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Author Topic: Two-Headed Beast -- Finished  (Read 123534 times)

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Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #160 on: October 15, 2011, 10:06:05 pm »
Fun With LEDBlinky

I have spent very little time with LEDBlinky so far and I am already impressed! Arzoo, you did an outstanding job with this program! Colors.ini saves me the trouble of individually picking what colors should be for what game. If I want to map an input to a different button, the color follows! I had no idea it was going to be this easy. I've got LEDBlinky fully working with MAME so far. Having a few problems with it in Hyperspin, but haven't really looked into that yet. Here's a couple quick shots.

Satan's Hollow. Red for fire and yellow for sheild, exactly how I would have done it myself, but it is like this automatically! Check out player 2 on the other panel.


MK3. Didn't have player 2 mapped correctly yet in this shot.


A close up. You can see the light bleeding I mentioned earlier. Definitely going to have to fix this. (Yellow looks much better in person, btw)

yotsuya

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #161 on: October 16, 2011, 01:01:48 am »
Yeah, that functionality of LED Blinky makes it totally worth it to me.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #162 on: October 20, 2011, 07:17:13 pm »
Light Bleeding Conquered

Got my solution to the light bleeding in the mail today; 48" of 1 1/4" heat shrink tubing.


Cut it down to 26 1" long pieces. Removed switches with wires connected from the buttons and layed the harnesses back (those Molex Microfit connectors really paid off). Installed the tubing and used a minitorch to shrink the tubing.


The difference is night and day!
Before:


After:

The colors look much better in person, and although the white appears blue-ish in the pic, it is completely white in person.

As always, there's more than one way to skin a cat. This is the route I decided to go with. But if you run into a light bleeding issue, as long as you can cover the barrell of the buttons somehow (with electrical tape, extra button nuts, paint), you'll get the problem taken care of.

yotsuya

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #163 on: October 20, 2011, 10:04:25 pm »
Heh- I was thinking of doing that same thing!
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #164 on: October 21, 2011, 10:19:03 am »
 :applaud: Nice!!!! Totally worth the extra effort!

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #165 on: October 21, 2011, 04:40:12 pm »
I like that solution.  The only thing I can see as being a downside is if you ever have to take the buttons off.  Would probably have to cut the heat shrink.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #166 on: October 22, 2011, 11:24:08 am »
I like that solution.  The only thing I can see as being a downside is if you ever have to take the buttons off.  Would probably have to cut the heat shrink.

Definitely a downside. This seemed like the best solution considering my CPs were done before I discovered the issue. The buttons are too close together to be able to wrap tape around them neatly. There was no way I was going to paint them while assembled in the panel or take my panels apart to do so. And I didn't have an extra 52+ button nuts laying around to use. The price wasn't too bad, about $12 shipped. I used just over half of what I bought. When I installed the buttons, I tightened the piss out of the button nuts, hopefully they'll never come loose and I'll never have to remove one. If for some reason an RGB LED fails, I will try to replace it with the button still in the panel. Time will tell. I'm just glad I had those 4 pin connectors installed in the RGB LEDs, I would have been pretty upset if I had to hack up all that wiring, I didn't even have to cut a single zip tie.

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #167 on: October 22, 2011, 03:39:01 pm »
Looking very nice!

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #168 on: October 30, 2011, 06:06:02 pm »
Looking very nice!

Thanks!

----------------------------------------

The Transplant Begins.

Decased the computer and layed everything out inside to figure out placement. Installed some more brass threaded inserts. Got the mobo installed. The power supply and hard drive will be mounted to the left of the mobo tray in the first pic. There will also be a power button and volume control just insde the coin door (if you look close you can see the threaded inserts for this next to the coin door).




Also got the other coin door installed. I've got some LED bulbs on the way to replace the reject button bulbs. Only active reject buttons will be lit up per game.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion - WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?!?
« Reply #169 on: November 01, 2011, 06:37:58 pm »
We can rebuild it. We have the technology...

I dismantled my interface panel to clear up some real estate for a new controller. The Lono˛. The better, sexier, enhanced Lono!

The Lono˛ installed on the interface panel.


Interface panel reinstalled in the cab.


Lono˛ wired and powered up.


The Lono and Lono˛ side by side.


