Author Topic: My completely homemade arcade machine (Read 61706 times)

arximidis · « **Reply #120 on:** March 02, 2012, 02:13:29 pm »

Update

Testing the voice recognition system

Le Chuck · « **Reply #121 on:** March 02, 2012, 02:21:54 pm »

Great! Fun video too, I like how you went with the goof rather than make sure everything looked perfect on the video.

I never would have thought of integrating that capability. Any plans to conceal the microphone? I understand now why you were building your own Front End.

paigeoliver · « **Reply #122 on:** March 02, 2012, 02:39:10 pm »

Someone loved Star Trek! "Computer. Freeze Simulation".

Very nice, never seen anyone do that before.

arximidis · « **Reply #123 on:** March 02, 2012, 02:44:08 pm »

Quote from: Le Chuck on March 02, 2012, 02:21:54 pm

Great! Fun video too, I like how you went with the goof rather than make sure everything looked perfect on the video.

I never would have thought of integrating that capability. Any plans to conceal the microphone? I understand now why you were building your own Front End.

Thanks!

Yes that was stupid... It's a bug. I changed the way the frontend is passing the parameters...

I am planning to use a wireless microphone...

PS. I wanted more than this. The voice recognition has low response time (about 1-2 secs) and I wanted to play the games only with the voice (e.g. playing pacman by just saying up, down, left, right etc)
The responce time is crusial for games and 1-2secs delay is unacceptable

Quote from: paigeoliver on March 02, 2012, 02:39:10 pm

Someone loved Star Trek! "Computer. Freeze Simulation".

Very nice, never seen anyone do that before.

Thanks... It will be capable of freezing the game, stoping, "inserting coins" etc

bkenobi · « **Reply #124 on:** March 02, 2012, 05:47:48 pm »

How lazy is that? When you die in TMNT and need another coin, many here would say you need to grab a coin/token to insert. I have coin buttons on the CP for one cab and use the coin reject buttons on the coin door for the other. On your cab, you simply say "Machine, insert coin" and keep playing.

I love it!

arximidis · « **Reply #125 on:** March 03, 2012, 01:35:00 pm »

Quote from: bkenobi on March 02, 2012, 05:47:48 pm

How lazy is that? When you die in TMNT and need another coin, many here would say you need to grab a coin/token to insert. I have coin buttons on the CP for one cab and use the coin reject buttons on the coin door for the other. On your cab, you simply say "Machine, insert coin" and keep playing.

I love it!

Yes you can do that... The cool thing is that the commands are customizable... For example "dude, insert coin" or whatever you like

Another thing is that you can select and load a game very fast (if you know the name)

arximidis · « **Reply #126 on:** March 04, 2012, 01:41:37 pm »

The last piece of the puzzle

The last thing in order to complete the cab is the frame of the front glass. I have already ordered the glass
In the following pictures you see how I am planning to mount it

arximidis · « **Reply #127 on:** March 05, 2012, 12:52:02 pm »

New Slide Show

arximidis · « **Reply #128 on:** March 07, 2012, 11:29:18 am »

More Pictures (front glass)

arximidis · « **Reply #129 on:** March 10, 2012, 02:38:02 pm »

Preparing the front glass

AlienInferno · « **Reply #130 on:** March 10, 2012, 11:57:40 pm »

I'm kinda liking the cab's design now that I see the voice recognition software. And going with paigeoliver's Star Trek comment I really think it would be nice with a Star Trek theme. Not necessarily the people but more a theme focusing on the USS Enterprise itself. Nice job so far. Looks good with the glass in it.

arximidis · « **Reply #131 on:** March 11, 2012, 06:45:39 am »

Quote from: AlienInferno on March 10, 2012, 11:57:40 pm

I'm kinda liking the cab's design now that I see the voice recognition software. And going with paigeoliver's Star Trek comment I really think it would be nice with a Star Trek theme. Not necessarily the people but more a theme focusing on the USS Enterprise itself. Nice job so far. Looks good with the glass in it.

Thank you for your nice words!

I never thought of that. It's a good idea indeed...

arximidis · « **Reply #132 on:** March 11, 2012, 07:25:40 am »

Let's put some... sensors

Shock sensors

IR sensor (for remote control)

arximidis · « **Reply #133 on:** March 11, 2012, 11:45:55 am »

Completed Cab... almost!

arximidis · « **Reply #134 on:** July 10, 2012, 11:12:42 am »

Hello again after all these months

Well, a lot of things happened during this time that kept me occupied... and not working with the cab.
Unfortunatelly things are not looking good here in my country
In the past decades we were governed by thieves and traitors...
Enough with politics...

