Finished control panel!

[dmel75]

Completed control panel! Just finished wiring up and configuring the emulators for it. Everything works great!
Happ Super Joysticks, Happ buttons, Betson 3inch trackball with mouse-hack, TurboTwist2 spinner. Controller is a GPWiz32 with Rotary support.
See pics here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/dmel75/ControlPanelConstruction#5329404977300867490
Also some in progress pics in that album:

Still left to do on the cabinet:
Finish cabinet door on the bottom - right now I just have the door propped in the opening, need to hinge and mount, possibly add coin mech.
Re-work keyboard drawer - new control panel covers it up so I need to make a new drawer that fits nicely.
Upgrade PC - I have a new box of PC parts, motherboard, new graphics card, etc just sitting idle, waiting to be put together. Currently my cab runs on an older AMD Athlon 1800 based machine.

Thanks for lookin!
Derek

[ivwshane]

Just post the images here, a lot of people don't like going to other sites unless they have more detail to gain from it (or maybe it's just me).

[javeryh]

Just post the images here, a lot of people don't like going to other sites unless they have more detail to gain from it (or maybe it's just me).

It's not just you.   

[MK3FAN]

Good job, but I have a couple criticisms. Your spinner is right above the buttons. Where you you rest your hand when using it? Your trackball is too close to the monitor. You are going to smash your hand against the glass if you play games like Golden Tee. Your craftsmanship is quite good, but I think your layout could have been planned out better. Thanks for sharing. 

[Malenko]

I agree with what MK3Fan said and would also like to add that the "art" detracts from the panel, the craftsmanship looks great but you're better off having it all black or getting a complete CPO. The trackball is too close IF you play games like GoldenTee, but the start buttons could be more towards the edges, and I'm not sure why you have the 2 mouse buttons where you do.

Did you *just* finish it? I see the drill and the piano hinge

Like I said, cab looks good, what all do you have set up on it?

[severdhed]

i don't know guys...the center of my trackball hole is 6 inches from the back edge of the control panel, and golden tee and bowling games work just fine...you just have to not be an idiot when playing

[dmel75]

Well, I don't play a lot of golden tee, and when I do I'm not playing so furiously as to smash my hand into the screen. The buttons below the trackball are for L/R mouse buttons. I do a lot of Windows gaming on my cabinet and this layout works well for that. I use RBJoy to redirect gamepad buttons to left/right mouse clicks so with the trackball and those buttons I don't have to reach for the keyboard/mouse drawer nearly as often as I used to. As for the art, it's just a piece of paper, I was just seeing how it looked. I agree, it looks better just all black so I removed the pac man graphic.  I had the spinner in a similar location on my previous X-Arcade, since it uses a standard 1-1/8 hole, I guess I just got used to it.

Thanks for looking, I think.