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First Cabinet Build - Sapro's MAME
sapro:
Weekend 2:
Cut and routed the trackball. The overpriced plate is coated with a texture of sorts which means that the thickness is inconsistent, but after a few tries I got the router depth so that it's as close to perfect as I can get it.
Now the part where rushing the project got me in a little bit of trouble. I didn't have a template of the trackball device so I made some assumptions about its size. I carried these assumptions not just onto the CP design but also onto the CPO (which I ordered a week ago). The problem is that the body for the 3" Happ trackball is quite a bit larger than I'd originally guessed, and I had it too low to work with the Lusid CP box - basically the trackball's case ends where the box front should be. Since I've already ordered the CPO, I'm kind of stuck with this position.
Good carpentry isn't the ability to do things perfectly, but the ability to cover up your mistakes :D By sloping the front of the CP box forward, we create ample room for the trackball.
Biscuits and glue allow me to add the few inches of material needed...
Then we just cut the angles to fit. More on this solution after this weekend...
One of the challenges I have is a narrow stairwell and a complete lack of desire to carry this thing up it. For that reason, it's designed to be dissassembled if needed, using glued & screwed rails for strength.
Assembly starts!
Time to mount the monitor. Here's the cheap CRT monitor I picked up on craigslist for $20 - it was a pretty high end monitor when it was made and had no visible burn in.
Inside I found it had a usable metal frame to support it
Ready to be mounted!
Since it has the frame, we just positioned it on the monitor shelf and put blocks in place to hold it. Gravity does the rest.
Heading back to the shop now!
sapro:
We finished cutting all the panels today! I still haven't finished the new 2-piece control panel front, but otherwise it's ready to start priming and painting.
shan1784:
Looks great so far... I would like to build my own cabinet some day so I'm already impressed with your ability...
One thing I thought I'd mention about the computer switch, what I did on mine is use the "Paperclip Trick" which is where you wedge a paperclip into the main power connector on the PCs powersupply... This basically tricks the pc into thinking that the powerswitch is always on. So what I do is have the powercord from the pc and the powercord from the arcade plugged into a powerstrip. When I flip the switch on the powerstrip both the arcade and the PC come on... Then to turn off I just exit the Maximus Arcade frontend which is setup to run "shutdown -s -t 0" which shuts the computer down.. Then once the pc is off I just flip the switch on the powerstrip...
Here is a link on the Paperclip trick...
http://aphnetworks.com/lounge/turn_on_psu_without_motherboard_the_paperclip_trick
sapro:
That's an interesting solution Shan. The only problem I see there is that you'd have to turn off the powerstrip every time you turn off the system, and likewise turn it back on.
With my setup, the power switch is located just below the monitor (another Mountain-inspired feature). Pressing this turns on the PC, which powers the PowerMite DD (http://www.nicemite.com/PowermiteDD/PowermiteDD.htm). The powermite provides 12VDC to my trackball light, power switch LED, and marquee lights, and a relay switches power on to my speaker amp.
One button, everything turns on. And no climbing inside or behind the cabinet to turn on the power strip :)
drventure:
Nice work so far. A simple clean design that should come together pretty quickly.
That's what I +should have+ done ;D