Arcade Controller - Button/USB Question
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@TMNTturtlguy haha, no worries... I'm in the planning phase which is why I like using forums... you get other ideas and hopefully avoid headaches on stuff like this.
Staring to think, the more elaborate my idea gets, the more wires and cables get involved and lost the LED lights. Basically, a 3-box setup would be like having an NES system again more or less. Plus I gain the LED option again, which is the absolute least important part of the build, but also fun. Plus I can add that mausberry (or similar) shutdown button to the console.
Put inside the box the RaspPi, a powered Hub, I also have a new 80mm PC fan sitting in a box at home I bought for a case but never used. Put some venting in the box. Maybe use an adapter to the USB hub if enough power?
Modify a USB bracket on the front for USB cables. I still like the idea of having USB cables that can be removed on both ends.
Only factor that I can't change... is being in the lap. Maybe bring the dining chairs out and use as tables... otherwise, no options there. Else I'll be at IKEA for hours debating a coffee table, that I'll then have to bring around with me depending which room I play in. :D
Well... time to ponder... re-price some parts... then wait a month for everything to finally show up. :D
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@THRobinson I like this plan a lot! Seems a lot cleaner. I think if you just have a single game pad on your lap it will be prefect! The box won't be to big so sit on your lap and play. I also like this idea because you can easily expand to 4 player with either 2 more joystick boxes, or other controllers. Lot of flexibility. Can't wait to see some photos!
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Well... may be a while depending on parts shipping. Other purpose of this project is that I use to really love wood working, then when my folks moved and downsized, that nice big garage of tools was no more. So, I haven't really gotten back into it in 25yrs. Usually stuck fixing the cars. :D
So... be a while for photos... if no photos... then my wood shop skills have declined too much for me to want to brag about my work. :D
Box on the lap I think will be fine... may even work better if I go wide but thin... don't need a box 8" high, just enough for wiring and buttons at the back edge. Wide and deep would be more stable on the lap, then drop some weight making it thin.
Oddly... not finding as many LED buttons as I had hoped on the few sites I'm looking at. eBay/Amazon has a lot of light up kits, decent price, all China no name brands. I was originally going for the Seimitsu PS series in Smoke. Guess that series has no LED option on focusattack.com. I'm in Canada and found a few Canadian sites for parts but annoyingly, everything I click on has 0 stock or I need 12 and they have 5, etc... always good to buy local, if local has stock that is. :D
Ah well, when at home I'll search some more. Hard when at work. I'd like to stick with 1 brand if I can so that colours and styles match. Seimitsu or Sanwa... never used either before so no preference.
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@THRobinson just an FYI - not sure how amazon works in Canada? I am a prime member and I got the Easyget LED buttons in 2 shipping days. They are from china, but they are stocked in US warehouses and available for US prime members in 2 days. The buttons are popular, so sometimes there is a note that states there may be a few day delay.
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Not sure... Amazon.ca is as bad as eBay.ca lately.
I contacted an eBay seller a few days ago. Item said located in Texas, but shipping was free from China. I live about 1.5h from the border to the USA, but because I am not in the USA, they won't ship from the Texas warehouse, rather it will come in from China.
Amazon... ordered stuff as a part of an Xmas gift, Oct 27... eta was Dec 9, no prob... Feb 9th it finally showed up, about 2 weeks after I finally gave up and repurchased the items locally at about 3x the price.
NewEgg is the same... actually just got a refund today. Bought a cheap 32GB SSD drive to use as a boot drive for my HTPC. $20... faster and quieter than my old HDD. 2 weeks over due, just given a refund because MIA. I actually emailed the seller to find out where it's shipping from and they said China but assured me 8-15 days... that was a month ago.
Never had bad luck until the past year.
That said... the parts total has jumped up a lot... hopped onto eBay and the buttons I want are only sold by China sellers, same sellers are also on Amazon.ca so, doesn't matter which way I go. I ended up flooding them with questions though. Buttons I want are sold in sets of 10, I need 12... another set has 1 player, 2 player and coin, but need another coin button. No sizes, so, not sure if 30mm or 24mm... few cases they show the Zero Delay PCB board in a kit, but when you click the images, the board is different in one photo than the other... so sadly, had to email like 6 of them for details and suspect most of the replies won't make much sense. :D
Cases I decided I'll head to the dollarstore. See what they have. Last I was there, they had some nice 1/2" thick Bamboo cutting boards, where it's all nice strips glued together as a single board. Thinking top/left/right would be nice in that, then the front/back maybe a darker wood, like cherry lightly stained? This weekend I'll be wood hunting.
Likely the top surface will be a light wood, like bamboo or beach... so the smoke grey seimitsu buttons would look nice. Otherwise those smokey grey/blue with gold rings would look nice too all lit up with the matching coin/player buttons, though maybe too much bling with the gold and such.
