Upright Cabaret Console/PC Daytona USA Redux (90% Finished)

[jaharr01]

        Hey guys I been wanting to do a driving cabinet for a while. This all started when I was going to re-purpose an old cab into an upright driving cabinet. Then the idea morphed into a sit down driving cabinet.My arcade room is already a bit cluttered now, so after a long debate with myself, I decided against the sit down cabinet. That, and the fact of trying to keep peace with the wife. Although I think she is finally breaking a bit. She just laughed and  shook her head when I told her I was building a driving cab. She went in to watch my little girl at the makeshift driving station I built and almost sat down to try it (progress).My little girl loves it. She couldn't reach the pedals with a sit down, but I think she can with a smaller cabaret.I purposely designed it a little lower so she could.Plus I'm only 5'9", so I'm good there.

Here is my design so far:



More views



        The guts will consist of a PS3 and a 3.0 GHZ Dual core I already had. The wheel is an older FFB Logitech Driving Force Pro I picked up off ebay. The screen is a Vizeo 28" LED I got at Wally World.The Idea is to use a 2 port USB switcher to change between the PC and the console. I have a Xinmo laying around to possibly use for the PC buttons.
        The artwork is undecided for now. I would like to do a modern take on Daytona USA,which is by far my favorite arcade driving game.Here is the layout so far:

Nothing is set in stone. I know it will be a tight fit to get all of that equipment in that cabaret cabinet. There very well may have to be some adjusting.Also trying to get everything to turn off and on together will be a trick to. Unless I choose to start the PC and PS3 at the same time which isn't very efficient.I'm sure I Will find a way around it.
        I started cutting the sides to get the basic box together, so I can decide how I'm place the wheel and securely mount it and fit all this junk in that box. I have never gutted a PS3, but I could gut the PC and just put the innards in the cabinet minus the case.I don't really need a CD/DVD drive on the PC either,since I have a USB one.
        The CP wll most likely be 1/4" plexi with some fairly good bracing. I also thought about getting an aluminum one fabricated, but i would think the plexi would be fine.
So here is my progress so far:

Gotta love those long laminate router bits


After it was sanded

        So my plan is to take the wheel and pedals apart and see if I can modify them to go it to the cabinet. I'll go ahead and put the box together for planning purposes,but not glue it in case I need to modify them. LT is helping me with sketchup,Since I'm a little slow.

       

[johnrt]

Have you tried to check if the wheel ends up a little too high? "The Tully"'s CP can't be higher than it already is, and it seems like the wheel on this one will be even higher.

[jaharr01]

No its hard to judge. I'm gonna put the shell together and measure the wheel where it needs to be for best placement. I'm not sure about Tully's cab. I built one and it seemed larger than that. I don't know. The Driving cabinet is only 60" at the tallest point it's not that tall.

[jaharr01]

This is what I have for art so far,Not very original.


It is blue ball cold out in my garage,but nice and toasty with this


A few build build pictures




4" Speaker cut outs for the back of the cabinet. Not sure how it will sound,but no better place to put them




So far:

[jaharr01]

Here are some artwork drafts

[Le Chuck]

This is superior to those shown above.  This is a nice clean design that really does justice to the original cabs.  The ones above feel cliparty. 

[jaharr01]

 


this makes it more like this:

[johnrt]

This one! 

[jaharr01]

this is a representation of it's scale

[jaharr01]

This one! 

I like that one to john RT

[jaharr01]

Yes maybe black diamond plate on the bottom of that one

[jaharr01]

  I got a little work done this weekend. I removed about 6" of the front of the Logitech pedals. Unlike the more expensive GT pedals you can't get aftermarket parts for them.The thought was if it was possible to reverse them and mount them like a real car pedals.The GT pedals are aluminum,but the Racing force pro is an older wheel and pedals set, which the pedals themselves are plastic( Circa 2005).although they still work well with the PS3.My plan is to put black diamond plate on the front with a lip that covers the cut edge. the aluminum tape is there just to keep the dirt out.

After the area was cut away:

Second picture different view.


        I cut out the plate for the front of the cabinet today.A bit time consuming since several areas needed to be routed and a relief cut on it.Also I had to cut the area for the pedals which will be boxed in behind the pedals.Also i cut out the coin door, which will let me access the PS3 DVD drive.
Relief cut out area for the marquee.

Front of the arcade cabinet with the coin door, marquee cut out, and the area for the pedals to sit.

Whole cabinet sitting on it's side. I can't set it upright until I put a little more support in the back and top.

I can't put the top piece in until I route a slot on both sides for the plexi to fit into.
more updates later.

[jaharr01]

I built a recessed box so the pedals won't hang out.

[jaharr01]

update 3/2/15:
I got the basic shell put together enough where it will sit vertical. It seems like the controls will be okay. I still need to put the monitor and wheel roughly in the cab to optimize placement. Here are some pics:
The bar stool is for reference purposes






The art is mostly finished i'll post it all later.

[jaharr01]

Here is my side art I'm going with



Marquee

[jaharr01]

I got the LCD tv mounted today.Not too much trouble.



BTW that's not the bottom of the cab, it's a board laying in there on a cat litter container.

[BorgDog]

BTW that's not the bottom of the cab, it's a board laying in there on a cat litter container.

