Jamma/XBOX 360 Candy Cab *Final Panel PICS, VIDEO, LED's

[BurgerKingDiamond]

This is a thread for my Korean candy cab that I have recently finished working on. I got this on ebay for $300 + $200 to get it shipped from Florida to Virginia.
It came with a Parodius PCB. On the second day I had it I broke the neck on the tube   , so I replace it with a TV from a pawn shop. It is connected through s-video with a RGB to NTSC converter.

I also added a xbox 360, which is connected through component cables.

I wired up a DB-25 switch box for going between the controls for Jamma/xbox 360. I also ran a video button from the TV chassis to the switch box for going between the s-video and component inputs, also a button for the TV power was ran to the back of the cab. The xbox 360 control is through a hacked MadCatz street fighter IV gamepad (also ran the home button to the back of the cab for turning on the xbox).

I got the xbox from a friend already decased. Without the case there is nowhere for the dvd drive to rest. Luckily, the drive uses a standard SATA cable, and I just happened to have an extra lying around from another project I did. I did however have to manually lengthen the power connector. I then mounted the dvd drive to the bottom of the pcb shelf.

One side note.... I originally had both sets of sticks wired up to the switch box, but when I finished and tried to test it, only some of the buttons were working and I couldn't figure out why. the db25 cable has 25 pins, and for two sticks, 10 buttons, and 2 grounds (one for each hacked pad), I should have had more than enough pins to do this. but when I got out the multimeter to try and track down the problem I found that the problem lied within the switchbox itself. I opened it up and found out that pins 18-25 were soldered to each other, so I actually only had 18 pins to work with... So I rewired it and had to cut one xbox controller. This was particularly annoying, and I don't want to use a soldering iron for a long time... The end result is that bot sets of controls work for JAMMA, but only one stick works for xbox.

Also, the sticks are very loose, so I will end up replacing them with either sanwa or seimitsu balltops. I'm asking around to find out which model will best suit the kind of games that I will be playing.

A marquee holder will be made too eventually. Maybe in a week or so, I'm kind of burnt out right now.

Current games
JAMMA:
Raiden II
Parodius (maybe sexy parodius, but I don't know for sure because it is in Japanese)
Raiden (i'm haggling with a dude on ebay for it right now...)
Donpachi (pinballjim has offered to sell me the pcb, but I'm waiting for him to get back to me)

XBOX 360:
Raiden Fighters Aces
Raiden IV
Mushihimesama Futari
Deathsmiles (although I can't play it on this tated' monitor)
(I am in the process of acquiring a jtag'd 360, so this list is soon to explode!)

Here are some pics. I can barely find the time to do these projects, so documenting as I go doesn't really happen... Too bad because
I really like reading threads with lots of pictures of projects in progress. Also there is a video on youtube.

*** in the video I say that the other cab is JAMMA, that was a mistake. It's actually just MAME, PS2 and Dreamcast.



http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7274.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7275.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7277.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7278.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7279.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7280.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7281.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7282.jpg

http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m609/burgerkingdiamond/arcade%20stuff/IMG_7283.jpg

[jimmy2x2x]

That looks like an awesome setup, congrats!

I would consider Sanwa buttons and a Seimitsu ls32 joystick for the type of games you are playing

I really want a Candy, one day, one day...

[emphatic]

I'd say Seimitsu LS-32 or LS-56 sticks as they are overall the best shmup sticks without modification (SUZO 500s are my personal choice but they need a custom made shaft to be "Candy pretty" ). And Seimitsu buttons, Sanwa is way to triggerhappy, especially for CAVE games. Best shop for parts is www.akihabarashop.jp imho.

[jimmy2x2x]

http://www.etokki.com/ is another option, I found these the cheapest after shipping.

Be sure to update with any changes!

[emphatic]

Had time to watch the whole video now (with sound!) and those sticks are Korean Fanta sticks. Very popular among fighter fans I believe. Too bad you necked the orginal monitor tube, but that component video must be considered an upgrade. As the tube on that TV seems to be curved it seems a lucky fit for your cabinet.  I wish HD CRT TVs were more common in Sweden, I'd love to put one in at least one of my EGRET IIs as both suffer from burn-in and replacing the tube isn't my cup of tea.

