60 in 1 Power switch question

viewsonix

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So I was thinking of making a 60 in 1 with a vga monitor and a pc power supply, but I was wondering how people set it up so that there is a switch to turn it all on at once.

I know there are 'smart' power strips and what not but I'm talking about a switch that is accessable from the outside that turns everything off and on at the same time. Like with a standard arcade machine.

How do you guys wire these things up?
 
My 60 in 1 is set up this way with a VGA monitor and a PC power supply. I have everything plugged into a strip with a long cord that acts as my main power cable. One I flick the light switch to my arcade and powers on like any other of my machines. Most VGA/LCD monitors stay on when the button on the front is on. Once it receives a signal, it kicks out of standby and turns on.
 
That's kind of what I'm talking about.

Do people normally cut open a power strip's power cord and splice/connect in a toggle switch or do they do something else? I'm curious how others have done it in their VGA monitor cabs.
 
You can do it any number of ways, such as just cutting the plugs off the PC type power cords and wiring them into the power distribution block in the game. Or, you can use a simple surface mount electrical box ("handy box") from the hardware store and a normal wall outlet, giving yourself two power sockets in the game. For MAME cabinets, I've built relay controlled power strips by modifying a normal power strip, but for a 60 in 1, you only need the two outlets, so a simple box with a duplex outlet works great.

-Ian
 
That's kind of what I'm talking about.

Do people normally cut open a power strip's power cord and splice/connect in a toggle switch or do they do something else? I'm curious how others have done it in their VGA monitor cabs.

Well, I wire the monitor power to the original monitor power wiring, and the PS power cord (if using an ATX instead of a switcher) to a point that has power controlled by the cab's power switch.

if you want to put a strip in there, then just cut off the plug and solder the wires to a point that is controlled by the power switch (like the input to a transformer), then plug your PS and monitor into it...
 
I think what I was considering was alot more simple than this.

Since I was looking at using an old pc monitor, and an ATX power supply, I thought i'd plug both into a power strip inside the case (along with the marquee light fixture). This way I could remove the entire power system that arcade cabs usually use.
Then I'd cut the power strip power cord and hook one side of that up to the power switch inside the cab, and the other half of the power cord would be on the other side of the power switch, and would run out of the cab.

That way the power switch would power everything up at once.

I was just wondering if others had done this like this.
 
And how are you planning on turning it on and off? Unplugging it?

I hope you are at least using a crappy cab if you're not going to do it right...
 
No i have a Discs of Tron that I was going to gut out.

JUST KIDDING!

Of course, I'm using a generic cab for this.


What Im am trying to say is

everything in cab----> power strip---->power switch.----->wall socket

which makes the most sense. I'm just trying to figure out the best/safest way to wire the switch into the line. I'm probably overanalyzing this but I figured there are probably at least 30 guys here who have done this and I was wondering how they wired them.
 
Your over thinking it. All the switch does is break the hot wire. So from your main power coming into the cab after the fuse, install the switch to open and close the hot line. Anything wired after the switch will turn on when you close the switch. Just make sure that the switch is mounted through a hole in the cab to acces turning it on and off.

Bob roberts has a tutorial on how to wire up a MS. Pac AC wiring, he uses a switching power supply but its the same principal, there is a picture at the bottom of the page.

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/acwiring.html
 
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