Ah, I was wondering what the other lower hole was for, catbox.  good multi purpose 

[jaharr01]

That's funny. Actually the left hole is for the coin door. the space on the right is for the pedals.

[jaharr01]

I got bored tonight and was reading how to make a DIY H gate shifter. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,139172.msg1439403.html#msg1439403
So I had an old FFB flight stick I got at GoodWill for $6 and thought what the hell.




It still needs an H Gate cut out of a cheap plastic cutting board and maybe a few springs.

[jaharr01]

worked on the control panel today and got it finished for the most part.I can't make my mind up on whether I want to use real car gauges for aesthetic purposes. I could probably make some nice faux gauges.

[Generic Eric]

That looks like it makes things easy!  Looking forward to your shifter. 

[yotsuya]

Unless the gauges actually DO something, I say leave them off.

[jaharr01]

Hey Eric, I'm trying to figure out how to mount the shifter. It will be hard to shift if the shifter is perpendicular to the front of the control panel. I may need to make a shifter box that partially sticks out of the CP

Well yotsuya, The only gauge I have is a volt meter. I thought about cutting off a slice of like a 2" PVC pipe and printing some gauge faces and put the PVC slice over the gauge print to give it some depth, instead of using a real gauge. Hell I don't know though. a lot of the old driving arcades had vinyl print gauges.

Shifter box extension idea



Rough CP design



 

[jaharr01]

What did everyone think of Lechuck's marquee redesign?

[Le Chuck]

The only gauge I have is a volt meter.

Seems to me that, depending on volt meter, that is would be possible to wire that to read the 5v(?) pot in the accelerator - thereby giving you a needle that would move with the pedal.  Not a real speedo of course, but the effect would be enough to wow I'd say.   

[Generic Eric]

Ideally, if you could extend the shafts and put a leather boot on it, kinda like how spy hunter looks.

[jaharr01]

Shifter is complete. I am really impressed with the way it came out.


Basically I took a FFB Logitech wingman and gutted it as you see below

Then I cut everything off except the X and Y pots. I took an old rubber boot like for wading, and cut a square with a hole in the middle. I put that over the 4 post that stick up and screwed it down kinda snug to the 4 posts. To cover the all-thread I got a brushed stainless towel holder that had a 1/2 tubing at Walmart. I took that apart and cut the shaft to fit. I found the universal shifter ball at Advance Auto. for the H gate I used poly cutting board.I made a box to go around it and it's done and works.I don't think I can get it to work with the PS3,but it will work on the PC. I have paddle shifters also, so that should be fine.

[JohnyO]

Shifter looks great! How does it feel? Is there resistance?

[jaharr01]

Yes, there is enough where it will stay in the gear positions. I have some clips to catch it but I didn't put them on because it's fine without them.

Also, I put some aluminum pedal covers over the pedals.I also got those at Advance Auto.


I got started filling the screw holes. I need to figure out how exactly i'm gonna mount the shifter. I purposefully left the shaft longer so I can get it to feel right. 

[jaharr01]

Been working quite a bit on my cab. Trying to the body itself painted.I was kind of back and forth on the whole shifter thing.since mainly it's going to be a PS3 cab I modified the sequential shifter that is with the wheel. My DIY shifter will have to wait another day. Here are some pictures of the build so far.
Ready for priming



After priming



Ready for paint





  Here are some CP ideas so far.
With gauges

Without gauges

I tried to keep it somewhat close to the original Daytona USA CP. I had to add some buttons though.I would like to use real gauges if possible maybe a temp and volt meter and a tachometer. The temp and the volt meter would be usable .The tachometer wouldn't. I don't know how on a PS3. There are devices that connect a tachometer to a PC.
Artwork in a nutshell
Marquee

Left Side

[ChanceKJ]

   How am i just seeing this now?

Wicked.

[jaharr01]

What's up Chance, I flew in under the radar with this one. Kinda fun cool build though.

[jaharr01]

Got 2 coats of red paint on the cab. Have a few bad spots to touch up before I put polyurethane on there

[jaharr01]

Been busy at work, just messing around with it here and there. Finally got it in the house out of the garage.



Some carbon fiber vinyl over the speaker area



Carbon fiber vinyl over the CP

[jaharr01]

Up and running somewhat. I ordered one of those kade clones, hell I can't remember the name of it to replace the partially working Xinmo.



I built a wedge and put diamond plate around it.



More pics with artwork from Brad Bowman.



LeChuck's Marquee design

Sideart



A few odds and ends and it will be done. Sorry about the crappy pics I'll get the DSLR out next time

[ChanceKJ]

thats pretty bad ass. 

I almost feel like it needs t-moulding in around the marquee.

[Le Chuck]

thats pretty bad ass. 

I almost feel like it needs t-moulding in around the marquee.

Or just some aluminum/chrome angle bar bolted around to flash the inside and frame the outside.  Other that that it's looking great!

[yotsuya]

I dunno, the marquee area looks pretty clean. Good job with the cuts, Jay.

[jaharr01]

thats pretty bad ass. 

I almost feel like it needs t-moulding in around the marquee.

I think i'm gonna do what LeChuck said and put aluminum angle around it. not sure if black or aluminum

[jaharr01]

I dunno, the marquee area looks pretty clean. Good job with the cuts, Jay.

Thanks Yotsuya. I got one of the small Bosch Colt routers. They are the bomb, plus easy to handle.

Jay