How is the picture when running PCBs? Also, the US release of DeathSmiles isn't worth rotating your monitor for as CAVE removed lots of slowdown apparently making it unplayable.

[Paladin]

Nice to see another shmup candy cab!  I'm working on mine as well.  It's got a Dreamcast in it now, and I'm adding a 360 as well.

I just got 2 of those same controllers in the mail, and will be hacking them like yours in the next couple days.  I've been loading up games and making sure they work but haven't paid attention to what buttons I need for shmups other than A and B.  Do you find that A, B, X, Y are enough?  Can you configure the buttons on 360 games?  I guess I need to fire some up and actually pay attention to what I need!

[BurgerKingDiamond]

@jimmy2x2x
thanks, it's a really good setup. Now I need to work on my scores, no more excuses! (well I can blame the sticks until I get those new ones..)

@emphatic
I can see why these sticks would be good for fighters. I'll keep them around in case I do another cab in the future.

As for the TV, I got pretty lucky. I took in the black bezel to the pawn shop and put it on all the 27" TV's to see which one fit the best. I was so surprised to find one that fit so perfectly, AND had component and s-video input. And the best part was that it was only $40!! The converter was only $35, so overall breaking the monitor wasn't too costly of a mistake. And, the component input for xbox is definitely and upgrade.

the pcb's look great. Maybe not arcade perfect, but I don't really know without being able to do a side by side comparison. So overall I would say very good. the converter comes with individual pots for R G B. I had to mess with them a little bit, because at first the colors were over saturated.

As for Deathsmiles, I can still play it on my room mates xbox on the 42" flatscreen, but I'll have to put up with using an xbox controller... I think it's playable enough, but I haven't really given it serious attention. I got it the special edition with the faceplate the day it came out just because I was excited to see a CAVE release in the US.

@paladin
Every game that I've played on xbox so far (Raiden IV, Mushi Futari, Raiden Fighters Aces, Deathsmiles) let's you configure the fire/bomb buttons to any of the A,B,X,Y,LB,LT,RB,RT. My panel already had 5 buttons, so I just connected 4 to the A,B,X,Y and 1 to start, plus a separate button for HOME. This is sufficient for MOST shmups. I say most, because Deathsmiles needs like 5-6 buttons, but that doesn't really matter because I won't be playing it.

[emphatic]

I took in the black bezel to the pawn shop and put it on all the 27" TV's to see which one fit the best. I was so surprised to find one that fit so perfectly, AND had component and s-video input.

That's a pretty smart way of finding it.  :applaud:I wish we had a pawn shop in my town. Also, most consumer TVs have much better CRT quality than arcade monitors. They are mostly made from B or C grade tubes and TVs from A grade (of course depending on the brand and so on).

This is sufficient for MOST shmups. I say most, because Deathsmiles needs like 5-6 buttons, but that doesn't really matter because I won't be playing it.

Not entirely true. The arcade PCB for DeathSmiles uses 3 buttons. Left, Right, and Bomb. The full auto buttons + lock shot is just for the 360 version, and not really needed unless you play with a game pad (as mashing buttons isn't as easy as with an arcade controller).  If you want to play DeathSmiles 1.1 (360 exclusive mode) "properly" you need an extra stick to control the characters familiar as well. Me, I just stick to the arcade setup (4 buttons) as both ESPGALUDA II and the upcoming Do-Donpachi Dai-Fukkatsu uses 4 buttons.

As for Futari, the Arcade PCB uses 3 buttons, the 4th button is added for Arrange mode. So 4 buttons is pretty much all you need if you're going to play ONLY arcade shmup ports.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

ahhhhhh, I see. I was just going off the 360 version, which is all I've ever played  .

