Project: Arcade Evolution (Wiring and Metalwork!)

[ZexisStryfe]

Yup. The sides will be covered. It is (for the most part) the lower half of the cabinet, the back and the CP box than will need the extra touch.

[ZexisStryfe]

I have been painting for the last few weeks (lucky me) and everything was moving along nicely until I got to the most important piece- the front of the lower half of the cabinet. Here I start running into this little problem-



Now, keep in mind I have been waiting a minimum of 48 hours between coats... does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on? After sanding the cracking down and repainting it simply happens again in a different spot! I swear I am about 5 minutes away from sanding this entire thing back down to the wood and starting over...

[vwalbridge]

This is almost always because the previous coat didn't fully cure.

However, it is important to understand that paint doesn't cure based only on time. Just because you have waited 48 hours, doesn't mean the paint is cured.

(I've found the 48 hour rule to actually be total nonsense. It may be dry to the touch but it's not "chemically" cured) I wait a week before applying art on paint for example.

2 other factors could be at work here:

Temperature and/or humidity

Is it cold where you are painting and/or humid?

[ZexisStryfe]

This is almost always because the previous coat didn't fully cure.

However, it is important to understand that paint doesn't cure based only on time. Just because you have waited 48 hours, doesn't mean the paint is cured.

(I've found the 48 hour rule to actually be total nonsense. It may be dry to the touch but it's not "chemically" cured) I wait a week before applying art on paint for example.

2 other factors could be at work here:

Temperature and/or humidity

Is it cold where you are painting and/or humid?

That is good to know. I initially thought it was that I wasn't giving the paint enough time to cure as well, but the last time this happened there was actually 2 weeks between coats, so I am not positive that is the cause anymore. Regarding temperature and humidity- It is about 60-70 degrees in the room and if anything it is a bit dry. I have successfully painted 4 other pieces without issue (both backboards, the control box and the control panel), this is only happening on that one piece- the lower half of the arcade. Unfortunately this is also the most complicated piece...

Another thing to note- this doesn't happen as the paint dries- it happens immediately when the new coat goes on.

[ZexisStryfe]

Okay, I noticed something rather interesting... I have decided to sand this piece back down to wood and start painting it again... however I have another piece drying right next to it and didn't want to kick up dust so instead I started scraping with a chisel. To my surprise, the top few layers peeled right off! Underneath was a layer that looked like lizard skin. It was dry, but gummy in spots. It makes me wonder if there wasn't something wrong with one of the cans of spray paint I was using...

Tomorrow I am going to sand it down and start over.... This should be fun.

[dkersten]

Could be bad paint or could be it wasn't shaken well enough.. Gotta shake a can of gloss or semi gloss for a good 2-3 minutes (vigorously), then stop to shake every minute or so during the application. 

[ZexisStryfe]

It has been a very productive last few weeks!

I have finally finished painting the cabinet. I ended up having to sand the lower portion of the cab back down to primer and then repaint in order to get rid of the crocodile skin paint.



Although it was quite a bit of work (you can see all the pealed paint in the background) the end result was quite nice. I painted the exterior surfaces of the cabinet using Rustoleum Satin Black and the interior portions with Rustoleum Satin Sapphire. 



Here is the final result-

Lower Half:




Upper Half:




The sides of the upper half have already been sanded to prep for the sideart in these pictures, hence the appearance.

While I was painting I also got to work at getting the artwork ready to be put on. After seeing his work on these board I decided to reach out to Brad (Lucian045 on the boards) to get the artwork done. Imagine my surprise when he ended up living 3 miles away from me! First Brad printed out my side artwork and did a fantastic job at a very good price (the photo doesn't do the print justice)-



After doing such a great job I took up his offer to print out my marquee and re-print my control panel overlay (the original print from GameonGraphix was hyper saturated and scratched in several places). Both came out fantastic-

Control Panel Overlay


Marquee


I highly endorse Brad for his fantastic work!

[Ian]

Not to be a paint nazi but i don't understand for the life of me why people on here spend good money on parts and materials for arcade cabinets and then go cheap on the paint? Spray paint not only is almost always thin paint with little durability and poor binders and subpar raw materials like pigments.

This isn't on Zex specifically because he is covering it up mostly with artwork. But going out and getting decent enamel paint (latex or oil) rolled on and sanded in between coats will give you a better look, and way better durability, washability and less chances of alligatoring, blistering, peeling, and burnishing.

Just my two cents. I will go on about my business.


And Zex I am liking this build! Keep it up!

[ChanceKJ]

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[ZexisStryfe]

Honestly, I hate painting. I can (and repeatedly) screw up painting a flat wall, never mind a cabinet with lots of nooks and crannies. I chose spray paint because I thought it would be easier, and for the most part it was. That said, I feel like I have to be very careful not to damage the surface- it seems very fragile, which totally may be just a perception. Next time I do something like this, I will likely look at using a paint sprayer instead of spray paint. I feel like that may give me the quality I am looking for, combined with the ease of application that spray paint has.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Is it me or does the right side angle look warped?

[rablack97]

He just has it laying on the floor with nothing underneath it, its not flat.

