Cabinet design progress

Interesting button colour combo, whats the buttons colour theme representing?? Good job so far mate!

nice toenails:D

Interesting button colour combo, whats the buttons colour theme representing?? Good job so far mate!

 

The blue and red are obviously 1 and 2, and the additional white is a 'block' button for Mortal Kombat (which will get a fair bit of use on this machine as it was one of the childhood favourites). Mortal Kombat had a 5 button layout but I'm using the middle 2 as block anyway and the white button just makes it complete in my view. I should have throught twice about the other 3 buttons being black though as they disguise themselves nicely against the overlay.

Speaking of which, how good is that overlay? I don't think I'd have it any other way.

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20Project/Sketch-topsection.png

 

Here's a pic of the model progress so far. I plan to screw the dressed pine 'support' lengths onto each side panel and then chcek all the cut panels for length. Due to the stupid tolerances I designed the whole thing with (rather than using round numbers I drew up the side panels and referenced everything else from them) I have a feeling it's not going to all meet up. Serves me right I s'pose.

The house move is all over so now I'll be able to devote some time to the cabinet finally, much to my wife's disapproval. I managed to score a PC off her parents which they thought was stuffed, but I plugged it in with zero dramas whatsoever. Sucks to be computer illiterate. I thought it was a scabby old Duron 1200+ but it's actually:

 

Athlon XP 2400+

512 MB DDR2 at 133 MHz

18 GB HD space (2 drives - might have to add another if I want a reasonable game collection)

Wireless LAN

Reasonable Gigabyte motherboard GA-7S748

ArcadeVGA AGP!

 

I picked up the ArcadeVGA from Ozstick for a sweet deal mate, and theyr'e still cheap in fact for the AGP version. Looks like I've locked myself into the 15kHz setup. I didn't want to go down the PCIe path because I would have to pay for the PC - ha! - and plus I don't really care about modern arcade games. I've set it up with VNC so I remotely log into it to set up the software. Considering the dirty res, I've gone for MAMAwah as the frontend and I'm slowly struggling away with it. Hopefully it won't demand too much of my time.

Very cool design there

Nice one !

great stuff - where do you get that overlay from?

I got if from OzStick. They were out of stock for a while but it looks like they got it back or found and alternative. It really is awesome stuff.

Finally, back to it

 

After some weekends of moving stuff, cleaning the new house, installing a vege garden and self-watering system, collecting rocks for some landscaping blah blah blah, I FINALLY have had an opportunity to get back to building the cabinet. Rejoice.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/MAMEPC.jpg

 

Here's the aforementioned PC. After a blowout with the air compressor it came up pretty nicely with the ArcadeVGA. Note too the wireless network - highly recommended with VNC. It means you don't need to worry about res issues logging into it.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P7251533.jpg

 

Dodgy router table setup to cut the recesses for the marquee. I've put two 4mm recesses in the top and the bottom for the clear acrylic to rest in, and I'm going to hold it in using T-moulding. Should be seamless, and no shaded borders to worry about.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P7251532.jpg

 

A closeup of a recess being cut for the interested n00bs out there.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P7251534.jpg

 

FINALLY, all the bits and peices are cut, routed and ready for action! There are only all the complex little bits - the subwoofer, rear and monitor panels aren't there because they won't be needed for a while.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P7251536.jpg

 

Marking out one of the side panels in preparation for screwing on the supports (38mm dressed pine. Cheap, light and relatively straight)

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P7251537.jpg

 

To set out the panel supports, I used a ruler to ensure straightness and even-ness for non-continuous bits. Once in place, I nailed them in place using a bradding gun. I did this just in case I made a mistake, and would you believe the first nail went in the wrong spot. I gave myself a quiet pat on the back. After putting everything together and I'm sure everything's in the right spot, I'm going to screw all the pine in place and glue to MDF.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P7251538.jpg

 

CONSTRUCTION. Peices are screwed together to ensure everything fits. And what do you know, the base is exactly 5mm too long. Odd, I told myself, as that is a very even figure and I modelled the whole setup on Pro|E and it's never failed me before. Still, in reality, this looked 5mm too big so I trimmed it off.

After packing everything up I went to the computer to check the length of this panel - and what do you know? It was modelled as long as the original size (5mm 'too long'), so I was baffled. On closer inspection I have the kickpanel mounted flush with the front, not recessed 5mm like the rest of the edge. IDIOT. Well, serves me right for doubting the model, it's never failed me before and it didn't this time either. Nothing a flush trim bit and a router can't fix, but I think it may be better this way. At least it isn't ruined.

The cabinet becomes a cabinet

 

I managed to score a weekend at home so what better opportunity than this to further the progress?

