Striyka's Cab

[striyka]

Gday guys

Well after 2 years on the go I have just about completed my first scratch built cab.
Ive played with MAME for many years and after hoarding old TV's and computers I decided to take the plunge and do it.

I bought "DIY Arcade by C. Conway" (thanks for the inspiration mate  ) and Saints book and with the 3 trillion websites I sorted through I finally picked and designed the cab.
I dont really know what you would call it but I found some plans named "Knievelklone" and with some modifications that is where I started.


First night in the shed and I finished with this.




Test fitted the TV and modified its mountings to fit in perfect.





Ordered the hardware for the CP from In2Amusements (here in West Aussie) Ipac, buttons, 3"trackball, Sanwa Joysticks and found some T-moulding from ArcadeWorx
I then realized that the T-Moulding was to suit 19mm and I was using 16mm MDF 

If your wondering about the paint job on the CP, I did a test flight of my $40 - 300W electric spray gun that I purchased from Bunnings (large Australian hardware chain) and I had the paint feed way to high. That is why i tested it on the back of the CP. I simply sanded it back and ended up with that finish. I wasn't going to muck around fixing it and it actually doesn't look that bad.





I bought a slot cutter for my router and some 16mm (5/8') T-Moulding from T-Moulding.Com in the US ($63 landed in Australia - Slot cutter alone in Australia was over $60 ) and added the front and back doors.





I wired up the CP using cat6 and quick connects. Joysticks and trackball were mounted and held in place by metal strips and 12mm wood screws. I definitely did not want bolt heads on top of the CP.






Finished product.   
I was very happy with the final outcome. I found the artwork on google after seeing it on a CP somewhere in the millions I looked at. I had a mate print it on a sticker and it came out awesome.
I have since covered it with a piece of Perspex.





I couldn't help myself and had a few nights test running the CP.




Last few coats on the bezel and drawer. That spray gun was the best thing I have ever bought.




I did 3 coats of primer and sanded between each coat. I mainly used 150-240 grit and it gave a brilliant smooth finish. I used "builders bog" to hide all screw holes and any major gouges.




The kick panel was made from mdf as well and simply hides the castors on the bottom. I used a spray can called "Hammered Silver" that gave it a metallic hammered finish. Bloody awesome stuff.




Added all the electronics, all computer junk I had laying around. Pentium G850 with 2 GB ram.




I bought the coin mech and PC to TV Converter off of E-bay.





I used Black high gloss enamel. I did 2 coats with a light sand in between and wasn't quite satisfied with a few imperfections so I sanded again and applied a 3rd coat and it came out perfect.
Added the CP, T-moulding and my Pac-Man artwork that my son and I modified in Adobe CS6. (added Pokey and Wakka Wakka)






A few pics showing a $20 fluro, the keyboard and mouse drawer and running Hyperspin with around 10 game systems all with 480p vids from EmuMovies.
I'm not too good when it comes to compiling Mame but I did find a no-nag 0.146u5 set and got it to work so Im happy.
It has around 3000 games all up, maybe more. I haven't quite nutted out all the controls for some systems but will just keep tinkering along. Mame and Dragons Lair were top on my list so when I get bored of them Ill go down the list



Marquee is being printed as we speak and should have that in tomorrow night. I have a few cam locks on the way and need to bend a Perspex cover to shield the Yoke and TV board in the back but still allow access to the computer. I figured if it was see through, people wont go touching any of the nasty stuff inside.



Anyway folks that is my first attempt at a cab. I have started on sketches of the cocktail cab I want to build next (much to my wife's disgust).
Id love to tackle a restoration one day. Galaga or Space Invaders etc so im keeping a look out..

A huge thanks to all the members on this forum. I have spent countless nights reading through posts in search of answers to all my silly questions and managed to find all them.

[skjerk]

Bloddy awesome! 

Did you spray-paint the whole thing? - Please post a pic of your spray-gun!
How is the picture quality using this PC to TV converter thingy?, and what resolution have you set the PC to?
I see your picture, which looks great, but what's it like in real-life?

[striyka]

Thanks Skjerk

I sprayed all the black enamel with the spray gun. I used roughly 50mls of thinners per 4litres of paint (as per manufacturers recommendations). The spray gun asks for a certain viscosity to work well and the tin of paint had instructions on it to obtain this.
I used a simple paint brush and roller to do all the undercoating.






The PC to TV converter is brilliant. I set the PC to 800x600.   I do have an issue at the moment that when the TV first powers up I need to adjust the Horizontal and Vertical size slightly but a tech head mate of mine says he can fix this. Ill post when he finds the solution.

The picture I think your referring too is the Pac-Man pic     It looks great. The image i found was quite large in both pixels and res. When blown up to full size (700x700mm) it looks awesome.

[stinkyrob]

Great pics, thank you for sharing!  It's amazing how much I've been learning but just following the various progress threads.  I'm awaiting permission from the wife to get started...in time!

[skjerk]

Hi - Thanks!

Well, actually the picture I was referring to was the screenshot of the Hyperspin-screen.... Just to get an idea of the real-life quality of the converted TV-signal....
But the Pac-man artwork is also pretty baws 

[striyka]

 Picture quality is awesome in Hyperspin and all games.

A bit of a headache in Windows.
I have adjusted the TV's contrast, color, sharpness etc etc and the PC to TV Converter also has those adjustments and its like its out of focus.
I can still use windows fine but for example a wordpad or notepad doc was hard to read when I was testing the I-Pac.

[AGarv]

Looking good buddy!

Do you have any pics showing in more detail how you mounted the decased TV?  It looks like you have a method with corner brackets that I have not seen before.

[striyka]

Looking good buddy!

Do you have any pics showing in more detail how you mounted the decased TV?  It looks like you have a method with corner brackets that I have not seen before.

Sorry Agarv, been away for a bit.
When I dismantled the TV it had the 4 brackets on it. They held the tube in a metal bracket inside the TV.
I simply measured the tube height and mounted 2 lenghts of 4x2 for the top and bottom mount. I have attached these to the cabinet sides using a few pieces of sturdy angle iron (3mm if i remember correctly).
I then used wood screws to attach the TV (2 on each bracket).






It was a bit of trial and error to get the right height for the tube but I did most of the cab planning specifically for this TV.