New Bartop Project - Codename Avnicade

[sunnyp]

Hey guys and girls,

Its about time I made my first post regarding my project that I’ve been planning and working on since Spring 2011.  Living in an apartment in London there isn’t space for a full-sized cab so I decided to make a bartop – inspired by Loken’s Weecade.  I was planning to have this completed  by the end of last year but we had our first child and together with increased work commitments lead to this project being put on hold.  I should have some free time in the coming months to complete this project and hop to have it complete by the autumn.  The codename for the project is ‘AvniCade’ which takes the name of our daughter Avni.

I have no previous experience of MAME, emulators, front-ends, woodwork, wiring, etc so this project is a huge challenge!  My father will help me on the woodwork front and a couple of my friends will help to build the PC.

I’ve taken inspiration from a number of BYOAC projects, mainly:

GameOver http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=109007.0
Bartop/Weecade Clone http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=119113.0
Vast bartop http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110343.0
Pitman’s Bartop http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=105805.0

Bartop Build Materials
12mm MDF Sheet (2440x607x12)
4x Rubber feet
Black laminate
LCD mount for the monitor
Cold cathode lighting for the Marquee.
Speakers TBC – Probably decased Logitech LS21 as used in Coolin’s Ultra-slim project (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=112713)
 as they should fit into the bartop and provide good sound.  I like these as I will mount the external controls at the rear of the cabinet enabling the volume to be easily adjusted and headphones to be used if necessary.
Joysticks and buttons are from an X-Arcade kit supplied by Gremlin Solutions.

PC set-up
Dell 19” Monitor
Intel E8400 3.0GH Dual Core Processor
Asus mATX motherboard
4GB RAM
2GB Hard Drive (Overkill I know but it came at a reasonable price)
2x Xilence 120mm Case Fans for cooling
Windows 7
Hyperspin Front-End








Bartop Build

The MDF is cut and routed, ready for the t-moulding.  The width of the CP is 50cm which should be enough to fit a 2-player 6 button layout.  I will also include 1p, 2p, pause and exit buttons.

I’m using black laminate to finish the MDF as I wanted the finish to be as smooth and professional as possible.  Getting hold of laminate sheeting was a challenge but I managed to find a supplier not too far that was pretty reasonable.  I’ve tested it out one piece of MDF so far and it looks great.







Things I’ve still got left to work out:

1.)   Whether to fit a power strip inside the cabinet? (if there will be space!). I’ve seen a few projects use an IEC port and switch which look nice and tidy.  I’ve got to figure out how these work.

2.)   Artwork – I’m no good with Photoshop and will look to someone like EvilGreenDevil or jamieoliver22 to see if they would mind sharing their CP and marquee files.  I will use the eBay China shop to print the artwork like a few others on here as the price seems reasonable.

3.) Plexi - whether to have some on the CP and if so what thickness?

[Termin8tor]

Good start. I dont think youll fit a power strip in there personally I'd go with a pico PSU like the one Lokesen’s used in his verticade and go with an IEC port and switch.

[Le Chuck]

Power strips are a tight fit in the weecade style bodies.  If you really want a smart strip in there it can be done, I did it.  Keep up the good work, you have a nice start going.

[sunnyp]

Not much progress to report in the last week as I'm still setting up Hyperspin correctly.

I have a query about buttons required for the bartop.....

I'm planning on having a 6 button layout for each player and in addition having the following:

Pause
Exit
1 Player
2 Player

This is similar to other set-ups that I've seen however I don't see any coin buttons?  Are people using a combination of other buttons to insert a coin?

[sunnyp]

No update in a while as I'm still working on setting up Hyperspin.  I'm updating my MAME set as some games weren't running in Hyperspin (I kept getting an Autohotkey.dll error).  I'm hoping to get this fixed within the next week so that I can begin the construction of the cabinet. 

[GIZMOGAMES]

you could probably get that error worked out in the hyperspin forums
and nice start up list

[GIZMOGAMES]

just think of it as FILLER pinballjim till OND gives us another update on his MONSTER lmao

[GIZMOGAMES]

Seriously PMSL
 

[sho]

I decided to go for a coin button (partly because i thought the NovaGemCDR™ Coin button just looked awesome ).
I decided however to forgo pause and exit (relying on shifting them instead) that was purely an aesthetic decision, which I may have to reconsider..

[sunnyp]

Update specially for pinballjim!!!

A lot of the construction of the cabinet is complete.  It took longer than I first thought and made some mistakes along the way.  I have a new found respect for all you wood-work experts out there.





One issue I have is that there isn’t enough room for the speakers under the area that hangs under the marquee.  I’ve decided to mount the speakers at the top of the cabinet which isn’t that much of a big deal.

I ended up getting the Logitech LS21 speakers as they have an external control which allows them to be powered on/off, control the volume and use headphones if necessary.  Here’s the before….



And the after…..



The control panel is coming along and I’ve fitted the buttons and joysticks.





Next jobs are fitting the speakers and PC components inside the cab and then wiring it all up.  The aim is to have this all complete before Christmas as I can’t wait to play it!

Some of the challenges still to work on:

•   Wiring up the on/off switch for the PC to an arcade button which I’m planning on having at the top of the unit.
•   Using an IEC socket and terminal blocks to wire up the PC, monitor and speakers.
•   Finalising the Hyperspin set-up on the PC.  I’ve sorted out MAME but am struggling to get Daphne working.