Bartop build...'Black Ops' finished (look at the pretty lights)

[DaOld Man]

I like this project. Good work going on.

[Nephasth]

Love the embedded joystick LEDs! Will they be individually controlled? I.E. only P1's joystick LEDs will light up for single player or alternating player games, and only two LEDs light up for 2-way games? Glad to see you're back on this!

[EightBySix]

That's a great idea, to align LEDs underneath the artwork. Good to see you back.

[opt2not]

Yay, welcome back!  

[ninjasquirrel]

Thanks for all the comments fellas!

As far as the joystick lights go, I haven't decided yet about whether they will be individually controlled. The way they are currently wired in series I would have to do some re-configuring to get them to work properly.
Over the weekend I was able to get the top plates attached, bondoed, sanded, and applied the CP overlay too! Boy that vinyl material is rough once you get some bubbles/wrinkles in it! I actually had to use my wife's hair drier, a piece of wood, and some wood clamps to flatten them out. Then I used a utility knife to cut off the excess, filed the edges smooth and used a sharpie to hide the white edge.

I'll upload some pictures tomorrow once I take some that show the semi-final CP overlay. I still need to trim the inside edges around the marquee and screen, and I think I've come up with a solution on how to hide the chamfered edge around each of these. I think I'm going to try and flock around both of them with some black flocking.  The next couple of steps involve deciding on how to make the speaker grills (because they are curved, etc) installing the buttons, making the plexi marquee cover, yada, yada, yada... still a lot to do!

[ninjasquirrel]

Here are those pics that I was suppose to post 'tomorrow' 

I was pretty happy with the black color match of the overlay and the matte finish of the paint. I'm still trying to find the black flock to surround the marquee and screen.
I've tried to read up on the best adhesive to use for flocking and it seems that simple white glue (PVA) that's thinned down works pretty well. Anyone use the stuff or know what's preferred in that instance?

[ninjasquirrel]

Had the weekend off and I was trying to decide how to approach attaching the joystick surrounds to the cp overlay.  I knew I would have to cut out circles in the cp overlay so the LED's would shine through to the joystick surrounds, so my options were to stick a vinyl overlay on top an overlay, cut out a perfect circle in the cp overlay to fit the joystick surround 'in', or come up with a good transition to meld the two. I had some of the light sensitive plexi left over from my buttons so I came up with this:

The first thing I did was use my router to cut out a 4" circle out of 1/2" mdf. Next I cut two blanks out of the green plexi just slightly oversized above 4".


Next I marked the center of the plexi, drilled a small hole, attached to the side of my work table with a nail, and used my coping saw (which I use for silversmithing- it has a TINY tooth blade on it and it was melting the plexi right behind itself which made it a pain in the butt to cut out!) to get the generic circles cut out that are also a little oversized:


I attached these circle blanks to the mdf wood circle and used two screws to keep the plexi from spinning when under force of the router blade:


This pic shows the generic idea of what I'm trying to accomplish by routing the plexi with the flush trim bit and the template. * Notice before I actually routed the plexi, I attached a larger piece of wood to the top of the mdf to use as a 'handle' to help control the small 4" wood template and keep my fingers away from the bit.*


I don't have pics of the following steps, I was getting in a hurry and excited to see if it would work  but after the plexi was cut to a perfect circle I put a small 45 degree chamfer on one edge, sanded the edge with progressive sandpaper from 220 to 600, and buffed the sanded chamfer edge with compound to accomplish this:


It's not the greatest pic, I'll post another later to show the smooth edge, the plexi is extremely light sensitive and glows on edge when the light comes in from the flat top and bottom. This blurred the focus so I'll try again later.
So the whole idea is to stick the joystick surround on top of the plexi and the plexi on top of the cp overlay. The LED's will shine into and through the plexi to light both the edge of the plexi and hopefully go all the way through to the joystick surround image to light the directionals like I talked about before...let's hope so at least! 