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Got a nice idea sorted out, got a nice plan for the box using various strips of different wood such that the strips integrate with the buttons, etc... should be good.
Lot's of eBay replies today, most nonsense and most unhelpful. Opted to just forget the LED's and get a better brand of buttons and such. The Seimitsu PS series, was going to go Sanwa, but buttons don't have the threaded body which for wood, would be the better option. The clip in ones are fine for acrylic/metal tops but will wear the wood down eventually and pop out.
So... ordering parts tonight I think (really adds up when I see the exchange rate, but again I tried 5 Canadian sites and stock is just horrible).
Just to clarify... back to the USB thing. Since having no LED lights, would I still need a powered hub? Doesn't make the build harder just a bit pricier. Plus, I've avoided hubs for years simply because back when they were new, I remember how many issues they had... use the mouse and keyboard quits, plug in a memory stick and mouse quits. I just want to make sure that when plugging in the joystick boxes I'm making, that the RaspPi doesn't get confused and makes me remap the buttons every time. That's the one thing I don't think was ever answered in this thread... does RetroPie save the config file for the controllers and remembers the setup, even when a controller is intermittently used/plugged in.
Again, not a harder build with a hub, just more costly. If I do use that 80mm fan I think the hub is a must again, but if no fan just a few vent holes... non-LED controls should be fine without a hub, right?
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@THRobinson Without the LED and with no fan, there is no need for a hub. If you put on a small fan like a 5v .14amp fan, you can run that off of just the #4 and #6 pins. This is a small fan that you would want to mount to blow air directly onto the top of the pi itself. I would put a few heat sinks on and blow air directly onto the board, and then allow the case you make to vent that air out. A bigger fan would be best with its own power supply.
As for usb hubs, i would get the one i referenced in an early post from the pihut. It is out of england I believe, had to pay the conversion from pounds, but it was fairly reasonable and it works well with the pi. You should not have any issues with the controllers, once they are configured the pi will remember the controllers name and it should work every time even if you unplug it. No different than turning off a blue tooth device and turning it on.
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Ha... realized that was a charging hub only... no USB cable. :D
I have nothing against ordering from the UK, but exchange and shipping turns it into $27CAD, which isn't a lot.. and I'll probably buy that one. Looking at NewEgg and Amazon, specs are sparse, and some don't come with the AC Adapter, so adding that is the same as buying the UK one that's been tested on a RaspPi.
Fan is this one from Arctic Cooling... was for my 12yr old computer case, but before I installed it I said naw, and bought a new HTPC case since it was for a media server anyways. Not in front of me right now so not sure the specs... NCIX says 3-pin, Arctic Cooling site says 4-pin, not sure if a model change or wrong specs.
Anyways... 80mm, be good for a Pi build. Plan was to mount the Pi off the ground an inch or two and below the 80mm fan by an inch or two, totally open space all around the Pi. Pi has heat sinks, not sure how much they do, but, air vents on either the sides or bottom, basically suck the heat off the Pi's heat sinks. But, larger than the 30mm fans I see on eBay.
Specs at Arctic cooling though do show 12/7/5v options
https://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/arctic-f8-pwm.htmlBut, 3 or 4 pin... not two.
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Thought I'd post, in case people looking for ideas. They have lots for car dash kits, short leads, flush mount, HDMI, USB, Dual-USB etc... not shabby. Actually for the back of the console, the extra USB port may be handy for an extra hookup like a keyboard or Rii controller.
I think I may use these on mine... same size approximately as the arcade buttons (3mm difference) I think it'll be easier to make work on 1/2" thick wood than these styled plugs. At least for the HDMI on the rear of the box...
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Fine tuning the list... know what I need for the most part, just pricing sites and seeing who has stock, but a few small items I gotta get off eBay.
I was looking at something like this as a power indicator light, hook it up to the GPIO so when pressed it launches a shutdown cmd and when the Pi is shut down, LED goes out.
Of course, 12V... so can I put something like this in between? Or will the Pi have enough to power the LED just maybe half as bright? This video implies that the 12V LED will work though... has links in description showing the same button on Amazon as well as others... (link below)
Then at the back, I wanted a power button like this. Then I can use a regular computer cord, and a master power switch to cut power to both the Pi and the USB Hub else the case fan would run non-stop. Plus, bonus fuse, which in a small area like here with constant power issues, may be a good idea.
80mm fan I think may need to be running off the USB hub, which may be a pain and just worth grabbing a 30mm RaspPi fan that runs off the GPIO instead so when I press the power button on the front of the console, the fan shuts off when the Pi shuts off. Then just leave the power running to the hub which probably won't hurt anything I don't suspect.
Any feedback? Once sorted, I hope this time tomorrow, I'll have everything on order.
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