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Cheap and cheerful emulator defender-ish cab


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The hard rubbish found Sony hifi is alive and functioning. Im gonna assume it was either a non functioning cd drive or the apple connector change from 30 pin to the latest iphone version of lightning or something that made the owners chuck it out.

 

Here it is with its opened case just before removing all the shielding and other bits of casings. Its still visibly wet from the rain, so there was another night of waiting for it to dry out before testing the components. Nice build sony.

Visible on the left is the audio line jack (3.5mm) which then goes directly to the main board. in the middle is the speaker breakout board with lots of shielding on the cables going in and out of it. to the right is the 19.5v DC in board with a fuse, diode and 2 buses.

 

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The speakers had to be wrenched out of their enclosures, and they are a little small but i will have to wait and see what happens when they are put in the arcade cabinet. Again with shielding on the cables.

 

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And here it is after a quick speaker test and a check for any schematics (could only find some datasheets for the Audio DSP, Speaker Amp and USB Audio Decoder ICs so far). I would rather it runs on 12v but i think the higher voltage is only required for the onboard amps. these are rated for 10-26v supply and with the 19v already coming in they arent all that loud. Not sure on the speaker specs either.

 

Its running audio from an old music player that isnt very loud but it all works. Switching the functions to Audio In is retained after power down along with volume settings, so a test was then made of booting it up without the display and control board attached and it still boots up and works. next is to try and bypass the power switch, which has the board boot into a standby mode requiring a button press to get it to play audio. Still, a good find and one that may fit with the defender-ish cabinet, at least aesthetically :)

 

 

fQiz7bkl.jpg

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Did a bit more detailing work on the sideart, this time on the xwings and added more engine exhaust. getting the red to look good on the black background is a bit tricky but maybe taking time and several coats of thin paint is the way to go. really want to get this done so i can get around to adding the clear coats but i keep wanting to add more bits here and there, d'oh.

 

VWc4ywLl.jpg

 

 

but structurally its onto the speaker cut outs on the top panel above the lcd. i put them at the back as the front will need space for whatever lighting system ends up being used for the marquee. also there will more than likely need to be an enclosure of sorts around the speakers to help generate the lower-mids and bass frequencies. the sony speakers used a reflex port too but i doubt i be adding that. the cutouts were made with a drill and a 30mm spade bit that i had used previously to cut the holes for the buttons and joystick. At the moment the main speaker cutouts have a central circle and four orbital ones to hopefully allow enough room for the speaker cone but retain a bit of a spoke to help protect the speaker from accidental knocks ( how you'd knock them i dont know... ). I have a feeling i will end up cutting away those spokes and just having a large hole that matches the diameter, but i didnt have the speakers with me at the time to test how it all goes together. the test fitting will come next session.

 

 

FD17O7el.jpg

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Got to install the speakers into the cabinet with a bit of secondary drilling using the spade bit to route out some space for the speaker cones:

 

BSlAmT6l.jpg

 

yeah fine, not exactly aligned in any sensible way but it adds character ;) - but actually there will be some speaker grills to go over the cutouts. i have a feeling that these may need to be purchased... but will keep looking around the mean streets of melbourne for hard rubbish piles.

 

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these sony speakers have nice long cables attached that reach all the way down from the top of the cabinet to the circuit board shelf. the extra use of the spade bit helped allow more room for the cones to pulse, or whatever the technical term for oscillating with the sound waves is.

 

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i ran a test using an S5 phone playing some Chibi-tech (specifically Moe Moe Kyunstep) at full volume on both phone and hi fi amp. this track is performed on some famicons (8 bit like a lot of the arcaded games originally were), has a great expressive dynamic range and is great to listen to as it's farkin' anthemic, especially as the wee bairn had never heard this before. Speaker cones moved a fair bit but within the cut out spaces and the mid range was really prominent whereas the bass was a bit lacking. I think a reflex pipe may be useful in this cabinet and there is room for it. oh and a start was made on the clear coats as this really has to get finished before i die of old age.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The last major bits are being added with the marquee getting a look in finally. Got some perspex sheets from the big ol' hardware warehouse down the road, cut it to size with a jigsaw and plonked it in to the cabinet to see how it all fits. And to try figure on how it can be secured.

 

13l0xZAl.jpg

 

The marquee art is going to be based on the defender cabinet marquee but instead of the word "defender" im going to put the word "arcade" written in Aurebesh (the star wars common language). And im also going to try and get some sort of stenciling system worked out cos i have avoided it so far and really should get it sussed. Here is a photo of the artwork reversed and layed-up in photoshop, printed ready to be used as a guide for cutting the shapes out of some pvc self adhesive film.

 

y3rj5ggl.jpg

 

firstly a bit of a test on some perspex off-cuts to see how well the pvc sticks, how well it contains the paint and how well it can be removed. cutting the stencil was relatively easy using a stanley knife, sticking it was pretty easy though fiddly due to the smallish gap between the two main parts and it was easy to remove. but there was the problem of bleed in some sections. bleh. depending on which layer it happens on it may not be a problem with a bit of careful scrapping...

 

LUxPF3Al.jpg

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Marquee time. And time to try and get stencilling to work - all of this takes place on the reverse side of the perspex. this is a bit pic heavy but it may be of use to someone other than myself. I ended up just pushing on with the whole thing instead of faffing around with test painting etc. Maybe not the wisest move but meh. gotta push on. First thing was to print out the psd and use it as a template for cutting out the pvc film, as per above. and carefully, slowly sticking it to the perspex.

