Spongebob Imagination Station *** TOO Long - DONE!!! (Sorta)

[Dervacumen]

So it's taken a few years but here I am after a few false starts back in 2006: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=53653.msg598641#msg598641.

This is a wide body two player cab for my daughter.  The height is great for kids and works great for adults if you sit in a regular chair.  The monitor is angled upwards.  I'm using smoked plexi over the monitor and you can see the access door I'll be putting in the front panel.  I'm not at all accomplished with graphics art so this was the best I could come up with - I ordered from Scott at Mamemarquee's.

The color will be pink to match her room with purple t-molding and buttons.  Most of what I'm using I had laying around including the wood.  I think the only thing I've purchaed for this cabinet is the plexi for the monitor and marquee, the artwork and marquee holder, and one joystick and control panel clamps.  The coin door was a donated over-under that I cut in half.  I'll use credit buttons rather than coin slots for this machine 'cause I don't want my tokens to get lost.  I've already made most of the cuts - just putting it all together now and painting.  I decided to paint just to see what it was like.  The monitor is a left over 19" flat screen CRT.  I'm using hyperspin for the front end and a mini pac for the interface.

[GoingIncognito]

I like your Marquee.  You may say you're not that good with graphics, but I think it's some mighty nice work.

[EightBySix]

What a great theme! - looking forward to watching how it pans out 

Will it have a built in bubble blower 

[Dervacumen]

Will it have a built in bubble blower 

Great idea except my daughter's already destroyed my house and the last thing I need is her emptying the bubble blower one on 45 minute long press of the button.   I might find a way to incorporate that as an add on though.  <thinking>

So as is typical, I cut out the space for the access door but sometime during the setup I turned the panel 90 degrees and did a great job cutting out a hole in the wrong place.  So I had to get another panel ready for the access door.  What a bummer.  Reminds me of how fun and frustrating it is to build a cabinet...

So here are the pics for the speaker panel.  I first cut out the holes and routed the back to set the speakers in.  I chose these speakers for two reasons.  First, they are fairly slim - which I needed based on the cabinet design - and second, they are loud enough to immerse you in the game while not allowing you to be annoying to anyone else in the house.  And they were $10, about right for a modest game machine such as this.

After giving a quick coat of black paint to the front facing side of the speaker panel - it sure doesn't need to be fancy and probably not even necessary at all, I glued the speakers in place this evening and will add the fabric and mesh tomorrow if all goes well.  The mesh is an interesting find.  It's a heavy duty pet screen for screen doors.  It's much heavier than regular screen but still pliable.  I figure I'll cut it to size then stencil the "princess" template on it, in pink, to match the cabinet color.  Could be interesting.

[Dervacumen]

More on the speak panel.  I first covered in a nice stretchy black fabric, stapled it on (not done with the corners yet) then cut the plastic screen to fit.  Masked off the center for the "princess" stamp (it was an afterthought - .99 cents when I bought the fabric.
Painted to match the color of the cab and pressed it on.

[Dervacumen]

After I pressed on the painted logo, I went back over it with a brush to touch it up.  It made a big difference.  Since the panel will be about 2 /12 feet way I took a photo from the same distance.  Works for me.
I'll next staple the corners and cover the staples with fake plastic pink jewels I have laying around from an old craft project.
All said the logo transfer part took about 10 minutes.

[DaOld Man]

I like this idea. Reminds me of the years gone by when I "had" to watch spongebob with my daughter. Those were the days!
I agree with GoingIncognito, great artwork!

[Roo]

Looking good!

And thank you for posting the detailed pics of the speaker panel!  I am in the middle of trying to figure out my speaker panel, and your pics are very helpful.

[drventure]

Very nice. The princess speaker panel esp.

Can't let my daughter see this. I'd have another project on my hands 

 But she's already helping with the Arqadium, so that ok!

[Dervacumen]

So when I cut my first hole for the coin door, I measured 4 times and was getting ready to mark with pencil, fasten the clamps, and cut.  But wait!  I turned around to answer a question and the cord must have been laying around the wood so it knocked it off the work surface.  So I hastily put it back on, remeasured everything, clamped, cut, and presto!  The coin door fit great.  Just sideways and therefore not centered along the vertical axis.
I guess I turned the wood 90 degrees when I lifted it back to place.  And yes, I had prominently written "TOP FRONT" and BOTTOM FRONT" in the appropriate places on the wood.  Just felt like ignoring them at the time, I guess.
So I cut another piece and made the right cuts with a jigsaw and router.

