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Author Topic: my progress so far.. now with xbox 360 goodness..and more crappy pics!  (Read 35987 times)

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Malenko

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going to put it right next to my autographed X2 BB filled shaolin toe stab bag

it was an achorman reference
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Re: my progress so far
« Reply #41 on: May 20, 2011, 10:16:43 am »
Looks good and I feel your pain.  Hard to get much time to ourselfs with the kids.  Let alone cut wood at 9:30 at night when it took you an hour to get everyone to bed.  Good job on the build.  I like it.  I am going to look at more photos on your post.




That's only half of my garage.  It's coming around slowly because my skills aren't that great, and is going to be stained so no visible screws on the outside. Plus working 55 hours a week + 21 month old daughter + pregnant wife = maybe about 3 hours a week I have to work on it.

What do you guys think of the shape?

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Um... Thanks?

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how did you make the guide button and get it to light up. I want to do the exact same thing, but was gonna try to do it with a 24 or 30mm button.

Donkbaca

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I have a 24mm button for my KVM and I can't get it to light up the way I want with the LEDS i had on hand, and I couldn't find any good tips on getting them lit.  You can light up 30mm buttons pretty easy, I know Paradise arcade sells boards that fit in them, and I am sure other do too.  My xbox start, back and guide buttons are 18mm sanwa buttons, you can see them earlier in my thread.  I modified 2 of them to be my guide buttons by using the buttons on my mad catz fight pad and doing some modifications.  To light them, I use a super bright LED that is hotglued in place.  Right now I have them hot wired to the 5v on the fight pads, but the 5v is an always on.  I poked around with my multimeter to find a switched circuit to try and run my lights off of, but I couldn't find any.  As far as I know, the only switched points are the SMD's for the ROL on the controller.  This only puts out about 2v.  What I plan on doing next is using these points with an NPN transistor to switch the grounds, so that the light only comes on when the controller is on.  Probably won't get to doing that until this weekend though.  I'll keep everyone posted.  Right now I am finishing up the stain on my cab, putting my final coats of poly on tonight and then tomorrow it goes in the house for wiring.

Mrephunk

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I was also wondering, in the pic with the fightpad PCB all soldered up I notice a couple of ground wires. I thought it was a common ground PCB and I would only have to wire to one ground? I am using the same PCBs for my build and wanted to know why you did that?

Donkbaca

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I am going to use one for the controls and the other is going to my light. I did this for easier wiring for the light


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Re: my progress so far.. now with xbox 360 goodness..Now in the house!!!
« Reply #49 on: June 02, 2011, 11:43:56 am »
Well here is my update.  Finished the stain and put the CP together and the coin door in.  I built a housing for my xbox 360 drive our of 1/8 inch ply, I think it will turnout decently (not pictured, i'll post that when its all put together.)   The stain came out acceptable enough to convince my wife to let me bring it in the house for wiring and final assembly.  The LCD is going in it tonight, final assembly by the weekend, in time for my daughters second birthday  :applaud:

Anyway here is the staining part:


I probably should have cleaned out the garage more, it was a little dusty, but I lucked out and it ended up not affecting my finish much.  I didn't put as many coats of stain/poly  on the back of the cab, or the top because nobody will really see them, so they are not quite as dark as the rest of the cab.  Staining is hard, but I got the hang of it about half way through.  I used a gel stain, which I would use again.  Waiting for the finish is hard, apply a thin coat and wait, sounds so simple, but its easy to get overly obsessive and lay on too much stain and not wait long enough.

Here is how it stands today before I left for work, buttons and joys are in, t-molding starting to put on the side:



another shot



some self criticism:  
1) The CP front is a little lighter than the sides and front of the cab, it isn't as noticeable in person, this is due to sloppiness in using wood filler and glue on the CP.  When I first did it, there were spots and drips that didn't stain evenly, I was able to manipulate the gel stain so that these weren't noticeable, but it was hard to get the stain even throughout.  I kinda like it though.

