Bartop Arcade Mark 2

[CoryBee]

Here is model 2 of my bartop arcades built from yet another IBM thinkpad laptop.

As I said in the post Mark 1, I suck at painting. I tried to paint it black and I did not like the look.





Here is some shots of the Usb Joypad and underside of buttons. Excuse the dust as I was still in my workshop area.








The power button is a Mo-Fo on these old IBM laptops, had to cut into the traces of the keyboard.



Here is a shot of the laptop mounted to the screen support.



Here is the fan.



And here is the wiring to the Ac Adapter and powerbutton for laptop.



I then added a power switch to turn off the power to everything, added a nice touch to it and saves power.





The powerswitch also has an LED in it.





Those green things are terminal strips I use to easily disconnect wires for servicing. A touch I think I will use frequently.







Here is but a simple set-up for lighting my marquee.



All power for the fan and light bulbs come directly from the ac charger. This is an issue because the bulbs are 12v and the ac outputs 16+ unregulated volts
This is fixed by ading a voltage regulator I got from Radioshack for 4 bucks. It effectively reduces the voltage to 11.5 volts.





Here are some back shots before the Powerswitch was in place. You can tell I went with contact paper =)











Here are my mounted speakers I wired directly to the output of the laptop.



Thought it needed a volume knob so to radio shack I went. Mounted and soldered in.





Printed out a marquee real quick of one of my favorite games.



And here are some final shots of the baby arcade.











And finally here is Punch Out!!






My next bartop I am building is going to be a 2 - player running on a slightly faster laptop. It will have N64 controller port, TopGun 3 wireless gun and other features I cannot remember right now.

Thanks for looking. Will have a video uploaded shortly.

[ChrisK]

I've got an old Dell laptop I've been eyeing for just such a project.  A couple questions:

1) How did you wire the volume dial?  On the line out from the motherboard?

2) How did you handle the ribbon cables for the screen?  It looks like you folded the laptop over backwards after de-casing it?  Is it as simple as that?  It seems like it would be tough to mount that big pile of laptop parts securely that way.

[CoryBee]

It is a simple rheostat from radio shack that handles the audio dial. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062299. So I cut the line from the laptop speaker and fed it to the volume knob, then to some speakers I pulled from some cheap mp3 amplifier I got for 7 dollars that broke.

Yes after removing the casing I just mounted the laptop screen to a little mount I made using 1x1 wood (or smaller). Then attached the mother board with a ton of hot glue. It holds to wood like a champ. Made sure the laptop was aligned with the screen and connected the screen back. It is as if you didn't have hinges and made the laptop into a tablet, just without the shell. if that makes sense. I am building 2 more as we speak and am doing a more detailed log.

[ChrisK]

So the motherboard is completely de-cased, then?  And glued onto the wood casing, not the screen, right?  That seems like a pretty quick and easy way to mount it.  I'd definitely be interested in the pictures of your next build before the cab itself goes together, if you think of it.  I'm a newbie at building this stuff, and I'm thinking my first project will be a mini single-player cab like this using my wife's old Dell laptop.

Thanks for the info!

[CoryBee]

Yea that was my thoughts jumping into building an arcade cab. Spend next to nothing, and learn.

Here is my first build, I think it went pretty well, no acrylic control panel though.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=119996.0

I didn't spend more than 60 dollars on it.

[ark_ader]

I tend to leave the monitor in the casing after drilling some holes to mount on the MDF.  Those inverters are really easy to fry.

I always find the side power switches hard to solder, but Thinkpads are much easier to use than say Dell or HP.

I'm looking at 2x TP 240s and 2 unfinished projects......

Nice little build. 

[CoryBee]

Thanks pinball jim. I didn't even think to try and run a custom sized piece of paper. Can you elaborate or pictures of what you men? I think I get the jist of it though.

Also, i tape up the inverter =). I might keep the back on next time if it doesn't get in my way. Might be a little loose with it on not sure.

Thanks for commenting. Am working on a new model with 2 player, n64 ports and a light gun (Mark 3 Bartop). Still waiting for parts on that one. So while I wait I am making 3 more of this design.

[CoryBee]

Ok, I just finished cutting and assembling some more mark 2 cabinet shells. I was asked so I made a build log, take a look at the process.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=120067.msg1272785#msg1272785

[CoryBee]

I am uploading a video shortly, well once my camera recharges.