"Avengerless Avenger" - [11/17/15] Finished!

[RxBrad]

take a look at Blum (or Euro) hinges from here: http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/page.aspx?p=55420&cat=3,41241

The one I ordered seems to follow the same general principle as the Blum hinges. Hopefully it'll work. I'll do a quick test mount on some scrap wood before I get too far into mounting them.

If these hinges end up as a loss, those 170° Blum hinges look like they'd easily do the trick, based on the opening diagrams.

[RxBrad]

Because the control panel is detachable, the controls need a way to be easily unhooked and reattached. I decided I'd use a couple male-to-female parallel cables. Cut the cable in half, attach the exposed wires of one half to the IPAC, attach the wires on the other half to the switches on the CP. The male and female ends plug together to hook everything up.

Each parallel cable has 25 wires inside. I'm using two cables - one for each player. Each player needs 14 switches attached, plus a ground wire (so there will be unused wires).

Unfortunately, the wires inside the parallel cables are ridiculously thin -- something like 26 gauge. A cleanly stripped wire has maybe a half dozen filaments of wire. So, in order to connect to the switches/IPAC, I have to solder a thicker wire to each wire.

15 wires per cut cable end. Four cut cable ends. Approximately a metric F-ton of soldering to do.

[JDFan]

Each parallel cable has 25 wires inside. I'm using two cables - one for each player. Each player needs 14 switches attached, plus a ground wire (so there will be unused wires).

Unfortunately, the wires inside the parallel cables are ridiculously thin -- something like 26 gauge.

Since the cable has 25 wires inside and you are only using 15 - you could double up the major ones (ie. esp. the ground wire) and use 2 or 3 of the small wires for each end so that you have a thicker wire to solder to !!

[RxBrad]

Each parallel cable has 25 wires inside. I'm using two cables - one for each player. Each player needs 14 switches attached, plus a ground wire (so there will be unused wires).

Unfortunately, the wires inside the parallel cables are ridiculously thin -- something like 26 gauge.

Since the cable has 25 wires inside and you are only using 15 - you could double up the major ones (ie. esp. the ground wire) and use 2 or 3 of the small wires for each end so that you have a thicker wire to solder to !!

That's a really good idea. I'll do that. Thanks!

[RxBrad]

Reinstalled the front door with the new hinges. Still needs a tad of adjusting, but much better.



I went into a little more detail on installing the door here in the Woodworking forum.

[Xerobull]

Nice work with the hinges- very clean.

[RxBrad]

Player 1 wiring completed. 

"Don't start playing, Brad.  Finish the cab, Brad.  If you start playing now, you'll never finish this, Brad..."



Also secured the speakers.  Using plastic hanger straps, screwed into place with EZ-Loks and screws.  Will use the same technique on the monitor.

[RxBrad]

I couldn't help myself. I had to try it out (with the CP sitting awkwardly in my lap).

Aside from needing to swap the DOWN & RIGHT wires on my IPAC, everything worked great. Even though I tested everything with a circuit tester, I had this bad feeling the parallel cables wouldn't work. They worked great!

Currently about 3/4 finished with the wiring. Then, all I really have left is the marquee and sideart (and the T-molding to help hold the sideart securely in place)

[reptileink]

Mighty impressed with how clean your wiring is! I don't have that patience sadly. I wired up one side of my CP and it looks like spaghetti....lol. I just plan on cable tying bunches together in random order...lol. Nice work! 

[RxBrad]

Mighty impressed with how clean your wiring is! I don't have that patience sadly. I wired up one side of my CP and it looks like spaghetti....lol. I just plan on cable tying bunches together in random order...lol. Nice work! 

Thanks...  Luckily for me, the way it's wired, it's actually difficult to not have it be organized.  It all has to converge into the parallel cable. 

The only part of the wiring that's really secured to anything is the two clips on the grey main part of the wire, which are mainly to prevent accidental tension on the rest of the wiring.  Other than that, everything was just cut to the right length, and tucked under the quick disconnects.  I got lucky with the ground wire daisy chain, and was able to tuck it under the switches fairly cleanly.