2) Some will wonder about why a coin door.  To me a cab just doens't look right without a coin door.  Plus i like the chrome bezels of the asahi seiko door, and I put custom inserts in it to tie up the theme

3) why so many buttons?  Well 7 per player so that I could have a mk3 run button and have the neo geo 4 across the bottom.  The top 4 buttons on the CP are from left to right: P1 - Select - Exit - P2.  P1 and P2 are custom inserts. Select is to start games, exit is to exit games.  P1 and P2 will light up white, slect will be green, exit will be red.  The 7 buttons on the admin panel are for my xbox 360 they are: back - guide - start  KVM switch back - guide - start.  For this sort of build, you need to have a panel above the CP, or the bezel area would be too big.  I used this panel area to stick on my kvm and xbox buttons.  It looks like a lot of buttons, but its all pretty functional and easy to follow.

4) the colors - This cab will be themed after my alma matter - the University of Southern California, so the sticks, buttons and marquee will be cardinal and gold, or as close as I could get to them.

thanks for looking.


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No flight stick or cupholders?

JK

Looks good dude!
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Haha, thanks!  i will provide more pics and details of the x-box setup.  I think that is probably the best contirbution I can give to the site...

The wife wouldn't let me build a franken panel, even if I wanted to :)  This is going in our home office...

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Hey Donk, it's really looking nice!  :cheers:

Is this going to be a present for your daughter, or more something to play during her birthday party?

Also, good job making a whole room nonfunctional in order to put it all together. It just wouldn't be a proper build if you didn't monopolize at least one room.  :lol

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Classy!  :applaud:

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Thanks guys! means a lot coming from you and some of the great projects you have done.

Vigo- Its actually straddling our formal living/dining room, so I am sorta taking up 2 rooms to get it done.  For anyone building something out there with a W/GF/SO this is a GREAT strategy, start building ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in the middle of the house and the wife will be on your ass to get it done.

We are having the daughters party at the inlaws, but she LOVES it, the girl adores video games, and thinks arcade cabinets are awesome

Vigo

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Thanks guys! means a lot coming from you and some of the great projects you have done.

Vigo- Its actually straddling our formal living/dining room, so I am sorta taking up 2 rooms to get it done.  For anyone building something out there with a W/GF/SO this is a GREAT strategy, start building ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in the middle of the house and the wife will be on your ass to get it done.

We are having the daughters party at the inlaws, but she LOVES it, the girl adores video games, and thinks arcade cabinets are awesome

Nice! Dipping into 2 rooms at once! Pure strategic gold!

And a daughter that loves video games? I call that "Mission Accomplished!"  :cheers:

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Well here is something useful: I figured out how to light up my guide lights so that they come on and shut off with the controller!  For those not familiar with the the dilemma, the pads have a 5v coming off the USB, the problem is this is an always on 5v, meaning that power flows through it, even when the xbox is off.  Poking around the fightpads, the only switched circuits I found were to the SMD's, and they were just under 2v, not enough to brighten up my LEDS to where I want them to be. So what I did was get a npn3904 transistor, and a 220ohm resistor and I wired the transistor to the SMD tos switch the ground and turn the LEDS on when the controllers are on. Here is how you do it:

Solder a lead from the positive SMD connection to the resistor, then solder the resistor to the base of the transistor.  
Solder a lead from the SMD ground to the collector of the transistor
Solder the emitter of the transistor to the ground from the LED
Connect the LED anode to the 5v.

