Removable Control Panel

I just acquired a Picade after waiting for it to come back in stock at a third party provider. One of the things that I’m disappointed about is that there is not an easy way to remove the top of the control panel once secured.

Wondering if anyone has had any luck modifying this to allow for easier servicing. So far, I’ve done this by leaving off the two screws, but I wanted to see if anyone had thought of a better way.

I thought about the same thing but then I thought to myself what will I need to remove it for after I am satisfied with the setup and artwork. I guess you can put some king of hinge. See below.

I had this idea of gluing the nut into the block so that I could remove simply with a screw driver, rather than trying to reach under the panel to reattach the nut.

How often you plan on going under that panel? Glue could get messy.

It is mostly to change the joystick from 4 to 8 way.

I know what you mean, it’s pretty fiddly trying to screw and unscrew those two screws without dropping the nuts all the time.

I wondered whether some sort of coach bolt and wingnut arrangement might make it a bit easier. There’s not a huge amount of space, but the longer bolts might help.

Although as angel77lopez says, once I had finished messing about changing button layouts and artwork, I haven’t actually had to get into the control panel for quite a while.

On my bartop cab, I addressed this issue with magnetic cupboard catches:

http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-brown-magnetic-catch-pack-of-2/243312_BQ.prd

But I’m not sure there’s sufficient space for that solution in a picade cab.

Sorry for replying to my own post. But perhaps a similar latch to the back door might be used on the control panel and sides of the cab?

http://www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk/products/cabinet_furniture_and_hardware/catches_latches_and_stays/1487/double_roller_catch/552182

Just an idea, I haven’t looked at how feasible that would be.