[reptileink]

Yea, I don't have a crimping tool, so I just bought a Jamma harness and used the pre-molded connectors to do mine. Downside was that the wires were longer. I can cut them down though, as I am using the Ipac too. I just did a test wiring for now as I am overhauling the entire cabinet so I will most likely have to disconnect them at some point....after a few dozen hours of playing...lol

[RxBrad]

Yea, I don't have a crimping tool

Yeah.. Neither do I.   I just smooshed the disconnects onto the wires with the plier grips at the tip of my el-cheapo wire strippers.

I'm sure this is the appropriate response to me doing it this way.... 

...but it works.   

[RxBrad]

Wiring is complete. Including this passthrough cable which nondestructively adds a power button for my PC on the outside of my cab.



Cut a length of speaker wire. Take a breadboard connection wire, cut it in half, and solder both halves to one end of the wire. Attach a quick disconnect to the other. Repeat for the other wire in the speaker wire pair.

The breadboard wire goes between the existing case/motherboard power button connection on my PC. The quick disconnect goes to a regular arcade button on the back of my cab.

Now I need to haul the cab down into my basement and hook up all of the electronics. Then I just have to order the side art, and install it along with the T-molding.

[RxBrad]

Took a quick picture this morning with my potatophone to show what the cab looks like overall right now...

[harveybirdman]

Too bad I can't see it at work 

For you I suppose I'll expend the data to look it up on my phone.

[RxBrad]

Hmmph..  Who'da thought imgur would be blocked...

Fine...  I'll use the picture thread from now on.. grumble-grumble-2MB limit-grumble-grumble

[JDFan]

Because the control panel is detachable, the controls need a way to be easily unhooked and reattached. I decided I'd use a couple male-to-female parallel cables. Cut the cable in half, attach the exposed wires of one half to the IPAC, attach the wires on the other half to the switches on the CP. The male and female ends plug together to hook everything up.

Each parallel cable has 25 wires inside. I'm using two cables - one for each player. Each player needs 14 switches attached, plus a ground wire (so there will be unused wires).

Unfortunately, the wires inside the parallel cables are ridiculously thin -- something like 26 gauge. A cleanly stripped wire has maybe a half dozen filaments of wire. So, in order to connect to the switches/IPAC, I have to solder a thicker wire to each wire.

15 wires per cut cable end. Four cut cable ends. Approximately a metric F-ton of soldering to do.

THanks for the Idea - I was looking for something similar and after seeing this I came across these DB9 connectors for $1.04 a piece for Male and $1.25 for Female with solderless connectors which save some of the soldering work but takes an extra connection since they only run 9 wires rather than 15


and then found some cheap used DB9 6 foot cables for another $1.58


So for about $4 per 9 connections it makes a nice clean way to run the cables from CP to System and dramatically cuts down on the soldering  ( Crimp a Quick disconnect to the Buttons/joys microswitch wires - run to the DB9 screw terminal mounted to the CP on one end and from the db9 screw terminal to the encoder on the other and it makes a nice clean detacheable CP ! 

[RxBrad]

Interesting. 

Too late for me, but I wonder if they have a DB25 version.  Most people not using 8 buttons ( ) on their CP layout could probably get away with using just one cable that way.

EDIT: Yup, they exist.  Found a few by Googling "solderless DB25".

EDIT2: And they technically give you 26 connections per wire, since they have a connector for the ground wire (which I didn't use, since it isn't insulated when you cut open the wire).

[JDFan]

Interesting. 

Too late for me, but I wonder if they have a DB25 version.  Most people not using 8 buttons ( ) on their CP layout could probably get away with using just one cable that way.

EDIT: Yup, they exist.  Found a few by Googling "solderless DB25".

Yeah they also have DB15's which would probably work well but they are about $6 each rather than $1. (not sure what the DB25's are running) I'm gonna be using them in a build with a Pac Man plug and play that has a joystick and 2 buttons so the 9 wires are enough to run the 5 for the joystick and 3 for the buttons (using common ground for the joystick and for the buttons at the DB9 connections) I think this will work good for it (still waiting on the parts from CHINA) - Figure I'll use one connector on each end and modify the Plug and play case with the DB9 connector so it can remain in the case and be removeable if wanted.