[jkdubb]

  Very Awesome result! I need to find a reason to do that on my cab.

[ninjasquirrel]

Little more done today and hopefully more by the end of the weekend. When trying to find a way to attach the plexi joy surrounds, I decided to epoxy screws to the bottom of them and bolt them into place, at least that was the idea...
I had to find a way to keep them separated from the cp until after the vinyl was attached because I knew that after cutting the sticker out, I would have to clean the edge, sand, buff etc. Well in theory I thought it would work and it did until I tried to bolt it down using lock washers. With just a little force put on the bolt it pulled right off the plexi. But here's what it looked like until then.



Here's an example of what the plexi looked like after the graphic was attached excess trimmed, filed, sanded, buffed.



After that little escapade, I decided to use the single bolt left attached to help line the plexi up and simply glued the whole piece down to the top of the CP overlay.  I put a heavy piece of steel on top of the joy surround to keep it tight and flush to the cp while it dried. Once those dried, I began to work on the graphic button surrounds.
Here is a quick mock up of what everything will look like.



A quick night pic of what the joy surrounds look like with the LED's on:



What they look like in a dim surrounding lit up:



Going back to the button surrounds...I'm please with how they look, they tie many of the colors of the CP overlay together etc, but I guess when drawing them up, I must have slipped up a little on the last 2 button spacings.  On the far right the buttons are slightly off center compared to the graphics...ughh  my wife just rolls her eyes and said it's not noticeable but I can definitely tell.
As of right now I'm working on wiring the internals including the buttons etc.  Slow go from here out.

[emphatic]

Cool stuff!

[Nephasth]

The joy surrounds are amazing! Well worth the effort!

[ninjasquirrel]

PICTURE TIME! 

Today I was able to work quite a bit on some of the nagging issues I still have left on the bartop. I painted the  chamfered areas around the marquee and screen as opposed to flocking them like I thought of earlier. Just picked up a spray can of black/grey metallic paint that had a fairly thick texture and used this to finish it off.



Next came the marquee. After dry fitting the marquee and seeing how the Nova Matrix LEDs look behind the graphic, it seemed to have some 'hotspots' that I didn't care for. So I began to rearrange them to diffuse the light a little better. I also heavy sanded the back piece of plexi, the one the graphic is adhered to, so it became frosted and better at diffusing.











After completing the marquee, I thought about rewiring the one set of buttons I had started..long story, but the short of it is that I daisy chained all the negatives of the LEDs together to run back to the ledwiz and realized that it actually uses a common positive soooo I'm going to have to scrap the first set and rewire them I guess.

Instead of that headache I decided to take a crack at the volume control.



I wanted the control knob to have the same glow look as the buttons and joysticks so I drilled a 7/8" through hole at the correct spot and epoxied a red piece the reflective plexi into it. I rounded over the edge of the disc and buffed it nice and smooth so it would give the correct effect.













I'm not sold on the volume knob. I think it's a little two wide and deep. I might try to find/make a new one so that it doesn't hide as much of the plexi disc and doesn't stick out as far as the one I have on right now.

I suppose at some time I need to think about how the speaker grills will look and how I need to fabricate them. That will be interesting...but for now I guess my next step is to start the wiring...again!

[darthpaul]

Good stuff  , I like the lighted plexi under the volume nob, I can see using that technique under a spinner as well.

[emphatic]

I think that the subtlety of the red glow look very high end consumerish and beautiful.  Might be the photo though.

[swaffar]

 
wow... glad to see this project is still alive!  i was following this one so long ago.

[Pinball Wizard]

I don't know how I missed this project until now!!! Holy crap that is good work and plenty of attention to detail.

[Hi-TEK]

I applaud your attention to detail for this Bartop the results are simply outstanding. What type of hardware specs are you planning on putting in this machine? Also I agree with you that the volume knob looks a bit too big, maybe better if it were a tad smaller and black instead of silver.

[emphatic]

With USB wires in those USB slots, a knob too small will be of little use.

