BritInVA's Project Arcade II attempt :)

[dawolv]

Didn't get as much done today as I would have liked - ended up spending 5hrs in ER because my daughter was dehydrated from a stomach bug.

Got one coat of primer done a drilled button holes in control panel.

Got a question on the UltraStik 360's..... can't find install info on their website. What diameter hole for the stick? And if mounting from under whow much should it be recessed?

Hopefully more progress tomorrow.

Awww the poor girl 
How is she doing now?

I top mounted mine since the whole joystick can be repaired from the bottom, so that left me with more 'stick' on the top. I used some 10-24x1 machine screws with the small heads so from the top I recessed just above an 1/8th.

I used a 1 1/8 hole like I did with my buttons and I am using restrictors.
Which really helps the throw.

Dont know if that helps at all ...

[britinva]

She is still a bit fragile hopefully as day goes on she will get better..... thanks for asking

For now I'm going with undermount as material was 3/4" so can't use perspex with 3/4" T-moulding so cp will just be painted. May change that later if can locate some 5/8" material.

Looks like mounting kit needs 1/2" of material and going to need to leave at least 1/8" of material so think this is plan

[britinva]

Made quite a bit of progress

- got main cabinet painted
- installed T-molding
- got all controls wired
- installed PC (temp) in cabinet and was able to run a few games



A few issues thou
1) The joy stick mountings raised/pimpled the upper surface. Not a big deal as was thinking this was MK I to decide if the control layout worked.
2) Installed the UltraStiks wrong way - didn't see markings for front and murphys law prevailed - but easily corrected.
3) A few control buttons not working - could not find out what key to map the IPAC to for the 'Reset' function and my 'PC Power' button not working. I mapped the IPAC to the Power fucntion but does nothing
4) I'm using GameEX as frontend need to research more on simplifying to start so only get choice of say 20-30 games to make it easier for kids to operate (add more as they catch on).
5) The Waffle speaker grills arrived and don't like them so need to look for alteratives.

[jikkjack]

Mark - I pulled the power and reset case jumpers off the mobo and used that for the power and reset buttons.  Those don't go through my Ipac.  Hope that helps and keeps you from doing this 

[britinva]

Mark - I pulled the power and reset case jumpers off the mobo and used that for the power and reset buttons.  Those don't go through my Ipac.  Hope that helps and keeps you from doing this 

Well turns out my IPAC needed a firmware update and can now map power or sleep but all it does is shuts it down or puts to sleep..... won't power up or wake. I guess because its USB based where my keyboard is PS/2.

So looks like wiring to to mobo is going to be best option.

No build updates - but have been getting my GameEx FE customised. Hope to get more of the build done over weekend but got some other chores too.

[Donkbaca]

I have the worst time with gameex's theme editor.  Can you post a good tutorial?  Or point me to where i can get better info? 

[britinva]

To tell you truth I found same - there is a Basic theme editor usage pack http://www.gameex.net/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=aZx7bNu7IUA%3d&tabid=79&mid=413 but I'm sure you seen that.

Basically I've just made a copy of the 'Game Ex theme by David Fr' and been editing that and a custom menu. Just a very simple interface that just has MAME for now but will be adding pinball.

[dawolv]

 

Wow! Your making great progress! Looking good!

[mgb]

It looks like you're making good progress.
For speakers, are you using the ones on the TV?

[britinva]

Nah, got a old pair of amplified computer speakers that I'm going to try out.

[britinva]

Ran into a problem.

Started to install Visual Pinball and I have connected the flipper buttons to input 7 on each UltraStik. However, when I try to program these in Visual Pinball --> Preferences --> Keys but they are not being recognized.

Only regular Keyboard and my IPAC encoder (used for bezel buttons) are recognized.

According to Ultimarc I cannot map a button to a keyboard function like Left Shift.

Anyone know how I resolve this?

Worse case I rewire these buttons to the IPAC.

[mgb]

I believe the Ultrastick is seen as a joypad so it won't allow the mapping to those inputs.
here is a link to the VP forum about the same issue. It looks like you have to use another program to make it happen.
in your case it seems easier to just wire em to your ipac

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=11163&hl=mapping

[britinva]

Thank mgb

For now I've wired the flipper buttons to the IPAC, I'm thinking I might actually wire all buttons to the IPAC as cannot use the Joy buttons for other pinball functions without another program..... its not a powerful PC so don't want stuff running if can avoid.

I have bigger issues thou, I got a pinball running within VP but when I integrated into GameEx and try to play the pinball it just hangs at a VP logo screen. I think my PC is likely not up to the job (1.3GHz Celeron, 512Mb RAM, XP SP3 32b, Radeon 9200/128Mb video card). Going to spend some time in VP forum to see if I can find solution.

[britinva]

Well looking more like I need a beefier PC & Graphics card - recommended min 2GHz processor, 1GB RAM and Video card with at least 512MB.

What I'm hoping is that I can use some existing parts like PSU, Hardrive, CD-ROM etc.

I recollect seeing somewhere where folks have done this and not used a PC Case so might follow that path.

Anyone got recommendations for a mobo, CPU & graphic card? Graphic card needs to have a s-video or component out. But thinking further down the road I may change to a PC monitor...... but not initially as was not expecting to pay for PC upgrade.

[britinva]

Anyone think it worth trying this in my existing system (1.3GHz Celeron, 512Mb RAM, XP SP3 32bit)? Looks like there is a driver for XP

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130477

If I still have issues, will this still be OK with a new mobo?

[Donkbaca]

I think the ram is bottle necking the system the most.  I know visual pinball is much more demanding than mame

[britinva]

Can't do anything about the RAM as its at max.

Pavilion 502n Memory Specifications
Standard Memory 128 MB (removable)
Maximum Memory 512 MB
Memory Expansion 2 sockets
Memory Comments PC100/PC133 SDRAM DIMMs
CPU Type Intel Celeron 1.4GHz
Model Comments 100MHz FSB

Thinking I may ditch VP for now - upgrading PC is going to be around $300.

For now think will finish cabinet with just the Arcade games and see how much its used by kids. If used a lot I might shell out some more on it.

[mgb]

I'm kinda feeling the same way on mine. Get it going with Mame, etc. for now. If you come to a point and can get a good upgrade, then go for it.