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8011618.jpg

 

Here's the marquee recesses. You can see here I've glued these in place. These were SUPPOSED to have a slot cut in them for T-moulding so I could use it to secure the marquee in. Bad luck now I suppose - still thinking of a plan B. FYI I didn't think about it at the time, but I didn't actually have a slot bit so I couldn't have done it anyway.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8141894.jpg

 

After putting both sides together, I decided to put the CP mounts in. I did this by locating the right spots for the control panel, clamping them in place with a sash clamp, the marking the mounts out.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8151904.jpg

 

Side mounts glued and screwed in place.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8141893.jpg

 

The wheels in place temporarily secured by metal roofing screws. It's all I could find that would fit the wheels. If anyone's thinking about putting wheels on their cab I have this to say: PUT WHEELS ON YOUR CAB. It makes manouvring it around substantially easier.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8151905.jpg

 

The marquee in place upright.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8151911.jpg

 

The speaker panel glued in place. I've decided to go for an open baffle arrangement as for the trouble it's going to be be to create a ported enclosure I don't think it's going to pay off in acoustics. This'll go alright provided I get the crossover right.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8151906.jpg

 

Hinged doors, two in total. I don't think I've actually seen someone not go for piano hinge before. I used a purpose-built Forstner bit to cut the recesses which worked like a treat. Plus, the Blum hinges can be removed in a snap and it's awesome for working on the cab because the doors can be removed entirely.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P8151910.jpg

 

THE CABINET. Behold. Once you get to this stage and you stand back and look at it, you really feel as though something has been acheived. Lots to go, but progress is progress. It also takes my mind of the anger and abuse from my wife inside. Does anyone want to buy an elliptical stepper?

 

No more work due for a while due to work and social commitments, so watch this space. A Jaycar order is in the pipeline which should seal the remaining components required to assemble the big girl. Still haven't decided on a colour or logo... I'm thinking R-Type inspired.

Very Nice.

 

Great looking cab :)

Very Nice.

 

Great looking cab :)

 

What he said .................. :D:D

Good job. :)

An electrical engineering friend of mine dropped over on the weekend and we were looking for something to do Sunday morning. What else but to hook up the Jomac chassis and see how it goes?

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/P8292102.jpg

 

Brett rigging up the old tube, a Samsung 51cm out of a DSE TV. A seriously quality tube too I might add. Interestingly the colours on the old chassis didn't match up with the colours on the new one. There was a green and yellow wire on the tube snipped off which were replaced by different colours on the chassis. Logic would suggest then that the new chassis's green and yellow wires would suit. Not the case later it turned out...

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/P8292103.jpg

 

The dining table officially became "man zone". Brett and I were well in our element.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/P8292106.jpg

 

The tube mounted on the cabinet and all hooked up rearing to go.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/P8292108.jpg

 

The chassis in its glory. After seeing this on the screen, I was definately sold.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/P8292104.jpg

 

My neighbour play-testing the screen. It works! Donkey Kong had the bottom of it cut off though, which is all part of the teething issues I'm going to have to face when setting up all the games.

 

To start with, we hooked it all up and the image was upside down and back to front (no smoke or tripped circuit breakers though, which was more than I expected). After crossing our fingers and swapping over a plug, we managed to invert the image but it was still backwards. One of my mates said "Let's give it a crack anyway!", failing to realise that the controls would be in reverse. After much thinking and looking around the forums, I decided to swap over the afore-mentioned gren and yellow wires on the tube and BAM! Success! Some playing around with the settings sharpened the image up substantially and I was entirely blown away with the image quality. I'm using MAMEwah as the front-end and I set everything up according to Ultimarc and various other advice (I'm running an ArcadeVGA as well). The dirtiness and visible scanlines simply cannot be emulated... all the people who have said if you want the 'authentic' experience you need an arcade screen, they are absolutely right. I could almost smell spilt coke and popcorn. If you're thinking twice about it stop doing it and go for the real thing!

One thing that I wasn't aware of though was that every time a resolution changes (i.e. every time the game is changed) the v-hold and other monitor settings need to be changed to suit. Not overly happy. Though thinking about it, this is probably a good thing because after using someone else's cab we found we were swapping and changing games every time we lost a life, so really this is a way to discourage that kind of impatience.

Next step is to pull everything out, glue the remainder together, and get started on the painting. Then the real fun begins.

