Well, Happy Birthday to me (10.27), first off! 😋 Nothing special today, just chilling.
I "teased" a little pic of my current project...
It was the control panel off of a Taito cocktail table. It was working, but there was some things I felt I needed to update on it. Mainly the actual controls.
Though I don't mind the nostalgic feel of the old leaf switches, the actual directions were not triggering as quick as I'd like it to. Some directions weren't triggering at all. I had to change things up and use clicky buttons like most newer controls use. I took the control panel out and started to make a map of the wiring.
The old panel just used a piece of plywood. The holes were different sizes, the joystick wouldn't work with the joysticks that I wanted to use, and the overlay on the control panel needed a refresh. I picked up a slightly thinner plywood sheet and cut it to the same size as the old panel. Using the 1 1/8" drill bit I bought for the Atomiswave project to make the holes for the buttons and joystick. I was able to mark off where all the mounting screws go and drill them out. After everything was done, I sanded them smooth.
I got around to crimping wires down and verifying that all the buttons were triggering properly
I made a plug in harness for it and finished up getting the wiring cleaned up.
I chose this image for the control panel overlay. I had it printed on a plastic-like material. Holes were cut and buttons and joystick was installed.
Next was to tackle a proper mount for the game mainboard. This is how I received it, with the board "secured" down with 2 sheetrock screws. Didn't look good.
I also wanted to tackle another issue. The 60 in 1 board needs a 3rd button to easily go through the settings menu. There was no third button on the control panel. To "fix" this, I used these metal angle brackets that I got for another project to hold additional buttons. I drilled out the holes in the bracket to fit some mini push buttons I got for the Neo Geo cab project 5 or so years ago. I also ground down the edges of the bracket because they felt very sharp.
To mount the main board, I used some old OSB that I had from my garage shelf project 4 years ago and cut it down to fit the board. I also printed some PCB standoffs so the main board isn't sitting directly on the wood. The OSB was sanded down smooth and screwed into the cabinet with some self tapping screws.
In order to get the 2 buttons that I need for the menu installed, I soldered connections to the converter board (Konami CP to JAMMA) and made a harness for it. I installed the button panel I made near the first player control panel.
Here's the updated control panel installed.
I had a few issues with the first test. The biggest one was that the down direction for player 2 wasn't triggering. I check for connectivity issues from switch to harness and there was no connection at all. After some troubleshooting, it turns out that the wire in my harness wasn't crimped properly. After crimping a new connector, it finally started working.
The next issue was the joystick itself. It was hard to play most games, mainly Ms. Pac-Man. It was proving difficult to switch directions, especially when playing with the speed option on "fast".
The culprit was the joystick restrictor. I didn't think anything of it being a round restrictor. Playing any game with 8 way movement worked really good. However, on games that use the cardinal directions (ie. Ms. Pac-Man), it didn't work as great. I printed this 4 way restrictor and installed them. I tested both orientations (square for 8 way-ish, diamond for just the cardinal directions). The diamond orientation made it much easier to play Ms. Pac-Man, but hard to play Xevious or 1942. In the square orientation, it made Ms. Pac-Man a little more tolerable to play, but not the best. I decided to leave it at the square orientation for now. I just need to install the restrictor on the second player side and we're done with controls. It's now decently playable.
The next task is to get this monitor fixed. It's tinted red a bit, and the top (really, the right) of the screen has a little collapse on it. Might be an easy fix, but I need to figure out what monitor is in there and if I'm able to pick up a capacitor kit for it.
For now, though, the cocktail table is working a lot better than when I got it. Stay tuned for more work on this cab!
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