Voila!  when the power is on, the transistor closes the ground circuit, powering the LEDS, when its off, the LEDS don't have a ground shut off.  If anyone wants more details of pics let me know

Now the frustration:  The damned bezel isn't as clean as I want it to be, luckily the tinted plexi hides it all pretty well, unfortunately, putting tint on plexi is a pain! Spent the good part of the weekend applying and reapplying the tint to get rid of the imperfections.  The wife said I was getting too obsessed, finally said f-it, and went with what I had.  Its IMPOSSIBLE to get all the little bubbles out due to stray pieces of lint/dust that get attracted to the plexi and tint through static electricity.  I got it to the point where there are maybe a half dozen really, really tiny bubbbles.  They are not in screen area, and you can only see them if the glare off the screen hits a certain way.  Most people probably won't see them, so I am leaving them where they are and moving forward.

Now the crushing anger:
That pretty much ate up my weekend.  Put in the xbox, and it worked! I removed the drive, built a small wooden enclosure for it and stuck the xbox behind my coin box.  Fired up, no problem.  Then I go to show my wife last night, the drive starts to open and BAM! 2RL error.   :angry:  Checked the code, its giving 0013 - RAM overheat.  I am thinking I went a little overboard trying to secure the xbox to the cab and maybe flexed the board displaced the ram somehow.  Going to look over it this weekend, if I can't get it to work I might get it reflowed.  If not I am going to have to get a new one.  Maybe I'll get an elite and move my home one into the cab...anyhow, the xbox is down for now... so pissed.

Anyhow, cab still have built in the middle of the house, and I am leaving for work for a few days.  When I get back, first priority is to finish assembly and get the PC and speakers in, then I will try and get the xbox working.  

Donkbaca

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So here is an update, CP is wired - look slike hell, but works.  Need to get the xbox working because it wen 2RL on me... grrr.
Anyhow, here is the top, need to finish the marquee.  This marquee has caused grief to no end, I hope its worth it in the end.  You may notice not lights for the marque, well that is because its going to be edge lit with LEDS.  You can see my speakers that are resting on some foam board and secured with zip ties and L brackets.  In the back you can see my on/off button, I drilled a hole in the middle of it and migrated my PC power LED to is so there is a little green light in the middle of it that glows when its on.



Here is what the rest of it looks like:


Here is my coin door.  Its an old Asahi Seiko coin door from what I believe was thrashed Punchout cab.  Got it on ebay for 20 bucks, shipped, with mechs!  Cleaned it up, re-painted it, put in some custom inserts.  I also modified it to accept .984 tokens, which was pretty simple, just enlarged the opening and tweaked the mech a little bit.  So, now it takes both tokens and quarters.



Donkbaca

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Continuing my tour:

Here is the lower half of my cab.  THe angle there is actually a door, held in place by 2 spring magnet clasps


You open that door and this is what you see.  I need to clean up and finish the wiring, and I will have my aimtraks, some xb 360 pads for emulators and maybe my trackball controller.  That wooden box in the middle is the enclosure I made for my xbox 360 drive



Here you see the back of the xbox enclosure, you can see I have mounted a microswitch right next to it below the panel.  This is the eject switch for the drive.


Moving up to the CP, here is my custom 1p button and above it on the admin you can see my buttons for the xbox, back, guide, and start.  The guide button lights up when you turn the controller on.  The start button will light up white.


here is the middle of my CP with my two MAME admin buttons, the select button will light green, exit red.  Above is a Small seimitsu button that will swap between my MAME PC and my XB 360.  It does not light, I couldn't find a good way to light 24mm Seimitsu buttons



Finally here is my custom 2p button, it will light white and above, you can see the 18mm sanwa button that will be my xbox start button.

To do:  Finish marquee and wiring; wire up my lights on my cp; a little organizing of m FE.

Thanks for looking!


« Last Edit: June 15, 2011, 03:03:06 pm by Donkbaca »

Donkbaca

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In case people were curious, here is what the cab looks like running a game.  The screen, IMHO is just about perfect size, yeah a little bigger would be nice, but I am pretty happy with it.


What do you all think?  The wife is pretty happy with it, and she was dead set against the project in the beginning.