Hey mate, cabinet looks great. Not sure of your vga cable breakout setup, but I had the same problem with my ArcadeVGA, always adjusting the vhold for every different game, which was seriously bugging me. To solve the problem I combined the Verical and Horizontal sync wires. I was using a breakout board that Joey (from Jomac) had made for me, I simply soldered the V & H sync points together and the problem was solved....Took myself and a few others a while to figure out as everything else was setup just fine...Give that a crack and see how you go!!!:)

Thanks yardos1225, that was indeed the problem (and wasn't the last for an amatuer like me). More progress is as follows:

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P9262487.jpg

 

The speakers installed for a trial run to see if the new crossover works. I didn't take any pics of the crossover being put together but it was pretty rough and is visible further down. Those tweeters are Foster ribbon tweeters, Japanese made courtesy of Jaycar. VERY smooth treble and an insanely flat resopnse curve, but difficult to match with any woofers due to a sharp cutoff at 6kHz. The result is actually a peak at around 5kHz and a bit of a drop at <2kHz, which makes the old-school games sound a little too crisp. Hopefully when the sub is installed it will flatten out nicely.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P9262488.jpg

 

A closeup of the speakers.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P9262490.jpg

 

The crossover as installed. I've got a 12dB/octave cutoff on the woofer and measly 6dB/octave on the tweeter at around 3500 Hz, which is a little low but shouldn't be bothered by the 18W output of the amp (Jaycar sell them at the moment - very handy and appropriate for this kind of project). More photos on that later, as well as some electrical 'trickery' for remote volume mounting.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P9262492.jpg

 

The sub box as installed. The sub is a Response 8" and has an 84mm port on the right.

'Til next time!

Edited September 26, 2010 by TheWiggman
Typo

Are you going to use some kind of shielding for your speaker setup?? You may run into difficulty in regards to your CRT?? I used some similar speakers in my cab and had massive discolouring from the magnets... I tried to hot glue some 'bucking magnets' to the back but that still didn't fix it...

yardos1225, the woofers are sheilded and the magnets on the tweeters are very weak and don't affect the screen at all. I may run into some trouble with the sub, but I've trialled it in place and didn't appear to have much of an effect. The hard drives are the biggest concern I think - gotta mount them faaaaaaaaaaaar away from this big nasty magnet.

Well, with a work 'promotion', I've been spending far too many hours at work and haven't had a chance to work on the cab itself. I have however worked on the amp to make the volume control remotely mounted. I bought a potentiometer from Jaycar but unfortunately bought the wrong one. To remotely mount it, I removed the old pot from the circuit board of the amp and soldered some speaker wire on there instead (lowest resistance of any wire I have here). These will connect to the other pot elsewhere on the cab so that I can control the volume from an inconspicuous little place just under the control panel. Hopefully it will work.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/P9242466.jpg

 

Cheap little 18W stereo amp from Jaycar. Managed to pick it up for a cool $31 from their distributor.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/P9242468.jpg

 

The bass, treble and volume control pots. Simple 50k double gang, available in most electronics joints. However, they have a very short shaft so they can't be mounted on 16mm wood. The Jaycar type have a much longer 38mm shaft taht can be easily cut down - http://www1.electusdistribution.com.au/productView.asp?ID=4900&CATID=Search all Categories&keywords=potentiometer&SPECIAL=&form=KEYWORD&SUBCATID=

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PA122728.jpg

 

Some speaker wires in place which will extend to the potentiometer elsewhere.

 

Hopefully this weekend I will have some pics of some REAL progress so it looks like I'm actually doing something, not just playing around with some electronics now and then. I've also done most of the auto-on / safety door switch relay box but I haven't ordered the appropriate solid state relay yet so it's not ready for pics.

Back in the groove

 

Finally got back into it. After much thinking and consideration, I finally worked out a decent way to support the conrol panel and the bezel without any seams. I used a peice of pine and made a straight edge with a flush trim bit and spirit level. I then recessed the edge the control panel sits on, and ran a 90 trench along the length for the bezel to sit in.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213265.jpg

 

HOWEVER, I stuffed up. Big time. To put it in the right spot, I clamped the panel support to the panel, put everything in place, and dilled some pilot holes. I then pulled everything apart and then glued the support in place using the pilot holes to locate it. Here is the result:

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213272.jpg

 

I have no idea how to fix this apart from building the front edge up and trimming it off. Suggestions are very welcome.

After that attached a peice of angle to pull the support straight:

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213266.jpg

 

Holes drilled in the top panel for the exhaust fan and on/off / reset buttons.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213270.jpg

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213271.jpg

 

The bottom panel installed in place, completing the construction. FINALLY.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213273.jpg

 

Here's a little 'box' which prevents sticky fingers from sticking their hands underneath and electrocuting themselves on the power plug.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213275.jpg

 

The volume control which consists of a 50k potentiometer wired to the mainboard of the amplifier (refer to previous pics)

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213276.jpg

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213280.jpg

 

Very handy location for it. Not visible from the front but immediately accessible during play.

