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Plasma's Photo Booth [COMPLETE]
plasma2002:
Ok, let's talk about the insides... specifically how we will get the printed image to the user. What seems to be the industry standard in photo booth building is to spend a lot of money on a super nice printer.... well I can tell you right now that that's way out of my league, so I could only splurge a little on the printer itself.
I went out and bought a Kodak 5250, which is apparently really good at photos for a sub $100 printer.
Now that I had the printer, I had some basic dimensions to start building a mount for it.
I decided to hang it, since that would give the most freedom for the printed pics to fall into the paper holder (on the booth).
Using my drill press, I created some simple rails with mounting holes out of stock aluminum angle.
I then put in some long bolts, and a flat platform. Using this configuration lets me adjust the platform, the base, and the angle of pretty much everything about the printer mount - that way if this flimsy printer craps out on me, I wont have too much trouble putting in a new one :)
This got me as far as hanging the printer itself... I still had to figure out a way to let the actual printout make it's way to the outlet. This was a little trickier than I had thought. Mainly because I was having a hard time finding the right material to get the curve and be slick enough to keep the photos from getting caught on it.
Ill keep from boring you about all the different ideas I had on this part (one idea even included using a trash bag - oi)... and just skip to what I decided on using. Basically I had to build my own ramp.
I first used a bent piece of wood to get a generic curve drawn onto some plywood, which I then used a jigsaw to cut out. This gave me one rough cut piece
After sanding and smoothing that rough-cut, I then used it as a template, as well as a few other quick techniques to get more curved pieces as well as hollow them out
After getting 3 good pieces to use, I then just took some 2x2's and put them all together
Then I measured to make sure the ramp was the right shape and size... which it was :)
Thats when I put on the thin board that was both pliable and slick. I really dont know what it was called, as I didnt even read the label when I picked it up at the Depot... I just saw it and figured it would work :P
After finishing the ramp, i thought i did a good job on it and let it be. Then something hit me like a sack of bricks... when I measured the ramp for its fit, I forgot about the monitor! So I went and got the little monitor that I was going to use, I put it in place, then I put the ramp in place.
Sure enough, the ramp didn't fit any more. Guh. I knew I forgot something.
Ok, so for about 20 minutes I went over my options on what I could do... they ranged from rebuilding the ramp, to actually giving in a getting an LCD, to dismantling the CRT.
Then I just decided to do it the more archaic way...
:)
Sure, it's lazy and messy, but hey... it works!
After I made sure it all fit once again, I had to make one more simple back board guide for the photo path, and then I was done. Photos were falling right where I wanted them to :P
The Habbler:
Good thing you had 3 legs for your ramp. I think chopping off the one and then fitting your monitor around it was genius.
Encryptor:
Any updates on this project?
plasma2002:
Sorry for the lack of an update as of late. Since my last update, there has been a death in the family, and it really threw a lot of things off course, this included.
But lets see if I can bring things back up to speed now... lets start with how I (re) mounted the button console.
CONSOLE:
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What I did was use some cheap aluminum angle and cut pieces about 2 inches each, then mount them alternatingly right where the bottom of the console goes.
What this does is basically grips the box, holding it there and keeping it from sliding around, like it did before I had the supports.
You can see the metal tabs from underneath the console, which I didnt really want showing at all, but in most cases, nobody is going to bend down and inspect it anyways... and those who do will see just that; 2 metal tabs. They dont look bad at all.
As for the console itself, my t-molding finally came in the mail, and I put it on. My makeshift rubber mallet worked pretty awesomely :P
After pretty much deciding that the console was finished, I then wired up the 4 wires needed for the button - 2 for 12v, and 2 for the button switch itself. I ran the 12v wires to an old wall-wart transformer I had lying around, and I ran the switch to the space-bar input of a spare iPac controller I had lying around in my arcade cabinet parts drawer. The iPac is basically a keyboard controller that breaks out the keys to terminals for you to wire to anything. It is way overkill in my case, since Im only using one button, but hey, it works and I wasnt using it for anything else :)
EDIT: I just realized that I dont need to explain what an iPac is to people here, haha... I have this exact same thread on 3 different forums, so I try to post with general stuff that can be read across each of them... but most everyone here already knows about the arcade-oriented things :P
FLOOR:
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As for the floor, my special ordered coin-mat had finally arrived, so I set out to finish the flooring.
As mentioned earlier, the 3 pieces (4 if you count the roof) slide apart for easy relocation. This made the floor relatively easy to work with as opposed to the rest of the parts.
Measuring and cutting the rubber flooring was easy enough... a regular pair of scissors got that job done...
Some industrial adhesive keeps it stuck to the wood pretty nicely
Using the same aluminum angle (a carpet-edge transition bar), I measured and cut two lengths for the sides of the floor where the user is to step into. A hacksaw takes care of aluminum perfectly.
With the supplied finishing nails, getting the bar on was easy enough... and it looked pretty good to boot :)
As of today, I have 46 days until my wedding, so that's pretty much when this needs to be done by. At this point, it is all cosmetic work now, as the program and electronics work.
It looks like I'm out of photos, so Ill have to find the other ones later when I get home, but in the next update or two, your going to find out that I had to take down my great looking upholstered backing due to camera problems with the black background.
Stay tuned.
Encryptor:
Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear about your loss.
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