Archives for 11 / 2004
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BigAir
Monday, 22nd November 2004 at 3:19PM (1368 days ago)
It seems live forever (yet again) since I've posted anything. As usual we're super busy and everything is happening at once. Good news is that I sent off the plans to the laser cutters today, so I should get the laser cut MDF pieces back next week! Very excited.
I rigged up a custom cable for the unit so that I can swap out the control panel without rewiring the whole machine. It uses a simple serial connector and colour coded wires for each different part, ie: joysticks, coin mech, etc.
I also got my hands on a new iPac thanks to Scott who happens be the laziest person in Australia at the moment, travelling all around the country.
The new iPac is very sweet, they've finally removed the serial/ps2 connections and it's now USB only, which makes for a neater unit. It's about half the size of my original iPac I bought about 12 months ago. Just goes to show how fast things progress.
Tomorrow we're getting a 10Mbit connection put into the office, so our speeds will be insanely fast, and thankefully no more reliance on Telstra copper!
About 4 months ago we were contacted by FairFax Digital to design/develop a site for them, which has finally gone live, except for the fact the design has changed somewhat from my original design. Nonetheless it's definitely very cool to see it live :)
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Happ Happ Happy
Tuesday, 9th November 2004 at 9:38AM (1381 days ago)
I'm surprised how quickly my joysticks took to arrive. I ordered them on Thursday and they got through customs yesterday and arrived in the afternoon. Talk about timing!
The joysticks feel really good, they're a little bit heavier weighted than the J-Stick's that i've got, but they are really smooth to use. They've got a spring action inside that always returns the joystick to the centre when you let go.
The happ joysticks are a little bit taller than the J-Stick's, but what I like is the fact that the joystick handle is one piece rather than the ball screwed ontop of the metal like the J-Stick, it's a lot more comfortable to use and it looks really nice in the black too.
The happ joystick is an 8-way only and uses separate microswitches, whereas the J-stick uses a leaf switch type system and is rotatable between 4 and 8 way via the resistor plate on the base. The good thing about the happ is that you can replace the microswitches if anything goes belly up. Microswitches are very inexpensive, about $1 each.
The plans are almost complete and i'm hoping to send them off this week or early next.
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Phase 2
Saturday, 6th November 2004 at 5:53PM (1384 days ago)
I'm getting very close to finally realising my arcade project. The plans are almost done and will be sent off to the laser cutters to slice and dice the MDF into my beautiful arcade machine. I spent this afternoon rigging up another control panel to see how well the red and the yellow go together. I was right, they don't go too well at all. Lucky I ordered myself some nice black Happ competition joysticks on Thursday.
I realised with my original control setup that I was mounting the joysticks the wrong way. I figured out the proper way and the results are a million times cleaner.
I'm actually quite impressed with how neat I ended up getting it, considering i'm using crappy craftwood.
I can already feel summer coming, today was one of those really hot and muggy days, the humidity was there, oh boy was it there.
If you're in the Newtown area in Sydney and are sick of all the sex shops around, there's a brothelle type deal they're opening up in King Street, head on down to Cinque there's a petition against it. Just what we need Newtown turning into Kings Cross. Lovelly Jubbly.