R-TYPE Themed Bartop - "R-CADE" *DONE (for the most part)*

[HaRuMaN]

What if you cut the heat sink in half... and mount a fan to the top of it somehow (instead of the side)?

[kyoke]

ChurchOfSolipsism: I'm actually pretty surprised too that no one had published that name either! I'm looking forward very much to completing this as I gotta get my R-Type fix!

HarumaN: Unfortunately this particular heatsink has heat-pipes running through the middle and part of the top half. I think I might be back to the drawing board. A friend of mine suggested just buying a standard heatsink/fan and zip-tying the bajeezus out of it, since there aren't standard screw holes to mount it, but I'm very hesitant.

[HaRuMaN]

Zip ties?  Yeah... not a good idea.  You need solid contact between the CPU and cooler base (don't forget the thermal paste!) for it to work properly. 

[kyoke]

HarumaN: Agreed! It looks like I'm getting a new mobo!

[kyoke]

Anyone know... Is it normal to sand down to the wood after the first coat of primer?



I'm using an oil-based primer/sealer. It looks like the primer is sealing pretty well on the edges!

[opt2not]

Uh yeah...you sanded it down too much.  Just prime it, and lightly sand it so that the primer is smooth, not all the way down to the wood. Make sure you use a finer grit sand-paper as well.

[kyoke]

I'm trying to follow Javeryh's tutorial for the super gloss, and he recommends 220 grit between each coat of primer, then 400 or 600. Are different primers "tougher?"

[opt2not]

I'm trying to follow Javeryh's tutorial for the super gloss, and he recommends 220 grit between each coat of primer, then 400 or 600. Are different primers "tougher?"

Meh, primer is primer. Just watch how much you're sanding off when you're doing it.

[oldgamesrbetter]

Can't wait to see this one completed. The artwork looks sweeeeeet.

_____________________________________________
ARCADE VORTEX http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=99724.0

[kyoke]

opt2not: Thanks as always for the advice!

oldgamesrbetter: Thanks for the compliment. My goal is to have it finished by June.

[kyoke]

Just got my monitor, a Viewsonic VA703b. It was pricey at $139.99 for a 17" 4:3 monitor, but it has an 8ms response time and I know Viewsonic is rated quite high on the picture quality. Surprisingly it was just manufactured in February 2010. I would have figured this was a much older monitor.



I've been lagging pretty bad on finishing my artwork... guilty. I get about one day a week to work on everything 

I'm almost ready to assemble the cab! Hopefully I'll get to that on Sunday. Then, metallic-black Rustoleum for the outer layer (and lots more sanding).

[opt2not]

I've been lagging pretty bad on finishing my artwork... guilty. I get about one day a week to work on everything 

Heh, I hear ya. Though I find if I only have 1 day a week to work on projects, I end up planning and thinking about it over the other 6 days.

[kyoke]

Coming along, everything is primed and sanded. Primed prior to assembly so make sure everything's sealed, and it's a hell of a lot easier than sanding when everything's assembled.



It's amazing how much it seems like everything's coming together once you've gotten to this point. Seems...tangible.

[kyoke]

Updated the side panel artwork, check out the first thread!

[syph007]

This might be too late, but another option Ive used in the past to attach troublesome heatsinks, is arctic silver thermal epoxy.  Works great for heat transfer, and well its epoxy so you don't need any other method of attachment.  Only con is that its quite permanent.  I use it mostly to attach new heatsinks to graphics cards.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm

[kyoke]

@syph007: It's actually not too late, I haven't yet gotten to the purchase of the mobo. My only concern is that on that page they say it's not designed for CPUs and CPU heatsinks. It may be worth looking into, but I'm still looking at options for attaching the fan to the CPU... Thanks for the suggestion!

[syph007]

Maybe more modern CPU's get too hot?  I've used it on graphic card GPU's, and xbox 1 CPU's fine.  I used to case mod xbox 1's and a popular option was to ditch the fan and glue on a big low profile heatsink to the cpu/gpu which makes it silent.  Ive run that box daily for 2 years now and no problems at all.  Ive found it to be quite handy stuff, the only big con though is you cant ever get it off, but that hasnt been an issue for me, but when they say permanent, they mean it!

[kyoke]

Just updated the marquee, posted here and at the top. Feedback welcome!