You can see the major differences between the two boards in the last pic. But what does the Lono˛ do, that the Lono doesn't? Well, you'll have to wait for the product announcement to find out! ;)

armi0024

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion - WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?!?
« Reply #170 on: November 01, 2011, 10:27:05 pm »
I know I may be biased, but it looks really nice :)
Just a little teaser, LED power up, indicators for the mode it is in, and there is one LED per joystick controller that will light up when any button or joystick is activated... we did this to make trouble shooting a little easier. 

We also specifically made the Lono2 square.... that way mounting can be rotated without re-drilling or changing holes.  We added more circuit protection.  Finally, we just thought a bright red board with LEDs would stand out....   New thread coming soon!

AlienInferno

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion - WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?!?
« Reply #171 on: November 02, 2011, 12:15:57 am »
I'm still impressed by how sleek your wireing job is.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion - WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?!?
« Reply #172 on: November 02, 2011, 12:06:45 pm »
I know I may be biased, but it looks really nice :)
Just a little teaser, LED power up, indicators for the mode it is in, and there is one LED per joystick controller that will light up when any button or joystick is activated... we did this to make trouble shooting a little easier. 

We also specifically made the Lono2 square.... that way mounting can be rotated without re-drilling or changing holes.  We added more circuit protection.  Finally, we just thought a bright red board with LEDs would stand out....   New thread coming soon!

I'm really liking the overall look of this board! I actually tried to take a pic of the LEDs in the second to last pic, but I was fighting lighting. The top power LED is lit up red, and the J1 header LED is lit up green in the pic. Totally impressed with it so far!


I'm still impressed by how sleek your wireing job is.

Thanks! But I've got the rat's nest of the power supply harnesses not pictured. I've got to wire up the coin doors and tidy up around the computer components before I'll post pics of that (too embarrassed to show it off right now).

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion - WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?!?
« Reply #173 on: November 02, 2011, 03:18:01 pm »
great progress!  Any luck with that track ball you PM'ed me about? =)

Thats also a pretty fantastic finish on the coin doors.
If you're replying to a troll you are part of the problem.
I also need to follow this advice. Ignore or report, don't reply.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion - WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?!?
« Reply #174 on: November 02, 2011, 04:11:54 pm »
Thanks! I've got three coats of paint on the coin doors, should have went with about 5 though.

I sent you a PM months ago about the trackballs. Didn't hear from you so I figured you didn't want them. I'll resend it.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #175 on: November 03, 2011, 07:03:01 pm »
Reject Button LED Test

Got the LED bulbs the other day. Got the 6V "cool white" version of these from LEDTronics. I wanted the incand white bulbs, but they were out of stock when I placed my order.

Installation is pretty straight forward. Loosen (don't take out) the mounting screw of the bulb base and rotate the base out. Swap bulb. Reinstall base.

Shot of the base rotated out with new LED installed. Original bulb is resting on the coin chute for comparison.


All put back together.


I'm waiting on some more of those crimp quick disconnects to wire these up, but wanted to see one lit up. I wired it directly to the power supply's 5V. The front of the coin door is lit up with a flash light to show both reject buttons here. Player 1's reject button is lit.


Close up of the reject button lit up in the dark.


Once I've got these wired up to the PACLED64s, I'll dim them down a bit since they're pretty bright in the dark.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 07:12:27 pm by Nephasth »

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #176 on: November 03, 2011, 09:21:03 pm »
How do those compare to the regular bulbs? 

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #177 on: November 03, 2011, 09:36:41 pm »
Hard to tell exactly. I never had inserts in with the original bulbs. The originals seemed brighter (but there were no inserts either, you can see them earlier in the thread), and ran on 12V I believe. These LED bulbs are 6V but I will be running them on 5V through the PACLED64s, even at 5V they're brighter than I like. Size wise, almost exact. Price wise, these particular LEDs are way more expensive, over $7 a piece with a minimum order of 10 (got my order for free though). Nicest thing is that I can control the coin door lights with LEDBlinky now.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #178 on: November 04, 2011, 07:04:08 pm »
Power Button

Made the power button out of spare parts. The button is from the "leftovers" from making the buttons for the CPs. The power indicator LED and hard drive LED (yellow one on the side of the bracket) were taken from the computer that was salvaged for parts, as was the bracket for the button. The volume control will be mounted just below the button.

Assembled and wired (minus the crimp quick disconnects I'm waiting for).


Installed inside the cabinet.


View through the coin door.


