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Author Topic: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED  (Read 5438 times)

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tomton

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Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« on: March 14, 2020, 11:47:52 am »
Hi All,

About two months ago I have sold my cabinet (link to the one I have sold http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161101.0.html) because I wanted to build improved version of it and now I'm close to finalizing the design of the new cabinet.

Renders below show what my intent is. I was considering trackball but not sure it would fit and I don't think it would be that useful to me.
Name and font on the front will likely change and I'm open to suggestions.

Main display will be edge to edge 27" IPS monitor, cabinet will be running MAME on a PC and have active marquee (because I love those).
Buttons will be backlit with WS2811 + NanoLED controller + Ledblinky and LEDs lighting the CP will also be addressable so I can play animations when machine is idle or lightup CP in different colours for each player.

I also want to use PIR to light up CP and turn displays on when someone walks past the cabinet. I will be using Arduino for this.

I understand that for some all these LEDs might be too much but I love some RGB action :)

« Last Edit: July 02, 2020, 05:10:15 am by tomton »

javeryh

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2020, 12:09:48 pm »
Pretty cool looking design.  See what it looks like with a real coin door and changing that front panel from wood grain to black.

tomton

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2020, 09:38:00 am »
with all that is going around the world right now I have made zero progress on the build itself and with limited time that I currently have managed to only produce another image of what it might look like.
door will remain natural wood finish but i have added black trim around coin slot which I quite like

need... more... LEDs!!!  :)

javeryh

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2020, 10:49:59 am »
Nice!  The coin area needed something else and I wasn't quite sure what but this new design is much better.

I thought being quarantined would mean tons of progress on my build but apparently they actually expect me to work from home.  Like real, actual work.  The nerve.

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Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2020, 01:15:36 pm »
As a pretty unforgiving “LED as bling hater”, I have to be honest with you, brother… You knocked this out of the park. That is how you incorporate lighting that does not look gaudy. I actually love the look. I wish the cab was not so anorexic, but honestly, I really like what you’ve done here.
***Build what you dig, bro. Build what you dig.***

Ond

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2020, 05:38:00 pm »
Nicely thought thought out graphics and lighting, very pleasing.  What render engine are you using?

wp34

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2020, 05:48:57 pm »
Your second renders look great.  I like the artwork and the woodgrain.  The trim you added around that teeny tiny coin slot is also an improvement.    :cheers:

tomton

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2020, 06:00:21 pm »
thanks guys  :)

Ond - im using 3dsmax + Corona renderer

opt2not

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2020, 06:23:08 pm »
Aww I miss using Max. It gets a bad rap in the CG Industry these days, but 20 years ago it was all the rage.

morton

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2020, 09:48:22 am »
I agree witht he others... this is so tastefully done. When I was considering some wood vinyl, people just poo-poo'd it... but you there... you did it and it looks amazing.

The control panel LEDs are cool AF too. Would it just be smoked plexi with a black backer on it to mask the parts that dont let light through? curious how youd do it. If not the plan, it would look cool to be totally smooth ouside, no hint of the labels when not lit. I may use the idea myself if ya dont mind.

This is some good use of your personal time... keep it up!

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #10 on: April 02, 2020, 03:03:06 pm »
are you going to bolt it to a wall?  How is it not going to tip over?

tomton

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim)
« Reply #11 on: June 04, 2020, 11:58:31 am »
There has been some time since my last post in this thread. I have been very busy, mainly working full time from home. Spending some of my free time with family and using whatever has been left to design/redesign/build this cabinet.
Since I have posted my renders I had to make some changes to the design. Most obvious one is different type of plywood used. In lockdown I was unable to source desired type of plywood from anywhere local and if purchased online I would have to wait 2-4 weeks for delivery (not to mention additional cost). So in the end I have settled for hardwood faced plywood which I thought will be too dark and too red for my liking but it is slowly growing on me (my wife likes it better to light finish so it's a bonus).
Second design change comes from underestimating how difficult thermal forming acrylic is. Even after making multiple tests creating jigs and building DIY oven to heat acrylic it proved to be almost impossible to do it well enough. So I had to ditch nice curved CP idea  :(

Quote from: morton
...Would it just be smoked plexi with a black backer on it to mask the parts that dont let light through...
Idea was to have black acrylic as backing and then clear edge lit acrylic with lines engraved in front. This means that lines are visible when not lit. It would have been nicer if it was how you are describing it but I think you would need another piece of black tinted acrylic as top layer.

