Centipede Control Panel - what do you think?

[Laschek]

If the US guys can't get it done cost-effective, than it will be much worse here.

Why? Ever tried to have it done over here?
I mean I too don't think that stuff like that can be made cost-effective, but that should not be the main goal.

Really ? Maybe if there are minor issues with the original, but not when it's like this:

I said "not so good", this is bad. There are people out there who replace stuff just because it has minor scratches and doesn't look like it looked when it came out of the factory 20+ years ago...

Anyway, as I said I might be a bit too picky on that subject, due to my profession as a printer...

[level42]

Ah, so if it's your profession, why don't you have a look into running some silkscreens ?

The thing is with silkscreening you will have to make a run of, let's say, at least 50 to +barely+ reach the costs. I think in general the costs of everything in the US is lower that's why I assume that it will be even harder to do in Europe.

Indeed, I would leave an original CPO if there was only minor damage, but the fact of life is there is very often cigarette burns or worse.

The damage around the trackball is very typical for Centipede and thus there was little choice to replace it. The hobby is all about compromise: First choice would be to leave origina, if not possible try to find NOS stuff, if not possible find silkscreen repro's, if not possible get inkjets (as good as possible).

[Laschek]

Ah, so if it's your profession, why don't you have a look into running some silkscreens ?

I might do so if I'm in need of something, asking costs nothing.

[level42]

Great !

Or maybe this is an alternative ?

http://www.instructables.com/id/down_and_dirty_screenprinting_for_under_10/

[Laschek]

Or maybe this is an alternative ?

http://www.instructables.com/id/down_and_dirty_screenprinting_for_under_10/

I doubt that, this is merely for "fun" projects of lower quality. You would have to cut out a stencil by hand, one for each color 

In professional screen printing the screen is made in a photomechanical way, so details can accuratly be reproduced.

[level42]

Yeah, I forgot to put the in there

[Laschek]

Yeah, I forgot to put the in there

Ah, okay 

[Superully]

ok, here's an update. i've finally received the color sample printout from jörg - here's how this baby looks like (i put it underneath the original bezel to flat out) 



one of those segments in detail 



as you can see, the individual square are VERY TINY with the exception of the center square. and here's where we stand: i have an old worn original overlay, a print by scott from mamemarquees (the one that andré has on his centi) and an original bezel. problem: those three items all have different color shades, e.g. none of the blues is identical. imho it would be the best idea to match the reproduction overlay colors to the colors of the bezel, because the original overlay is definitely discolored (you can see that at spots which had been covered by buttons for example).

the problem with matching the colors to the bezel are that there is the thick sheet of plexi on top of the print itself, which means tht i cannot put the color samples from scott directly next to the bezel colors PLUS the individual squares of the color samples are so small, it's close to impossible to see if the color really fits well.

to be honest guys, i have no idea how to tackle this from here. i've spend a good time today staring at those colors and trying to compare them and while i'm often very close to the original, it just doesn't work out the way i had hoped it would.

i need some input here, please!

[Laschek]

I'd say you need to match the colour always to the part you want to reproduce. One and the same colour can look totally different on various kinds of materials. Plexi is smooth and shiny, the vinyl of the CP is not. Match the colour to the bezel and it might look totally different on vinyl.
I might be wrong, but I doubt that these samples are the way to go, these are not proper samples for professional printing (even if it is done in inkjet CMYK). My guess is that those original CPs were printed with Pantone colors, so the "easiest" way would be to find out the original colours, then you would easily get the appropriate CMYK data to print them in inkjet or whatever.
I might give it a shot to find out, Ully, contact me if you like...

[level42]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the colors of Mamemarquees' Centi CPO, at least, not with the blue and green.
The red is too light at some points, but I've seen other CPO's that had the same defect. It could be an "original" defect.

Considering the age of my original CPO, I'd say the colors were EXACTLY right. Again this pic:




Here is where the Mamemarquees one is wrong. The red IN the mushrooms looks fins to me. Of course the edge is totally wrong (blue instead of pink) but the real issue is the "star" which is WAY too light colored on the Mamemarquees version.

[level42]

Click here for more pics:

http://gallery.mac.com/andre.huijts#100081

[Superully]

hmmm, the blue from scotts print doesn't match MY original overlay and it doesn't match the bezels blue, too much purple in there imho.

[ckong]

What is the status of this?

[Superully]

still have the stuff lying around here. i'm going to take everything over to sascha when i pick up the nightdriver in two to three weeks and we'll see what we can do. he offered to have a look at the problem!

[Superully]

update on this: i took all the stuff along for the night driver ride to sascha's place. he's going to try to color match the bezel colors to a pantone color chart. i'm pretty sure sascha is the right man for the job!