The last few days I found some time to complete the pcb layout of the game machine's controller.
This board is responsible for controlling the entire machine...
When it is completed, I will be able to fire up this baby at last

It can handle up to 32 buttons, emulate a PS/2 keyboard, startup TV and PC
Also it has an extention connector for future updates (e.g. infrared control, bluetooth etc)

In the following pictures you can see the completed pcb layout with and without the ground plane

Before I build the board I need to test the layout first...

EightBySix · « **Reply #135 on:** July 10, 2012, 07:10:40 pm »

Could you post a schematic? I'd like to see if I can understand it!

Are you writing the code for the encoder?

RamjetR · « **Reply #136 on:** July 10, 2012, 07:31:01 pm »

I can appreciate another Electronic engineers work and efforts. That looks great, and might I suggest if your doing a PCB Print run of those in a sheet with multiple panels. You could sell your surplus PCB's to others who may be interested?

Nice work, I'm very impressed.

Ramjet

arximidis · « **Reply #137 on:** July 11, 2012, 09:05:51 am »

Quote from: EightBySix on July 10, 2012, 07:10:40 pm

Could you post a schematic? I'd like to see if I can understand it!

Are you writing the code for the encoder?

I am not only planning to upload the schematics. I will upload the firmware too (open source)
Yes the code is written by me, using avr-gcc

I need to test them before I upload anything...

Quote from: RamjetR on July 10, 2012, 07:31:01 pm

I can appreciate another Electronic engineers work and efforts. That looks great, and might I suggest if your doing a PCB Print run of those in a sheet with multiple panels. You could sell your surplus PCB's to others who may be interested?

Nice work, I'm very impressed.

Ramjet

I don't think that I will go on that road, meaning I am not planning to sell anything!

Everything in this project will be open (hardware and firmware)
The way I see it... In the arcade community we have open source emulators, open source FrontEnds... why not an open interface/controller?
Even though everybody is using something like I-PAC, I will upload my implementation for everyone who is willing to build it by hisown

arximidis · « **Reply #138 on:** July 28, 2012, 12:55:43 pm »

Hello!

I found some time today to build the circuit board... (even if I was really tired from work! Thank God the process is quite simple and it's not my first time

. Cleannig the mess requires more time

)

I spotted some continuity errors on the layout regarding ground plane, but I had already etched the board. At first I thought the board was over etched, but the problem was to the mask itself (the layout)
I fixed the problems (so, you don't hyave to worry about it), however I am not going to build a new board, because it is very easy to fix the continuity problems directly on the board

continuity errors of the ground plane

Actually the board was not over etched. Notice the same continuity errors on the mask (FIXED THEM)

Soon I will upload more photos from the entire process

arximidis · « **Reply #139 on:** August 07, 2012, 02:30:17 pm »

The last piece of the puzzle

After the completion of the game controller/interface and the nessesary tests, the last piece of the whole machine is next

This is the gun!
Yesterday, I bought two guns that are looking good for the job. They cost me about 2 euros each
I bought two of them, because I didn't know which is more appropriate. Turned out that both are ok
They have plenty of space for the nessesary electronics/buttons and batteries (I am willing to make the gun wireless), even for the Laser

This is a photo showing the two guns (They are common plastic cap guns)

A photo of one of the guns, opened

arximidis · « **Reply #140 on:** August 11, 2012, 10:21:45 am »

Hello again

Few months ago someone asked me to send him the plans of the cab via email. The problem was that I never had a fancy schematic to publish (even now)
However, I gave him the only sketch I got. It's in bad shape but it is possible to help some of you (or give you ideas), if you are willing to build a cab like mine

Ofcourse in the future I will create better sketches, but this will take some time, unless someone is willing to make better ones (I will publish his name in my site and in every forum I am posting)

If you have any questions or you don't understand something, feel free to ask me (here).

Thank you and have a nice vacation

These are the basic dimensions... only some details are missing. Feel free to ask

drventure · « **Reply #141 on:** August 11, 2012, 12:23:44 pm »

Noticed the shock sensors you used and I'm curious...

Are those just mercury switches?