[Ian]

You should see the surface i can get with a couple good rattle cans.   

 

[ZexisStryfe]

Is it me or does the right side angle look warped?

Rablack is right. The sideart hasn't been applied yet. When I got it, it was rolled up. This pic was from when I was flattening it out.

[ZexisStryfe]

Alright, It has been a bit since my last update but there has been quite a bit of progress!

First off, I have begun putting the art on my cabinet- I started off with the control panel-



Using a felt squeegee this went on very easily,  and then I trimmed the edges can cut out the holes with an exacto knife.



You can see from the picture that I had some alignment issues. It seems when I cut the holes in the wood I didn't align with the artwork properly. Luckily not hing was bad enough that it will show up once all the hardware is added.

Here it is all cleaned up with the black t-molding added!



One thing to note (you can see it in the pics) is the fact that I used a trackball plate and that is actually visible through the artwork. Not a dealbreaker but something to think about in future builds.

Now regarding the hardware- I spray painted the joystick plates black



and then began adding the hardware. As you can see, I have gone the same route as Chance, adding the "ChanceRings" to the joystick slots along with two RGB LEDs to light them-



Another thing to note is that despite going with the GroovyGameGear Electric ICE-T trackball, I actually ended up using the lighting module from Ultimarc so that it would work with my I-PAC Ultimate. Because of this I had to create a DIY mount using some hot glue and a fork terminal connector-



And here it is mounted-



And here is the interior of the panel (Wiring is not done) with everything mounted



and the exterior

[ChanceKJ]

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[ChanceKJ]

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[yotsuya]

I really like that blue.

[ChanceKJ]

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[yotsuya]

I was talking about the paint job, actually.

[ChanceKJ]

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[ZexisStryfe]

Thanks guys. I am actually very pleasantly surprised on how the blue color came out. I thought it was going to be much darker than it actually turned out being, but it matches well with the color of the buttons and battops.

Speaking of the battops, I really have to thank Paradise Arcade for those. They are their JAPROC Pacific Blue ALU battops, which they no longer carry. They were nice enough to go to their supplier and get me a set despite no longer carrying them. Big props to them for doing that for me.

A further update-

Today I was able to combine the upper and lower halves of the cabinet. I used some felt tape between the two halves of the cabinet and then attached them using the inset screw nuts and star knobs, this way they can be separated whenever I like (such as when I am moving).







And here are the two halves finally united!

[ZexisStryfe]

Alright,

Question for you guys regarding the IPAC Ultimate I/O-

On this board there are three unlabeled pins



Are these pins also GND pins like the last pin in that row?

[dkersten]

I am 99% sure those are grounds as well. 

[Malenko]

Are these pins also GND pins like the last pin in that row?

Just follow the traces on the back of the board to be sure.

[Scotty_C]

I can confirm that those pins are ground on the UIO. Looking very nice! Really like the interior paint job and how it's all put together.

[ZexisStryfe]

I can confirm that those pins are ground on the UIO. Looking very nice! Really like the interior paint job and how it's all put together.

Once I began testing I verified that you are right, Scotty. They are in fact ground pins.

[ZexisStryfe]

And progress marches on, waiting for no man!

This week I was able to add the side artwork to the cabinet! This process was quite easy thanks to some hints from Lucian045. I laid the cabinet down on it side and using some painter's tape I taped the artwork onto the cabinet.



I trimmed some of the backing off and went to town with a felt squeegee! After everything was nice and even with no air bubbles (Air release plastic for the win!) I then started removing the 1/2" masking tape I used to cover up the t-molding slot during painting.



I got quite a bit of satisfaction doing this for some reason...

After all the masking tape was removed I trimmed the artwork back with a super-sharp exacto knife



Finally, I put on the t-molding (dark blue), flipped her over and did the other side! Here is Evolution standing with the control panel on it-



I also took the opportunity to set up the TV mount, mount the underside LED tape (superglue was my friend on this one) and I put up some 3/16" pegboard in the marquee area and then covered it in metal tape for a nice reflective surface. I then screwed the marquee LEDs in place!

Oh, and mounted the TV!



Not too shabby for a week's worth of work... and I haven't even gotten to the work I did on the weekend yet!

[ZexisStryfe]

This weekend was productive! I concentrated on getting the power wired up and the front IO panel for the sound system.

First I mounted the speakers using pipe hanging straps-



Then I decided to wire the power button for the cabinet. The power button is an anti-vandal momentary switch with 12V LEDs and sits at the top of the cabinet much like it does on many traditional machines.





This button is wired directly to the motherboard of my computer using the pinouts normally reserved for the case power button. Pressing this button turns on and shuts down the PC.  The PC is then plugged into the master outlet on this guy-



In the switched outlets I will connect the TV, Sound system, Switching power supply and the control panel. After a few tests everything worked perfectly! 

Next I went to work on the sound system. Now as you may know, I went with the Genius SW-G2.1 2000 2.1 sound system for this build and one of the big reasons was this guy-



The I/O and control box.

When disassembled, this box had two components- the rear panel with board/PSU and the front IO panel, which I separated out. I then took the board and PSU and mounted it to an internal shelf on PCB feet.