Powered on, no flash, low light.

yotsuya

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #179 on: November 05, 2011, 12:29:21 am »
Nice! What did you make the bracket out of?
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #180 on: November 05, 2011, 10:12:36 am »
It was just a random piece from the computer case I took apart for the motherboard tray.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #181 on: November 10, 2011, 02:51:27 pm »
Got my latest order from Paradise earlier this week, which contained the crimp quick disconnects I've been needing. I haven't been too motivated to wire up the coin doors though. It sucks being half crouched inside the cab to do the needed work. Also not very fun adding wires to existing and already secured harnesses. I did make the coin door end of the harnesses last night. This morning was spent finishing the cabinet side of the harness for the left side of the cabinet. Got the reject button lights wired up and decided to call it good for today, I'll get to wiring the coin switches later.

LED Bulb Comparison

A surprise was also thrown into the package from Paradise, a hand full of LED bulbs in a couple of different styles. Thanks Bryan and Susan! Since they're there and I've got half my coin reject light sockets wired to the PACLED64, I thought I'd see which of the three is best.



Bulb 1 - Came from LEDtronics. It's close to the same size as a standard bulb. Extremely pricy though. Over $7 per bulb with a minimum order of 10 if you order directly from LEDtronics. Does come with a 3 year warranty though.

Bulb 2 - From Paradise Arcade Shop. Pretty much exactly like a standard bulb. Only $0.65/$0.75 depending on which style your coin door requires.

Bulb 3 - Also from Paradise Arcade shop. Uses the same base as the standard bulb, but much shorter. Don't know what the price would be on these, they're currently not listed on Paradise's site.

Here they are in action.




All three bulbs do a great job of lighting the reject buttons. However, my preference is for bulb 2 (from Paradise). The diffusing lens helps distribute the light a little more evenly and also helps keep the reject buttons looking like orange instead of yellow (most noticeable in the inserts). The color is very close between bulbs 1 and 3, bulb 3 seems just a little bit brighter than bulb 1. I wonder if I got bulb 1 in the incand white color instead of the cool white color, if it would have helped keep the reject button looking orange instead of yellow.

I didn't expect bulb 3 to do as well as it did because it doesn't go into the light hole for the reject button. You can see what I'm talking about in these pics.



And with it lit up you can see how much light is lost from being so far back from the hole.


Even if you've never planned on using LEDs in your coin doors, for the price they are at Paradise, it's well worth picking up a few if you happen to be placing an order with them. If you don't have an LED controller, you can wire them up directly to your computer's power supply (red wire for 5V).

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #182 on: November 10, 2011, 04:39:47 pm »
I figured it was close to Christmas.... :)

One minor detail.  and sorry I completely forgot to send a note about this.  Bulb 3 is a 12V bulb, Bulb 2 is a 5/6.3 volt bulb. 

Bulb 3, the one that has no diffusing lense has a high diffusion smd led and we had made because many original arcade games ran the coin slot lights at 12V.  It is an 1816 replacement

Bulb 2 is made to be a 44 drop in replacement.

Mahalo

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #183 on: November 10, 2011, 04:50:53 pm »
Worth noting that you can get cardboard tubes that slip over the bulbs and would direct that light better on that short LED.  (I believe they're used to keep light bulbs from grounding out against coin doors)  I imagine a piece of heat shrink tubing could be a cheap substitute.

Nice solution!

Bulb 3 is a 12V bulb, Bulb 2 is a 5/6.3 volt bulb. 

Bulb 3, the one that has no diffusing lense has a high diffusion smd led and we had made because many original arcade games ran the coin slot lights at 12V.  It is an 1816 replacement

Wow, now I want to see what it looks like with 12V supplied to it. ;D

Didn't make it clear in my last post, but all 3 LEDs were ran on 5V in the comparison.

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #184 on: November 11, 2011, 11:59:36 am »
A little late, but I just read through your entire thread.  I cant say I have tried this on a LED button, but I have done it on acrylic's using LED's to light them up.  If you have a spare unit to test,  try placing aluminum foil around the button surround first. Be careful not to pull, just press it into the grooves to form it into place. Or if you want to use something better, get the thin metal tape.  Its basically aluminum foil tape.  One side has adhesive, the other dont.  Then put the heat shrink tubing over the foil and shrink.  The black will absorb your light, but using the foil reflects it and will amplify it until it finds an exit, which is the top.  Your button surrounds will be brighter.   

