buy? They have been closed for like 3 weeks cause of holidays....thats the only reason I cant finish the control panel...driving me nuts!!!

ssc arcade · « **Reply #11 on:** January 06, 2006, 02:14:03 pm »

If you are heading out for wire today, I would really listen to above and don't get anything above a 22 ga. to wire the buttons.

They may not have it in the wire section, I got mine at Menards, it was Door Bell wire (I believe it is 22 ga.) look for it by the door bells (imagine that).

It came in 50 ft. rolls (only black at my store), I used a little over a roll for a 2 player setup.

Don't forget your spade bit female connectors, mine fit kind of loose and a couple kept slipping off. Use a small needle nose plyer and tweak the spade on the micro switch a little (carefully) it will help them fit snug.

good luck

topher0002 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 06, 2006, 02:16:19 pm »

Thank you, almost forgot about those!....saved me $3 in gas to HD!!!

topher0002 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 09, 2006, 10:59:24 am »

I ordered my IPAC4 from Ultimarc last night. They finally reopened from Christmas break. I got most of the box done this weekend but its sitting in my friends garage until completed. I will post pictures as soon as I get it back home. Plenty of pics to come on the wiring as well.

topher0002 · « **Reply #14 on:** January 10, 2006, 04:47:50 pm »

Ok, Hopefully someone can help me.

I have decided I want to purchase a light gun for this thing, and Ive seen these reviewed and mentioned many times:

http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~gogo/ps2_io/graphics/actlabsgun2.jpg

Act Labs apparently doesnt sell them anymore?

There new gun is like $80-100 and this one was like 30 bucks. I would much rather get the $30 one. I cant find one on any other site nor on ebay or anything. Can anyone give me any suggestions? or does anyone have one they want to sell? any other place to buy these?

Thanks guys!

topher0002 · « **Reply #15 on:** January 12, 2006, 05:29:42 pm »

IPAC 4 arrived today from Ultimarc. Its sitting at home waiting....Cant wait to take a look at it tonight.

Also inquiring about a 27 inch tv with svideo from a friend at work...hopefully it has S video and I can get it at a decent price instead of buying a new one...will know tommorow...that will really get this project swinging as all of the major materials will have been purchased.

Hope to have more pics by monday.

topher0002 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 13, 2006, 09:32:21 am »

Officially the IPAC4 has arrived so wiring can begin. ($75 or so after shipping, it did come very quickly though, 3 days after order)

I was all hyped to get some wiring done last night, went to home depot, got the "doggy fence wire" ....actually considered the doorbell wire suggested above but it only came in 65 ft. rolls. I saw somewhere on another site to use this wire made for dog fences. Its about the same thing I think. It was $25 for the 500ft. roll. I have alot of buttons and a big panel so I will use alot of this and have some for my next one.

I picked up some $3 crimpers from a local hardware store that were on sale.

And lastly I grabbed what I thought was the right spade female connectors but were the wrong ones. That ruined the wiring plans for last night cause it was too late to go back once I realized.

I have pictured the items I purchased from Home Depot and local Hardware store.

topher0002 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 15, 2006, 12:22:38 pm »

Someone please help!...

Im wiring the IPAC4 today...everything is fine except im not sure what button coincides with the number on the joystick would it be like this?

123
456
7 (this for the button layout that I have if you look in the pics above)

thats my best guess but not sure...if anyone knows please let me know.

Thanks!

topher0002 · « **Reply #18 on:** January 16, 2006, 07:48:48 pm »

this has since been solved and wiring is complete and working well. I just use the CTRL ALT P function to program the buttons for the IPAC4.

Will post some pics in the morning.

topher0002 · « **Reply #19 on:** January 17, 2006, 10:41:11 am »

Lots of progress this weekend. I finished the control Panel, wired everything up using the IPAC4 and is now playing beautifully on my home tv and computer with the s-video.

The only problem I had with the wiring was I was using the NC connector on the switches (on some of them) instead of NO. Also some one the inputs on the IPAC4 were not activated by default so I had to use the CTRL ALT P program to assign those buttons an official letter.

As you can see in the picture the whole control box is wired and done. We used a basic undercabinet light for $10 from Home Depot to give light to the trackball...worked out awesome!...it looks great!

The hinges were a bit tricky to put on and keep the top flush with the box. Maybe because I bought the wrong hinges, but it worked out, we routed the box a bit so the hinge would fit nicely into the box.

I forgot to grab the camera when we went to work on the cabinet...I promise to get those pics on here as soon as I get them. We stripped out the old NBA JAM 4 Player Cab of its control panel and old crappy monitor. Made some modifications in the way the tv sits so we wouldnt have to take off the case. The back sticks out a bit so we will have to cut a small hole for that in the back but it isnt bad at all, doesnt stick out too far.

We bought a 27inch tv with S-VIDEO (2004 model) from a local pawn shop for $80 . The picture is great and the screen fairly flat so it looks good.