[Tiouko]

Beautiful I like the chrome effect Keep up the good work can't wait to see the end result

[opt2not]

Just updated the marquee, posted here and at the top. Feedback welcome!

Nice! I like the font a lot.

Feedback:
I feel that the R-type ship is too small though. It could also use a bit more contrast, shadowing. It currently has that flat-flash look.

Also, I was thinking, how would you feel about using the Option add-on as the dot after the R?  then making the ship itself sit in-front of the R, and scaled up bigger?
Going this route I'd lose the alien on the right, and treat the marquee as the ship's real-estate, whereas the sides are for the alien.
It just seems that the alien art is huge, whereas the ship has such a tiny representation...

[kyoke]

@Tiouko Thanks for the praise! Making the "R-CADE" title was a lot of fun. I used both Photoshop and Illustrator to get it look right. I'm looking forward to seeing this one through to the end!

Just ordered my custom metal control panel from Waterjet Central, buttons from Arcadeemulator.net, and the control panel lexan cover from Laser Alliance. Pics when I get them in. Can't wait!

@opt2not Thanks for the feedback! I tried a mock-up using the fireball (called the "Force") as the hyphen, but it didn't look right. The marquee is super-small, unfortunately requiring me to shrink the ship to a miniscule size, and it also looks wrong in front of the R or to the left of the R.

I brought the size of the ship up a bit in this new revision. My next revision will have some more depth on the ship. Here's the original on-screen R-TYPE title so you can see what I designed the R-CADE title after.



And here's the revision:

[mist]

Hi Kyoke!

Wow! Those are looking nice!
I´m just starting out with building an weecade myself and was wondering where in the plans you found the measurements!!
Going crazy, am i blind?

I´m gonna use an old 19inch lcd in mine so i have to modify the plans a bit, and im going to put an ion based itx motherboard in mine. I´m trying to slim the design down a bit.

I´m folowing your progress with great interest, i dont think my art is going to be that nice...

[mist]

Gah!

Looking at your pictures im begining to think i´ve chosen a too thick material. I went for 18mm laminated wood (unfortunatly they only had white so i might paint it black) What thickness did you use?

[opt2not]

I threw together some Photoshop examples of what you could do.
Just a quick rough up, but here it is:


The first one looks pretty plain, but the ship is nice and big and stands out in the small area.

Number 2 and 4 is something I'd go with. If you are firm on the alien, the second example is probably more suitable. I like using the beam as an underline to the title.

Number 3 is something I was trying, a slightly longer over-line beam seemed to work out kinda neat.

Anyways, just some stuff to think about. Truthfully, you should really have larger ship representation there. It just feels so under represented otherwise.


(man, i've been on this free-artwork consultation kick lately haven't i? )

[kyoke]

@mist: Thanks for the compliments! I used 12mm (1/2 inch) MDF for everything. Here's the link to Lokesen's original diagram and measurements: http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/draw.htm

@opt2not: You certainly are on a "free artwork-consultation kick!" I like all of the mockups you did, but still feel the title should be in the middle. Call me crazy. I'm going to try to do one with the beam you did as a STRIKETHROUGH behind the R-CADE title. How'd you do that beam? It's exactly how it should look in R-TYPE and it looks awesome! Oh and my other dilemma: the mouldings are too close to the marquee so there's a sort of 1x1 inch "no man's land" on each corner that will not be properly lit up. Following Lokesen's original design I noticed his is the same way. I put the damn thing together before reading several posts that describe this TABOO!

[opt2not]

How'd you do that beam? It's exactly how it should look in R-TYPE and it looks awesome!

I did it in Photoshop using the gradient tool, selecting white for the foreground and a light blue for the background colour. the linear setting was used for the straight beam, and the radial setting was used for the round part at the beginning and end. Then I took the smudging tool and shaped the end to look like the head of a q-tip.

I don't know how to do it in illustrator. But honestly, if your image is going to be small enough, as long as you have a high enough dpi you can probably just create this image in photoshop. 300'ish.
It should print out fine.

[kyoke]

Okay, another artwork update before I call it a day:



I got the veto from the wifey for the blue Q-tip across the marquee, but I managed to make some little changes. I brought this into Photoshop and tweaked the colors all around. The ship is quite a bit bigger as you can see. If this isn't my final, at least it's a hell of a lot closer!

[opt2not]

Good stuff. I like it.