[Pinball Wizard]

a knob too small will be of little use.

That's what she said....

 

[ninjasquirrel]

darthpaul-thanks, and yes I think it would look very slick under a spinner. I'm still trying to decide whether I want to tie the led for the plexi into the stereo pot somehow to adjust the brightness with the movement of the volume knob.

emphatic-it does have a nice glow, not too bright or over powering, and that's a good point about the USB cables. Good news is that I won't have the cables plugged in very much at all unless multiple people are over wanting to play the old console games.

swaffer, Hi-TEK, Pinball Wizard-thanks for following fellas! I have an older Pentium 3 I'll be putting in there...very seriously considering rethinking this and upgrading the whole brains. Problem will be finding small enough components and finding the correct adapter for my monitor to plug into a new motherboard. Pinball Wiz...

[mcseforsale]

Watching with pregnant anticipation!!

 

AJ

[ninjasquirrel]

So I've been doing alot of research on hardware components because I'm thinking about upgrading the internals of the bartop. There are a few main concerns when looking for these pieces...size and heat/wattage consumption. First off I have VERY little room inside the arcade given the fact that the thing was made around a given set of components.  I had to look at mini-itx motherboards, low profile video cards, and worst off the PSU    It was extremely hard trying to find one that will fit and still output a decent amount of wattage to power the processor and newer video card. So I think I've come up with a combo of parts that could work nicely in this build and give me power to run anything I would need including the newer fighters etc. (Street Fighter 4 vs...) and just in case I want to, later create an HTPC out of these parts!

See what you guys think and please give me any input you can on improvements for low wattage/size/price/performance...

Motherboard -  ASRock H77M-ITX LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard



Processor -  Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W (would like to have more here but this thing only pulls 65w verses the i5 95w)



Power Supply -  SILVERSTONE ST45SF 450W SFX12V (I was also considering the Athena 550w but I'm not sure of the brand and I like that this one has a single 36A 12V rail, should be plenty for what I need)



RAM -  G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)



Video Card - PowerColor AX6750 1GBD5-LHG Radeon HD 6750



Like I said if anyone has any better ideas and maybe a better cooling system that could possibly fit inside the build please feel free to post. It's been ALONG time since I last built one of these from the ground up and I'm out of the loop with all the chipsets etc now 

Over the last week I also designed and had a buddy of mine mill out a solid aluminum volume knob to replace the one I previously pictured, more pics of that later...nothing crazy, just simple and sleek.

[wanimal]

If you're dropping that money into it you might as well water cool. That way you can still have your i5

[ninjasquirrel]

wanimal-that's kind of what I was thinking as long as I could find one at the right price and size. I might even give a go at making the water block myself just need to do a little research on it.

Here's another question...I have my LCD screen stripped down and I found a distributor in China that makes an LCD controller board that will turn bare screens into desktop PC monitors (laptop screens, etc) Here's the link to their store on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5451-Audio-LCD-Controller-logic-Board-LVDS-DVI-VGA-DIY-/270962136382?pt=US_Server_Boards&hash=item3f169a153e

The description calls for a 12v 4a  power adapter to juice the board.  I tried to email them to see if there was an adapter to convert an ATX 6 pin cable to the desired DC input on the board. I'm not sure that they understood because they just gave me a link to the power adapter that they sell.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Adapter-Supply-Especially-our-LCD-controller-boards-US-cord-12V-4A-/270953905792?pt=Laptop_Adapters_Chargers&hash=item3f161c7e80

Is there a way that you guys know how I could tap the power coming from an ATX power supply to use to power the controller board? Maybe isolate the 12v and ground wires on one connection of the ATX, cut the end off the appropriate 4mm DC connection and wire them together?  
Any ideas?