ALso went with the DB9's since I often use CAT5 cables for the button connections and it has 8 wires inside so the DB9's work well with it also ( figure cut one end of the CAT5 cable and add QD's to goto the microswitches and cut to size and connect the other end of that cable to the solderless DB9 and it keeps the CP pretty Tidy with just the insulated CAT5 cable.)

[RxBrad]

So, I still have to fiddle with the software a bit (the secondary screen still needs some configuration), but it works! Played a little Ms. Pacman and some Marvel vs. Capcom tonight.

As I suspected, the viewing angles on the 7" screen are super disappointing. You have to squat down about a foot to really see it. That's kind of a bummer.

Advice for anyone building their first cab: you REALLY want a 4 way stick if you want to play the classics. Trying to play Ms. Pacman with an 8-way restrictor is a nightmare. Glad I got a 4/8-way switchable stick.

Going to order my side art in the next week or so. I'm on the home stretch...

[scoodidabop]

So, I still have to fiddle with the software a bit (the secondary screen still needs some configuration), but it works! Played a little Ms. Pacman and some Marvel vs. Capcom tonight.

As I suspected, the viewing angles on the 7" screen are super disappointing. You have to squat down about a foot to really see it. That's kind of a bummer.

Advice for anyone building their first cab: you REALLY want a 4 way stick if you want to play the classics. Trying to play Ms. Pacman with an 8-way restrictor is a nightmare. Glad I got a 4/8-way switchable stick.

Going to order my side art in the next week or so. I'm on the home stretch...

Are you just running CPwiz on the 7" screen? I'm wondering what else I might display on my 7" LCD now that I'm thinking of adding one.

[RxBrad]

Are you just running CPwiz on the 7" screen? I'm wondering what else I might display on my 7" LCD now that I'm thinking of adding one.

I'm using GameEx as the frontend, and have the GameExtender feature turned on, displaying on the secondary screen. I was also playing around with a Game Info plugin for GameExtender. Not sure if I'll keep it enabled.

My current plan is to use CPwiz to create PNGs for each game's controls, then make GameExtender show those when the game is launched. 

Stigzler has a modded version of CPwiz that I mean to check out also that might work better.

[RxBrad]

What's an easy way in MAME to make all 6-button games use a different button layout than other games?

Here's my default layout:
5678
1234

I'd like six button games to use this:
123*
456*

[stigzler]

Just released the new version if any use....

[RxBrad]

What's an easy way in MAME to make all 6-button games use a different button layout than other games?

Here's my default layout:
5678
1234

I'd like six button games to use this:
123*
456*

Came up with a solution.  First, I ran a 6 button game in MAME and configured the buttons the way I wanted.  I exited MAME, and then went into my MAME /cfg folder and pulled out the .cfg file for that game, making a copy of it called sixbutton.cfg.

Then I used ROMlister to make a batch file of all of the 6-button games in my library, using the following parameters: (in my case, the game I configured the buttons for was Street Fighter Alpha 2.  You'd change sfa2 below to whatever ROM you manually mapped the buttons on.)

Code: [Select]

(Get-Content sixbutton.cfg) |  ForEach-Object { $_ -replace "sfa2", "%ROM%" } |  Set-Content %ROM%.cfg
Then I renamed the file from a .bat to a .ps1 file, so it would be run by Windows PowerShell.  I put this file, along with sixbutton.cfg in my cfg folder and ran it.  This made a copy of the sixbutton.cfg file for each 6-button game, and correctly updated the "system" XML parameter in each file.

[RxBrad]

Just released the new version if any use....

Thanks. I grabbed a copy and am working on setting it up.

If anyone else gives CPWizBiz a try, the documentation and videos on stigzler's site are a must (and they're actually really helpful).

[RxBrad]

Submitted my order to Souldraw Friday night around 9:30pm for my sideart, marquee, and a vinyl overlay for the keyboard/mouse panel.  Total price came up to $88.46, including shipping.  This was my printing job list:

1. FINAL_Arcade_Side_Art_LEFT_200dpi.tif / qty1 / 39" x 74" / vinyl sticker (black adhesive) / matte lamination
2. FINAL_Arcade_Side_Art_RIGHT_200dpi.tif / qty1 / 29" x 74" / vinyl sticker (black adhesive) / matte lamination
3. FINAL_Arcade_Marquee_300dpi.tif / qty1 / 25" x 6" / backlit PVC film / glossy lamination

This morning (Monday), I just got an email with a photo & tracking number, letting me know it's on the way.  Nice.

