MPU_FIVE

When will i learn.... i'm 50 yrs old and like a kid at christmas, just can't settle! It's 1am and have assembled a fair chunk so far, buttons in, boards in, LED bulbs in, wires all bootlaced and ready to wire.... but tomorrow, Gary....... Tomorrow! Time for bed.... Goodnight all.... A few more pics!

Thank you for the tips @Amusements - won't be long now till i can try it all out as today I went to my brother's house and collected the finished wooden case... Been putting bootlace ferrules on the ends of the wires, and tomorrow will do all the wiring, hopefully getting to play live for the 1st time tomorrow... fingers crossed everything works! Here's some pics, my brother done a damn fine job! - well happy!

Oh cool, @Amusements that sounds a much better way to do it (dare i say faster too?) Are you able to do a short video to show me how it's done? Or am i right in thinking, when i define the keys on the I-Pac2 software, i can give it the PacDrive number also associated to that key? For instance i can tell it that the Orange button on (I-Pac pin 1SW1) will be represented by SPACE and it's lamp is connected to (Pacdrive pin 1) Or is it MFME's PacDrive setting where the above info is defined? It'll be one or the other i guess? Thank you!

Legends with lollipops, no less!

@woodsyThe plastic is coloured but the lens can be easily removed to place your own "legends" inside the buttons... I screenied the round, square and triangle buttons from arcade world's website and highlighted where it says about it so you can see for yourself in these pics.... Hope that helps matey! :)

Thank you for your brilliant tips... @davep180 I will give them a go when i've signed off here for the night... Cheers! :)

I think the only thing that'll bug me about the keyboard in terms of appearance will be the fact that the triangle keys will not have smooth edges to them as they are low profile buttons with a spacer so have a "catchy edge" to them... I could of sunk them in to be low profile i suppose but the amount of space the key has to grip to the wooden panel is literally just the 3 corners of the triangle (with a large triangle hole beneath it) which i don't think i want to do... i could make (who am i kidding - get brother to make) a wooden "high profile" triangular surround for each button i guess - or maybe look into how much it would cost to get a 3D printing firm to fabricate me 4 triangle plastic button edges. hmmm

As far as I understand it, you come up with a keyboard layout that you "set in stone" when you define the keys using the I-Pac2 software. So as an example, going by my set up, the blue square key is always going to be button D The layout for Jewel in the Crown i believe had K set for the blue button (for Knockouts), so you edit the layout and change from K to D and click apply to set it... While in edit mode, you'd hover the mouse arrow over that blue "knockouts" button on the layout and it will show in a white box the lamp number associated with that button, you'd go into the Pacdrive settings of MFME for that layout (Jewel in the crown in this case ) and set the Pacdrive button 12 in my case to the lamp number that you just discovered... so lamp 18 in this case... see pic :)... (circled in green)

Ahhh, cheers, I will try that, @davep180 Hopefully it will fix that layout as it's one of my favourite mid tech machines ole Each way shifter!

