My Cabinet Build *Updated* Post Mortem

[Howard_Casto]

Not much to report, real world stuff has gotten in the way again and I've been super busy.  Decided to just relax today. 

As I've mentioned earlier, my cockpit is going to be collapsible.  I did some initial measurements of the seat to get an idea of what I'm working with.  The rails are around 14 inches long, which is a lot shorter than I thought they would be.  The idea is to keep the collapsed cabinet as close to the footprint of just the seat as possible.  I think the seat itself takes up more like 2 feet of room, so that's the dimension I'll probably go with.  The seat moves forward a whopping 10 inches, which is more than the seat in my car moves I think. 

I'm going to try to take detailed dimensions of the Camaro later this week and base a lot of the stuff around that.  Camaro's have a comfortable, yet tight cockpit, so it should be a good base. 

Unless I find a really good seat cover I'm probably going to stick with the seat's current color.  I have two options as I see it.  Go "knight rider" style and have the dash and all plastic components black with tan carpeting, or go the classic Ferrari route and have black carpeting with tan leather on the dash, shifter, ect.  Thoughts?

[isamu]

Not much to report, real world stuff has gotten in the way again and I've been super busy.  Decided to just relax today. 

As I've mentioned earlier, my cockpit is going to be collapsible.  I did some initial measurements of the seat to get an idea of what I'm working with.  The rails are around 14 inches long, which is a lot shorter than I thought they would be.  The idea is to keep the collapsed cabinet as close to the footprint of just the seat as possible.  I think the seat itself takes up more like 2 feet of room, so that's the dimension I'll probably go with.  The seat moves forward a whopping 10 inches, which is more than the seat in my car moves I think. 

I'm going to try to take detailed dimensions of the Camaro later this week and base a lot of the stuff around that.  Camaro's have a comfortable, yet tight cockpit, so it should be a good base. 

Unless I find a really good seat cover I'm probably going to stick with the seat's current color.  I have two options as I see it.  Go "knight rider" style and have the dash and all plastic components black with tan carpeting, or go the classic Ferrari route and have black carpeting with tan leather on the dash, shifter, ect.  Thoughts?

I like the idea of a tan seat cover and black carpeting. Make sure the seat covers are excellent quality though, and can easily lend itself to vacuuming and wiping with damp towel. Stuff is bound to get on there over the months/years.

Out of curiosity, once this cockpit is done, do you anticipate racing games becoming your main genre of gaming? Or do you have other genres you enjoy like first person shooters, rpgs, sports games, etc? I was always into racing games but once I got my cockpit and wheel, pedals, etc it just cemented my addiction further, and for a long time I stopped playing all other genres. Now I tend to mix it up a bit more and will throw down on some COD with my bros every once in a while, or hop on a random fps adventure like Bioshock Infinite.

[Howard_Casto]

It's more like I've been running out of games to play, if you can believe that.  Remember I've been doing this MAME thing since high school so I've been in the hobby almost as long as the emulator has been in existence.  Yes there are a metric ton of games in mame, but there are also a metric ton of awful games in mame.  I've played all the good ones 10 times over. 

The exceptions of course would be games with really weird specialty controls, like analog gun games (thus ts2) and racing games.  When I got into mame I was really into fighters and although I still enjoy them from time to time, I'm kind of burnt out on the genre. 

In terms of pc games there really isn't much out there.  I've never liked rpgs so all that's left are the aforementioned fighters and fps.  I've been playing the fps since the Doom days and let me tell you, if anything that genre has had a massive leap backwards since it became console centric.  It went from over the top monsters and locations, and having the ability to carry 10 weapons at a time to...well.... your choice of Halo and one of those generic "war" shooters. 

That's why these days most of the games I play are console games... where you still have platformers and lightgun games, ect....

[Fursphere]

God of War ftw! 

The lines are really becoming fuzzy between consoles and PCs.  I play whatever I find fun at the time, and buy Steam games like crazy during the big sales - so I've always got a back log of games to play.

And I totally agree about MAME - its got 10x more bad games than good.  And just no good way to sort through them.