I then took the front panel and mounted it to a piece of black plexiglass cut to 3" x 8". I then put the shelf in place, connected everything and screwed the IO panel in place (please ignore the smudges and fingerprints!)-



It works great, although it does not automatically power on when power is restored via the switched surge protector. Oh well...

Next on the docket is to complete the wiring of the control panel, make the control panel rear I/O panel, and adding the coin door. I am currently on hold regarding sanding and polishing the aluminum marquee/glass retainers- my Dremel supplies are en route from China as we speak (and should get here sometime next month! ).

[DeLuSioNal29]

You'll probably want to remove the pipe hanging straps, cut up an old black t-shirt into two squares and put that underneath the speakers to block out any light from the marquee.  Then you can put the hanging straps back on.  Light will definitely bleed through otherwise.

D

[ZexisStryfe]

You'll probably want to remove the pipe hanging straps, cut up an old black t-shirt into two squares and put that underneath the speakers to block out any light from the marquee.  Then you can put the hanging straps back on.  Light will definitely bleed through otherwise.

D

I actually have speaker fabric I am intent on using for this very purpose, however this doesn't really seem to be a problem because of little light gets behind the marquee pegboard, thank to the metallic tape being totally opaque.

[EvilNuff]

Looks really good, love the art and paint colors!

[ZexisStryfe]

Let me know how things go with that trackball lighting module.  I pulled mine out in favour of a custom solution with a single RGB LED (same as the ones i used in my joysticks).  I think i had an overheating issue that scared the crap outta me combined with how incredibly bright that Ultimarc model was with the crystal clear trackball i used.

...might have been user error on my part tho.

I will be posting more pics soon, but I just wanted to call this out- After I began testing the LED wiring I noticed that my little rig had some major issues; the biggest of which is this little board gets ridiculously hot, which caused the hot glue to melt every time the LEDs were turned on.

My solution was similar to yours except I used a spare Il-lumination RGB LED (the same ones I used for the buttons) stuck it to some duct tape and taped it to the bottom of the trackball. Luckily the Electric Ice trackball has a nice circular hole in the bottom that fits this LED perfectly. It works great and the illumination level is on par with that of the buttons, so I am happy!

[taxidriver6]

Hi ZexisStryfe, did you ever finish this beautiful build?

[ZexisStryfe]

Hi ZexisStryfe, did you ever finish this beautiful build?

Hey Taxidriver,

Sorry about the lack of updates... real life seems to constantly get in the way! The cabinet is not complete however I have made some great progress on it. I would definitely consider myself in the home stretch at this point.

My sanding drums from China arrived much later than expected (towards the end of March) but once I got them I was able to begin sanding the metal angles. I am going for a rougher, mill style finish on them as seen here-



I basically started with the rough sandpaper drums and worked my ways down to the finer grits to get the finish (this piece was a work in progress). After sanding them down I glued the lower angle in place using superglue and some spare plexi as spacers. these angles will be used for the marquee retainer-



After drilling some holes in the upper angle I finally was able to set up the marquee!

Unlit-


Lit-


I then set to work on creating an IO panel for the rear of the control panel. This will allow for the control panel to be disconnected via four simple plugs- USB (USB hub), power (surge protector in the CP), a 10-wire molex and a 2-wire molex connector (lines to the other LEDs and inputs on the unit).

I ct the black plexi with a dremel from the rear to get some cleaner lines (this pic is the rear side with protective paper still on)


The connectors were then glued to the plexi and it was screwed into the back of the panel-


I then started the wiring internal to the unit- I used this switching power supply-


And I set up two wiring blocks on the side of the side of the cabinet to provide 12v power-


I installed the coin door and the subwoofer (Velcro!) and did some wire cleanup-


After finishing all that I finally received my glass panel from OneDayGlass. Unfortunately after installing it I discovered that the glass was not quite smoky enough, and the internals were still visible through it, so I went to Plan B- smoked plexi. I know Chance is a big advocate for the stuff, so I ordered some which arrived about three weeks ago... totally shattered. Luckily the provider was able to ship me out a replacement piece next day and would you look at that, a fully functional arcade -


    

Now, As I said, it isn't complete yet. On the hardware side, I still have the upper and lower rear fan wiring and the diamond kickplate to finish (I totally mis-measured the original kickplate   ). Software wise I am still setting up LEDBlinky and Retroarch. It seems like I might have to do a bit of remapping in order to get the PC games working as well... (damn Street Fighter V... )

[80sarcadegames]

Just finished reading this thread.
Seems like it was completed but part of me is that he had more to share about updates since his last post, but
I guess he is having too much fun enjoying it!!  Nice Vewlix!!!   

[Tragically Geek]

Just finished reading this thread.
Seems like it was completed but part of me is that he had more to share about updates since his last post, but
I guess he is having too much fun enjoying it!!  Nice Vewlix!!!   

Agreed! I really wish he would give us a status update.  I would love to know if there is anything he would change.  I had originally planned on making a cabinet based on Chance's build.  Having seen this the two are a perfect fusion, although I am curious how it would work with a 4 player setup.

Dimensions would be amazing!