[kahlid74]

So their power adapter is only $7.50, which is pretty cheap compared to your LCD panel and their controller.  Can you pull that from an ATX power supply?  It depends on the PS and it's thresholds.    For instance this PS on New Egg shows what it's rated at (Output=  +3.3V@30A, +5V@30A, +12V@62A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@3.0A - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021&cm_sp=Cat_Power_Supplies-_-Spotlight-_-17-139-021)

In that instance, and from my limited PS knowledge the -12V is what you would need, and since it can only provide .8Amps you would be out of luck.  The one thing you can look for is Laptop Adapters.  They are often 12-20 V and 2-4 Amps.

So in short, I wouldn't recommend pulling that much Amperage through an ATX PS on the 12vdc but if someone with more electrical knowledge trumps me then so be it.

[BobA]

The board needs +12V at 4 amps so an ITX supply can easily supply the power off of one the the molex disk drive connectors.  12V yellow  Gnd Black.

[ninjasquirrel]

Thanks for the input kahlid74 and BobA.  I was hoping it would be the +12V because there is plenty of amps available from the ITX PSU I was considering buying (from a couple posts up 36A 12V Silverstone) I guess I'll scavenge the 4mm dc plug from the numerous wall warts that I have and solder the yellow 12v and black ground from the ITX drive cable onto it.
The whole purpose of this is to eliminate the wall wart (power adapter) that the company is trying to sell, since there is no extra room inside my bartop.

[jace055]

Be careful with the controller boards for bare LCDs. There are thousands of bare LCD screens and each one uses a different controller. Double check that your sepecific screen will work with the controller before you buy.  Not only the controller but the inverter and cable between the panel are also factors. There should be a screen manufacture and model number on the back. Just double check.  I got caught a few years back with cheap panels and expensive controllers that didn't work.  I ended up buying an inexpensive PC monitor and decasing it.

[Nephasth]

Progress bump?

Your joystick lighting inspired me to do something similar with mine...

Thanks for the motivation, can't wait to see your project finished!

[mgb]

Thanks for giving this one a bump.
Somehow I have been missing this one for the last 2 years.
Great looking project, would love to see completion.

[ninjasquirrel]

Yeah it's been way too long with no progress pics 

Nice subtle lighting on the CP nephasth, looks good!

Welcome aboard mgb, and don't worry it will be completed before the end of the year no matter what it takes.

Since the last post I've been trying to work on the bartop a little here and there, but I've recently had a second child and still working third shift so like everyone else, hobby takes a back seat to life...but the good news is that it will be completed by Christmas!  If I can come up with a little extra cash I will be updating the pc hardware inside, probably to what I listed a few posts up. 
Right now I'm still working on the speaker surrounds and grill, I want them nice and clean so it's taking a few efforts to get the look I'm going for. It's sooo close to being completed as far as construction goes so I can see the light but this is probably where it slows down. I'll try and post progress in a week or two, thanks for refreshing my motivation in the project!

[mcseforsale]

Quit whining and get back to work. 

Seriously, though, this thing is turning out awesome!!!  I'm always amazed with the creativity on this site.

AJ

[ninjasquirrel]

Progress....
Well Christmas came early this year!


I thought this setup would be plenty strong enough for all that I would need, including newer games like street fighter vs tekken etc, and later I can upgrade what I see fit. Good news is that all this fits nicely with some room to spare actually inside the bartop (at least compared to the old setup)

Finally I was able to come up with an option for my speaker grills that I was happy with.  I made a speaker frame surround template out of 1/2" MDF and secured some aluminum to it. After routing and cleaning up the aluminum, I bent/formed it to the exact shape needed to fit on top of the area where the speakers go.




I was browsing the local hardware store and happened upon a thin aluminum mesh used to patch rusted out sections of autos...it was perfect!  I have been scheming on a way to put some form of mesh inside the aluminum frame that I could actually round over the transition inside the frame, much like that seen on cars speakers etc.  This patch was ideal, it was thin enough to conform to the shape I wanted, had a sticky back on it already, was meshed for sound...another Christmas gift   



So after shaping, cutting, and painting the 2 pcs, and deciding to hide the attachment screw countersinks with the carbon fiber sticker I have been using elsewhere, here's what I have:



And finally after it was installed on the bartop itself:





I'm pretty happy with the way it came out, I just hope someone playing a game after it's finished doesn't get too mad and take it out on the grills, they might not like too much punishment.

