Mini cab for kids. The cab with no theme

[jugger18]

I have finally pulled the trigger and begun building a mini cab for the kids/me.  It is based on Maximus' 1943: Tiny pilot but will be 24in wide and not use that theme.  IS 24 wide large enough for a 2 player 6 button CP?  I have cut all my wood and have a few noob mistakes I will have to remedy (not rounding some inside corners).  For routing I am using a hand me down (my dad was an old tool collector) 60's Stanley "R2D2" router.
For the CPU I will be using a Sapphire AMD fusion E350 apu I had laying around from a HTPC build.  Feel free to suggest anything including art/theme ideas or critique anything.

[Drnick]

24 inch should be plenty for a 2 player 6 button a real streetfighter 2 panel is 26.5 inches wide and you are doing a smaller machine. My control panel is pretty comfortable at 21 inches. As for themes, if it is primarily for the kids see what games they like and go for some kind of Vs machine,  If you have a Boy and a Girl you could have Pink vs Blue,  Kirby, Pinky, Princess Peach Vs Sonic, Bomberman, Bob (Bubble Bobble). If you have 2 Boys there is always the classic Marvel vs Capcom or DC Vs Marvel superhero/fighter mashup.

I just went with a fairly simple pacman maze background and Pacman himself big and centre.  The control panel is a very simple take on the original control panel.

[jugger18]

Thanks!  1 boy 1 girl.  What is the easiest program to mock up the cp to scale in?  I have access to both PC and Mac

[Drnick]

I used Gimp and some Joystick/Button templates from Slagcoin.   Created a blank image sized at  2100 x 1300 (Or whatever it was exactly) at 100dpi and then scaled it up to 300DPI. Because I was using such simple graphics doing so was not an issue for the control panel.  Just make sure to get the templates for the Joysticks/buttons at the same DPI as the artwork you are inserting them into.

[Slippyblade]

Sketchup.  It's pretty easy to learn as well.

[jugger18]

Quick question.  What is the standard hole size for a suzo happ button?  Also for joystick hole?

[Slippyblade]

All the buttons I've used have gone into an 1.125" hole.  (1-1/8")

[jugger18]

I got some time to work on the cabinet last night.  Fixed my rounded inside corners.  Also built my base and started blocking out the sides.  Also decased my monitor (a 17 4:3 samsung lcd, will mot likely replace) and decased the speakers as well.  I am using a dell 2.1 system that my office was junking (Joys of working in IT, get free PC's, LCD's etc).  Hoping that tonight I can finish blocking out the sides and begin assembly.

[jugger18]

Took a half day for work today, because I have to work tomorrow.  So far I have used my spinning wheel of death to cut my t molding slots, finished blocking the cab sides, and mock mounted the speakers

[Louis Tully]

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[jugger18]

Thanks Louis.  I am a woodworking noob but generally mechanically inclined.  I figured I would practice by making one for the kids before I make a full size one.  There are definitely some mistakes that I will need to rectify but nothing major so far.  Hoping to assemble most of it when I get home from work this afternoon.

[Louis Tully]

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[jugger18]

And if it plays games the kinds won't care if there are a few blemishes   I still have not thought of a theme.  I might just go with Ninja turtles

[JDFan]

And if it plays games the kinds won't care if there are a few blemishes   I still have not thought of a theme.  I might just go with Ninja turtles

Or make the kids design it -- Just paint it with either chalkboard or magnetic paint (or both) and have them decorate it ! (figure that saves your time coming up with a theme and also gets them involved with the build.)

[jugger18]

And if it plays games the kinds won't care if there are a few blemishes   I still have not thought of a theme.  I might just go with Ninja turtles

Or make the kids design it -- Just paint it with either chalkboard or magnetic paint (or both) and have them decorate it ! (figure that saves your time coming up with a theme and also gets them involved with the build.)

I just saw the chalkboard paint while cruising through the hardware store to buy primer last night.  Unfortuantely I cringe at the thought of chalk

[JDFan]

They also sell a Dry erase board paint ( http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-241140-Erase-Brush-On-White/dp/B000PGBCOC ) but dry erase markers might be just as bad as chalk if not worse 

[jugger18]

They also sell a Dry erase board paint ( http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-241140-Erase-Brush-On-White/dp/B000PGBCOC ) but dry erase markers might be just as bad as chalk if not worse 

No problems with dry erase.  Something about the feel of chalk dust grosses me out...I probably ate too many paint chips as a child.

[jugger18]

Well things are starting to take shape!

[Louis Tully]

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[jugger18]

Well things are starting to take shape!

When the cab can stand on its own... that's one of the best parts.  You're knocking it out, man.