I was wondering about the alien, how do you feel about doing something like this with it:


Maybe not completely blocking the E, but you get the idea.  You can have the tail curve around the E...

But I definitely like the ship bigger and in front of the logo.

Keep 'em coming!

[lokesen]

Please send me some pictures of the finished cabinet to post on my website

[kyoke]

Hey Lokesen, I definitely will be sending you the finalized cabinet pics! Thanks for looking.

[kyoke]

Ordered and received my customized Stainless Steel Control Panel!

I threw the CP together at emachineshop.com and got a quote from them for $250! They are able to do the cutting and forming, but I thought that was pretty steep. REJECTED. So I kept shopping.

The company that cut my side panels (MDF) also is able to cut Stainless Steel, but they were unable to form it for me. They quoted me $100 for just the cutting; then I would have to get it formed elsewhere (pain in the @$$). REJECTED.

I found a company in Orange, CA that could do the entire project for around $225, but required me to buy TWO of them. Not necessary at this point. REJECTED.

I shopped around and settled on a company in Paso Robles, CA called "Waterjet Central." As their name implies, they perform water cutting instead of laser or plasma cutting. AND they did the forming, which I was hoping for. I also had them quote the stainless steel monitor bar for the case (my VESA mount). Altogether for both pieces: $165.

Here she be (there's white protective plastic over it at the moment):



It might be a little crammed for fighters, but it'll work out quite nicely, methinks.

[HaRuMaN]

How are you mounting your joysticks?

[kyoke]

I will be using JB Weld on the bottom to hold the bolts in place. I've read on the forum that this works. I have a friend who makes camping stoves who says the stuff is friggin' indestructable.

[TEKNYNE]

JB Weld is incredibly strong just make sure to scuff up the metal on both pieces you are bonding real good before joining the pieces with it.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

How are you mounting your joysticks?

I fitted weld studs on the bottom of my stainless CP to mount my joysticks.

[kyoke]

Thanks all for the advice and feedback on the joystick mounting!

I used JB Weld and I've gotta say, this stuff ain't comin' off.

A quick pic:



Getting closer to completion. Yeesh it's taken a while.

Oh, and because you guys pay a lot of attention to the smallest details  I realize the bolts on the left look like they will interfere with the bolts that will mount the entire CP to the cab. I am going to be cutting out a small inlay in the wood for the joystick plate. Yeah, it's an oversight. I was going to originally use the Magstick Plus, which has a smaller joystick plate, and ended up going with the U360s, which has a larger mounting plate. Shouldn't be a big deal. Just wanted to mention it before someone else does

[kyoke]

Just ordered the Control Panel Overlay artwork from Game on Grafix so I can get to work on the Control Panel. They're doing a 10% off promo discount for BYOAC members which is pretty cool!

I started painting the cab yesterday using Metallic Night Black Rustoleum, following Gamester's tutorial for this paint + clearcoat. I'm going to start the clearcoat process today.

I compiled a custom MAME 0.138u1 on Saturday to remove nag screens and have been doing a lot of research into getting the u360s to work with MA. Found a great site that has .ugc files for nearly every game so I can have the u360s map automatically. I installed MA on top of Windows Tiny7, which boots up in 20 seconds and shuts down in 5. It's ridiculous.

As for MAME I'm going to use an onscreen render/scale effect to make the LCD I'm putting in here look more like an arcade display.

Any Maximus Arcade users out there that have some tips on config or suggestions/warnings? I'm planning on have MA load automatically at Windows launch, load u360 maps upon game launch, and if I exit MA it automatically will load the mouse map for the u360.

[Bender]

I use LEDBlinky for loading U360 maps, not only will it do them automatically for mame but you can set it up for any other emulator too, and you can set it to go to mouse mode on exit too

Plus I'd think about shelling MA so it loads directly and you'll never see the windows stuff unless you need to get to it to configure stuff, make for a much nicer Arcade experience

[kyoke]

@Bender: Thanks for the tips. It appears that Maximus Arcade can run a command to perform the automap function. Aside from the other benefits LEDBlinky gives you, namely LED control, is there a reason to use it if I only plan on running MAME?



Quick pic of the cab so far... Put first coat of clear on cab today, it's looking quite shiny.

[Bender]

If your only using mame you don't even need to run the command line Mame will automatically load maps for analog joysticks, so all you need to do is set the U360 to analog and set the mame.ini joystick map to auto (which I think is the default)