We probably wont be able to do anything with the cabinet until next weekend so the plan is between now and then is to reformat the computer, Clean it up, load everything back in it and pick a front end once and for all.

I will also be using a SNES, NES, and Genesis emulator on this box as well...so I will need that time to get those situated as well as the jukebox software.

Will keep you all posted

CheffoJeffo · « **Reply #20 on:** January 17, 2006, 06:51:35 pm »

I love the plain black panel with rainbox joys/buttons ... reminds me of my plain black MAME box (horizontal panel isn't finished in that picture) ... right down to the spaghetti wiring, which I never bothered to clean up (or photograph) and has always worked like a charm.

Again, I love the clean look of the panel.

Cheers.

topher0002 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 18, 2006, 10:00:11 am »

Thanks, yeah for my first one Im going very straightforward and fairly simple. I will get a bit more creative on the next one prolly, who knows. Although I do want to make a table top soon, maybe not the next one but the one after possibly.

The spaghetti wiring, yeah I know, the plan was to clean it up but that just hasnt happened since its been playable. But im reformatting and reinstalling CPU tonight so maybe it will get done. $:-\$

c64rulez · « **Reply #22 on:** January 18, 2006, 10:13:33 am »

slick panel. nice work

Quote from: topher0002 on January 18, 2006, 10:00:11 am

The spaghetti wiring, yeah I know, the plan was to clean it up but that just hasnt happened since its been playable. But im reformatting and reinstalling CPU tonight so maybe it will get done. $:-\$

CheffoJeffo · « **Reply #23 on:** January 18, 2006, 10:35:47 am »

Quote from: topher0002 on January 18, 2006, 10:00:11 am

the plan was to clean it up but that just hasnt happened since its been playable.

Yep ... I understand that all too well ...

Cheers.

topher0002 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 18, 2006, 05:55:06 pm »

Thanks C64 ill take any compliment I can get...cause im sure I will get alot of ...

"dude that sucks monkey nuts" down the road...or "do you have any clue what your doing"

So yeah, ill take the good ones anytime.

topher0002 · « **Reply #25 on:** January 19, 2006, 12:42:40 pm »

Progress Report and one minor problem.

First off, found out something last night about the light that I mounted under the trackball. IT GETS WAY TO HOT AFTER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME. DO NOT USE THAT KIND OF LIGHT!!!!! Im going to have to find something different for it.

Basically last night all I did was reformat the computer and reload mame, its all nice and clean now. The plan tonight is to get all of the roms and chd's reloaded and load mamewah as the front end. Will also be setting up SNES, NES , and Genesis Emulators with Mamewah....and in addition an arcade jukebox.

Fridays plan: Mount Control Panel to Cabinet and make it semi playable
Saturday: Nothing, going to KU basketball game and drinking beer all day.
Sunday: Making a few adjustments to cabinet and installing a drawer for keyboard and mouse under CP with a lock.

Now If i can just remember my darn camera in the morning I will have some pictures of the cabinet for you all by monday. We ended up using the NBA JAM cabinet BTW.

F1r3f1ght3r · « **Reply #26 on:** January 19, 2006, 12:48:05 pm »

Quote from: topher0002 on January 19, 2006, 12:42:40 pm

Saturday: Nothing, going to KU basketball game and drinking beer all day.

go Huskers!

topher0002 · « **Reply #27 on:** January 19, 2006, 02:06:18 pm »

jk, ha

topher0002 · « **Reply #28 on:** January 20, 2006, 11:26:23 am »

Progress from Last night:

I reloaded all the roms and chd's....I had planned on setting up mamewah but the website was down. Before work this morning it was back up...I downloaded it but didnt really get any further then installing it. Didnt have time to do any configuring. This may set me back a day , we will have to see.

topher0002 · « **Reply #29 on:** January 24, 2006, 10:26:56 am »

Weekend Progress:

Got mamewah working correctly, Was actually quite simple and am extremely happy with it. I love how it hides windows so well and your able to use the trackball and joysticks for scrolling through the menu's with ease.

Got the control panel mounted to the cabinet on Friday night and was playing games with all my buddies all night. Had some kinks on friday when we first started playing with the 3rd player going crazy and shutting games down and 4th player not working at all. We were able to play trackball and 2 player games all night. On sunday I fixed these issues By basically resetting IPAC4 to defaults and reprogramming a few of the buttons, Also had to program the correct buttons for NBA JAM.

Last night we created the drawer and mounted a new light for the marquee, this is about all we did last night. I will have pictures of all of this tommorow as long as I remember to bring them to work on a cd or something.

Today: Continuing to work on the art and figuring out exactly what I want to do.

topher0002 · « **Reply #30 on:** January 25, 2006, 10:24:24 am »

Ok, Here are the pictures I promised. I wish I had remembered my camera through the whole process up till now but this will help. Basically the cab looks like crap paintwise but otherwise is sturdy and still good. We stripped it out and put this 27inch tv with s-video in it.

We took off the old crappy control panel and started making adjustments to the cab for the new one. We also took out the coin mechs as they were in bad shape and just put a thin sheet of mdf over the cutouts for the coin mechs.