[Howard_Casto]

Well I was busy again today and it didn't really matter because it was HOT outside.  While I was out I took a look at some seat covers at the Kmart.  They look like they would fit and the quality of the vinyl is actually really good BUT the back of the covers is that cheap cloth you see on those 5 dollar car wash sets.  Like I said, I think I'll stick with it as-is unless I run into something really good. 

Did some more exact measurements of the seat.  It's 21" by 21"   I'll probably round that out to 2 feet by 2 feet for added stability.  The plan is to make a 22 3/4" wide plywood pullout about 24-30 inches long that comes out of the platform the seat sits on.  It'll have a 2x2 "rail" under each side for strength.  That platform will have the traditional arch with the dashboard and wheel mounted on the end of it.  The pedal box will mount on the end of this and either slide or fold out.  I sat in the seat with a yard stick in front of me and the geometry checks out... I should be able to make something that collapses into the footprint of the seat when not in use. 

The new problem I'm looking at is how to get into the thing.  In a car it's easy, you open the door, but for strength I'd like to keep the arch a solid U shape.  I never realized it, but the Arcade racers really have the wheel too far away don't they?

[isamu]

It's more like I've been running out of games to play, if you can believe that.  Remember I've been doing this MAME thing since high school so I've been in the hobby almost as long as the emulator has been in existence.  Yes there are a metric ton of games in mame, but there are also a metric ton of awful games in mame.  I've played all the good ones 10 times over. 

The exceptions of course would be games with really weird specialty controls, like analog gun games (thus ts2) and racing games.  When I got into mame I was really into fighters and although I still enjoy them from time to time, I'm kind of burnt out on the genre. 

In terms of pc games there really isn't much out there.  I've never liked rpgs so all that's left are the aforementioned fighters and fps.  I've been playing the fps since the Doom days and let me tell you, if anything that genre has had a massive leap backwards since it became console centric.  It went from over the top monsters and locations, and having the ability to carry 10 weapons at a time to...well.... your choice of Halo and one of those generic "war" shooters. 

That's why these days most of the games I play are console games... where you still have platformers and lightgun games, ect....

Good post. Agreed about consoles still having some unique games. I just can't bring myself to get into them anymore though. And yeah there's a lot of garbage out there on the PC side, but there's also some really good gems too. The PC versions of BI, Tomb Raider and FC3 are very good. Hell, I even enjoyed Skyrim wih a bunch of mods, and got REALLY addicted to Fallout 3 a couple years back. Still, racing games is where my heart lies

And I totally agree about MAME - its got 10x more bad games than good.  And just no good way to sort through them.

+1. Took me a while to realize just how many ---smurfy--- coin-ups got released in the arcade in the 80's and 90's. With that having been said, one thing I really enjoy doing sometimes with mame, is getting online with my friends and playing mame games online in MAMHub. Or sometimes we'll just kick back and chit chat while they spectate me play some random mame game. It's pretty fun actually.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok again... frikkin hot, too much to do any real work. 

Took some initial measurements of the Camaro's cockpit and since they might be useful to someone else, I thought I would post. 

First the lengths, which are measured from the front of the seat (not the rail, the actual seat) to the back firewall with the seat as far backwards as it'll go. 

Steering wheel = Even with front of seat.
Front of dash = 7 inches
Start of dash Support (where the cutout for the door ends) = 14 inches
Length of cockpit  ~ 30 inches. 
Pedals (not the assembly the actual pedals themselves) ~ 25 inches


The width of the cockpit is around 20-21 inches and narrows ever so slightly towards the end.

The heights from the floor are a bit tricker to measure, but I'll try to get them later this evening. 

So my initial plans fit right into these dimensions. 

One thing I did notice is that the floor is a lot straighter than I suspected.  It's practically flat.  I guess it's where the pedals are a little bit off the ground but you always have the feeling that there is a drop in the back.  So I'm thinking I might make my platform much shorter. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok I whipped up some rough plans based upon the measurements.  This is in no way final and there are already some design flaws, but this helps to understand where I'm going. 

Some of the parts of this won't get finalized until after I've built the platform and slide out floor, the arch that holds up the wheel especially. 