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #185 on: November 15, 2011, 08:03:54 pm »
The Future?


Been seeing other projects with LCD marquees around. Found this monitor. A 38" 17:5 beauty. It's almost the EXACT size of the marquee on the beast. MSRP was something like $4500 when these were new. There are re-furbed monitors on eBay for just over $700. I need to find a duffelbag of cash in my backyard, or an old stash in the walls.

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #186 on: November 16, 2011, 09:46:35 am »


HMMMM $700 is starting to be more like it.  I'm going to go ahead and say that if these get to under $500 I'll be seriously considering retrofitting switchcade.  Especially since it's sitting done but I haven't posted due to having zero Marquee ideas.  Had to put white paper in there to keep the novagems from blinding me. 

The ultimate finish for a standup mame rig.  Nep, go ahead and get this running on the beast so we can check it out.

you saw this guy right?  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115898.0

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #187 on: November 16, 2011, 10:12:15 am »
HMMMM $700 is starting to be more like it.  I'm going to go ahead and say that if these get to under $500 I'll be seriously considering retrofitting switchcade.

LG also made a 29" model. I looked at this (38" model) monitor a few months back, and re-furbed ones were listed for around $1100. So hopefully they'll be much more affordable in a year (if there are any still around).

The ultimate finish for a standup mame rig.  Nep, go ahead and get this running on the beast so we can check it out.

Ultimate is right. I'm accepting donations to expedite the installation so everyone can check it out. ;D

you saw this guy right?  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115898.0

Yes indeed, and it is awesome. That's why I looked into it again.

Randy took a step in the right direction years ago: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=70840.0

And Yvan is doing some cool stuff with his mini Neo Geo mini marquee: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94770.0

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #188 on: November 16, 2011, 11:18:47 pm »
A little progress, a little frustration.

I had intended on adding switches to my U360s, for two reasons. One, I wanted both sticks (U360 and JLW) on each panel to feel the same. Two, for some reason unknown to me, when they created Hyperspin, they chose to only have it recognize two joystick devices (the beast has six). And P1 (as well as P2) consists of 2 joysticks; the U360 for directional input, and the Lono2 for button inputs. So I have to set each up in Hyperspin for P1 to navigate Hyperspin properly, which leaves P2 unable to navigate Hyperspin. I figured if, when I added the switched to the U360s, I wired them up to the Lono2's inputs for P1's directions (as well as P2's when the time came), I could have both P1 and P2 navigate Hyperspin.

I decided on Paradise's Zippy Joystick Upgrade Kit, and ordered 4 sets for all my sticks. I finally got around to installing them into the left panel today. While I was at it, I thought I better make a harness for the U360's I/O header incase I ever wanted to use it with the Lono2.

Here's the shorty harness for the U360 I/O header.


Harnesses and switches installed (don't mind the missing stand off on the U360).


I used 6 pin Micro-fit Molex connectors (as always) to add this harness in.

Now for the frustration. These switches require a larger gate (longer throw) than my octagonal restrictors to actuate all directions (diagonals) properly. I wrapped tape around the switch actuators of the joysticks to try to help out, but it is still extremely hard to hit the diagonals while playing. Also, I've got a possible short to track down now. When I hit a direction on the U360 with the switches connected to the Lono harness, the Lono2 is lighting up the indicator LEDs for both the P1 and P2 headers, which I find very strange since those harnesses are completely seperated, and still lights both header indicators when the P2 harness is disconnected from the Lono2, so a short between them is impossible. With the U360 I/O header connected to the harness, no indicator LEDs light on the Lono2. Wiring problem? Maybe. Hardware problem? Maybe. I'll have to do some more troubleshooting when I get some time.

As far as the switches go, I'm going to try some different ones. I was hoping these would perform better, I really like how quiet they are.

Edited for spelling.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2011, 01:48:16 pm by Nephasth »

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #189 on: November 17, 2011, 01:21:48 pm »
WOW!!!  Just WOW! :notworthy: :notworthy:

I love how the buttons change with the game.  One of the best project I have seen; also one of the biggest.
Can't wait to see the end, keep up the good work.

MM

Out...

P.S.  Damn, you used a  :angry: load of black wire.