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. the converter I have will only work with Standard Resolution games. So would it be compatible with the current generation CAVE pcb's? Not that it matters much, because I don't see myself ever shelling out the money for one of the newer CAVE boards.

[Franco B]

All Cave games are standard 15k res so you should be fine if you decide to invest.

Shame about necking the monitor 

Apologies but DonPachi is on route to me.

Enjoy your Candy 

[BurgerKingDiamond]

good for you Franco. PinballJim had led me to believe that he was selling it to me but that he had to test it first. I guess sending me a message to inform me that he had decided to sell it to you was too much trouble.

[emphatic]

All Cave games are standard 15k res so you should be fine if you decide to invest.

Except of course for DeathSmiles 2. 

[Franco B]

Apologies BKD. There was one for sale on ebay, I had a look for you but [it looks like it sold].

Emph, I didn't know DS2 wasn't on the usual hardware, shows what I know  DS2 suks anyway 

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Damn. I saw a Donpachi cab on ebay a few days ago. I would have offered to just buy the marquee and pcb but I didn't because I was waiting for PinballJim to get back to me. Now I can't find the listing anywhere.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

well I just got my new xbox 360 from SNAAKE and I am stoked! SNAAKE was awesome to deal with. He was very communicative and there was no B***S***. Unlike another failed transaction....

So GO SNAAKE!

anyway, I'm gathering supplies to do some ventilation work on my cab. My previous decased 360 seemed to be fine, but I don't want to decase this new one, and it is getting disturbingly warm. I will try my best to take pics as I go. It will involve a Nyko intercooler (modded to take power from seperate PSU, instead of stealing power from the 360 like it's designed to do), a 90 degree register box, another PC fan, and some flexible ducting... sounds like I'm going overboard huh? maybe, but this xbox needs to last. Forever. I hope.

[Malenko]

well I just got my new xbox 360 from SNAAKE and I am stoked! SNAAKE was awesome to deal with. He was very communicative and there was no B***S***. Unlike another failed transaction....

So GO SNAAKE!

anyway, I'm gathering supplies to do some ventilation work on my cab. My previous decased 360 seemed to be fine, but I don't want to decase this new one, and it is getting disturbingly warm. I will try my best to take pics as I go. It will involve a Nyko intercooler (modded to take power from seperate PSU, instead of stealing power from the 360 like it's designed to do), a 90 degree register box, another PC fan, and some flexible ducting... sounds like I'm going overboard huh? maybe, but this xbox needs to last. Forever. I hope.

then dont use the Nyko cooler, it makes it worse.  Get a Talismoon fan or do the 12V mod on the existing fans.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

hey Malenko,
I don't want to decase this xbox. From what I understand, the Nyko intercooler's problem is that it uses a pass through and steals power from the xbox. I'm going to mod it to use another 12V psu on a power strip in the cab.
So, are there any other reasons to not use the intercooler that I don't know of?

 

[The Habbler]

Hey BK,
The Intercooler had a revision released when Nyko realized the power-draw from the 360 was bad. If you have the old model then by all means hack it, but if not, just get the new one that uses its own AC power.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

@Habbler
I heard the new one is crappy because it has a built in thermal sensor that turns the fans on when it gets hot. But for some reason the sensor is weird and the fans never come on at all, which is actually worse because the stock fans are blocked.

I think I'm just gonna get the original.

[Malenko]

it actually reduces airflow. cant find the website but they used a CFM tester and the nyko slowed everything down and increased temps. If you dont wanna pop the box open, use PC fans to push air in the "bottom" (if vert)

[BurgerKingDiamond]

I'm doing a little work on my candy. I'll be adding a bracket to display my original DonPachi marquee, which I got along with a DonPachi pcb recently. this is just a quick mock up in Photoshop.



It will be a 90 deg angle bracket in the front painted white. The marquee will be sandwhiched between two sheets of plexi and it will be held together by a couble bolts and a flat piece of metal in the back. I will probably end up putting a light behind it too, because it looks so nice lit up... I know it's not a traditional candy type of set up, but I don't care.