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yeah a little bigger would be nice

That's what she said...   ;D

Looks good!  :cheers:

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Looks nice!  :applaud:

I would like to make a "furniture" grade cocktail cab.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2011, 12:24:44 pm by Woodshop Flunky »

Complete mini arcade cabinet plans available.

Donkbaca

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Thanks!

I apreciate the "furniture grade" comment.  I think you do good work WSF.  I think I am doing okay, considering this is the first thing I have ever made out of wood, and that I had never soldered anything before.  Wait till you see the Xbox360 integration.  It will be sweet.

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Problems!!! Damned xbox 360....  Okay so I fixed my buddies RROD, had it all set up but I think I went too rough on it in the install because now I am getting the 0013 ram overheat error on boot, which probably means a ram chip has a bad solder joint, which means a reball.  pissed! 
solution:
Luckily gamestop is selling MS refurbed xboxs for99 bucks.  Figure I can sell the controller, the hard drive and the power brick all for 50-60 bucks, so its a fairly cheap fix.  Now I have to mount it in my custom encolosure, and put it in the box.


Problem number 2!
Wiring issues! 
So originally I was going to use my x-arcade encoder, and had it figured out as to how to share the controls with a xbox 360 pad and the x-arcade.  Then I got another encoder that emulates a joystick, and figured I would give that a shot.  Well. I couldn't get the joy encoder and xbox pads to play nice, so I switched back to x-arcade, now I am having issues.

1) Player one works great, but for some reason, when I connect player 2 controls up to the xbox controller, I am getting a short somewhere, so that when I press, say one direction on the joystick, it is registering all the inputs.  So I need to look at this some more, right now the CP is a completes rats nest with LED wiring, encoder wiring and xbox wiring.  I am guessing it has something to do with the wiring/soldering on the player 2 pad, or a stray ground somewhere.  I hate this wiring stuff.

2) For SOME reason my LED WIZ is freaking out my x-arcade.  When I turn on the LEDS, it starts registering inputs, its weird.  LEDs off, no problem, then once about 10 lights go on, I start registering inputs.  I tried turning lights on and off to see if I could isolate it to a certain port, but it seems to be a combination of ports.

So...  New x-box is coming in, I need to remove the drive and solder up the eject switch on it and install it in the cab.

I need to figure out the wiring situation.  If I can't work it out soon, I may just ditch the encoders and just use my xbox 360 pads.


Donkbaca

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And we are rocking and rolling again!  Figured out my encoder issue, it was a problem with the ground.  Ditched the x-arcade, gonna put that back in the box and give the stick to someone.

Replacement x-box on its way.  Looking to finish (finally this weekend) look for final pics early next week

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I like the cabinet base.  You did a good job there, but I do not like the CP.  It looks out of place IMO.  I would understand if it was a 4 player but you need to rethink the CP.

Just looks odd.
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I appreciate the comments :)  Yeah the cp is kinda big, but I like it.  I don't like being crammed together.  I probably could have made it smaller, but I am happy with it.

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I was reading through this thread and saw the KVM and thought "Oh, awesome! I have two of those!" Then, thinking about the reason I got one of them, an alarm bell went off. Now, I don't 100% remember the specifications, but at the time, I looked it up online and someone else had this issue, so I don't think it was unique to my setup.
Have you hooked the KVM up to an xbox AND a Pc yet? That was the issue.
I had it at my old job so I could play xbox in my cubical, and if the boss came around, that little button fits right under a desk for quick switching. Scandalous, right? Anyways, There was an issue with something regarding that. I know, vague, right? I remember the fix was something along the lines of not having the USB in the xbox when it was first booted up. Something like that! I wish this could be more helpful, but it was a long time ago and I don't remember the details at all. I just know there was an issue with hooking it up to an xbox and a PC. Something that might make a tidy setup like yours inconvenient. Keep a lookout for something like that.

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yeah a little bigger would be nice

That's what she said...   ;D


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