Quote from: nipsmg
are you going to bolt it to a wall?  How is it not going to tip over?
sorry for late reply. this is third slim cab i have built and from my experience it's not necessary as long as the cab is fairly rigid and can be properly levelled. Of course it would not hurt to also secure it to the wall.

Some photos

CP pre assembly


CP underside


Sides ready


CP light tests. It looks much better in real life than in those photos, you have to take my word for it  :)




From test above I found out that there is a lot of light bleed from CP acrylic to buttons and vice-versa so I tried to counteract that by wrapping buttons in aluminium foil (which wasn't enough) and then painting underside of each button black


Cabinet enters the house. Most elements are now ready or almost ready.


Assembled CP underside



Customized trackball. I wanted to have one but couldn't justify the price of Ultimarc or similar so got cheap version (link) removed top completely to allow ball to protrude enough above CP surface and upgraded LEDs. Changing LEDs was not enough to give glow effect I was after so I have installed piece of opaque acrylic to diffuse the light


Coin slot. It has "hidden" button to add coins by pressing "Please insert token"


Nearly there...


Installed CP. I had to ditch idea of having two sandwiched pieces of acrylic (black and clear). Because sheet acrylic is perfectly flat applying pressure to two layers creates vacuum which appears as ugly spots when seen through clear layer. To avoid this I have stuck carbon fibre vinyl on top of black acrylic. This also helps to disguise dust particles and fingerprints which otherwise are quite apparent.




I'm now waiting for more acrylic to be delievered to cover speakers and space between monitors as I have wasted some when attempting to bend it.
I'm also working on code for Arduino to controll LEDs and make use of PIR sensor so still lots to do...
« Last Edit: June 04, 2020, 12:00:38 pm by tomton »

tomton

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee
« Reply #12 on: July 02, 2020, 05:09:52 am »
After many design changes and redoing CP number of times here it is.
Learned a lot on this build. Mainly that acrylic can be really difficult to work with and that glossy surfaces are really unpractical for arcade cabinets  :)






Powered on






Still some small things to do but main one is to work on arduino code. If anyone could give me some guidance on how to send game name and possibly other information from MAME to arduino so I can utilize LEDs better that would be great. Currently I have two buttons to change colour sets and brightness on CP and buttons but would be nice if this was done automatically depending on current game.

Thanks

javeryh

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #13 on: July 02, 2020, 08:48:55 am »
This thing is awesome.  Well done.  :cheers:

nipsmg

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #14 on: July 02, 2020, 09:05:57 am »
Wow.  This is spectacular. Excellent job. 

thatpurplestuff

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #15 on: July 02, 2020, 10:06:44 am »
LOVE the look of this machine.  Great work!

So once again, we find that evil of the past seeps into the present like salad dressing through cheap wax paper, mixing memory and desire.

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2020, 03:44:07 am »
Really nice work!  Wish there was even more detail in your thread so I can learn more.

What did you do your 3d modeling in and what render engine are you using?

Also if you wouldn't mind sharing more details I'd love to know more about how exactly you are lighting up all that acrylic.  How many leds and what voltage is needed to make it look great?  Did you do the etching yourself or did you send it in somewhere?



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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #17 on: July 03, 2020, 09:33:45 am »
What material is on top of your etched acrylic?  It seems to hide the etching well yet allow the light to come though.

As for Arduino, I don’t think you can pass along the name of a game to the Arduino as it just handles simple high or low inputs/outputs.  You could use one of your encoders (can’t tell which one you are using) to send this command of high or low (on or off) to act as a on off switch to run code on your Arduino.

There’s already an extensive LED controller in LED Blinky if you are using a PC (RGB Commander for Linux), but I can’t tell what computer you have in there.

Not big on the slim design but you have a lot of interesting elements in your work, and your execution is very well done. Nice job.

javeryh

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #18 on: July 04, 2020, 01:57:15 pm »
Not big on the slim design but you have a lot of interesting elements in your work, and your execution is very well done. Nice job.

yeah - the profile is weird... but I think it's perfect for space saving.  With a thin monitor there's no need for the bulk.  I could see myself warming up to this kind of shape even though my first reaction was the same as yours.  The execution here is top notch.  If I were going to make something similar I'd explore chopping off the marquee area completely and using a 42" vertically with the marquee area on the screen... maybe.  This is definitely something that I hope more people iterate on.

tomton

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #19 on: July 04, 2020, 05:19:28 pm »
@javeryh, @nipsmg, @thatpurplestuff - thanks guys!

Really nice work!  Wish there was even more detail in your thread so I can learn more.

What did you do your 3d modelling in and what render engine are you using?