[Fursphere]

I don't know if my plans will help you at all, but I posted a google sketchup of my cabinet in the first post of my thread.  And its got call-outs of all the measurements and angles.

I used gbeef's cabinet for reference, then my 2006 Honda Civic as a reality check on things like seat height and distance to steering wheel.  I think it still ended up being a little tight.

[Howard_Casto]

I check those out, thanks. 

The only thing I'm having a hard time figuring out is that arch that holds up the dash and wheel.  Like I said before I want the thing to be as collapsible as possible.  If I do the arch at a huge angle like in the picture I can slide the entire floor section back into the platform, but the arch will be so long that it'll crash into the back of the seat about halfway through.  I can do a more traditional "U" shape arch that just goes straight down but again, when the floor slides into the platform it'll stop about halfway. 

The only solution I can think of is to have the floor section with the pedals slide into the platform as planned but have the arch mounted to a separate rail system mounted to the outsides of the platform.  That's certainly doable, but I worry about the arch lacking stability as well as finding a way to make it look nice. 

[BadMouth]

Crazy idea, but I'll throw it out there.
I was once trying to figure out what to do with an old treadmill and considered making it into a driving cab that could be folded up when not in use.

Just putting it out there in case you see one along the road. 

[Howard_Casto]

Actually I've got an old treadmill in parts in one of my storage sheds.  I kept it because it has these massive bearings and I thought they might be useful.  You'd have to elaborate a little on what you mean though. 

Never underestimate the amount of random junk I have lying around. 

[Fursphere]

Where are you planning on mounting the screen?  Is it going to be part of the cabinet, or mounted on a wall or something?

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah the screen will be separate.  I'll make it sturdy enough to accept a vesa mount in case I change my mind, but since I need the thing to be portable I'll hook the whole thing up to the big screen. 

[Fursphere]

In that case, why aren't you going with the Playseat concept?  Doesn't get much more portable than that.  I see them on craigslist fairly cheap from time to time.

[Howard_Casto]

I just don't care for them.  Besides, the truly small ones have that bar in the middle, like the one you posted.  They are worthless for working the pedals.  I actually have the steel lying around to build one of those, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that I just want something a little more traditional looking. 

If I do this right (and that's a big if) the cockpit will be pretty much as large as a regular cab when extended, which is good because I intend to add vr buttons, thumpers, ect....

[Fursphere]

Well, you could always go this style, and hinge it to make it fold up smaller/ tighter.

[Howard_Casto]

If you look at my pics, it's not far off from what I'm designing.  I have some ideas on the arch, but right now I've been working on my real car as well.  I'm trying to finish up the body work so I can get it out to paint. 

It's supposed to be cooler this coming week, so hopefully I can get the platform and pull-out floor built to have something to work off of. 

[Fursphere]

Are you using wood or steel?  Or a hybrid of the two?

You're sketch-up made me think wood for whatever reason.  That's why I posted the metal frame one.  I originally wanted to go the metal "playseat" style - but went with the arcade version instead.

Go big or go home! 

[Howard_Casto]

Probably a hybrid.  the structure will be wood because it's just easier to deal with, but I'm thinking of skinning the thing in metal and painting/shaping it to look like a car.  the arch might use metal supports as well. 

[Howard_Casto]

Man I've been busy.  I hate it when I don't get to work on any of my projects. 

Not much to report.  I went into my workshop and took inventory of what I have lying around.  In terms of lumber I've got enough to build 12 of the things.  I'll probably need to stock up on screws and misc junk but other than that.  I'll also have to pick up a single 2x5 to start on the platform.  If the main platform is on a 2x5 that'll give me roughly an inch of leeway for the slide-out floor to add carpeting and ect....

I thought I would take another look at that non-working height adjustment motor.  It is dead, but I've got a cordless drill motor that might fit it.  It's something to work on later.  Regardless, power seats are heavy, so I completely removed that motor and it's drive assembly to reduce the weight.  It did make a noticeable difference and the seat is still stable with it removed thanks to the giant spring. 