MFME Keyboard.... the journey so far, My brother sent a video of him painting the MFME Keyboard last night, I should be picking it up tomorrow and then the wiring can begin! I have been converting a few layouts, ready to play when the keyboard is completed. There are some pictures of the I-Pac2 keyboard layout i have chosen, and a PacDrive lamp layout i have on screen to refer to when changing the keys. I was a bit (confused dot com) on one or two layouts that i was configuring, as although they let me change the key for a button, they also retained the key they were originally set to, for example, Each way shifter by Ploggy, I changed the "TAKE" button from "T" to "4" as per my MFME Keyboard, saved changes, but it now uses "T" and "4" for this button, but "T" is assigned to the gamble button as per my MFME keyboard, so when i press the "GAMBLE" button (assigned to "T") it collects instead because it thinks i've pressed the "TAKE" button... I did wonder if it may be because i have the same machine in another folder on my computer (but then ALL should suffer like this because they ALL already exist in another folder) - probably due to the way i keep things, as in a picture below there is a screenshot of my folders - over the years as each emulator came out i would have layouts for that specific version of the emulator in it. Fruit Roms (MFME 1), Fruit Roms (MFME 2), Fruit Roms (MFME 3), Fruit Roms (MFME S4 & MPU5), - the leaked one that caused chaos in FME land (aka 9.4, 9.9 and 10.1a) Fruit Roms (MFME 5), Fruit Roms (MFME 6), Fruit Roms (MFME 19), Fruit Roms (MFME 20), and a new folder i have made specifically for layouts converted to the forthcoming MFME Keyboard - Fruit Roms (MFME Keyboard) Although really perhaps i should keep it simple and just go through all i already have and change the keys on them without creating new copies for the MFME Keyboard... - crumbs reading that back i've confused myself! oh well - onward we go - I also include a short video of how i change a key on a layout, and how i find the lamp number which corresponds to that key, for anyone that does't know... I hope at least that won't confuse anyone! I kept that short and sweet - although filmed on my camera as i can't screen record as Windows 10 doesn't think my computer is up to spec to do it on the game bar... (I have a DELL XPS 420 from 2007) - i really must do some overtime at work and save up for a new one... One way i have of making use of the buttons more intuative can be seen on the Each way shifter layout, (where it has 6 direction keys - 3 to the left, 3 to the right to move the light to make the word "WIN" on the board.) My thinking was traffic lights... RED for TOP YELLOW for MIDDLE GREEN for BOTTOM ...and then it's quite easy to use the square and triangle buttons related to said direction keys! Also chucked into the pictures is a pic or two of a list i've written out with the lamp numbers for each key that will need to be entered into MFME for the Pacdrive for each individual layout... for instance on the pic titled "lamp numbers for pacdrive 3" in the red circle, for jewel in the crown, the lamp number 31 is to be associated with the Pacdrive button 1 (which is the START button on the layout) On Andy Capp, I think i only needed to change 1 (if that) key as they were pretty much all set to the keys my Keyboard will be configured to... the H and L for Hi- Lo are mapped to my triangle Hi-Lo keys and is more intuative for hi-lo than if i used the blue and green round buttons on the bottom row... my preference anyway A pic of how i intend to map the buttons to Labyrinth should show what's going on a bit clearer than how my shoddy explainations have been going today anyway! I've also ordered a crimp tool so i can put bootlace ferrules (inspired by @WibbleWobble's amazing I-Pac & PacDrive board on the cabinet he made) on the wire ends that will go into the PacDrive and I-Pac2 as i decided if i'm going to do this, i may as well do as best a job of it that i can! I hope this all makes a bit of sense anyway... I think i need a coffee and a lay down now! ha ha! Here's some pics that will hopefully do a better job of my ramblings! next stop - wire city!!! Cheers all... Gary

@1969kappa As @fits said above there is the legacy section that @Geddy has put together and he also posted a download of a complete MFME romset https://www.desertislandfruits.com/forum/index.php?/files/category/37-legacy-layouts/

You're welcome, matey! I'm trying to include as much as I can so others can either build a carbon copy of this, or use it as a guide to making their own take on it... will be amazing to see a whole army of MFME Keyboards springing up on these forums! I remember seeing Reg's MFME Keyboard tutorial, and was in awe, - wished i'd done this sooner, i'd always wanted to make one, but 4 flippin' years!!?? - god, i'm slow on the take-up! Cheers, Gary 777

Ahhh, brilliant, lads... thanks for your feedback - much appreciated. :) - I am relieved that I actually seem to know what i'm doing - (for once in my life! ) Thanks all, Gary

