Control Panel

Planning

My first decision was figuring out exactly what I wanted in a control panel. I decided to go with a pre-built Hotrod instead of building my own because I lacked the time and knowledge to make my own. However, I wanted to make sure that my Hotrod didn't look out of place and looked like a natural extension of the cabinet. Since the Star Wars cabinet didn't really have a lot of room for an existing control panel, essentially there was only room for the yoke and not much else. I decided to use that place to mount a trackball and spinner and then have the Hotrod branch out from there. The control panel also had to be built in such a way that a keyboard tray could be housed underneath it.

Components TRACKBALL

Initially, I was going to go for a compUSA trackball or something generic that I could find on E-bay. Since I couldn't really find anything that suited my needs, I decided to get a trackball from ImperialUSA. These trackballs are the same ones that you see in the Golden Tee arcade machines so I knew they would be perfect for the project. A big problem in their web site is that it's hard to find their arcade parts on it. Once I did find it, repeated e-mails to them asking if I could order the trackball were all ignored. I finally was able to get a phone number for one of their warehouses. I was finally able to get a human voice on the phone and was able to order a 3 inch red translucent trackball with 3 button assembly. (note: its good to have the model number with you or else they don't know what your asking for.)

A picture of the 3 inch red translucent trackball + 3 blue pushbuttons. (The trackball looks orange unless it is lit up)

I also ordered from them 3 microswitches and 3 horizontal blue pushbuttons.

The order came back in about half a week but they made a mistake and forgot the microswitches. (They did fix that up and shipped them up for no charge.) Overall, I was very impressed with the imperialUSA trackball and it rolled like a champ. The only thing which bothered me was how big it was! This thing had a huge case and I definitely had to modify my control panel to house the monster. :P

SPINNER
For a spinner, I had the option to build my own, or get one from either Fultra or Oscar. As mentioned before, I really suck at electronics so I decided to go for the Oscar. I've heard great reviews on this product and it was slightly cheaper then Fultras. Oscar was really great to buy from. He sent several e-mails to me during the purchase procedure and also provided follow up support. When the Oscar finally came in after a week, I was impressed by the work that went into it, however, I was also extremely worried by its fragile look. I would have hoped that some of the computer components on the oscar were housed in something that would make it easier to manipulate. I also did have a few problems with the optical sensor becoming misaligned while installing. Nothing I couldn't fix myself though.

Picture of OSCAR Spinner and Zhed LCD display

Picture of the Flywheel on the Oscar Spinner

HOTROD
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to purchase a premade control panel. Initially I was going to go with the OZSTICK which is essentially a homebuilt joystick powered by a keyboard encoder from IPAC. Unfortunately Ozstick was very lacking in customer service. My numerous e-mails were ignored and when I finally did get a hold of someone, they didn't e-mail me back a quote. I believe they were having computer problems at the time, so things might be running a little smoother now.

With the Ozstick out of the running, I decided to purchase a hotrod from PCidea since its significantly cheaper from them than directly from Hanaho. I also liked the fact that the joystick came with a collection of Legal Capcom Roms. Some of the games include 1941 - Block Block - Commando - Exed Exes - Ghouls'n Ghosts - Magic Sword - Mercs - Sections Z - Side Arms - Son Son - Street Fighter (Hyper Fighting) - Strider - U. N. Squadron - Varth.

I stuck the Hotrod on my creditcard and expected to get the hotrod in a week or so, but that's when I ran into problems. PCidea wrote me and e-mail saying that my credit card was over the limit and to send them a new creditcard number to put the HotRod through. I knew for sure that I had enough room on my creditcard for the hotrod so I promply phoned up VISA and asked them what the problem was. To my shock, VISA said that the hotrod purchase was already on the card and that someone from PCIdea had tried to ring it through 3-4 more times but it was rejected. So I phoned back PCIdea and told them that the HotRod already went through. They flatly denied that it went through and said I never paid for it! Anyways, after a flurry of phone calls I finally found out what the problem was. PCIdea had rung the HotRod through the VISA card and because they made a mistake on the shipping charged, they canceled it. They then tried to re-ring the HotRod in but now it said I was overdrawn. From what I got from VISA, a cancellation doesn't affect an account immediately and thus it would only come off after two to three days.

I finally got that mess straightened out, but I wish PCIdea was more forthcoming in explaining that they canceled the initial purchase. Instead they just told me, "your account is overdrawn, gimme a new Credit card number".

My Hotrod finally came in after a week and I was pretty impressed by the controls and the buttons. Unlike ImperialUSA buttons which sound "clicky", the Happs buttons sounded just like conventional arcade buttons. My only beef was that my hotrod had a scuff on the front laminate and a little bit of damage on the left top corner. (see above picture) So I'm not really sure if I can totally recommend PCIdea to anyone, since my dealings with them were less than stellar.

All the components I would need for a well rounded control panel

Assembly
Now that we have all the parts for the control panel we can move on to the assembly details.

Assembly

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