You can see in the pics some of the work I had to do with a hacksaw to get my "1/2 coin door" looking like a respectable access door.  That was fun.  No really, it was.  After the coin door mishap, doing a little damage was a welcome diversion.  I love doing damage, and nothing says damage like laying in to a piece of metal with a dremel, sandpaper, two files, two hacksaw blades and coming out a winner.

[Dervacumen]

And after cleaning up my rough cuts to what I'll have to call acceptable I repainted the door and frame.  The bottom of the frame is not perfectly square but once it's installed you would have to get on your hands and knees to examine it.  If you do that, then yes you'll see it's not perfect.  And I'll call you a  

So it turns out that I wanted to bring out the color of the buttons and t-molding a bit and lo-and-behold, I found what is almost a perfect match.  Now I wonder if I sould incorporate this spray color in to other parts of the cab.  At this time the sides will be devoid of artwork. Maybe that will change...

Advice on the coin door in two tones?  I tried to show what it will look like against the pink of the cabinet.  I think it looks nifty.

[Dervacumen]

I agree with GoingIncognito, great artwork!

Kinda surprised and blushing at the kudos on this, thanks folks!  I tried for many moons to master Illustrator and Photoshop, even tried tutorials and it just made no sense (to me).  Then one day I noticed a free copy of Corel Paint Shop Pro for download and found it very easy to use.  I scoured the 'net for some beginning images and winged it from there.  Got a font, learned how to isolate images...all in about two-three days work.  There are a lot of things I would have done if I could figure out how but I had to keep reminding myself this is for a 6 year old, not me.  Well, *kinda* me.

[Dervacumen]

And thank you for posting the detailed pics of the speaker panel!  I am in the middle of trying to figure out my speaker panel, and your pics are very helpful.

The funniest thing about this is that when I stared to do this panel, I couldn't really figure out how I wanted to do it.  So I did a search on the forums and found...an idea I posted a few years ago.  I had a good laugh tho.  Sad but true.  So what kind of hypocrite would I be if I didn't use my own suggestion?
The original idea and prototype came to me in 1987 when I tricked out my school locker (yes, we had lockers in the stone ages) with a Sony Walkman and built in speaker system.

[Dervacumen]

Speak er panel is complete.  I stapled the grill on and covered up the staples with these little plastic jewels I had laying around.  I originally counted that I needed nine, and I thought I had nine, but when I glued them in place I was one short.  So I modified my plan and swapped some of the pink jewels for translucent ones.  I would have preferred all pink but there was no way I was going on a scavenger hunt to find this same brand of plastic baubles.  Anyway it turned out looking better than I expected, really.  I wish I took clear photos.
I couldn't wait to see what it looked like.  I stuck it in place, temporarily taped up the marquee...It's actually coming together.

[Dervacumen]

No wonder it's taken so many years to get this project off the ground.  It's been 3 months since I've found the time to work on the cabinet but I've dabbled a bit here and there mostly over the past two weekends.
I got the marquee light installed and wired - a cold cathode tube I had laying around from my last project.  I also wired up the speaker panel and ran wiring down the back after I cut and installed the top back portion of the cabinet.  It's a permanent panel.  The access panel is not yet built.  I tried a few things but nothing on this cabinet is square so I shelved it for a bit.  I'll do that last.  I also got a small power switch from Radios shack and drilled a countersunk hole for installation after painting.  On my full sized cabinet I had the power button on top, but with this short cabinet I figured things would inevitably get put on top of it.  By mounting the switch on the back and countersinking it I hope it will prevent accidentally powering it on.

[Dervacumen]

Now that it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home, I have to hope it's not raining on the weekends so I can get a few more cuts and holes drilled in the CP.  Everything else I can do in the garage or house.  So that should keep me on track.  I have to complete this within three weeks in time for my daughter's birthday.
So I wired up a switched power box.  The computer power supply will be plugged in to the outlet labeled "To PS".  When the relay detects power it will fire up the two other outlets which will have the speakers and monitor plugged in to them.  When the computer is turned off, the relay will detect that and automatically cut power to the monitor and speakers.  I've always liked this solution.  I know there are other ways to go about this business of one button power up, but I had this extra relay left over from my last project because I thought it was bad since my first project would turn on by itself every now and then when  load was put on the circuit by something plugged in elsewhere.  Turns out the relay is fine and the house wiring is weird.  So my other cabinet still turns on periodically.  Not a bad thing 'cause every time it does I stop what I'm doing and squeeze in a couple of games.   

Also got the first coat of primer on today!  Of course I still have no back door but it will just be in the way while I install the computer parts anyway.

