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does anyone have different colored translucent buttons on their CP?
Chris:
I'm in the minority, I guess. I always find it strange to see these relatively monochrome, machines, black with one color of button, when my memories of '80's arcades are a riot of color.
My machine has buttons in the Neo-Geo colors, with purple in place of yellow because the yellow stood out a bit too much from the rest of the panel. I have purchased my translucent buttons but I haven't installed them yet.
It's worth noting, though, that most people think my panel is particularly ugly because of all the button colors, so this may not be a good guide... :D
KillerArcades:
One thing I notice about hyernova's and mine, is that certain colors are hotter than others between our two CP's. For example, in mine (though quite a bit overexposed by my friend who took the shot to help really pull out the colors), the green and blue are by far the brightest and most colorful on my CP.
however on Hypernova's, the green seems much less bright and the blue is almost white.
So, my point is that even after seeing a couple of illuminated CP's, the final result is going to depend quite a bit on the buttons you use, the position of your LED's, and the resistors you choose, etc.
Those all affect the color, 'hotness', and overall appearance of the buttons in the end.
But, if you're just wanting an idea of how to have the colors look when they're grouped by player, etc. yeah, that seems to be the more common approach, otherwise you'll have a bright pack of skittles scattered all over your CP. ;)
Rudi:
I like the colors of Hypernova and yours. That is probably what I will do.
The other thing I have to work out is how bright I need for the various colors. I was shooting for a total 7000msd for the LEDs, but since you mention it I will probably have to experiment with different brightness levels for each color so they balance out.
Also, how did you mount your LEDs? I was planning on either taking PVC pipe, enlarge the inside from 1" to 1 1/8", and cutting it into rings. I've got to find the link, but someone used a sheet of 1/4" plastic and a holecutter to create the rings. Either case, then drill 3/8" hole horizontally to mount the LEDs. Which method did you use? Too bad no one can mass-produce these stupid little pieces of plastic for a few cents each.
-Rudi
Rudi:
Chris,
If what you've got is what you want, that's all that matters.
Personally, I do think it is a bit busy, but that's just my opinion.
-Rudi
KillerArcades:
I keep meaning to take pictures, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. :( sorry.
But, here's a rough explanation of how I mounted mine:
I found some nice nylon hose at homedepot that was roughly the right size, just a tad on the large size as far as the diameter was concerned, but close enough and thick enough that I had no trouble getting the buttons nut to hold it on nice and secure.
This 'nylon hose' (I'm fairly certain it's nylon anyway) is like a semi-maliable clear plastic tube/water hose that I used my PVC cutters to cut into rings.
Then I drilled two holes on opposite sides (mostly opposite) and just set the LED's directly into it.
It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was very easy to work with /drill/cut, etc. and it held the LED's great, nice natural grip between it and the bulbs, and it was really cheap.
The more professional solution of course is to use those GGG pre-mounted, pre-soldered LED boards, etc that just go straight onto the button, but I'm not into those because they mount the led up underneath the center and are aimed straight up. I prefer the HAPP translucent buttons and with the LED's shining straight up them, they'll burn out your retina pretty good. ;)
I light the lighting I got by using two LED's coming in from the sides and then just refracting/reflecting all through the button. This avoided any sort of whiteness or hot spots in the center of the buttons, etc.
Again, it's all a matter of opinion.
No matter how you end up doing it, it's gonna be quite the fun task to get all that soldering done!!! I remember doing mine, and I swore I'd never do one again without someone willing to pay me some serious money!
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