Custom Blast City Panel for Mistercade and Brook setups.

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

A while back I modified a Noir clone panel on one of my Lindberghs to make use of the Brook UFB.

A couple of years later I was going to do something similar to use an RGH Xbox360 in my Blast City. Along came the Mistercade and then the add on Mistercade Admin Board. Even better. So I got myself an old Versus City panel and got to work.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

My plan was to do all this myself with some hole punching tools. I struggled a little so some hole positions aren’t perfect but let’s see how it was done.

Starting with the panel I removed the overlay. These are tough plastic and leave heaps of residue. Then using a spare custom Lindbergh overlay I marked out the game button holes and admin button holes. Then I centre-punched them for drilling.

I then drilled the holes to the size required for the various metal punches and punched out all the holes. The punches sharpness dulled after a few and it got really hard to turn the spanner. I ended up having to add a pipe to use as a lever. Next time I’d clamp down the panel somehow as well.

All holes punched were quite neat but still required some cleaning up with a little tool that you run around the hole edge that cuts of sharp edges. I did some dremel finishing to tidy them up completely. I stuffed up the position of the far left headphone hole. It’s too close for my liking.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

I had a basic vinyl overlay printed. It will do the trick but I may get a nicer one from arcade art shop later on. I had the panel powdercoated in “appliance white”. Placing in the Amphenol USB was a bit tricky and required putting a little thread in the holes. The usb connects to the Mistercade and allows me to connect a usb wifi for updates. It will also charge the phone. I was a bit too heavy handed on the centre punching as well which lifted the powdercoat.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

After some trial and error I got a button colour config that I’m happy with. Setting up the Mistercade admin board was pretty easy once I worked out that I had to run unique ground wires from the board to the buttons. Daisy chaining them on the admin board and out to the admin buttons didn’t work. I repurposed some wires with button connectors from an old CPS kick harness that was too short for anything.

So the finished product is a 1p panel with four normal buttons (but can assign more if required), and admin buttons for menu, pause, core reset, reset, P1, coin & P2. I recall I had to “pinch” a couple of buttons from the P2 harness to add coin and P2 buttons. The Mistercade admin board doesn’t have these but would be a good future add on - @misteraddons (just have the same button options as the remote board ). I also added a headphone jack that goes into the Mistercade and have the other two buttons/switches should I later use a Brook UFB and want to select between D-Pad and stick and/or isolate the extra buttons like on a fight stick.

 

[bagheera369]

Did you think about adding a hdmi connector for SNAX stuff on the mister?

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Did you think about adding a hdmi connector for SNAX stuff on the mister?

I didn’t think about that as I haven’t dug into mister beyond the arcade cores. But cool idea and I may do that if I get a nicer overlay. The HDMI matching part is available.

 

[bagheera369]

I didn’t think about that as I haven’t dug into mister beyond the arcade cores. But cool idea and I may do that if I get a nicer overlay. The usb matching part is available.

My thought was, if you're running 15Khz, and have Mister, why not setup a mister remote, and then hook a SNAX connector for Elemental Gearbolt and Point Blank series of a Guncon1, right up to your Blast.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

My thought was, if you're running 15Khz, and have Mister, why not setup a mister remote, and then hook a SNAX connector for Elemental Gearbolt and Point Blank series of a Guncon1, right up to your Blast.

So many options. I’m going to need a bigger Micro SD.

 

[FrancoB]

Good work man! Love those flush mounted USBs of yours. I have pinched your idea for a sub panel but I need to do something slightly different due to clearance issues.

Those Qmax type punches can be hard to pull though material, especially if it's thicker steel or stainless etc. Clamping the panel to a table/workbench definitely helps along with using a length of tube for more leverage. It helps to adjust the setup so that the hole/punch as close to the table as possible and you'll want to set this up for each hole.

I've got a couple of pictures of that in a really old thread [here]. You've done well to get the additional holes in as accurately as you have as they can be a bit of a bitch to do and once you've started drilling off center it's hard to go back. I made a brass template and some SS rings/guide bushes to align to the template to the existing holes and drill/punch the new ones accurately. A few people asked me to make some more metal templates/bushes back then but it wasn't possible. Now 3D printing is a thing it would be a fairy easy to knock some files up. I'll have a go and share them when I get a spare minute.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Nice @FrancoB thanks. I probably rushed mine compared to your exacting method . Wow, you were doing this 10+ years ago. The method holds up well though - even with CAD and laser cutting available. I bet I can sharpen my punches too with the right bit and a dremel.

 

[bagheera369]

Good work man! Love those flush mounted USBs of yours. I have pinched your idea for a sub panel but I need to do something slightly different due to clearance issues.

Those Qmax type punches can be hard to pull though material, especially if it's thicker steel or stainless etc. Clamping the panel to a table/workbench definitely helps along with using a length of tube for more leverage. It helps to adjust the setup so that the hole/punch as close to the table as possible and you'll want to set this up for each hole.

I've got a couple of pictures of that in a really old thread [here]. You've done well to get the additional holes in as accurately as you have as they can be a bit of a bitch to do and once you've started drilling off center it's hard to go back. I made a brass template and some SS rings/guide bushes to align to the template to the existing holes and drill/punch the new ones accurately. A few people asked me to make some more metal templates/bushes back then but it wasn't possible. Now 3D printing is a thing it would be a fairy easy to knock some files up. I'll have a go and share them when I get a spare minute.

Franco killing it as always!!!

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

To finish off I’ve put in an LS-56 to try. I thought it was a LS-33 as that’s what’s printed in the pcb, but apparently LS-56s all have that. Took a while to work out that it’s not wired in standard Seimitsu but some other (Namco?) way as it was from a Cyberlead panel. While reflowing solder on one switch I saw it had lifted the trace so a quick switch ground to switch ground wire jumper fixed it.

 

[Ziggy Cheetos Dust]

Time for some gaming.