The Second Control Panel
Right from the start, I knew the "Marbleized" contact paper covering the first panel was going to bother me. It was quick and available though, so I put it on to keep the project going. After a couple of weeks of playing great old arcade games, I decided to take a shot at a second panel using what I had learned from the first. I decided to put a trackball on the second panel.
There were a couple surprises waiting here for me that really tested my patience, and ultimately had me scrap some of the original hardware I bought for the project.
Here is the cut test fit of the second panel. I used 3/4" MDF and 1/4" inch plexiglass for this one. The 3/8" original panel felt pretty good, but I decided to use the thicker MDF to bring the panel up a bit and make it flush with the sides of the cabinet.
After making sure that it fit tight and sat the way I wanted it to, I put down my templates for the sticks and trackball. One note here is that I bought a jigsaw before cutting this panel. A little slower, but much easier to work with than the circular saw I used to cut the first panel. Basically a necessity for an "inside" cut like the trackball cutout, too.
You might have noticed that there are a couple of additions and deletions on this panel other than the trackball. I added a "thumb" button to the player one side of the control panel. This helps mimic the offset Neo-Geo layout, but the real reason I added it was as "Reverse" button for Defender/Stargate. I originally had one and two player Insert Coin buttons, and a Power button on the player one side too. Since I was adding more to this panel already, I wanted to try to minimize clutter. The coin functions are getting worked into the coin door. I didn't realize what a huge mistake it was to have a standard arcade button right on the panel to turn the machine on/off until my niece came over and played Mortal Kombat. The mad button slapping was about to create the ultimate Fatality -the Fatality of my computer from getting switched off and on 10 times in 5 seconds!
It All Goes Wrong!
The control panel cutting and drilling went totally smooth, and I finished it much faster than the first panel. Since I was on a roll, I decided to press on with the build. The next step was to get the plexi ready. My plan this time was to paint the underside of the plexiglass black with paint made for R/C car bodies. This stuff is a flat paint made for plastic, sprayed on the inside. The plastic actually creates the shine and it looks great when viewed from the outside. Since I hadn't planned to be this far into the project, I hadn't stopped at the hobby shop for the plastic paint. I had a ton of black Krylon left from painting the cab, so I took it and sprayed in on a spare hunk of plexi to see how it would look. I let it dry about an hour, then went out and found the finish was perfect! The black under the plexi had a gorgeous shine. Comfortable that the Krylon would work as well as the R/C paint, I sprayed the underside of my panel. The paint went on beautifully, and I went to bed.
The scene of horror when I awoke didn't even get photographed I was so upset! The paint didn't stick in a few spots and had all crinkled up. I was really mad at myself for trying to hurry. I tried chipping some of the paint off without scratching the plexi, but it had adhered in some spots. The next day after work, I took it out and pressure washed it. This took the remaining paint off pretty well, but I found the paint had etched the plexiglass in some spots, and spraying it again would look terrible. I gave up and cut another panel. Since the first one was in good shape other than the finish, I decided to mess around with it. I sanded it with 220 grit on a random orbital sander, which gave it a pretty neat frosted appearance. Its sitting here, but I'm not sure I'll ever do anything with it.
It All Goes Wrong(er)!
I had great luck with the controls and I-PAC interface from Ultimarc, so I decided to go with the 2 1/4" trackball and USB Opti-PAC from there too. The Opti-PAC would also give me a spinner interface in case I ever decided to add one. I wired up the trackball and plugged the Opti-PAC in. WindowsXP identified that there was new hardware installed, then said it was ready to use.
Wow! That was easy! Uh-oh, the trackball wasn't making the cursor move. I didn't sweat it, I figured I had something wired incorrectly and double checked all my connections. No, everything seemed right. I went on the Ultimarc site and double checked all the info. It seemed I had the ball and interface set up right. I tried messing around with jumpers, etc, to no avail.
Thinking perhaps I had a flukey issue between the Opti-PAC and machine, I pulled the whole panel and connected it to one of my other machines (this one is my main computer with XP and Service Pack 2). The machine identified the hardware again, then said the hardware was ready to use. Still no movement with trackball. According to the instructions, the Opti-PAC and Suzo ball were supposed to be identified as a mouse, but they were actually showing up under the USB section of Device Manager ominously labelled "Unknown Device". Again, I checked my wiring and jumpers. No luck... I started getting a little desperate at this point, and tried moving the wires over to the Player 2 side of the trackball interface. I also tried changing some of the jumper settings from the known defaults to see if I could get ANY reaction out of the Opti-PAC.
When none of this fiddling produced even a millimeter of movement out of the trackball, I tried doing the tests on the Ultimarc page to see if the ball was functioning properly. This just required putting a voltmeter on a couple of pins on the balls optical encoders and checking to see if voltages changed. This was a quick and easy test, and the Suzo ball was working fine according to the documentation.
Andy from Ultimarc was very cool about helping me out, saying it sounded like there was a problem with the Opti-PAC. He sent a second one, which arrived about a week later. I was really anxious to try it out, but also double checked everything I did to make sure it was right before connecting the new Opti-PAC. I was really disappointed when I immediately saw the same THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THIS DEVICE message, and the UNKNOWN DEVICE icon in Control Panel. That was the end of the Opti-PAC fiddling for me.
Balls and Holes (it almost sounds like it should be fun!)
I started looking at other options, and decided to go a totally new direction with the trackball. I ordered a 3" Happ red translucent USB ball. It was a bit more expensive than the Suzo/Opti-PAC was, but I really didn't care. When I got the Happ in the mail, I hooked it up to the USB port and within seconds it was working perfectly. What a relief! Now came the chore of getting the Happ to fit in the panel where the 2 1/4 Suzo was.
Before ordering the Happ, I had measured up my control panel to see if I could get a "full sized" 3" trackball on there, and it looked like it'd fit. Here is a comparison of the actual sizes.
As you can see from the pictures, the trackball frame sizes are pretty close, but the Happ chassis itself is substantially larger than the Suzo. This meant I was going to have to go back and cut a larger hole in my control panel MDF, as well as the plexi overlay. The overlay had me worried because it was already painted.
I stripped the I-PAC, wiring and mouse buttons back out, then put the Happs against the original cutout to size everything up. It looked like it'd work keeping the existing button locations and enlarging the hole a little bit. There wasn't really any room for error, so I carefully traced the outline of the Happ chassis onto the MDF. At this point, I was considering making yet ANOTHER plexi overlay, but re-doing this overlay after the paint debacle used the last sheet I had.
I clamped everything down, covered up what I didn't remove to protect it from MDF dust, and cut my larger hole with the jigsaw. I was really afraid the vibration from the saw was going to cause the paint to flake, but I worked carefully and everything came out fine.
The panel is a little smudged up here, but you can see the Happ ball looks pretty cool when lit from behind. Its kind of a nasty looking pale orange with no light, so if you're planning on a red translucent, make sure you figure out a way to light it in your cabinet.
Finally, here it is on the machine. I still have to either install a molding or touch up the paint around the edges, but that the panel is completely functional. No more mouse required for the cabinet, and about 50 great trackball games to catch up on!