[Dervacumen]

I need advice.  I have two black and one blue HAPP Competition joystick shafts.  I think the blue looks better but I would have to get a second one because I want them to look the same.  I don't know if I want to mess with trying to paint them purple.  Another idea would be making a few of the buttons black and using black handles.
After applying the CP overlay I of course realized I didn't route out space for the dust washers under the artwork.  I'll either leave them off or put them on top.  Since there is not much artwork around the joysticks I may just leave them on top of the artwork.  I'm not too concerned about it.

[HaRuMaN]

Use black handles, and mix and match your buttons so they have a black housing with purple plunger.   

[Rick]

Use black handles, and mix and match your buttons so they have a black housing with purple plunger.   

I second this.  It would look cool.

[Dervacumen]

I didn't have enough black button free, so I had to swap out buttons on my other machine, which isn't a bad thing becuase now I can tell people what color button to press instead of trying to explain it's the black one.  No not that black one, the other black one next to the joystick.  NO!  The other joystick...  Hold on, I'll be there in a second.
 

[Dervacumen]

So now that I've robbed my other CP of black buttons I tried four different choices.  The coin door is black with a purple frame.
Which one looks the best?  I think you guys were right, purple plungers with black frames looks great, but I wonder if going with the black plunger and purple frame to match the door would tie it together better.  Or maybe it doesn't matter.
Whacha think?

[Dervacumen]

And check it out.   In a rare moment of lucidity I figured I was going to forget to route out space for the dust washers and they would end up on top of the CP artwork instead of under it.  So when I designed the CP artwork around the joystick holes I took that in to account.  And now that I put the dust washer on there I distinctly remember planning it this way just in case.  I guess it pays to know one's weaknesses.

[thatitalian]

Hehehe, nice!

I like it when people make cabs like this, makes you remember that you can really incorporate any idea into a cab. I love SBSP and it looks really cool on the cab!

Well done!

[Dervacumen]

Thanks for the Kudos!  It's been in progress forever now and I think I'm about two weeks away from completion.  I hope so anyway.
I love wiring control panels for some reason.  I bought this used wire from a supply house in San Jose and wanted green for the ground but they didn't have any.  Anyway, I thought it would be interesting and fun to run the wires up above the control panel and not have them attached to the underside, just for kicks.  The wire I picked was 20G stranded, but very firm to hold shape.  Once I got everything wire-tied together, it turned out to be a very robust harness.  I don't have the final pic available yet but here are pics of the initial wiring and layout.

I suppose it's possible that while un-clamping the control panel I might rip up the harness, but I'm not overly concerned because I don't imagine I'll be getting in there very often since I'm not using tokens.  I'm using buttons for the P1 and P2 coin-up's instead.  And as luck would have it I cleaned out my computer room yesterday and found the wiring diagram I made about a year ago complete with a diagram of the buttons I wanted on my control panel.  And noticed I forgot to drill holes for the machine for the coin buttons.  Oops.  Good thing I found out now.  I'll drill them in to the front of the panel above the access door.  It shouldn't be too big a deal.  Actually, the whole CP as I designed it when I built the cabinet is completely different from what I ended up with, and for good reason.  I spent WAY too long planning everything and realized if I just started building I would not only get it done, but it would be the ONLY way I got it done.
Man.  Talk about engineering on the fly.  My plans have changed sometimes hourly during the build process but it's still turning out okay.

There are so many things to go over I haven't the time right now but I have lots of pics of the template I made to center and mount the joysticks (since I don't have time to get one from Bob Roberts) and I also realized that I have one Happ Super and one Competition, and the joysticks are perfectly mounted - exactly 3 mm off center.  What the heck, it's for a 7 year old and I have only two weeks to complete...Or if I miss the deadline I guess I can give it to her for Christmas.

I also got the second coat of primer on.  Now on Thursday and Friday I plan to have the first coats of pink paint on.  Then I can bring it inside and finish up the wiring and installation of the computer components.

[Dervacumen]

Use black handles, and mix and match your buttons so they have a black housing with purple plunger.   

So this was a great idea.  They really pop out at you.  Based on some of the builds you've done I'm not surprised you have an eye for this sort of thing.

[Dervacumen]

Pics of the final wiring harness below.

[HaRuMaN]

Use black handles, and mix and match your buttons so they have a black housing with purple plunger.   

So this was a great idea.  They really pop out at you.  Based on some of the builds you've done I'm not surprised you have an eye for this sort of thing.

 

[drventure]

Nice job. I love that speaker panel with the jewels. I can't show my daughter this, she'd be all over it 

Esp since it's got "Princess" on it!

[Dervacumen]

I love that speaker panel with the jewels. I can't show my daughter this, she'd be all over it 

Esp since it's got "Princess" on it!