Nephasth

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #190 on: November 17, 2011, 01:52:14 pm »
WOW!!!  Just WOW! :notworthy: :notworthy:

I love how the buttons change with the game.  One of the best project I have seen; also one of the biggest.
Can't wait to see the end, keep up the good work.

MM

Out...

P.S.  Damn, you used a  :angry: load of black wire.

Many thanks for the kind words!

Don't know exactly how many feet of wire has been used so far, but it's pretty close to 600' right now. Cabinet lighting (if I ever get to it) will probably push that over 1000'.

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #191 on: December 12, 2011, 11:27:43 pm »
Ordered some keychains from OldTymeToys a while back. They showed up today and thought I'd post up the keychain reserved for the Beast! All of the keychains I got are pretty badass. Thanks Jon!




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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #192 on: March 20, 2012, 02:17:21 am »
Nephasth-

How thick are the metal panels you had created? I'm planning something and was wondering how think your panels were.
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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #193 on: March 20, 2012, 09:17:50 am »
Dmen made them out of 16 or 18 gauge stainless steel. I'll verify the thickness once I get my monstrosity of a toolbox moved over to my new house.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2012, 11:33:11 am by Nephasth »

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #194 on: March 20, 2012, 10:31:26 am »
Man, you are awesome at this.  Your attention to detail, ingenuity, and professionalism are astounding.

I hate the gnawed wood that is on the old cabinets that I end up with.  Did you address this?



Is there a trick to fixing it?  I didn't see anything in your pics, but I bet you cleaned that up somehow.  Can you sand it down or cut it into a bevel?  Maybe just throw a piece of molding on it?

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #195 on: March 20, 2012, 12:02:53 pm »
Thanks rooter! I haven't addressed any cosmetic issues of the cabinet yet. This was in the garage at my old place and I wasn't too concerned about the looks of it vs playability at the time. However, I'll have a gameroom in my new house, so these issues will be addressed. Rapomstage3 (probably spelled his username wrong) has (had?) an NBA Jam in one of these cabinets that had similar issues with the corners. He used bondo and cardboard forms to bring the corners back into existence, and came out with great results. I've been without a computer for the past few days, but I'm getting the internet hooked up in my new house this morning. Once I've got my computer back up I'll post a link to his thread.

Since I'll have an actual gameroom and now have a huge garage, progress can pick up on this again. Things that still need to be done:
-Finish wiring the right side coin door (minor, just been lazy)
-Cabinet and marquee lighting (I've acquired some parts second hand that are available from a vendor I would never do business with directly that will make the cabinet lighting much easier)
-Since I'll have those aforementioned parts, I'll probably throw a Qbert knocker in this thing for the hell of it (can you guess what parts I'm talking about now? ;))
-Complete disassembly of the cab
-Body work to the cab to fix all the dings and scrapes
-Complete paint job inside and out
-Monitor work (cap kits and new flybacks)
-Smoked/tinted monitor plexi/glass
-Marquee monitor (still just a maybe, but I'd really like to do this)

Projected finish… 2013-2014

yotsuya

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #196 on: March 20, 2012, 12:06:42 pm »
Nephasth-

Thanks. The higher the guage, the thicker the panel, correct? I was thinking about making a metal panel that was 1/8 thick (0.125), which would be around an 8 guage in aluminum and 11 in steel (closest without going over). I wanted to replace my 5/8 wood-1/8 poly control panel with one that was 1/2 wood frame-1/8 metal-1/8 poly so I could use some metal-panel mount joysticks.
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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #197 on: March 20, 2012, 12:17:25 pm »
Nope, the lower the gauge number, the thicker the metal, just like wires.

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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #198 on: March 20, 2012, 01:12:17 pm »
Nope, the lower the gauge number, the thicker the metal, just like wires.

I see. Thanks.

I just went and talked to my buddy, the shop teacher, and he's got a piece of scrap that should be perfect. I just need to design the plate in Illustrator, import it to the plasma cutting software, and it will cut everything for me. Yay!
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Re: Two-Headed Beast MAME Conversion
« Reply #199 on: March 20, 2012, 01:26:35 pm »
I drew my flat drawing in Visio. I was able to just save as a .dxf and the laser cut it out without any modifications to the file. One thing to keep in mind is that metal stretches when it is bent, changing the dimensions. I didn't take this into account with mine and had to add spacers behind my cp boxes to get the panels to sit correctly. Good luck with your panel! And make sure you post pics of it! :)