Here are the pictures from that.

topher0002 · « **Reply #31 on:** January 25, 2006, 11:13:40 am »

Ok, so that got done, if your wondering about the 1 inch space in the above picture on the sides of the mdf covering where coin mechs used to be I plan on putting some sort of lighting or different color paint there. I think that could look cool.

Put computer in back of cabinet and mounted control panel, Obviously thats all the work that got done that night as you see us playing bowling and some baseball stars 2. Left at 2 AM that night.

Since then weve installed a drawer for the keyboard, removed the marquee, and installed a new light behind the marquee.

topher0002 · « **Reply #32 on:** January 30, 2006, 10:52:04 am »

Didnt have time to do anything this weekend on the cabinet. Schedules conflicted. However have been struggling in Illistrator trying to get some artwork figured out, I stink at illistrator but here are some of what ive done so far, dont be too critical...this is all on my own and I suck at illistrator, and i suck at art...so that being said...here we go...

topher0002 · « **Reply #33 on:** February 01, 2006, 12:16:28 pm »

Bought one of these light guns the other day...should arrive within a week or so id guess.

http://www.lik-sang.com/image.php?category=266&products_id=8565&img=universal-gun

Also decided on the second artwork listed on my last post. Hope to get it printed this week. Probably gunna go the kinkos route.

topher0002 · « **Reply #34 on:** February 08, 2006, 10:58:46 am »

Still waiting on gun but got my marquee printed. Its printed on some sort of acrylic plexi type glass. It looks awesome, the pictures dont do it justice. A friend of mine printed these directly on the glass for me, very tough, and professional. He works at a commercial ink company so it worked out well.

Also, should get my gun today or tommorow. Working on side art for the cabinet at the moment.

quarterstringer · « **Reply #35 on:** February 11, 2006, 01:18:11 pm »

The cab looks great. Are you guys playing World Class Bowling and Poker?
We used to bowl and draw cards for every strike. The one with the best poker hand would win all the money at the end of the game.

topher0002 · « **Reply #36 on:** February 15, 2006, 04:38:14 pm »

Yep! whats life without gambling!

So anyways, alot to update you all on:

Got the art cut out of the plexi and have temporarily put it on in some of the pictures below. We ended up using a grinder and a blade with no teeth to cut the plexi and it worked absolutley PERFECTLY. Couldnt have been a cleaner cut and took less then 10 minutes to cut 2 of them.

Secondly, last weekend we stripped off all of the old artwork, found out that it was not originally an NBA JAM, it was a 4 player TMNT. Learn something every day I guess. Most of it was some sort of adhesive and some was paint. In the pictures the spots that arent bare MDF is very light paint that we sanded down and is perfectly smooth, ready to be either painted or covered in more artwork. We used drywall/finishing blades, 10inch and 12 inch to scrape off the old work. Took about an hour but not too bad. Just messy and would only come off in small pieces.

I, along with some help, are currently working on some artwork for the side of this cabinet, my friend that works at the ink company will be printing that artwork on a large piece of adhesive vinyl ....4 inches bigger on each side of the cabinet to leave room for overhang. Actual dimensions will be 72 inches by 40 inches. Artwork is yet to be decided however.

Also in the pics below we installed the keylock. Just drilled the whole and stuck it in there. Used a small bit to put a small groove on the underside of the CP to make the drawer lock.

And STILL WAITING ON MY FREAKING GUN!!!! Cant wait to get it.

topher0002 · « **Reply #37 on:** February 15, 2006, 04:39:10 pm »

More pics!

FYI: The pictures make the marquee look dark but in person it looks MUCH better and much more lit up. Cameras do wierd things with direct light.

Oh yeah and ignore all the fingerprints on the marquee, the camera adds those too!

muffin man · « **Reply #38 on:** February 18, 2006, 12:10:42 pm »

wow looks good, hey i have question did that paint rub off or anything on the control panel. im thinin of painting it the same way you did also

ChicagoDave · « **Reply #39 on:** February 18, 2006, 07:12:15 pm »

Looks good!

topher0002 · « **Reply #40 on:** February 20, 2006, 05:41:08 pm »

Thanks guys,

The paint is holding up fine, I think I will go with adhesive vinyl or something next time however, it shows fingerprints and marks easily. The black is holding up fine but I would suggest some sort of overlay...or if your going to paint, cover with poly really good...i dunno...i struggled with that portion more then anything else in the entire project.

I got my gun and was able to get it working with the help of this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=48982.0

Will post pics of side art that I plan on using tommorow.

topher0002 · « **Reply #41 on:** November 16, 2006, 06:40:31 am »

This is long overdue but here are the pics of my 99% completed project. There are just a few minor details that need to be done but this is pretty much it. I thought I would go ahead and post the final pics. Thanks everyone for all of your help and support, I couldnt have done it without you all.

Thanks!

topher0002 · « **Reply #42 on:** November 16, 2006, 06:43:14 am »

more pics


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