Also, I've been putting off upgrading my sticks, but I need to do it. I'll be changing to a one player setup because this thing is only for tate shmups and I don't play 2 player, and don't want to spend money buying extra buttons and a stick that I will never use. Unfortunately I can't just drop in the Seimitsu LS-32 that I want (or any jap stick, for that matter). Stupid Korean thing has it's own thing going on, so I have to get a little creative. The black part of the original panel is recessed into the white plastic of the cab. I'm going to completely remove it and replace it with a precut astro city panel from LizardLick. This panel will sit on top (not recessed), and I will have to bolt it right into the white plastic (unfortunately I will have to make some holes in my cab.... It's ok, in the end it will look fine). Also, the astro panel is just a little too small to completely cover the hole from the old recessed panel. So I have to cut a piece of plexi, which I will paint from the back, and put that down first to cover the hole, then put the astro on top of it. In other words, original white plastic -> painted plexi -> metal astro cp -> plexi artwork cover. My only concern now is that the screw in buttons have enough threads to go through the 3 layers of material. I will have to double check and measure before I order. Here's another quick photoshop.



Oh yeah I also put in a nice, cheap ($30) set of pc speakers from Radio shack. It has two small speakers and a sub, plus a seperate volume knob with headphone jack that I velcro'd to the inside of the door. These make playing my CAVE 360 games and Raiden IV, plus all my final burn stuff really awesome. It doesn't do anything for the jamma games though, I still have those going through the original speakers.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

My package from LizardLick came in today. It shipped pretty damn fast too. I think I only ordered this stuff 3 days ago or something.

List of stuff I got:

4 X 30mm Seimitsu clear blue buttons
2 X 24mm Seimitsu clear white buttons
1 X Seimitsu LS-32 Stick
1 X 35mm clear blue bubbletop
6 X KNserts for lighting up buttons
2 X Happ regular joystick springs (to replace the heavy ones I have in my MAME cab)
1 X Clear dustwasher (with arrow design thing)
1 X Lizard Lick 1 player Astro City control panel
1 X barrier strip
10ft red wire
10ft black wire

I will be upgrading my control panel as you can see. I want a 4 button setup. The plexi will cover the two button holes that I'm not using. I will be using the following tutorial from shoryuken to achieve lighting up buttons (when pressed, not lit all the time), the ball top will be permanently lit.

http://shoryuken.com/content/light-up-activation-button-mod-tutorial-61/

I still need a hollow LS-32 shaft. Bryan from paradisearcadeshop.com saw a post I made about this and let me know that they have them, but haven't started advertising them yet. He is hooking me up, and I should be getting soon (not really... they're in Hawaii so it will probably be at least a week to get to Virginia. It's ok.) I'm also waiting for the Hex Inverter IC to come from ebay (Radio Shack does not have them).

[ccmathome]

How long is that new cp? Awesome cab by the way

[BurgerKingDiamond]

.

Posted on: Yesterday at 11:05:28 PMPosted by: ccmathome 
How long is that new cp? Awesome cab by the way

here it is on LizardLick

http://www.lizardlick.com/Lizard-Lick-Control-Panel-1L6B_p_116.html

It's not a direct fit for my cab but I'll make it work. It would probably go nice with yours. And you'll have the opportunity to design around it, which is nice. It's nice that it has the mounting bracket already tack welded into place, the only small annoyance I have is that they didn't include the nuts. So I have to bring to whole thing to a hardware store to find the right size nuts for attaching the stick to the mounting plate.

[emphatic]

Is the new panel bigger than the original one? Did you consider grinding it down to fit? That button layout is my new favorite actually. Very comfortable.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Is the new panel bigger than the original one? Did you consider grinding it down to fit? That button layout is my new favorite actually. Very comfortable.

hey, if you read a little further up I tried to explain. The situation is that the new panel is actually a little too small. It won't completely cover up the hole where the old insert was. I decided to go with it anyway because it's precut, with all the holes and joystick bracket already there for only $45. It's worth it to me to not have to find a machine shop and all the crap. What I'm gonna do is cut a rectangle of plexi glass to cover the hole of the old CP (this is the blue rectangle in the mock up). Then the metal CP will go on top of that. Then another plexi on top of metal CP.