[MTPPC]

That playseat above is really junk because of that centerpost. I have a buddy with a raceroom setup and it's a lot better, but they all sort of suck when it comes to the slider joint in the middle. It really causes the front half to be unstable compared to a lot of the homebrew setups. I think they are around $350 for the setup with a few accessories. I'm sure I guy can build twice the setup for about half the price. How much are nice passenger bucket seats in a junkyard? Around $40. Another $100 in wood and hardware and you can really build a comfy and stable sim chair.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah that was my thought really.  I think the sim frames are really over-priced.  Every one I've ever been in seems flimsy and I would be ok with that if they retailed for around 100 or so, but they usually want 300+

Anyway, I've got to get a 2x5 to build the platform out of and I'm going to pick that up tomorrow, hopefully there will be some rapid progress after that. 

[Howard_Casto]

Well I picked up a 2x6 today.  Apparently they don't carry 2x5's anymore... who knew?

I've got a rip saw though so if the height difference is too much I can always cut it. 

It's terribly humid right now so my outdoor projects might have to go on hold for a while.  Maybe I'll work on some software stuff again?

[Howard_Casto]

Ok time to resurrect this necro thread.  I'm getting an early start this year so the heat doesn't swamp me out. 

Since last year I got the broken motor in the seat working.... it was just crusty with rust on the inside.... cleaned the windings and it was good to go.  Too bad the gear box for that particular motor is bad.    I might use this motor instead make the angle of the wheel adjustable... the gears are kind of screwed up to where they don't work under load, but how much would a FF wheel weigh anyway?

If you guys with Daytona cabs would help me out I would sure appreciate it.  I want to know the width of the control panel (in case I decide to use one) and the width of the podium where the seat sits.  If you could get that for me I sure would appreciate it. 

I got the lumber last year, it's been sitting around waiting for me to work on it.  so I guess it's time to start. 

[Brian74]

cp width is 29" and the base is 21"x 57"

[Howard_Casto]

Thanks.... that should be workable with what I've got sketched out anyway so I shouldn't have to change anything. 

[Howard_Casto]

So I finally started construction.  I've got all the parts for the main base cut and I'll try to get the slide out portion as well.  I'm actually running a little low on wood, but I think I'll improvise for now and get the proper stuff later on.  We have a string of rain coming in tomorrow and I'd really like to be able to bring the main base inside so I can figure out the dashboard mount. 

I'm taking a break atm... hopefully by tonight I'll have something worth taking a picture of. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok who wants to look at pictures of a box?  Of course you do!

I only managed to get the main base done this evening, but at least I can mount the seat since that part is indoors.  I've just got it thrown up there right now for scale.  I think I might have went a bit too big, in terms of width, but the slide-out platform really needs to be 21 inches wide, which means the main platform needs to be 24 to accommodate the 2x6's. 

I mentioned running low on wood and just kludging it together for now, but it actually ended up a happy accident.  I threw some scrap laminated particle board on the bottom just to get it square, but because it's so smooth it slides really well on the carpet.  Even with the 60+ pounds on there just far it slides like a dream.  So I don't have to worry about wheels.  I'm not really concerned about how it looks.  The sides are getting skinned with something, probably metal, and the top gets carpet... so as long as it's square I don't really mind the ugly PB on the bottom. 

[Howard_Casto]

Other side:

[Howard_Casto]

And the hole in the front where the platform will come out... you get a nice shot of that horrid pb in there. 

[Jitterdoomer]

Howard, are you managed to install a pneumatic parts to the seat just in case SailorSat made an output for the Daytona USA SE for Model 2 Emulator?

[Howard_Casto]

I would like to, but it's probably out of my budget range.  Getting pneumatics strong enough to hold up my fat butt would probably cost quite a bit.  I did leave enough room for expansion though. 

I'm probably going to install either butt-thumpers or some hacked up gamepads under the seat... more of a san Francisco rush setup, which isn't as interactive, but still gives you some feedback.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so I built the 2x4 frame for the slide out base today.  It was a tight fit, so tight in fact that it created a vacuum and made it hard to pull out, so I shaved a little off just to make things easier. 

