College 2P Control Panel (First Project)

[MJCarroll]

Greetings!

I've been a long time lurker here on BYOAC, and I finally decided to take the plunge into actually building the controls, rather than just ogling other people's.  Since I am going to college, I needed something that would be reasonably small (not too small, just not a cabinet).  Also, because I'm relatively new to the hobby, I wanted to test the waters before I jumped in and built a full-sized cabinet.  I certainly have some lessons to learn before I get to that part.

Bascially, I wanted a few major things out of a control panel:

Golden Tee - It's a party hit and great fun, so I needed a trackball.
Smash TV - It's a favorite around the trailer that I live in, so the dual joystick setup was needed.
Emulation - I'm not a hardcore MAME guy, so I wanted to be able to play games from other systems as well.
Spinner - I'm addicted to Camel Try, what can I say?
Pinball buttons - I'm a big fan of pinball as well.
Liquid-Resistant - College town, I think this goes without explaining.

After I figured out my needs, I set about desiging a control panel and came up with the one I have attached to this post.

I went with the four-joystick layout similar to the Timoe built for Dweebs0r ([url]http://timoe.blogspot.com/[url]).  Timoe gets full credit for this layout, and I just tweaked it a bit for my purposes.  I am using 3/4" MDF, which I am going to paint.  I was going to laminate, but the Home Depot near me only carries full sheets of laminate.  I didn't want to see that much laminate go to waste, so I decided to paint.

Once I come up with some art, I will order a CPO from MAMEMarqees.com, as everyone seems to have had really good luck with them.  Finally, I will top it with a sheet of .092" Lexan and wrap it with Black 1" T-Molding.

As for the guts... I have two Ultrastick360's.  I know the die-hard guys probably wouldn't choose these sticks, but they seemed to fit all my purposes well.  They serve well at reproducing many classic arcade sticks, and they will also work with emulators for other games, as well!  For my other two SmashTV sticks, I went with the matching J-Sticks from Ultimarc.

The trackball is the ElectricICE 3" from GroovyGameGear.com.  The spinner is the SlikStik Tornado.  Finally, all the controls are going to be connected to an IPAC4.  I'm going to use a USB hub on the inside to connect the joysticks, IPAC, and trackball.  Also, I'm going to try and place a PS2 -> USB converter (for DDR) and two N64 -> USB converters for 4-player N64 action (fairly popular!).

That about sums up my thoughts so far on the project.  Most of the materials have been bought, and all of the parts are in various stages of shipping.  If all goes well, I hope to start cutting by tomorrow afternoon, or Tuesday at the latest.

Attached is my layout so far.  As many of you have been at this much longer than I have, I was wondering if you could offer up any critiques or pointers on what I have so far.  Looking forward to any advice you may have for me.

Thanks,

Michael Carroll

[Crafty]

It might be me but where is the spinner in your example layout

[MJCarroll]

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention.

I have no idea where to put the spinner.  I didn't want it to interfere with the trackball in the forward swing of Golden Tee.  I have heard of people damaging their fingers because of alcohol plus Golden Tee, and I don't want to have anything to do with that.

I was thinking about putting it centered over player one's buttons, but I'm really not sure.


--Michael Carroll

[Kangum]

it looks really cramped to me. have you tested this layout on a piece of cardboard. Once you get your controls before you drill your wood mount it on a piece of cardboard first to test the layout before you drill.

[mccoy178]

I had most of the same requirements that you did.  I like Smash T.V., but I didn't know how else to build the cp and make it usable for four people.  I just play it one player, but I imagine that the controls could be mapped however I wanted to make it more playable.  I'm more of a Robotron guy myself, but again, I just play it one player.

[Crafty]

it looks really cramped to me. have you tested this layout on a piece of cardboard. Once you get your controls before you drill your wood mount it on a piece of cardboard first to test the layout before you drill.

This is a common theme around here, do a mock set up with some cardboard.
Ultimately  I dont think anyone has yet come up with the perfect CP yet. There are always compromises.
Hence the rotating options, modular CP's, frankenpanels etc etc..
Build what you are happy with and we will be happy for you...