Sonic & Tails 2 player upright

[nugarp]

Hello guys!

As a lot of people here have, I've wanted to make a cabinet for a while. My original plans were to make a dreamcast cabinet with a 30" CRT, but I've since moved on to a MAME cabinet with a 27" LCD . I wanted to make a machine that would have a little something for everyone - not more than 200 games or so, but each one set up with care. Since it's been cold, I've taken the past 2-2.5 months or so to at least get my electronics/software set up and operating. Most of my time has been devoted to a loader that I've been creating, with most of the remaining time spent on game configuration. I work full time as a front-end software engineer, so building up the software side of the cabinet was up my alley (and interests). Tonight I've figured out most of the details for the cab. Some of the planned features of the cabinet:

* 2 player, 8 button cabinet (with up to 3 and 4 players in some games with wireless 360 controllers).
* Dual Aimtrak guns with 36v recoil (guns configured, waiting for recoil kit)
* A CUSTOM loader fully created for my own needs
** This loader also includes a mobile interface for remote operation
** A second screen that always shows you the controls for whichever game is loaded (via http, so you can watch on your iPad as well)
* Push to reject buttons will also add credits
* Full-size vinyl artwork along the sides of the cabinet; black laminate for the front & back.
* Glass bezel spray painted black on the backside
* Plans designed from scratch

For those interested in the components...

Audio
-------
2x75W 6x9" Pioneer Speakers
Subwoofer (35W?)

Display
---------
27" Asus VN279Q LCD Monitor as the primary display
10.1" HDMI 4 Pi (http://www.adafruit.com) for the second screen

CPU
-----
Intel Core i5-4670K
256GB SSD + 2TB backup drive
8GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GTX 680
Asus Mini-ITX board

Game Loader features
-----------------------------
Developed by myself from the ground-up (in retrospect, I should've written neater code if I knew I was going to keep my experimental code...)
Updates second screen with controls for current game
Remote administration via http (lock the cabinet - disables all keypresses; restart launcher; reboot arcade; view game list; go to games; check usages; check CPU health)
Organizes games by (1) system, (2) genre, and (3) if they are single- or multiplayer
Plays classics' music in the background (mostly from OcRemix)
Handles setting up vJoy, AHK, Steam, uPlay, etc. per-game
AimTrak gun calibration built-in (because I've customized the loader for myself, I know which buttons to listen to and how to react within the loader, it's awesome having that power!).

So, I've done a lot of "I plan to X" and "I want to Y." Here's some artwork to backup what has taken me a few months to get to so far...I hope to start building the cabinet when the weather gets a little warmer.

The images in order:
1) The CAD drawing. This is where I've gotten to so far. Don't worry about all of the holes in the back of the cabinet. I was getting lazy and didn't feel like creating multiple rectangular panels so I just used holes to dictate differing panels. Dimensions are in inches.

2) Draft artwork for the arcade. One side will be blue, the other yellow. The shapes are a little off because the design was for an older shape for the cabinet that I had envisioned. Even still, they are exactly as the filename says - just drafts. I really liked EMDB's design for one of his cabinets and used that as the inspiration for the artwork on this one. I'm happy to hear input from others on ways to improve.

3) The control panel (bottom 12") and admin panel (top 8"). The control panel features the buttons for p1 & p2 while the admin panel has misc buttons and the secondary 10" LCD to show controls. The CP will be rounded with a 1" diameter. The admin panel will sit at a 45 degree angle from the CP (see the CAD drawings for reference).

4) This is what the loader looks like. In its current state, it has a lot of nice, smooth transitions between games and systems.

Some notes on the artwork here (because credit should go where it is due): the joystick in the bottom left is from a post I found on HyperSpin. There's something about it being on HS's FTP but I'm not using HS and didn't really feel like forking out money to get access. I traced the joystick in photoshop (and used pen tool to make it vector in the process) from a tiny screenshot of it I found online and then I animated it to go forwards, backwards, left, & right. Props to whoever came up with that originally, IMO their version still animates better, but I'll make do. I also used the buttons I found on HS and animated those myself as well (I animated pushing actions for those). The blue joystick indicates that P1's joystick controls the loader (P1 = blue, P2 = yellow/amber).

5) This is a couple of the shots of the mobile interface. I used jQuery mobile since it had all these sexy widgets.

6) Finally, this is what the second screen shows when you hover over (& are in) a given game. If it's a normal game, you will get the controllers each player should use as well as controls for the joysticks. If it's a light gun game, the icons will be replaced with P1 P2 & Aimtrak icons that I drew from tracing a picture of the gun. The controls swap for gun buttons and whether the gun is aimed on-screen or off-screen. The X360 controller icon I found online, and then I added a bunch of depth to it to get it in a style I preferred. The joystick icons match the layout on my CP (minus the start & insert coin buttons).


I welcome any and all constructive criticism, feedback, and ideas (whether it be on artwork, loader features, cabinet design issues, etc.) and look forward to getting to know you guys really well in the coming months!

Sorry for the wall of bricks. It's 2 AM and I couldn't (quickly) figure out how to insert images in the middle of the thread that I was also attaching at the same time. That would have made for a more interesting read I'm sure.

[EMDB]

Nice starting post. You can't attach pictures which you embed in the text. You could store them elsewhere and reference them in your post using the [i m g][/i m g] tag. I just use my dropbox for this.

Cool frontend. Make sure it can be navigated fully with just the joystick and the CP buttons.

About your design: The angle of the main monitor seems wrong. It should be tilted a bit more to the back. The CP could need a bit of tilting. 8 til 10 degrees is common. Try a test setup using a keyboard + monitor hooked up to a pc running MAME, a table and a pile of books to determine the actual heights and angles before you start. Kinda like Martijn did for his on his Scratch Slim Marvel vs Capcom cabinet:



Good luck and keep posting your progress. I will follow this thread closely 

[yotsuya]

To be honest with you, I've never been a fan of the second screen to show controls, but this might be the first time I think I've ever seen in it implemented in a natural and fluid design. Great job!

[PL1]

I couldn't (quickly) figure out how to insert images in the middle of the thread that I was also attaching at the same time.

There's a stickied thread here for posting images.

Post your images there and link to them (not the thumbnails  ) using the icon to insert the IMG tags in your post.

Lots of formerly well-documented builds are now almost worthless because someone rearranged/"cleaned up" their image folders . . . or had their account revoked . . . or the photo service went out of business . . . or exceeded their monthly traffic allowance . . . . 

If the pics are vital to telling the story of your build, please host them here.

If you're posting 120 pictures that aren't vital to telling the story, those are probably better hosted elsewhere.   


Scott

[Generic Eric]

Nice plans
I tried to play trials on my arcade cabinet.  My head hurt.  I'd be interested to know how it feels after playing and if you have to tweak it later.  I'd like to give that a try.

[nugarp]

Nice starting post. You can't attach pictures which you embed in the text. You could store them elsewhere and reference them in your post using the [i m g][/i m g] tag. I just use my dropbox for this.

Cool frontend. Make sure it can be navigated fully with just the joystick and the CP buttons.

Thanks! Yes, it can . And also fully with just an Aimtrak if we're in the mood to only play gun games!

About your design: The angle of the main monitor seems wrong. It should be tilted a bit more to the back. The CP could need a bit of tilting. 8 til 10 degrees is common. Try a test setup using a keyboard + monitor hooked up to a pc running MAME, a table and a pile of books to determine the actual heights and angles before you start.

Solid advice, thanks again. I increased the tilt to about 11 degrees from the original 5 degrees. I tried it in person and adjusted angles until it felt the most natural for my 5'7" size and that was around the sweet spot. I tried both the tilted and untilted CP and liked it flat. I also went to an arcade nearby and they had tilted CPs but they didn't feel so great on the wrists. Not sure if it's just my height or if I've grown accustomed to using a flat one.

To be honest with you, I've never been a fan of the second screen to show controls, but this might be the first time I think I've ever seen in it implemented in a natural and fluid design. Great job!

Thanks! I'm really excited about integrating it. Given some preliminary testing with my friends, it has proven to be very invaluable.

There's a stickied thread here for posting images.

Post your images there and link to them (not the thumbnails  ) using the icon to insert the IMG tags in your post.

Thanks Scott! Yeah I was trying to avoid putting the pictures on photobucket and imgur, etc for the exact reason that I didn't want them to get lost down the line some day.

Nice plans
I tried to play trials on my arcade cabinet.  My head hurt.

Thanks Eric. I've had a friend and my dad both try it in it's current form and neither of them nor I have had any issues. What about the game seems to bother you?

[eds1275]

Thanks Eric. I've had a friend and my dad both try it in it's current form and neither of them nor I have had any issues. What about the game seems to bother you?

I would imagine that without analogue joysticks or triggers to control leaning and speed, the subtler gameplay elements would be lost. I find that I am better when I am light on the controls. Though most of the people I know who play casually are all or nothing - full gas, full tilt.

[nugarp]

I would imagine that without analogue joysticks or triggers to control leaning and speed, the subtler gameplay elements would be lost. I find that I am better when I am light on the controls. Though most of the people I know who play casually are all or nothing - full gas, full tilt.

You are correct. It is up to the player to understand that a very short burst of joystick movement is required for a slight movement, and that holding the joystick down would be terrible. It takes a little bit to pick up but once someone has got it they're fine. I did have a couple new friends come over and try it and they were just horrendous! You can never be too light in this game...

[Generic Eric]

 

Nice plans
I tried to play trials on my arcade cabinet.  My head hurt.

Thanks Eric. I've had a friend and my dad both try it in it's current form and neither of them nor I have had any issues. What about the game seems to bother you?

I'll have to give your layout a try. I'll make a a little panel to test it out on this summer.

[SavannahLion]

Not trying to hijack the thread here....

You can't attach pictures which you embed in the text. You could store them elsewhere and reference them in your post using the [i m g][/i m g] tag. I just use my dropbox for this.

You can but it's a two step process. Mark where you want the photos g. Photo1, photo2. Attach the images. Post and make note of the address of each image. Go back in with the EDIT option and edit the post accordingly with references to the images.
<OR>
Use one of the numerous stickied image threads around here to post images and basically do the same thing. It just saves you an edit step.

Saint has plenty of space to host those images. Or so he says, I've never actually verified

The reason for this is that many of these project span several years and it's not uncommon for someone to be searching through the threads months or years later to come across a particular thread that relates exactly to what they're doing. When you host pictures elsewhere such as Dropbox or whatever there is ZERO guarantee that those images will be there for the life of the particular thread that links to them. So if the image hosting site disappears, then we now have threads with missing images. I'll tell you right now, that SUCKS donkey ass. I can't tell you how many times I've come across very useful or cool information only to have the thread/article/whatever say something like "Here's my ultra cool artwork template that you're more than welcome to use" or "Here is a schematic for a really ultra cool circuit that no one else happens to host" and there's no image or otherwise because the poster decided to use a hosting site for that. 

In short, there's no harm in hosting the images here.

Back on topic. I think Knuckles on the CP should be modified a touch. He looks a little er... awkward with that joystick right on his fist. That's just me, I'm very particular about how characters on cabinets are represented. I'd like to see how this turns out in any case. :

[nugarp]

In short, there's no harm in hosting the images here.

Back on topic. I think Knuckles on the CP should be modified a touch. He looks a little er... awkward with that joystick right on his fist. That's just me, I'm very particular about how characters on cabinets are represented. I'd like to see how this turns out in any case. :

Yeah, I understand the logic of hosting here. That's exactly why I wanted to do it.

In other (more related news), I agree with you. I am still experimenting with the CP and attached is the current incarnation. Not sure I like knuckles being smaller, but I think the border around the LCD is nice. And it does look less awkward with his hand not punching a joystick.

[JDFan]

Knuckles might fit better if you flip him on the horizontal so his fist is on the opposite side.

[nugarp]

Here's another option...I'm digging it a little better but am always open to opinions. The black bars on the sides indicate the edge of the cabinet. The CP will stick out over the cabinet so it can be longer. The admin panel will sit between the cabinet edges.

I bought the wood for the CP today and cut it to size. I hope to cut out the buttons for the main CP tomorrow. The admin panel I'm going to leave alone for now since I haven't finalized which buttons/knobs I want there vs behind a lock/key.

[PL1]

Do you prefer dust-washers on top of the CP or under the CP?


Scott

[nugarp]

I was planning on putting them on top with the hope that gunk won't get in between the plexi and artwork and be difficult to get out. And applying some felt below them as to not scratch the plexi. I think I accounted for the size of the dust washers in the art, just not their movement.

[yotsuya]

Yeah, your dustwashers are going to cause a problem there.

[KuddlKat]

Yeah, your dustwashers are going to cause a problem there.

Do clear dust washers exist?  I thought I saw them on another restoration project.

[yotsuya]

I used them on my Macross project. I got them from here:

http://www.tek-innovations.com/arthobbies/?loc=products&cat=7

[thrasherx]

Will the software be available for download? I love your second screen software. How are you populating the control list? I imagine it's manual for steam games, but are you using MAME's control list database?

[nugarp]

I used them on my Macross project. I got them from here:

http://www.tek-innovations.com/arthobbies/?loc=products&cat=7

Thanks for the link. I was looking into acrylic washers myself today! I wasn't sure between clear or if I could somehow manage to get some tinted ones..one blue one yellow.

Will the software be available for download? I love your second screen software. How are you populating the control list? I imagine it's manual for steam games, but are you using MAME's control list database?

Thank you! Well the way the software was built was it was a hack..and then another hack...and then another hack. It works well for me, but almost everything in it is hardcoded, which is kind of a shame. I'm not using any database - for systems I tend to lay out the buttons and then games can override each system's buttons if it seems necessary. For example, all of my genesis games say ABC XYZ Start Mode & Dpad. Steam took the longest to set up and configure..I'm still working through others like Wii which I've set different controls per game (the launcher copies a predetermine file to where Dolphin reads the inis from before launching the emu). It's a process and it's going side-by-side with artwork and hardware development.

The second screen's buttons map exactly the colors/layout of my arcade buttons. For guns, they show the exact mappings of the gun games to the AimTrak buttons (and the icon I made for those is traced off of the AimTrak guns as well). It's fairly custom and I don't want to get hopes up about a release since the code is more hackathon-type than production-ready. It's also not very efficient but since I'm throwing a fast computer at it it doesn't matter as much for me.

[ChanceKJ]

I used them on my Macross project. I got them from here:

http://www.tek-innovations.com/arthobbies/?loc=products&cat=7

I picked up a set of clear ones from them for my Flynn's build. They have some pretty solid customer service. Make sure you order the proper size washer for the sticks you're using!   I would just go Clear, and have something theme related laser etched on top.  My thinking was: I don't want anything getting in the way of my CP Artwork, but i want a top mounted dust washer, that can also be backlit. 

[nugarp]

It's been a while since I posted here and despite not posting, I've been busy working on the cabinet, so I wanted to post a progress update.

Updates:

XBOX 360!:
I decided a couple weeks ago that I wanted to incorporate a 360 into the cabinet, and I wanted it to be as seamless as possible. To do that, I grabbed ahold of my arduino that I once bought and never used and connected it to the 360's front shield so I can (1) poll for the xbox's ON status and (2) turn it on and off. I also have it hooked to a remote to send switching commands to an HDMI switch that I bought off of amazon. You can see a picture of it here (still TO-DO is wire up the sync button):



I also wanted my controls to automatically swap, so I am now sending a signal to the arduino that sets relays to determine whether my CP buttons should route to the PC or the 360. The board for the relays was a PITA to make. Maybe someone has a more efficient way, but I made 2 of these (see pic) - each had 16 relays (for 15 buttons + GND). I plan to add a switch that switches the joystick from Dpad to Left stick. All you have to do is short one of the circuits on the MadCatz FightPad, which is what I ripped out to solder onto as my 360 controllers (common ground FTW!). Here is what that relay board looks like. There is one input (CP) and two outputs (PC goes to IPAC2, XBOX goes to MadCatz FP):



Even though it was a buttload of work, I think it was definitely worth it. Everything is automatic and I opened up the system to be able to play a whole bunch of cool shooters, beat em ups, fighters, and (some) racing. Don't forget Guitar Hero/Rock Band/Lips! Since they are wireless and I have a sync button available that will swap between PC/360, I can always use wireless 360 controllers for either system!

HARDWARE:
I've gone ahead and created the second screen/admin panel holder. This will be tilted at about a 45 deg angle on the actual cabinet. This is what it looks like (please note all graphics are just printed on plain paper right now...just to check if my holes were in the correct place, etc.) My regular CP also doesn't have plexi on it yet.



I've wired in a volume knob. It's not working right and it is really frustrating. Whenever my volume is in the mid-range (~30%-70%) there is constant humming and it is driving me mad. I tried swapping out 3 total pots and..well, it clearly isn't the pot that's broken. There is something I am not accounting for and I have no idea what it is. I've spent about 13 hours or so on this. The good news is that it works, even if the buzzing sound drives me mad.

Since I've added a dedicated 360 to the system, I thought I would rearrange the button colors to match the 360. That is now done (don't mind if the colors weren't switched in any pictures, they've all been changed both in hardware and software now).

I've also added dual AimTrak guns to the system and have wired them up with recoil now.

SOFTWARE:
A lot of my time has been spent on improving my loader. It can now handle 360 games via all of the communication with the arduino. It's pretty cool; here's a very basic flow for it:

Poll status - is the 360 on? No? Send on signal and wait some time before continuing. Yes? Continue.
Launch FTP client - (note the FTP client times out after 20 seconds) - send an EXEC command to launch a game (system is jtagged). Did it return in < 20 seconds? Continue. No? Try again.
Still failing? Power down and up again (sometimes JTAGs fail to boot). Repeat up to 3 times. If it fails, return to main loader menu.
Hit the HDMI switch and activate all the CP relays.
Play your game!
Wait until the EXIT button on the CP is hit, or until the 360 is powered down. If either conditions occur, hit the HDMI switch, can the CP relays, and return to the loader.

The entire integration of the 360 is more or less seamless and as far as the user is concerned, the 360 games load up like all the others in the system. The only difference is the 360 is set to auto-off after an hour so if the system is off when you launch a 360 game, you have to wait the extra 15 seconds or so for it to boot up.

I also fixed an issue that was causing slowdowns and was driving me nuts. After running the program for x amount of time, the framerates were dropping. Turns out when you call CreateProcess (which I called periodically to launch a program to manage the visible windows on the cab, cmdow.exe) again and again, your program still keeps track of old handles. I changed to the deprecated/old WinExec method which isn't really recommended, but lets me launch cmdow in a "fire and forget" way, so now my cab should be able to be on 24/7 without having to restart

I updated my software to reflect the 360 button color layout.

Some UI/UX-friendly features, such as if you seek in a large list, the rate of going between games increases so its faster to go from A->Z when scrolling.

I added a "kid mode," in which I can filter out games I don't want my nephew/niece to be playing.

I added the ability to sort by something other than system. I know the systems for my games, but my friends don't. You can now sort not just by system, but also by genre, single/multiplayer, and list all games in alphabetical order.

..I could get into a lot of detail about a whole bunch of upgrades I did to it, but I don't think they're that fascinating for everyone else. So I'll stop here for now.

I would say that about 85% of the electrical work is done, 85% of the software work. Mostly "all" that is left is to build the darn cabinet now! Long term goal is getting that done. Short term goals include getting the volume buzz to go away, finishing soldered versions of ALL relays (only the CPs are done at this time, but that's also like 90% of the relays I needed), and cutting down my game list. I'm at 200 right now, but I would rather bring it down to 150 or so. I will probably cut the PS2 and PSP games. PSP because they are one player and not that unique; PS2 because the 360 has newer versions of the PS2 games I did want to play (Tekken, Lumines, etc.). The only thing I'd want on PS2 is WipEout and I don't care enough about it to keep it over simplifying my games list.

Thanks for reading!

[matt4949]

Watchin this one

[Locke141]

I think your interface is a little mad, but in a good way

Can you add a video of it all working?

Lots of sound issues around here seem to be fixed by changeing the amp to a dedicated power supply. Also keeping the sound wiring isolated from the massive amount of other wiring can't hurt.     

[nugarp]

Made a video. Glad I did because I caught a bug that manifested itself with multithreading on in the loader  even though it was just a native call failing!

A few caveats from watching what I said:
* I didn't make the buttons I used in the loader. I used an image I found on HyperSpin's forums. I traced the blue joystick too and animated it myself. But credit where credit is due.
* During the Beatles Rock Band, the second screen turns off for a few seconds. No big deal, the cable was loose. Ideally I would keep the controls on the second screen when launching a 360 game but the stupid Firefox kiosk won't switch positions from 1920,0 to 0,0. I'll probably end up just making a new application as a wrapper for a kiosk-esque webpage viewer.



No idea why it's 360p. I recorded at 720@30 but I've also never uploaded to youtube before..

[EMDB]

Great loader! Kinda XBMC like. Are you gonna make it publically available? It would be a good alternative for Hyperspin if the configuration would be easy. It would also be nice to have the 2nd screen somehow showing during loading of a game or pop-upable (is that a word ?) via a button for single screen cabs.

[Locke141]

That looks darn good.

Thanks for posting.

[Malenko]

Looking really good Nugarp!  I like the final design of the CP, looks like it flows well, just hope you got rid of the vertical text on the sides

I look forward to seeing the completed cab!

[Brian74]

This is just sick! I love how smooth the interface is. You sir, have done a great job 

[Locke141]

All the back ground music you need is from the iPhone atari app.

[nugarp]

Argh! I thought I replied to all of these a while ago, and here when I Come to post an update I see that it looks like I'm being a complete jackass...sorry guys! I did read everyone's replies and thank you all for the support .

@EMDB, thanks!! It works great for my purposes but it's not really in any condition to be publically releasable. E.g. there is so much hard-coding in there for my needs (xbox ip address, systems, paths, ahk scripts, etc) that it would be a ton extra to get a deliverable. And I had very specific goals in mind that I wanted for my own cabinet when I set out to write it.

@Locke141, np. I actually had a lot of fun making the video. I should post more often than every 2-3 months though... :\

@Malenko, The more I think about the side art, the more I am willing to reconsider/revamp it. Luckily there is still plenty of time for that.

@Brian, thanks!

With those things said, an update...on the software side, I've mostly been doing engineering tasks / bug fixes, but the code is in a great place now. I have a few different programs talking to each other, originally it was through the file system, which then I switched over to SQLite, and finally MySQL. MySQL is great for communicating between a hoard of processes, and it queues up requests and handles locking etc, so that I don't have to. Switching to the 360 on the fly works flawlessly right now. That said, I feel like the software side may not be as exciting for other people as much as the actual building.

Since it is my first real woodworking project, I'm admittedly pretty slow at it. I've still been working on the project at least 2 hours/weekday and 6 hours/weekend-day, though usually have gone above that very, very conservative estimate. I've managed to cut most of the pieces needed for the cabinet (with the exception of the back of the cabinet). I still have some other pieces to work on like the gun holders, cable holes for the guns, holes for other wires in the inside of the cab, and holes for casters/leg levelers at the bottom of the cabinet.

Fun things that I've also done as side projects include figuring out how, given that my current sub looks like poo, to get a good sub cover on the front of the cab. Here's what I came up with:


I took a Polk Audio MM10G subwoofer cover (http://www.rakuten.com/prod/new-polk-audio-mm8g-8-grill-mobile-monitor-car-audio-subwoofer-sub/233878898.html?listingId=336200917&scid=pla_google_BeachAudio&adid=29963&gclid=CI6u376ko78CFRAV7AodgVsAFw), bought some speaker grill cloth off of amazon, and sandwiched the cloth between the cover and a piece of plexi that I cut to size. I then cut holes in the plexi to align with the holes you'll see below at the bottom of my cab to actually let sound through. I think it'll work out great!

Most recently, I've been working quite anally on getting the frame set up for the cabinet. I have both sides of the cabinet cut, and each side has both sides already laminated. I wanted to laminate the inside first so that I wouldn't need to worry about laminating it later, which I assume would only have been more difficult. I cut a 3/4" dado for the base that runs from the back of the cab to almost the front, and then I cut 1" thick blocks everywhere (1/4" deep) to insert 1" home depot square dowel rods into. I can then glue these into the 1/4"-deep holes and subsequently glue to the cabinet's panels. Because I wanted to be fairly accurate, I ended up going through a ton of trouble to create templates for most of my cuts. The templates were basically the shape of the cabinet, except I cut out straight lines for where my panels should be aligned against and created 1" gaps for support blocks. I also added a couple of blocks along the edge of the template to help line it up against the cabinet. I would be heartbroken if things didn't line up right, which is why I went through all of the trouble:



But in the end, I would say it was worth it 



(side node: yep I know the back of the cab's top two slots are about 1/4" difference in height, that was a mismeasurement, but it's okay. As long as the distance didn't differ to the edge it doesn't bother me).

Here are the plans I made for the battons:



I'm currently in the process of gluing the dowel rods into the slots. I did get a little excited before finishing all of the slots though and tried a test fit:







PS - thanks for all the support everyone. This is definitely a ton of work but I know it's going to be worth it in the end  I'll post more updates more often now that it will at least visually look like things are progressing a lot faster since I hope to be assembling within the next few weeks.

[Locke141]

This is looking quite good.

Taking your time is the best thing you can do. All the thing I don't love about my pedestal build are the things I rushed.

[Malenko]

@Malenko, The more I think about the side art, the more I am willing to reconsider/revamp it. Luckily there is still plenty of time for that.

Your cab, your style, your choice.    I just wanted to show you other options before you got it done so you didnt regret anything, getting art printed isnt cheap   The way you have everything working is nothing short of amazing.

[nugarp]

  guys.

Now that the cabinet is cut out and the shell can be assembled, I'm working on trying to get all of the holes and tidbits left that I need out of the way. The most interesting (and I have spent all of today on..and maybe tomorrow) is creating these gun holsters. If you look at my original post, they will go under the CP and into the cabinet (they're roughly by the coin door) because I didn't want them blocking any sideart. I basically wanted a rectangle with some sort of lining to help prevent scratches (on the gun and holster). I decided to cut a box to size and apply felt that I got from Michael's:



Then it occurred to me that with enough gun inserts and pullouts, the edge of the felt would probably come off in time. I needed a better solution. Instead, I found some fake-plexiglass material at Home Depot that was 0.050" thick (I picked that up over lexan and acrylic simply because it was thinner. The other two's thinnest was 0.093"). I wanted a thin insert because I had cut the box fairly small already and any thickness would make it much more difficult to insert AimTraks. So I painted the glassy material on one side and flipped it over and put it in the box (the paint is against the wood). You would think you would get a glossy finish but it's only really semigloss even with glossy paint. Probably a property of the fake glassy material.



IMO it also looks much cleaner than just using felt. However, I'm still tight on space and I'm afraid of the crapglass getting scratched. Those rubber bumpers are definitely too big to fit in the holster. Any ideas? My other option is "deal with it. It will get scratched at some point and there's nothing you can do about it." I could also potentially add some type of rubber protector on the guns though that would seem tacky.

I also learned that contact cement takes spray paint off the material like nobody's business. Wood glue seemed to work well to hold the material to the wood.

[nugarp]

I found this paint protection film (http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Universal-Guard-Paint-Protection/dp/B003EP52BU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404798564&sr=8-1&keywords=xpel+film) on Amazon and tried applying it to a sample version of the fake glass I'm using for the gun container. Took a knife and scratched the crap out of the film. Removed the film and not a scratch on the fake glass. Should be more than sufficient for the guns sliding in and out My next issue to tackle is making sure the film doesn't get dislodged with repeated insert/removals of the gun rubbing against its edge...maybe I should wrap it in some way around the front of the holsters. Still thinking about it.

Meanwhile, I received a replacement 360 FightPad. One of the ones I had soldered would sometimes not get recognized on 360's bootup, but the other always worked fine. This was also the fightpad that I lifted a trace off of, so maybe there is a short happening where I tried to solder to instead (it worked though).

I also received my Freud 45 degree chamfer bit (http://www.amazon.com/Freud-40-118-45-Degree-Chamfer-Router/dp/B00004T7IB/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1404798880&sr=8-3&keywords=freud+45+degree+chamfer) and cut some of the angles needed for joining my pieces. Most notably, the top-rear of the cabinet (45 degrees on the same side) and the second screen panel (45 degrees on opposing sides). Will put up pictures probably tomorrow, but the cuts were very clean and I'm very impressed with the bit!

[nugarp]

I'll just leave these here.


laminating + plexi the CP



finishing the front with laminate, speaker grill, gun holster holes, and diamond plate



the gun holsters from the inside, with the paint protection film attached



all lit up



a sneak peek into what kept me distracted...which I want to build once I finish the main cab. It will connect to inputs/outputs on my main cab (you can see the display is mirrored).
Fanatec GT2 wheel which will auto-switch between 360/PC depending on the game (that's why the cover is off and wires exposed), clubsport pedal v2s with red pedal kit, Procar racing seat (though may switch out for sparco), a sub I may opt to not use, a fullsized buttkicker LFE, a derek spears design sequential shifter (feels way better than paddle shifters) for which I'm laser cutting a custom enclosure and 28" screen.

[DeLuSioNal29]

You heard it here first:  This is going to be nominated (an very well may win) the BYOAC 2014 full size cab of the year.  Fresh ideas, innovative solutions and overall WOW factor.  It's getting my vote.   

Awesome build.  Subscribed!  Can't wait to see the final product.

DeLuSioNaL29

[yotsuya]

I dunno, there's some nice things going on here, but I'm not a fan of the oversized speaker grilles.

[Malenko]

laminating + plexi the CP

Gonna say "best joystick placement for a camera reflection ever"

[DeLuSioNal29]

I dunno, there's some nice things going on here, but I'm not a fan of the oversized speaker grilles.

Agreed on the grilles.  But I'm really talking about the hardware/software innovation.  Hopefully the other cosmetic issues can be corrected.

D