I went ahead and cut the two rails waay too long, about 3 feet, in case I need it for the support system.  Now that I've gotten everything in place it looks like the entire thing might be too long honestly.  I put a cross beam at the 2 foot mark, pulled the whole thing out and my feet were really too far away.  I might be able to get away with making the whole thing shorter, which would be great as it would take up even less space. 

I really need to figure out my pedal situation and then I can trim things to the exact size and start building the control panel area and it's supports. 

I'll post pics tonight or tomorrow, but right now I'm too tired.  I think the shop camera is dead anyway. 

So I'm thinking that the pc could go in the slide-out portion, with a access door on the top.  The only problem is those a 2x4 studs, so the pc can only be 3 1/2 feet tall.  If I can find some plate metal for the access door, maybe, just maybe I can get another inch or two.  Of course I don't have to put it in a case, but that sure makes things easier to deal with. 

So can anyone recommend a good pc with a small form factor actually capable of running stuff like supermodel?

[ant2]

Id build the  pc caseless.

For my mario kart build ill be screwing everything to a plywood board that will be screwed underneath the seat section.

The spec will be a core2duo - e8500
4gb ddr2
500gb sata drive
Ati 5850.

Apart from the proc, which cost £30 and gfx card £20. The rest were old surplus parts from friends.
So id look for something similar. Spec wise

And that will run most / all current racers
Hoping ill be finished with the rig exterior in the next week and then ill be starting on the pc - check my photobucket for progress, link in thread.

[Howard_Casto]

Well I'm back from the abyss, sort of... unfortunately now I'm really busy and don't have a lot of time to mess with stuff, but hopefully in a week or so I can get back to things. 

 I got a real good deal on a core 2 duo .. only paid 83 bucks!

Check it out:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,140112.0.html

Anyway it's form factor *almost* fits in the slide out portion of my rig.  I think if I route out a little of the access door it'll fit just fine and a tight fit would actually be preferred to keep it from sliding around. 

I've been doing a lot of woodworking lately to remodel rooms in the house, so finishing this up would be a good excuse to make room for all that scrap lumber. 

Hopefully I can rough out the thing this weekend and get back to my software projects as well.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so some visible progress this time.  I finished up the slide out drawer and slotted the bottom so that it latches inside the main podium. 

When fully extended there is a bit of horizontal leeway (you can turn it left and right) but I think I can fix that with a bigger stop.  Other than that it works well... slides in and out easily, and stops where it's supposed to.  Yeah the front looks terrible, but I don't really care because I'm going to make a shroud for the front once I figure out all the mounting.  That'll cover any imperfections.  The hole in the front is the hand hold to pull it out btw.

I threw some pedals up there just to give an idea of scale.  My real pedals will either be mounted vertically or will hinge up so I can put the drawer completely back in the podium when not in use. 

Anyway, time permitting I'll build the dashboard tomorrow and then I can figure out how to mount the two together (I have some ideas finally). 

[BzZziLLa]

It's looking good! Sweet seat too. That thing is perfect for a long haul. I'm using one of those rocker gaming chairs for my cab and I'm going to need some sort of padding on mine.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah found it beside the road if you can believe that.  Took the thing  apart, cleaned it and it's fully working. 

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so I'm trying to figure out the dashboard bit it's hard without the wheel.  To anyone with the driving force gt.... the base of the wheel is about the same dimension/angle wise as the rest of the Logitech wheels isn't it?

I'm basing it on the wheel I've been using for beta testing which is also a Logitech.  I hope that they are similar enough to where I can just swap em out. 

I found some tube steel in my junk pile.  It's from an old manual treadmill... 1 inch square and about 4.5 feet long so that should be great for attaching the dash to the base.  It looks like that the tubes wouldn't hit the seat when the platform is slid back in place.  That should simplify the build significantly.  I can cut the 2x5's on the main podium at an angle so that the drawer slides back in place completely.  This would mean the whole dash assembly wouldn't need to tilt forward and eliminates a lot of the (over)engineering.

It all depends on if the angle is shallow enough to where the dash will fit in the seat when collapsed.  I think it should barely fit and I intend to make the wheel removable anyway, so that should give me a couple more inches. 

Anyway, time for me to sit in the floor with some cardboard and figure out the dash.