Here's the relay / main power distribution box. I can show anyone a circuit diagram if they're interested, but basically it means that when a panel is opened power will be shut down and the door needs to be closed to reset it. The relay there will also turn all powered items on inside the box when the computer is turned on.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/PB213269.jpg

 

The next step is routing the T-moulding and painting, but I have no idea how to fix the issue with the control panel sitting out. I don't want to cut the panel shorter, but I'm not sure what other options I have. If I do, I'll have to put a seal or something in there, but I can't find anything appropriate on the Clark Rubber website. Grrr!

fixing the cp protrusion:

 

remove your bezel support, route a slot for your CP top rear edge, re-attach bezel support

 

OR

 

peel back the cp overlay and take a little off the back edge of the CP, then reapply the overlay (staple at the back edge to hold it) (not such a good option really)

 

rubber strip: how about this one ?

http://www.ormistonrubber.com.au/media/pdfs/Ormiston_Catalogue.pdf look at no 522T strip...

 

another:

http://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/bbCMS/shopping.asp?intDepartmentId=3 look down the bottom for the T section

http://www.kingfisherrubber.co.uk/pvc-a-rubber-extrusions.html

 

the IRS0276 & IRS0431, IRS 1683EP, IRS 0691N, IRS 0145EP, 0218, 0223, o245ep, 0642

here look closer to the mark

Outer Waist Strip

http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/media/cohbaines-catalogue.pdf

Edited November 27, 2010 by andykmv

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortuantely the bezel/CP support was glued and screwed in place, so it would take quite a bit of effort to tidy up. Plus, I'd have to re-rout and trim up another piece of pine which took me a good 3 hours to get right, so I scrapped that idea.

I basically did your plan B. However, I couldn't really peel it back because all the dust from the MDF would still to it and I'd never be able to get it off without damaging it. Instead, I ran a cut about 0.25mm from the back edge and a poofteenth from the top surface. I then had to remove the thin bits of MDF from the overlay which was about as fun as... removing bits of stuff off sticky stuff. Anyhoo, it came up looking about 80% and I'm sure after I start playing games on it the only person who'd ever notice would be me. I think I've kept the gap small enough too that I shouldn't need a rubber strip - thanks anyway.

While I had all the tools out I have it pretty-much ready to paint. The edge is routed and all prepped for the T-moulding and all the holes and blemishes have been puttied. Feels good man. All that's left is to buy some paint, which may not be a while because I don't when I'm going to town next. The rain's making it a risky process too, what with flash flooding and all.

Apart from that I've finished my little relay box pictured below (I've expained what it will do in another post). I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm confident it'll be the goods. I've also added a 'test switch' to override the safety features. I'm not sure if it's a good idea because I can tell I'm just going to leave it on.<_<

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P1074167.jpg

 

On another note progress may slow down even more because my family's about to get bigger - my wife is 13 weeks pregnant. With TWINS:o So my life is going to be busy for the next... years! I thought it was hard enough with one little tacker crawling around, but this is going to put me to the test. Ahh well, embrace the 'free time' now I suppose. I'll have to hurry up and finish this damn cabinet.

LOL! mate of mine is a toolmaker and he uses the word "poofteenth" all the time!

nice work by the way

Congrats on the twins mate!

 

Same thing happened to me 8yrs ago...I already had kids, so we went to 4 in one go! (don't envy you btw, very hard work, not to mention expensive)

 

Went off topic there.

 

The build looks great, you have very exacting standards!

Well, finally I've made some actual progress: PAINTING. About damn time too. Amazingly, this step in the process received spousal approval. Probably because she wants it off our front porch, but most likely because she wants to play Flicky and Bubble Bobble while I'm off at work.

 

Here's a shot of the recessed magnets for the bezel. I'm hoping they'll be strong enough to not allow the metal strips to vibrate off from the sub. Considering how difficult it was to use a file to smooth off the rough edges, I'm thinking so.

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P1164234.jpg

 

And here it is in all its preparedness waiting for a few layers of filler/primer:

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P1164239.jpg

 

Evidence that yes, I did paint it:

 

http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/zz75/TheWiggman/MAME%20construction%20progress/P1164261.jpg

 

I gave it two coats of primer (MDF filler) because MDF is about as gay to paint as dirt. I gave it a light sand with 360 grit in between by hand, and it's looking pretty good. However, absolutely every single scratch and drill head can be seen through the paint even though I used putty and sanded it off to what I thought was very bloody smooth and flat. I was wrong. In the future I don't think I'm going to use the wood putty I have because I've never had any luck with it.

Next weekend I begin with colour. I need to let the primer fully set because it's water-based and I'm using an oil-based final coat. I've bought some semi-gloss black. Can anynoe suggest a better colour and/or scheme? I think I'll go with blue T-moulding, but I'm not sure. I've seen chrome look pretty good on black. Any suggestions are welcome.

While I'm at it, does anyone have a sub amp or any amplifier suitable for a subwoofer?

Looks like a nicely built cab, well done !

 

:)