Also if you wouldn't mind sharing more details I'd love to know more about how exactly you are lighting up all that acrylic.  How many leds and what voltage is needed to make it look great?  Did you do the etching yourself or did you send it in somewhere?
Thanks! To be honest the plan was to include much more images and show how I got where I got but I had very little free time to work on this cab and was constantly running into problems with various things. Amongst other things I have redesigned and rebuilt CP three times. I have also made number of bigger and smaller mistakes and generally this was very frustrating build. I'm happy with the result but half way into the process I have decided that I will finish it and sell it. Main reason was that I was very unhappy with dark looking wood but over time it grew on me so I might keep it for a little bit  :)

Software used for visuals is 3dsmax + Corona and for CAD/CAM I have used Fusion 360

For CP lighting I'm using addressable WS2811 LED strips that are controlled by Arduino and require 5V power supply. There is 34 LEDs for each element of CP (top and front). It would look better if top surface of CP was edge lit on both ends as it currently is a little uneven because buttons are blocking some of the light. I have a small CNC router at home so did all my engraving myself, it would probably look better if done with laser but I have no access to one.

What material is on top of your etched acrylic?  It seems to hide the etching well yet allow the light to come though.

As for Arduino, I don't think you can pass along the name of a game to the Arduino as it just handles simple high or low inputs/outputs.  You could use one of your encoders (can't tell which one you are using) to send this command of high or low (on or off) to act as a on off switch to run code on your Arduino.

There's already an extensive LED controller in LED Blinky if you are using a PC (RGB Commander for Linux), but I can't tell what computer you have in there.

Not big on the slim design but you have a lot of interesting elements in your work, and your execution is very well done. Nice job.
Thanks! And thanks for giving me this idea of lighting CP with your awesome edgelit CP!
That material used on my CP is my secret  8) haha... After I have assembled second version of CP and powered it on I didn't like it at all. Top surface on this one was just clear acrylic and lights were very in your face. Surface was also dust and fingerprint magnet and any dust trapped under the acrylic would glow when lights were on. On top of that when machine was turned off you could clearly see all the engravings. So I started looking into covering it with something that would give it that stealthy look  :) After trying number of vinyls I have found person on ebay selling tint films for car lights and he had this Dark Smoke Pearl Powder film which I have used
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Frosted-Car-Headlight-Tint-Film-Vehicle-Tail-Transparent-Vinyl-Pearl-Powder/252048727137?hash=item3aaf465c61:g:otoAAOSwgQ9VnYx2
It works great because it disguises the engravings until lights are powered on and its fingerprint/dust/scuffs resistant.

I'm running it all on Windows PC. Would LED Blinky communicate with Arduino? I have done extensive search on web but could not find ready to use solution but maybe I have missed something  ???

Re slim design in my case it just has to be slim. That space its in is the only place I could put in my house.


Previous version of the CP


Back is still unfnished and a bit messy


Boomshakalaka!


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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #20 on: July 04, 2020, 09:35:28 pm »
It works great because it disguises the engravings until lights are powered on and its fingerprint/dust/scuffs resistant.

Thanks for sharing.  Is it applied on top of the acrylic?  I’m guessing by how you described it would be, which makes sense on covering up the fingerprints and hiding the engravings.

Quote
I'm running it all on Windows PC. Would LED Blinky communicate with Arduino? I have done extensive search on web but could not find ready to use solution but maybe I have missed something  ???

I don’t think you have per se.  LED Blinky can work directly with the Ultimarc Nano for assessable LED’s.  But for your buttons I’m assuming they aren’t addressable and then it works great.  However for an Arduino you would be looking at sending a signal into the Arduino to turn it on (which is the same as an LED to turn on).  Which really just sends a 5V signal to the Arduino to tell it YES for whatever command you are using.  So in other words it’s a two part process, use LED Blinky to send a high signal on a per game basis and then write code in Arduino to perform whatever LED function you are looking for.  Uptown just did this for his cab and I will be doing this on mine as well.

Quote
Re slim design in my case it just has to be slim. That space its in is the only place I could put in my house.

I get it, I’m just used to a traditional styling. Like I said, you executed your vision well with quality materials, nice work!

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #21 on: July 06, 2020, 01:29:49 pm »
looks good. where do I get a....marquee monitor??  :notworthy:

tomton

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2020, 03:46:32 am »
looks good. where do I get a....marquee monitor??  :notworthy:
Marquee monitor is 25" LG Ultrawide. In my build top and bottom are partially covered.

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Re: Flashback - MAME (slim) with active marquee - FINISHED
« Reply #23 on: July 13, 2020, 09:00:17 am »
Very cool build.  :applaud: