Simplistic Galaxian Mini Bartop ( Inspired by ChanceKJ's Pacman PNP build)

[JDFan]

Have been meaning to start this project thread for awhile ( Since ChanceKJ is getting tired of me posting in his build thread ! ) but wanted to finalize some of the details before starting it and make sure I didn't become a charter member of the unfinished build club. So now that the build is almost wrapped up I figured I should post the details of the build for those that wanted to see it ( I'll be posting PICs ) as well as some detail of the build.

So that said here is the project thread for my "Simplistic Galaxian Mini bartop"  and a quick preview pic of the final result for those not interested in reading through without seeing the result first  :



First off a bit of background on this project :  ( It is a bit lengthy so can be skipped if wanted but figured there might be a couple bored individuals out there that might actually read it.)

Was trying to decide on a new project build that would be good for a tight budget and wanted a simple to setup and play system (ie. Already built a MAME bartop, but some family members find it hard to use - as selecting from a few thousand games is a bit challenging) so wanted to build something with just a few games that could be turned on and played easily. ( No windows OS or Front End to deal with.)

With that in mind, I came across ChanceKJ's "Simplistic Pac-Man Bartop (Project Code Name: Yellow Fever)"  - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,136983.0.html - and decided that one of those small Pac Man plug and play units would be the perfect base for what I wanted.

Thus began this build.

First thing I needed was to source one of the PNP units so I took a trip to the local K-mart and discovered that they had just received a new shipment of the Namco Pacman units for $25 ( they had been OOS for several months so I thought I was going to have to resort to Ebay for a used unit.)



Got home and had to test it for awhile to ensure it worked correctly so put in some batteries and hooked it up to the TV I thought would be used in the build - an old 13" Disney Princess TV that my neice had outgrown.



Everything worked fine but there were a few problems - First being I had started looking at designs for the unit and was leaning toward a Weecade Clonish shape which this TV would not easily fit in unless I really scaled it up and I wanted something with a smaller footprint. Second and more of a problem was this TV did not have a button to set for AV mode (you had to use the remote control to switch to AV mode and it did not stay in AV mode when turned off) - so after some contemplation (and purchasing an AV to Coaxial converter at Goodwill for $2 that bypassed the second problem) - I decided the 13" TV was not going to work for this build. So started looking for other options.

At this point I came across a 9.2" headrest monitor that Walmart was discontinuing and selling for $29+ shipping - which I ordered.


Also ordered the other parts I would need ( Joystick $12 , buttons $3 ) and began waiting for the parts to arrive.

Fours days later -- I receive an E-mail from Walmart saying the item is OOS and they do not know when it will be restocked so my order has been cancelled. Soooo back to looking for a monitor solution -- Finally ended up on Ebay and found a 7" DVD player secondary monitor for $16.71 shipped and went back to waiting.

3 days later the monitor arrived so hooked it up and tested



A couple days later the buttons arrived ( smaller than I thought they'd be so repurposed one into my Robotron build for the on\off switch and removed the red button I was using and combined with the 1 extra I had left over from that build. Then got the next bad news  - checked on the joystick tracking and found this :



So thought the darn USPS had sent the joystick back to china !!!!! -- Luckily a quick call to the local branch the next morning found it was a false alarm (they had given it to the wrong carrier thus undeliverable since it was not his route) so was being re-sorted to the correct carrier and he would deliver it that day. )



Will post the next segment later this evening

[scoodidabop]

EDITWrong thread sorry!

[JDFan]

EDITWrong thread sorry!

No worries 

[ChanceKJ]

  wicked.

This build is rad.  Haha I didn't get sick of you posting in my thread, I just felt this was so cool it needed its own with the whole play by play. 

Next someone has to put one of these into a mini cab, or a full size. That would be cool, maybe with the DB25 switcher and a couple more plug-n-plays.

[JDFan]

wicked.

This build is rad.  Haha I didn't get sick of you posting in my thread, I just felt this was so cool it needed its own with the whole play by play. 

Next someone has to put one of these into a mini cab, or a full size. That would be cool, maybe with the DB25 switcher and a couple more plug-n-plays.

LOL - I know you didn't really mind but needed the push to get a project thread going - was a bit worn out from work so didn't post part 2 last night but will get it posted today (it should be a bit more interesting as it starts to cover the actual build and artwork but figured the background needed to be posted for those that wanted more than just a few final build pics. BTW got the final CP art and Bezel installed and it came out the way I had imagined so overall very satisfied with the result.

[mike boss]

Looking forward to your progress JDFan.
Sounds like a cool project.

[JDFan]

Ok time for part 2 ( Artwork Design )

This section will go into the artwork design and developement.

While waiting for the pieces to arrive was again browsing the forum ( Like we all do ) and came across a thread by roknrol  in the artwork sub forum requesting a galaxian art rework for a verticade project he was doing. ( http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,138575.0.html ) - I liked the concept and posted a few ideas for him and offered to help a bit with the design if he wanted and afterwards got to thinking that the galaxian theme would be perfect for this build since ChandeKJ was already doing a Pacman and the Plug and Play unit included Galaxian as one of the 12 games it played so would fit right in.

So that decided I started to design and adapt the galaxian artwork for a weecade clone design ( this is the shape of cab I was going for at the time. Spent a few days working on the art and eventually came up with some side art that looked good (took several attempts and revisions which can be seen in the artwork thread linked above) but the other members of this forum made some great suggestions as it developed and the final result looked better than I had thought it would



After getting it finalized roknrol had posted again still looking for something with the verticade profile so I adapted the weecade version design to fit the verticade profile and it also looked pretty good



With the sideart completed and the parts in hand I started to build a cardboard mock up of the weecade clone design. After getting it put together the weecade design didn't really look very stable at the size I was going to build this project (with the 7" monitor the overall build size was fairly small and the weecade design looked a bit unstable at those dimensions since it was fairly tall and narrow and I was afraid it might tilt easily while playing - so once again back to the design stage. Was trying to decide what direction to go and eventually remembered the Verticade artwork was already done so made some final adjustments to it (mainly to reduce the sides to under 8.5x11" so they could be printed on my printer and applied as stickers) printed out a template of the verticade sides at the dimensions that fit the parts and it looked very stable.  And the dimensions at 9.75" tall x 10.5" deep x 10" wide all remained a printable size for printing on my HP laserjet printer on regular 8.5x11 sticker paper meaning the artwork would be much cheaper than sending out for printing !!

So made up a new mockup and was pleased with the outcome - so began working on the rest of the artwork which went quickly since it was mainly just a resizing of the various Namco based Galaxian artwork.









Enough for this post will post section 3 later today with details of the build process.

[Locke141]

Looking good. I am loving the are work.

I am going to do a mini cab with a Pac-Man Connect and Play in July.

Ill be book marking this build.


 

[JDFan]

On to section 3 : woodwork and assembly

Now that the artwork was pretty much finished and the parts had been received it was time to move on to the actual building of the cabinet. The cabinet build was pretty uneventful and consisted of marking out the template for the sides using the cardboard mock up that had been used for testing and then using the jigsaw to cut the sides ( just cut fairly close to the template on both sides and then clamped together) - after cutting both sides out with the jigsaw and clamping together I broke out the belt sander with a medium grit belt and sanded the sides to match up the 2 sides

Since I'm not the best with a jigsaw it took a bit of sanding to get them matching which also meant the sides did not perfectly match the template (which is partially why the artwork was designed the way it was so that any discrepancy between the template and the finished sides was not an issue.)

After getting the sides to match I placed furring strips for support around the sides measuring in 1\2 inch from the edges for the internal portions to be a flush fit on the back and bottom. I then moved on to creating the CP and other intenal sections by cutting a single strip of MDF to the 9 Inch size that I had decided was the size to use based on the monitor and CP spacing being used and then cutting the individual pieces on at a time measuring as I assembled. I used 1" screws to attach each piece to the supports from the inside (except for the marquee section which was too tight to fit screws so used wood glue and clapms to hold in position until the glue dried) as they were cut using clamps to hold in position.

This part of the build was fairly uneventful with the only problem I ran into being that I forgot to allow enough clearance for the full size Happ Buttons with the Microswitches attached ( since the cardboard mock up was thinner than the 1\2" MDF) so had to take the bottom piece back to the table saw and cut a channel out of the bottom leaving enough for support but allowing clearance for the buttons as shown in the pic below. ( Just lowered the blade depth so that the cut would leave about 1\8 inch and then made several passes on the table saw to create the needed space )



Once all was assembled I also mounted the monitor to the bezel and found there was not enough room for the entire case on the monitor so disassembled it (was going to just mount it without the case but found it would be easier to just cut the bottom portion of the case off (it only was used for the single speaker) and then reassemble the monitor and support pieces back into the case for mounting - so disassembled - cut the bottom off and reassebled and then mounted to the bezel and tested the fit. ( did this since the pcb for the monitor and ribbon cable had more support by being back in the partial case than they would have if the case was completely removed and it also left access to the adjustment buttons by removing the back panel in case I need to adjust the picture or sound level.



( you may wonder what that part is shown in this pic with the molex connector and glob of liquid tape - will explain it in the next post for those that do not figure it out !! )

I know I probably should have gotten more pics for this section but forgot to take them and after gluing the marquee and bottom pieces into place it was too late to go back with the camera !

After getting it assembled with the monitor in place I tested to ensure the monitor still worked after cutting the case and that the buttons did in fact fit properly.



Luckily all was fine so was ready to move on to disassembling the Plug and Play unit and getting everything ready to fit inside the build and also painting the cab. Will cover those pieces in the next post. But since I didn't get enough pics for this section here is a teaser pic of the build in progress.

[TheDude]

This little bartop looks very nice ! 

[JDFan]

Looking good. I am loving the are work.

I am going to do a mini cab with a Pac-Man Connect and Play in July.

Ill be book marking this build.

Thanks -- when you get going if you need any assistance or have questions feel free to PM and I'll do what I can to help.

This little bartop looks very nice ! 

Thanks it is getting quite a bit of use (think the ease of use and small size make some family members less worried using it ! )

[JDFan]

Part 4 : installing internals and hooking up PNP

With the cabinet mostly built and assembled and the CP depth corrected so that the buttons fit properly it was time to move on to installing the PNP unit. Thanks to ChanceKJ and his detailed posts on his build I felt I had enough info to proceed with disassembling the Pacman unit and getting it ready to install.

I had already bypassed the battery compartment and installed a 6v 250Mah adapter to use to power the pacman unit during testing and had a 12V 1.3A adapter for the monitor. But during testing found that having the 2 AC plugs and adapters took up quite a bit of room and didn't really want to place a smart strip into the cab due to space restrictions.

So I posted a thread in the automated projects sub forum (figured the people in that sub forum would have more electronics knowledge.) requesting some info on adapting the 12V adapter to run both the 12V monitor and the 6V pacman unit. Thankfully DaOldMan responded to the thread and suggested using a 6V regulator to drop the 12V input from the adapter to 6V for use in the pacman unit. aloong with a link to the main part needed ( an L7806 voltage regulator )



With the name of the part I was able to find several tutorials and schematics showing how to build the part. So decided to go to radio shack and get the parts and build one. Unfortunately Radioshack did not carry the 7806 but did have the 7805 which is the same except outputs 5V rather than 6V. (which works fine for this use as the Pacman unit is designed to use 4 batteries and since rechargeable batteries output 1.2V per unit rather than the 1.5V of alkaline batteries the unit was made so that it can run on a range of Voltages ( I tested as low as 4V and it worked fine) 

After picking up the parts and getting a schematic from the net - I proceeded to assemble the regulator (that's the part mentioned shown in the pic in part 3)


Creating the regulator was a fairly simple process (even with my poor soldering skills) and after soldering the 2 capacitors and the 7805 together as shown in the schematic - had something ready to test



tested with a 9V battery and it worked !! (nice stable 5V output from the 9V input) and the pacman unit ran fine off of it. So was confident it would also work off of the 12V adapter for the monitor getting rid of the need for the 6V adapter.



Next step was to wire up the Pacman unit to use the new joystick and buttons which thanks again to ChnceKJ was fairly easy ( Just be sure not to short any connections ) I used the wiring off of an old blown PSU 20+4 Pin connector and some 0.184 quick disconnects.


Once that was finished was ready to assemble after painting the cab ( Didn't go into a lot of detail in this portion because ChanceKJ has detailed things really well already in his build thread ! )

For painting I used a high quality Paint and primer (Valspar paint and primer in 1) that was a mis color so was marked down to $2.50 for a quart (regularly around $25) even though it was an ugly orangeish tinted yellow - since it was going to be covered by the final Royal blue spray paint final coat. (found this worked very well as the expensive paint was a nice thick coat and dried with liitle brush strokes that were easily sanded out making a nice surface for the final spray coat.



Will continue with the final assembly and artwork install in the next post.


 

[JDFan]

Final build assembly

With the cabinet put together and painted and all the Plug and Play parts set up for install it was time for the final steps. I was ready to print a copy of the final artwork on my HP laser printer - only to find that unfortunately the 25 pack of sticker paper I had purchased when building my Robotron bartop had somehow run out ( had 15 or so pieces left after printing the ones I used for the robotron bartop but somewhere along the line my niece had needed some for a project for school ( and after finding she could make stickers with it decided she wanted some stickers for decorating other things  leaving me 1 piece

Since I had only the 1 piece I decided to print the CP panel and install it - after printing I found I had not measured the layout very well and things didn't really line up but left it for now until the new paper was sourced. The next day I went to a few local office supply places only to find they wanted $18 for 10 sheets of the paper (had paid $4.99 for the 25 pack so wasn't willing to throw $18 out for 10) so came home and started looking online - Finally found Onlinelabels.com where they had 100 sheets of the paper for $10.45 + $4.95 shipping so $3 cheaper than the local office supply place for 10x the amount of sheets (  and the retail outlets wonder why they don't have people in the stores buying things !  )  During the 3 days waiting for the paper I found that the CP sticker was not holding up very well (Ink was streaking and fading) so was going to need to do something to make it last longer.



So a quick trip to Walmart found a couple possible solutions -- 1.) clear shelving Contact Paper that could be cut and applied to create a laminate layer protecting the artwork. 2.) A can of Clear spray paint to coat the paper pretty much doing the same. 3.) taking the prints to the office depot and having them laminate the pieces -- Decided to first try the spray can so purchased a $4 can of clear Krylon spray paint. Once the new paper arrived I adjusted the CP panel art and printed a new copy of it and also the rest of the art. Cut out the side art stickers and trimmed the CP and bezel art and then used the Clear Krylon paint to apply a thin layer over the prints and let dry. Applying the paint had me worried as at first it appeared to be smearing the artwork but as it dried it turned out fine (just be sure not to soak the print with too much paint - better to apply a couple very thin layers). Once dried I disassembled the CP and Bezel and applied all of the artwork and reassembled completing the build.

Here are a few pics of the final result (I'm very pleased with the result) -- If anyone has questions or needs more info on any parts of the build feel free to ask.

[ChanceKJ]

Wicked. Now I just need to get mine done.

[Malenko]

love the build, but now I have an electrical connection question.  My plan was to use a HD power cord thingie that outputs at both 5v and 12v , can I just run the 5v rail to the pacman and the 12v rail to the monitor?

[JDFan]

love the build, but now I have an electrical connection question.  My plan was to use a HD power cord thingie that outputs at both 5v and 12v , can I just run the 5v rail to the pacman and the 12v rail to the monitor?

Should be fine -- as long as there is enough Wattage to provide both the 5V and 12V circuits which shouldn't be a problem - figure the Pacman unit was running fine off of a 6V 250ma adapter so it uses very little power itself ( figure 6V x0.25A = 1.5Watts) and most monitors are under 2A of 12V power or around 24Watts ( My 7" monitor required 0.8A of 12V so about 10W )  so pretty much any power supply should provide plenty of wattage.

I mainly built the voltage regulator because the AC adapter I was using for the monitor only provided 12V so it was either build the VR or use 2 seperate AC adapters (1 12V and 1 6V) which then meant 2 plugs and\or 2 wires running to the wall or hidden inside the cab which meant taking up more space inside.

If your power source already puts out the 2 voltages you should be fine running them both from it. I know ChanceKJ did pretty much the same in his build, since his TV had USB ports that output 5V he just modified a USB wire for the 5V output and ran it to the Pac unit. 

[Louis Tully]

.

[emphatic]

Great result!

[Generic Eric]

I wonder if there is a good model of screen this size that you can get without the video player...

[JDFan]

Great result!

That is nice! Great work, JDFan. If I ever get to work on the plug and play I took apart a few years ago, I'll definitely be taking a page or two from your work. Excellent stuff here.

Thanks guys - look forward to seeing what you come up with LT -- your Mario Pedestal is looking great !

I wonder if there is a good model of screen this size that you can get without the video player...

That is what this used -- It is the secondary screen that normally comes with a Dual screen DVD player for use in a car -- the main units have the DVD player and monitor with just AV out and the secondary screen is just the monitor with a speaker and AV in - so was perfect for use in a project like this - I paid $16 shipped for just this secondary screen on Ebay. The only thing is the 7" screen is a bit small (it can be switched from widescreen to 4:3 format but on the 4:3 setting it is kind of small with black bars on the sides) - If I was building another I'd probably go with a 9" screen instead (which is actually what i had ordered from Walmart for $29 but they sold out of the headrest monitors before I got it so then resorted to this 7" screen).

Ebay also has a good selection of 7" TFT monitors designed for car back up systems that would work well for around $30 - $35 shipped ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-TFT-LCD-Color-Monitor-Mirror-Reverse-Auto-Car-Rear-View-Backup-IR-Remote-SWTG-/231218357442?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35d5b024c2&vxp=mtr ) but if you look around you can find the Dual DVD player secondary monitors cheaper if you are not in a hurry to get something.

[roknrol]

Wow. Can't believe I missed this a month ago when you posted it. The mini Galaxian build turned out great!

(I also can't believe you took this from concept to completion already -- I still haven't finished working up my artwork yet! )

[ChanceKJ]

How do you think I feel!? Haha, it's inspired by mine and I'm not even done yet!

[JDFan]

 

Wow. Can't believe I missed this a month ago when you posted it. The mini Galaxian build turned out great!

(I also can't believe you took this from concept to completion already -- I still haven't finished working up my artwork yet! )

Thanks I'm pretty happy with the way it came out also ! -- it actually took a bit longer than it seems because I cheated a bit and posted in ChancKJ's build thread a few times before starting my own thread so had already got started and also had spent the time creating the artwork for your thread awhile back (if you'd like I can put them in a zip file and upload for you - just let me know), so only had to make a few adjustments to it so that part went quickly once I decided to change from a weecade template (had also made a weecade version of the artwork that I was going to use but was afraid at this smaller size it would not be stable and might tip over during play) to the Verticade design.

How do you think I feel!? Haha, it's inspired by mine and I'm not even done yet!

But the parts you have finished made the process much easier for me to follow !!  And I wasn't working on any other builds at the same time. The one main thing that also made this go quicker was not having to send the artwork out for printing since it was all able to be fit on 8.5x11 sheets of sticker paper and printed on my home laser printer - so was able to correct mistakes and reprint a couple times.

[roknrol]

Thanks for the artwork offer. After starting that artwork thread and seeing the artwork on that Spanish arcade site (the one 404 linked up), I realized why I wasn't satisfied with the base artwork. That's why I'm moving so slowly -- I realized I need to just bite the bullet and spend some quality time with AI and create some "zoomed in" custom side art using the Namco art as the starting point.

But hey -- you did inspire me to get going in one area: I template-cut my Verticade side panels and cut the t-slot, too this weekend. (Those had been traced and sitting in the corner for, oh, four months or so ....)