[emphatic]

Sorry. I actually remember reading it now that I'm reminded. Me = 

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Sorry. I actually remember reading it now that I'm reminded. Me = 

no problem my friend

[ccmathome]

My package from LizardLick came in today. It shipped pretty damn fast too. I think I only ordered this stuff 3 days ago or something.

I like ordering from lizardlick as I live in NC so I get my stuff 2 days tops

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Construction of the new control panel has begun. I'm at the painting stage. BTW, I hate painting....

The old panel from front


The old panel from back




This is why I couldn't just put the metal panel directly on top. It doesn't cover up the hole from the old panel. Too bad, nothing's ever easy...


checking it out....




complete test fit. On to painting


from back


Spray booth

[emphatic]

What's the second 24 mm button for, HOME?

[BurgerKingDiamond]

one of the 24's will be for start and the other will be wire straight to the coin switch for freeplay.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Here is the artwork that I am thinking of using. I decided that my original design was kind of boring. I decided to use Reco from Mushihimesama Futari, my favorite game at the moment.

the blue paint on the back piece of plexi turned out darker than I expected. I guess it looks ok. I was hoping for more of a light, sky blue. Kind of like the buttons....
 
just a quick photoshop


I like this because I think it balances out all the negative space on the left side with the 4 buttons on the right.

[ccmathome]

That looks pretty good, really like the artwork

[emphatic]

Looks good, but how do you blow the artwork up that big without it looking like "fecal matter"?

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Looks good, but how do you blow the artwork up that big without it looking like "fecal matter"?

Thanks. I found some nice, big wallpapers:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.peacefuldeath.net/mushihimesama/mushihimesama2/wallpaper_reko_2_big.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.peacefuldeath.net/mushihimesama/mushihimesama2/&usg=__hiJAnssYknCMLGvDEFwN-m-pWmI=&h=960&w=1280&sz=229&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=isOWNm_4xXy3cM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmushihimesama%2Bfutari%2Bwallpaper%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

The image is about 17" across normally. I have to double check in photoshop (I just slapped in on there quick last night to see if I liked it, I didn't use the true CP dimensions), but I think I can blow it up to 26" across without it getting to ugly.

[emphatic]

Here's what I do:

Open the Image size window and set it to 300 dpi and make the picture the size you'll need, use the "bi-cubic sharper" for the resize option at the bottom
Hit ctrl+L to bring up the Levels, use the color picker to set the black and white first, then the gray (if you can find any in that pastel art )
(optional*) Use "smart sharpness" to enhance the lines in the artwork
Use "surface unsharpen" (or what it's called in English) and juggle the sliders until the artifacts are gone (don't worry if the lines are a bit blurry)
Now use "smart sharpness" again (be careful so the saturation isn't too much)

*I often won't use the first "smart sharpness" step unless the resize makes the picture too blurry for the "surface unsharpen" step.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Thanks for the tips. I'll give it a shot tonight after work. I might add some white circles with blue outlines around the buttons, and something around the stick. Maybe some text too, X,Y,B,A,  COIN. I want to try and bring the art and the buttons together somehow. I'll post the results.

[emphatic]

I really think it looks very nice as it is right now except for the semi-showing logo to the right. If those button plungers are clear, why not add the letters to them instead of possibly cluttering up your artwork?

Here's a font that goes well with Futari art btw: http://www.dafont.com/toon-town-industria.font

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Another change of plans... I still like the the Mushi Futari art, and will probably still do that. But, I found some BEAUTIFUL large DonPachi images inside my DonPachi theme for Hyperspin. I can't resist using them to compliment my Donpachi Marquee. So I think I'm gonna do put something together for that first. I'll probably get the mushi CP printed out too, with an image for a marquee, so I can change them out if I feel like it. I'll post up tonight hopefully with some DP stuff.