And what will you be using them for?

arximidis · « **Reply #142 on:** August 11, 2012, 02:16:52 pm »

Quote from: drventure on August 11, 2012, 12:23:44 pm

Noticed the shock sensors you used and I'm curious...

Are those just mercury switches?

And what will you be using them for?

Yes, they are mercury switches. They are positioned in such a way, that with the combination of the processor, the are activating when you shake the machine, the same way you'd shake a pinball machine.
I placed these sensors for pinball simulators (and one of the best I beleive is extreme pinball

)

arximidis · « **Reply #143 on:** October 09, 2012, 02:03:26 pm »

The controller/interface (based on a ATTiny2313)

drventure · « **Reply #144 on:** October 09, 2012, 03:00:35 pm »

Wow. Nicely done!

arximidis · « **Reply #145 on:** October 12, 2012, 05:02:13 am »

Quote from: drventure on October 09, 2012, 03:00:35 pm

Wow. Nicely done!

Thanks!

arximidis · « **Reply #146 on:** October 12, 2012, 05:05:43 am »

Making the PCB (post 1)

In my opinion the simplest way to make a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is with the following procedure (described in few steps)

The general idea is using a photosensitive board, which we expose to some kind of light source (even the Sun will do, but you need to know the exposure time).
With a simple mask, we cover the parts of the board where we don't want to be exposed

After the exposure, we remove the "burned" layer (meaning the one we didn't cover with the mask) with a chemical. This chemical will leave the underneath copper layer exposed, so we will be able to remove it with a chemical process known as etching.

When etching is completed we clean the remaining copper with alchohol (the "blue stuff" we have in our houses

) and our PCB is ready. Ok, the last step is drilling...

Step 1 - Creating the mask
In order to build the mask we must first draw the pcb layout. We can do this with a software. I used a freeware program called ExpressPCB (http://www.expresspcb.com/).
When we complete our drawing we are ready to print the mask. Prefer a Laser printer for this. It is like printing a black and white picture and we do it directly from ExpressPCB.
Of Course we don't print the mask in a normal paper. We need the transparency. So, we must use a photo-paper

For better results I printed the mask twice and place the one on top of the other

Step 2 - Preparing the board
We cut a photosensitive board equal to the dimensions of the mask. We place the mask on top of the board (after we remove the sticker that is protecting the board)

Usually I am placing a glass on top of the board and the mask to keep the mask in position

The next step is exposure

molton · « **Reply #147 on:** October 12, 2012, 10:33:23 am »

That is the best idea ever making your own circuit board to do exactly what you want it to do, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen on here, inspiring work!

Thanks for all the how to info.

paigeoliver · « **Reply #148 on:** October 12, 2012, 12:10:24 pm »

So how are the guns going to work on a lowboy cabinet with the screen tilted way back like that?

yotsuya · « **Reply #149 on:** October 12, 2012, 12:43:57 pm »

Quote from: paigeoliver on October 12, 2012, 12:10:24 pm

So how are the guns going to work on a lowboy cabinet with the screen tilted way back like that?

You have to stand on a ladder, obviously. Duh.

arximidis · « **Reply #150 on:** November 13, 2012, 04:56:29 pm »

Quote from: paigeoliver on October 12, 2012, 12:10:24 pm

So how are the guns going to work on a lowboy cabinet with the screen tilted way back like that?

Hello

You can use a simple linear transformation... The tilted screen is not a problem (all the other mathematics are

)

As I said before, I am not going to use a system like the aimtrack. Aimtrack is using an infrared camera. I have something else in mind.

It looks like it's working, at least in theory (meaning that I have already figured out the sensors I must use to solve the problem) and in some tests I made
The cool thing is that it doesn't require calibration (except from entering the required parameters, only in first use)
However I don't now the accuracy of the system (it may be prove a failure). That is why I am not presenting it yet

My first goal is to finish the cab

I have already finished the controller/interface from August but still I haven't test it yet. Not even powered it yet (And the only thing is not finished, is the code for the shift registers. The PS/2 emulation is working)
Recently I lost my father and haven't been working with the machine for a while

And I don't know when I will work again with it... It may take a while...