Thanks for the rep.  This seems to be a hit with my daughter too, who found the wooden "princess" stencil I used and convinced me she needed it.  Two days later it was busted in half.
But I got a first coat of the matching pink paint on yesterday...
And I'll sand pan put on the second today.  I think I can also begin installing the computer components.  I still don't have a back door solution but it keeps raining and I can't build inside.  I may have to get it completely finished without a back door and add that at a later date.  I've got to build some cleats for the control panel to rest on as well.  I'll do that this weekend
Looks like I'll just have it done in time for her birthday in 9 days.  Well maybe not the back door.

[javeryh]

PINK cabs rule!!!  Woo hoo!!!!

[Dervacumen]

PINK cabs rule!!!  Woo hoo!!!!

The things we do for our little girls, huh?  This cab is nowhere near as slick as Bella's, but at least I got real Disney Princess Pink to make me feel better adequate.

[Dervacumen]

This is a testament of how forgiving this hobby is.  Still need to mount the CP but here I am holding it in place to see what the finished product will look like.  Once I get the rest of the T-molding on I think the purple/pink theme will really work well.
I guess I could have made some bezel and side art, but I'm still happy with what it's shaping up to be.
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now...and only a few more days before I have to have it complete.  I'm in the home stretch.

[DaOld Man]

Not meaning to drag you off topic here, but could you give me more info on that power switching relay?
Is it a current sensing relay?

[Dervacumen]

Not meaning to drag you off topic here, but could you give me more info on that power switching relay?
Is it a current sensing relay?

Not off topic at all, and glad to oblige.
The relay is from Radio Shack, part number 275-218.  It's a DPDT plug in relay and senses current draw.
Check out this nifty drawing I just found that basically shows my hook up.
http://macnauchtan.com/circuits/CARD/index.html

[Dervacumen]

Just a few pics of the wiring harness for the old-style minipac I'm using.  Man, those were some small wires.  I extended them with thicker wires, I think maybe 22 ga.  I'll then crimp on molex pins to the larger wires and build (3) 9-pin molex connections, one each for Player 1, Player 2, and admin buttons.
I didn't think connecting the molex pins directly to the ribbon cable would be such a good idea because they are so thin.
Lot's of shrink tubing later I think I have something that will be strong enough to withstand the occasional (read: once a year, maybe) disconnect.

I also started arranging the components inside the cabinet.  I like to decase my computers and install directly in to the cabinet.  Keeps everything cool and looks neat-o.
I don't know about all of you, but I find that using this metal strapping, cutting to size and bending works wonders for installing and connecting just about everything.  Here are a few homemade brackets to mount the hard drive to the floor of the cabinet.

[Dervacumen]

I've been having an issue getting the minipac functioning properly, which is a bummer because I can only get to this project a couple hours a week lately.  It's been a while, but the cab is basically complete.
I'll give updates soon.

[Dervacumen]

Alrighty Then.

Here's the thread about the minipac problem, and the final resolution if you're interested:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=108932.0

Anyway, I lost my job in February and with it lost motivation to do anything non-income earning related so this post is ... ahem ... a few months late.  Nothing like letting something die on the vine.

I went to CAX (California Extreme - look it up if you aren't familiar) on Saturday and played games for 9 hours.  That was what I needed to get back to this project.  AND my wife and kid are gone on vacation and return tomorrow.
So on Sunday, armed with a renewed love for video games, and thinking finishing this machine would be a neat welcome home project for my daughter, I dug in Sunday afternoon to finish this project up.

About 7 hours total from start to finish.  I just need now to shell it up which I'll do after I create a nice start-up screen.  For now, I have a mouse hooked up and tucked inside the access door so I can launch the FE and shut down windows.

I'm using Hyperspin, and the SpongeBob intro theme plays when you start.  You can exit this by pressing any button or joystick movement.  There are only about 25 games or so on this machine, easy to navigate, and favorites for my kid.  The nice thing about this machine is I can pull up a chair, and the controls are a perfect height for me.  So a child can stand or sit, and an adult can sit.  I'm glad I made this a widebody.  I put a few of my favorites on there too.  It's a better setup than my first machine, and now I'm jealous.

Here is a closing pic.  The marquee doesn't have a bright middle; that's an artifact of my camera phone.  Well, maybe a little brighter, but not noticeable on first glance.

My 7 year old is going to freak out tomorrow when she comes home.

[Woodshop Flunky]

Looks nice.  I'm sure she'll love it!

[Nephasth]

My daughter would ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- a brick if she saw this.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Good going Dad  .  Let us know how the "reveal" went.