Thanks    I actually got more done last night.  Mounted the screen bezel using 4 L angle brackets, got all panels screwed in and countersink holes filled.  I will sand them out tonight (kids willing) and clean up my workspace and hang the plastic drop cloths and hopefully start priming.  I also started laying out my controls in photoshop.  Man do I hate doing that.  Anyone want to lay one out for me?  2 player 6 button (with the first two shifted down, 1p/2p start/coins and pause/esc pretty please....lol 

[Louis Tully]

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[jugger18]

Looks great!!  Thanks!!.  My cp depth is actually only 6" and 3/4" of it is overhanging the front.  Hopefully I can still squeeze it in

[jugger18]

I also started laying out my controls in photoshop.  Man do I hate doing that.  Anyone want to lay one out for me?  2 player 6 button (with the first two shifted down, 1p/2p start/coins and pause/esc pretty please....lol

I don't know what you're control panel depth is but I saw up above that you said it was 24" wide so I guess at 8" but left a few inches on the bottom clear of hardware so it can be trimmed down as needed.

Just give me a better idea where you want things and I'll try my best to help you out if you want. It's no trouble.

Here's a BS quick and dirty example. I omitted an actual Exit button because (and this is just a suggestion you do what you want) nothing sucks more than accidentally exiting a game when you meant to Pause or something. You can place an exit button somewhere else on the cab, somewhere accessible but away from the other buttons. Or you can set the exit up by using a combination button press. Say, you press and hold Pause then hit Player 1 Start and it exits or something like that. Lots of possibilities. Enough blathering from me.






I used the cluster setup from Slagcoin

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout/cluster365_l.png

Here's the imgur folder  http://imgur.com/a/qMY4N



The idea was something like this

PL1 Coin - PL1 Start                    Pause                    PL2 Coin - PL2 Start
PL1 Controls                                                                 PL2 Controls



Again, this was just farting around. Let me know what/where you want things and I'll get to it.
 

So really only 5 1/4 of area to work with.  Right now I just have the standard Happ button and Happ competition bat sticks

[Louis Tully]

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[jugger18]

All right, 5.25" x 24" gotcha. I'll tinker a bit and get back to you. 

You rule.  Another option would be moving admin and or start/coin buttons to the front panel but not sure on clearances from jstick and buttons

[Louis Tully]

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[jugger18]

Louis,
Thank you so much.  This will keep me moving   Cleaning the workspace to begin painting

[jugger18]

Well, what do we have here?

Primed and ready to be sanded.

[jugger18]

Got home from work last night.  Promptly sanding and began sparaying first coat of paint from rattle can.  Finished off the can and realised my mistake.  I forgot to open the basement windows.  2 hours later wife gets home and all 3 floors reek like paint    Wife proceeeds to yell at me so I banish myself to the fume infested basement and begin working on cutting holes for the CP.  That sucks using hole saws.  I think I will invest in some Forstner bits.

[jugger18]

I have made the cardinal sin.  It is playable.  I just recut my CP, need to drill holes, and paint it.  Need to get paid so I can buy my glass for the screen and marquee.  I bought some bulk led string light that I will cut for the marquee.  I also need to cut a shelf to mount the pc gear on decased.  Question.  PC power switch, what do I need to do to use an arcade button as a replacement.  This would be used to shutdown the PC gracefully instead of just hitting the main power switch.

[Drnick]

I have made the cardinal sin.  It is playable.  I just recut my CP, need to drill holes, and paint it.  Need to get paid so I can buy my glass for the screen and marquee.  I bought some bulk led string light that I will cut for the marquee.  I also need to cut a shelf to mount the pc gear on decased.  Question.  PC power switch, what do I need to do to use an arcade button as a replacement.  This would be used to shutdown the PC gracefully instead of just hitting the main power switch.

Any kind of momentary switch will do.  I used a nice Chrome Vandal switch

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/125vac-2a-large-anti-vandal-push-switch-n36ka

But another arcade button will work just as well.

[jugger18]

Got the arcade button wired.  Decased the PC and mounted to a shelf.   :banghead:for 2 hours trying to do a fresh install of win 7 to a new hard drive.  Kept getting driver errors and assumed it was the sata driver for the mobo needing to be loaded.  Wrong!!   It was that you can't install win 7 from USB 3.0  Disabled 3.0 and install went fine.  Will get GameEX reconfigured tonight.

[solar]

Looking great.

[jugger18]

Thanks.  Have to do some adjustments for the marquee ( I am a moron).

[jugger18]

OMG an update.  A few minor tweaks left to finish.  need to trim back the marquee box battens, add a bit of weather stripping for light bleed.  But I am basically marking this complete as the kids just want to play and it was mainly a trial run before I make something full size.  The name is generic play off my last name.  Cabinet is black (may add some Bucky Badger decals).  Thanks for all the help.  And boy do I hate cutting plexi glass 

[Louis Tully]

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[jugger18]

It may not be the prettiest but as a proof of concept, the kids are happy and I am happy.  Now to make a barcade with my leftovers