 

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and then commence painting, using the cheapo acrylic paint from the big blue office supplies shop up the road. its goes on thinly so i cross-hatch the brush stroke directions and end up doing about 5-6 coats. the texture it leaves is really nice, almost like a close knit fabric.

 

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then the moment of truth for this technique : the removal of the pvc film. slowly and a letter at a time, and wow, it leaves a nice clean edge. much better than when i used copy paper as a stencil :P

 

gtQLrD8l.jpg

 

for the three-d letter effect i decided to use masking tape instead of another layer of the pvc film, mainly cos i wasn't confident that i could cut, layout and stick the pvc to the marquee in perfect alignment. also stuck the print out underneath the perspex so i could see what it was i was meant to be painting next.

 

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luckily it turned out better than i expected. slow and careful removal of the masking tape bits left a good clean alignment. there were a few places/joins that needed going over again with a tiny brush but overall the result was encouraging.

 

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next bits were the decorative elements which are some stars and a kind of milky way looking cloud of blue. the stars were made by dipping a 2B pencil into the paint and stabbing everywhere. the blue clouds were painted by hand using the same technique of cross hatching 5-6 coats. then a final complete mask to protect the letters so the final layer, the black, can be painted. the black can be painted over the stars and a bit of overlap over the clouds but i figured the letters should remain clear of the black especially when it ends up being back-lit.

 

kB4CaTJl.jpg

 

finished and it looks like this. it still has the protective plastic over the face so it looks a bit fuzzy. but you get the gist. it was only after i started painting it that i noticed the weird backwards "F" letter (which is "d" in english). when the font is written properly that "F" is on an angle, but when it is presented in the perspective view that matches the defender marquee, the "F" goes perpendicular. well it looks a bit weird and out of place but it aint my alphabet.

 

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last pic, this is of the test fitting in the cabinet. a thin sheet of mdf (2-3 mm) will be used to build a frame which will be covered in some off-cuts of black flannelette that i got from the local fabric shop. the intention is that the fabric will dampen the marquee from any vibrations that the nearby speakers kick out.

 

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next is to construct the holders for the fluoro lamps and the sheets of 2D gauze (or whatever its called) i yanked out of a busted laptop lcd.

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  • 3 weeks later...

its a long slow slog at the moment, with little additions and fixes that seem to take forever. the marquee lighting system is a bit tricky in that its going to require odd looking bits of off-cuts glued and/or fastened to other bits in the attempt to get a field of light hitting the perspex marquee. so far its like this:

 

aAvpIpfl.jpg

 

its two CCFLs with a 12v power unit that i got years ago from jaycar for a lightbox that is no longer used. they don't sell these anymore and i wonder if its cos of the mercury inside... well they are brighter then any i got from the busted laptop. i haven't tested the laptop fresnel ( is that right name?) screens yet but there are two of them, one for vertical spread and the other horizontal spread, the latter is below:

 

vt0BxUVl.jpg

 

this might be useful cos the two CCFLs are aren't as wide as the lettering on the marquee so it may help to spread the light further to the sides. but it also may dampen it, only a test later will tell.

 

meanwhile back in the cabinet, all the internals are finding their places and the wiring is getting sorted out with me trying to make sure audio and power don't cross etc. The audio card is mounted on the side wall close enough to the monitor so i can add a little window for its unfortunately necessary power switch - hard rubbish finds have their own quirks huh. The 60-in-1 card is mounted flat at the moment but i'd prefer it to be vertical to minimise possible "accidents" - less surface area and all that. The hard rubbish found PSU is one of those ones used in old office desktop PCs so its not exactly high powered but has enough juice for maybe a 2 core, dvd, integrated graphics and maybe a peripheral or two. i think thats enough to power this arcade cabinet, including a 12v line from the HDD/FDD (yeah its that old) cable to power the marquee lights.

 

5jI9hMOl.jpg

 

the only bad part at the moment is the 4-way power board which is another unfortunate necessity. it ends up being easier to use this as i need two 240v ac sources and a 18-20v dc source. however the one thats in the photo above is cheap, crap and ultimately blew its little fuse... bleh. Still don't know what to do with all the extra jamma connector leads that aren't being used, i don't want to cut or remove any of them so they are just clumsily bundled in the corner there and held in place with cable ties and a curtain drawstring stay.

 

but mainly all of this slow tedious stuff means that me and the wee bairn can power up the arcade and give it a test... half expecting problems but everything works despite the months of storage and build in a dirty, leaky, bird infested garage (the birds have since been politely encouraged to find a new abode).

 

LYJKPt4l.jpg

 

still lots of little bits and pieces to do, like the proper marquee perspex mount, fasten the CCFLs, batten the PSU properly, cable clean up, affix the coin and 1-up buttons, final touch ups of black paint and protective top-coat. So far i managed to "demo" to the touch-screen kid some of my favourite arcade games from so many years ago such as Xevious, 1942, 1943 (top music) and Time Pilot. button mashing and wrangling the joystick really needs a full arcade cabinet cos its such a satisfying feeling to do this as opposed to "tapping" and "dragging" with a finger on a piece of glass.

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  • 1 month later...

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