I have put the PC together (dry fit) but haven't installed it within the arcade, so the next step is to start the wiring of everything inside. Here's where things slow down. Should be able to get close to finishing construction over the holiday weekend and will post pics of progress as they come.

[SpaceHedgehog]

This is a really interesting build, great use of different textures, materials and colour. Wasn't sure about a Blops theme but it suits it down to the ground. Nice one 

[ninjasquirrel]

SpaceHedgehog-thnx for the comments, I'm glad the theme fits was kinda worried about it too

Ok so I've started to ram all the guts into this beast and even with the small form factor components it is CRAZY tight.  We're talking very few inches anywhere of wasted space. 




First off I needed to find a way to power the 4 pc fans, led marquee, LCD, motherboard parts and speaker system.  Because I had 2 fans in the back plate, and two fans on the bottom, I needed a way to quick connect all the 12v power to these pieces.  So I went to the local elect store and picked up some RCA phone ends (soldier kind) and decided to use these for a connection for the power.  I also had an old molex female connector and used this tap into the power from my new power supply. Everything runs off of 12v so it made it neat and clean, even the monitor!  The molex went straight to a barrier strip where it branched into the various RCA ends.




After hooking everything up and crossing every finger/toe, I decided to give the monster some power....SUCCESS! No sparks/fire yet.  I did have one problem right away though.  I was getting horrible feedback from my speaker system and I'm trying to trace it back now.  Here is how the 1/8 stereo end looks after soldiering it and the stereo pot.  I thought everything looked right, but even with the feedback I was able to use the stereo pot knob, only it pushed the sound from the left side to the right.  Must be a simple mistake but my brain hurts to figure it out.  Does anyone know what could be going on here?

[CoryBee]

I not so good with audio equipment, but static on an amplifier is usually caused by unshielded wires or being close to an AC source\cord. I am sure someone will chime in that has more knowledge on this subject.

I solved a similar issue on my nephews mini cab build by placing the audio input wires on the other side of the cab's panel as it was 1\4 of an inch away from the Power strip as it had to travel down to the PC.

Good Luck! Looking spiffy. What made you choose the black ops theme?

[mcseforsale]

Yeah.  +1.  Usually, the interferance is caused by A/C near the audio D/C equipment. 

AJ

[ninjasquirrel]

CoryDee and mcseforsale- I think you guys are right with the first statement. When I soldered the audio input wires to the 3.5 mm connectors, I used just normal 20 gauge wire for the 3 contacts. They were not shielded (or double shielded would be better) so I think this is where the problem is.  I'm in the process right now of finding a good quality 3.5mm to 3.5mm male ends to use.
Wally'world actually has a very nice set of stereo RCA phono cables that look to be possibly double shielded, so another option would be phonos to y split down to 3.5mm on both ends, but this seems overkill, too many physical connections. I just have to see what I can find at Rat Shack today.

As far as the theme goes...I know I could have gone the traditional way of arcade characters etc, but I wanted to go outside the box a little bit and I knew from the start that many of the components I had envisioned (modern tweaks with lights, lit joy surrounds, carbon fiber look, matte finish) and the fact I've always enjoyed playing the call of duty series, FPS's, etc along with the classics, it just kind of made sense to go with the black ops look...

[mcseforsale]

IMHO, this is one of the nicest bartops I've seen on this site.    I'll be doing a couple of bartops in the near future and they won't be nearly as ambitious as this.  The creativity is awesome and the execution superb.  Being a quasi-newb here, I love seeing people using their creativity, along with their experience on these things. 

AJ

[GnobarEl]

This is simply amazing!