PS. Everything in this project will be open source - open hardware

paigeoliver · « **Reply #151 on:** November 13, 2012, 06:41:21 pm »

I wasn't concerned with how they are wired or interfaced. What I meant is that pointing guns downward at a screen would be pretty awkward. Gun games traditionally have almost no tilt to the screen. Most I have even seen is in the Nintendo Red Tent cocktails and their tilt is very mild compared to your lowboy cabinet.

arximidis · « **Reply #152 on:** November 14, 2012, 07:39:42 am »

From that point of view, you have right. It's little awkward indeed
However I am not far away from the screen (the screen has medium size, about 24 inches)
I tested firing (without the electronics) and it didn't look so bad

I am creating the machine just for fun... (and learning). I wouldn't call myself a gamer...
This is the main reason I am creating the electronics myself... (I am focusing on the hardware stuff and not the software)
At first I didn't know the parameterization capabilities of the known front-ends, so I started creating my own, in order to establish communication with my hardware.
However, I will continue to update it (mostly the voice recognition system). Until now is the most suitable frontend for me

Meanwhile another fellow Greek started a new project for a frontend and until now he has done a great job. Maybe I use his software
(http://code.google.com/p/extrafe/) still in beta

The good thing is that I am planning to show how everything is build and publish the necessary schematics and firmware (along with the source)
Think of it as an alternative to what you are using... Not better... just an alternative (for free

)

And if you can build stuff, then maybe you find it useful (and you will save some money

)

arximidis · « **Reply #153 on:** March 01, 2013, 05:00:42 am »

Update

After all these months I finally tested it

It Works!!!

Only one modification to the schematic (I forgot the pull down resistors to the shift registers). Turned out to be very important

How this thing works is very simple
It's a PS/2 keyboard emulator... It is connected to the PS/2 port and to the serial port (or to a USB with a USB to serial converter)

A resident program is running to the PC communicating with the frontend. Each time the FrontEnd sends the button combination to the resident program, depending on the emulator/game you selected.
Then the resident program sends it to the board through the serial port

The board is also responsible to start the machine (TV is completely off, to save power. Same thing for the speakers amp)
You can start the machine with a safety key or by pressing some buttons (a combination of them that you are able to specify)

P.S. Another update I am planning, is to control the machine with an android phone via Bluetooth
And also with a toy gun!!!

danny_galaga · « **Reply #154 on:** March 01, 2013, 11:29:20 pm »

An excellent gaming odyssey Arximidis (",)

I was hoping you had made the joysticks too though

paigeoliver · « **Reply #155 on:** March 02, 2013, 12:10:05 am »

Hey, congratulations! Getting any project done is good for your heart. Particularly a first project. You reinvented the wheel 5 or 6 times with this one, so it is even more of a personal victory.

arximidis · « **Reply #156 on:** March 02, 2013, 08:29:19 am »

Quote from: danny_galaga on March 01, 2013, 11:29:20 pm

An excellent gaming odyssey Arximidis (",)

I was hoping you had made the joysticks too though

Unfortunately now I have limited time... When I started the project I was unemployed... Things now changed

However the previous weekend I found some time and worked with it

When I complete the tests, I will upload the schematics and firmware (open project).

I know I am working too slow, but eventually I will complete it

Quote from: paigeoliver on March 02, 2013, 12:10:05 am

Hey, congratulations! Getting any project done is good for your heart. Particularly a first project. You reinvented the wheel 5 or 6 times with this one, so it is even more of a personal victory.

Well, I don't understand your comment. I never said I am building something revolutionary...

When I read your comment it's like you are saying for example:
"Hey don't create a new FrontEnd, because you reinventing the wheel... we already have one". With this kind of thinking there is only room for only one FrontEnd. Thank God this is not how everybody thinks.
We have commercial and open FrontEnds and there is always room for another one

Same thing with the interface... There are already commercial solutions... I am building an open solution here... Why not?
And if there is already an open solution out there, there is always room for another one...
My goal is simplicity... something that can be easily build by others

And if someone doesn't like it... he can ignore it (freedom of choice)

It has nothing to do with reinventing the wheel...

PS This is not my first project... This is my first cab...

paigeoliver · « **Reply #157 on:** March 02, 2013, 10:23:06 am »

That wasn't really intended to be an insult. I have honestly never seen someone design their own hardware and software from scratch with a first project. You might be the first person to have ever done that.

Le Chuck · « **Reply #158 on:** March 02, 2013, 10:25:15 am »

A lot of this forum is dedicated to reinventing the wheel because it is not yet perfectly round. Thanks for giving us more options to fashion our own wheels.

Take a chill pill, you done good man!

DaOld Man · « **Reply #159 on:** March 02, 2013, 11:01:39 am »

A great job!


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