So while the wooden box is still in my brothers capable hands, I have been thinking about the wiring of the buttons. I will need to take one spare 6.3mm crimp and add it onto the 4.8mm daisy chain harness as the Orange Starpoint button's microswitch uses 6.3mm connectors vs all the other microswitches being 4.8mm After looking at Reg's tutorial and viewing bits n bobs on YouTube about IPacs and PacDrives, I have drawn 2 diagrams to show how i will be wiring the buttons - 1 for the I-Pac2 and the other for the PacDrive. The 17th button will be on the side of the keyboard and used for £1 input, and so will not be lit, just the other 16 main buttons. I think it's all correct, but can any of you guys tagged below just check my diagrams, to give me the nod that i won't be blowing up my I-Pac / PacDrive please. Thanks in advance. @No1Stoney@Reg@WibbleWobble@uptown47@Amusements@cja272 Here's the 2 wiring diagrams:

@johnparker007 Loving the way your arcade is progressing... I had an idea! so far you have: Fruit machines in MFME, Arcade machines in MAME, so how about... Pinball machines in Visual Pinball ? I dare say only top spec PC's could run all that, mind - but would'nt that be awesome! I'd deffo need a new PC... I run MFME on the newest PC i have which is a 2007 Dell XPS 420 8Gb Ram, Q6600 so yeah.. i best do some overtime at work and get saving! Cheers. Gary

....forgot to say, the bottom will be screwed on so if i ever need to access the inside to change an LED or a loose wire, my chunky hands will have an easy time getting to all the bits inside... my brother also said he will add a small bit of wood inside the top of the box so i can mount the I-Pac2 and PacDrive to that... should be cool!

Well, what a day today was! Visited my brother and his family, with a box of buttons and my cardboard prototype keyboard with me, and he done me flippin' proud so he did! He began to put together a wooden replica, while i was chatting to my nieces and his wife... I felt a right lazy so n so! The intention was to at least help him build it - in the end he did it all himself while i was chatting, bless him! Although admittedly i am crap at anything involving tools - he's definately the handyman of the family! It's not finished yet but i love what he's done so far! It's even going to have either vinyl wrap on it or paint.. he has loads of different finishes including chrome paint - i rather liked the look of the plain white vinyl i saw there, and he even said i could have lettering put on it and the like... i thought it would be amazing if he could put the MFME logo on it and maybe the little yoda pic like Clo puts on her layouts with "in memory of Chris Wren 1965 - 2020" - I'll ask him and see if he can when i see him next. Below are pics of where i want the 17th button (£1 coin entry) on the cardboard prototype and a few early stages pics of my brother's handywork as it currently stands. I'm well happy! The day of doing the wiring (the bit i dread the most is drawing nearer!) tho as long as i follow Reg's MFME Keyboard guide to the letter, i hopefully will be wondering what the worry was all about! Anyway - to the pics!! -----> Gary

Small update, Postman Pat delivered the low profile red buttons, I think i won't need to get high profile ones as they have a spacer which makes em as chunky as the high profile buttons, they all look pretty much same heightwise - i like them! I also treated myself to a Starpoint button simply because it added an extra splash of colour as it is orange! (at £5.40 a bit pricey, but it was only the one so sod it!) https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/Starpoint-44mm-Illuminated-Arcade-Button.html I love the way the coloured buttons all look now they are all here. The spare yellow button will be the 17th button (so will be unlit) and will go on the side of the case and will be the £1 coin input button. Think i may have to make the front panel slant a bit steeper and/or make the front step higher by a cm or two as looking at a button complete with microswitch makes it almost touch the bottom and that could be fiddly as f**k when putting the wires in and/or any future maintenance - tho I would imagine once it's built it should stand the test of time... it better had anyway! Next thing to do is do some woodwork with my brother - I am tempted to see how much it would cost to have a plastic case made tho, there is a company in my area that makes displays for shops and businesses out of Acrylic and they do custom designs but no idea how much that is... i'm poor so have a very low budget but might chuck em an email and see what they say - I mean if it was awesome enough they may find a fair few peeps from here would be grabbing one off em too and they'd be quids in! - anyway I'm waffling! - Here's some pics... Till next time! Gary.