[RxBrad]

Got my side art from Souldraw.  I'm really happy with it, especially considering that it cost me just under $90 shipped for full sideart and marquee art.  The quality on the marquee was just "okay" - it has a few flaws.  I went into a little more detail on the art here in the Artwork forum..

Will try to get a better photo when there's better lighting, and update the first post on this thread with it.



The marquee is lit with LED tape.  I also added a male/female plug to the external power switch, so I could more easily remove the PC from the cab.

My speakers have started humming in the last few days.  Still need to troubleshoot a bit, but I suspect that they don't like the marquee LED power supply being on the same power strip.  Not sure what I can do about that.

All I have left is to apply the vinyl & T-molding to the keyboard/mouse surface, and then attach a lip on the end of that same surface so nothing slides off the front of the cab and onto the floor.

[RxBrad]

Have you ever noticed how, once you finish a cab, you end up playing it for hours and forgetting to post the final photo?  Forgive the potato quality.  My phone really doesn't want to take a good photo of this down in my basement.



All done.  And I even got a stool to sit in front of it from my wife for my birthday.  Now if I could only convince her that this belongs upstairs, and not in the unfinished basement.

Marquee lit and unlit. You can see the flaws in the printing from Souldraw on the lit version (horizontal smudge on the right side).  On the unlit version (look on the left side), you can kind of see the bubbling between the printed layer and the glossy lamination layer.  Maybe I'll replace it.  Maybe not.:





And here's the flat panel I can swap in for keyboard/mouse gaming.  I thought I was going to need to add a lip on the front to keep stuff from sliding off, but the "matte" vinyl surface has just enough friction to keep that from being a problem.

[Frank Drebin]

Really like the looks of this cabinet, especially the sideart.  Great job!

[stigzler]

Looks great. Vids?

[RxBrad]

I should make a video, shouldn't I?  Maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow.  I'm already taking the day off to sign for the delivery on my gold PS4 I won from Taco Bell.   

[vwalbridge]

I'm already taking the day off to sign for the delivery on my gold PS4 I won from Taco Bell.   

Wait, people actually win with these contest?

[Aceldamor]

What he's not telling you is that he had to eat about 7000 bucks in taco bell to win it. 

Cab's looking good! Congrats on both the sweet cab and the gold PS4

[RxBrad]

What he's not telling you is that he had to eat about 7000 bucks in taco bell to win it. 

Cab's looking good! Congrats on both the sweet cab and the gold PS4

It was only about $6500.  And thanks.  (Yes, I'm kidding. I won on my 4th or 5th try.)

This is actually the second PS4 I've won from them over the last few years, and I won a PSVita three or four years ago.  I have a Taco Bell problem.

[ZexisStryfe]

What he's not telling you is that he had to eat about 7000 bucks in taco bell to win it. 

Cab's looking good! Congrats on both the sweet cab and the gold PS4

It was only about $6500.  And thanks.  (Yes, I'm kidding. I won on my 4th or 5th try.)

This is actually the second PS4 I've won from them over the last few years, and I won a PSVita three or four years ago.  I have a Taco Bell problem.

Only $6500? That is still cheaper than building an arcade cabinet!

[RxBrad]

Oh yeah. I forgot to link to that video.

Although judging by the YouTube comments, I see that bulbousbeard already found it without the link. Based on his reputation, I can only assume that he's the one who commented... 

[Rick]

Although judging by the YouTube comments, I see that bulbousbeard already found it without the link. Based on his reputation, I can only assume that he's the one who commented... 

LOL. "Poopy pants".

[yotsuya]

Oh yeah. I forgot to link to that video.

Although judging by the YouTube comments, I see that bulbousbeard already found it without the link. Based on his reputation, I can only assume that he's the one who commented... 

HAHAHAHA! It was him. That guy was always my favorite ---uvula---. I'm glad he's gone, however.

[Rick]

That guy was always my favorite ---uvula---.

But I thought I was your favourite?