Introducing Dainamikade, a modular control panel, bartop arcade cab, that displays game specific bezel, marquee and sideart, dynamically, while playing and previewing your favourite arcade games (at least that is the plan).
Quick background...I built a CNC over the past year to build bartops for myself, family and friends
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,131934.0.html. During the build, I became friends with Yvan256 (a member of the community and if you don't recognize his handle, here is his forum profile-
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=profile;u=19349) as he was commenting on the build, and had asked me to test his G-code program. So after a couple of months of back and forth messaging, testing, cutting, etc, I asked Yvan if he minded coding me a bartop. This benefited both of us as I could use his Sketchup expertise/g-code program and we could use my CNC to cut them out (for both of us) and test his g-code. If ever there was feature creep, this is it. What started out as a simple bartop turned into a 4 x LCD monster that not only displays marquee, bezel, and sideart depending on the game you play (hopefully), but will also have modular control panels, including 4/8 way joystick switching.
Unfortunately (cause I know you guys and gals love your pictures), I am starting this thread at the end of the prototype/build stage, however, because I like everyone on here so much, I am going to walk through every aspect of the final cab and its construction, from start to finish (with pictures), including all the software and programs we will need to run the 4 x LCD's. Here it is in its current state with the marquee and main LCD installed in mock sides for testing...
So first, the name: "Dainamikade", a combination of the Japanese word for dynamic, "Dainamikku" and of course "Kade" for arcade (and cause it will probably use Kades for the keyboard encoding). I think "Kade" can sometimes seem played out when attached to the back of a cab name, but in this instance, and in mine and Yvan's opinon anyway, I think it works well.
We started with the basic shape of the bartop I built for my god son a few years back
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,121910.0.html, but quickly transitioned to an MVS styled cab do to the fact that the LCD we sourced for the marquee area was an almost exact match in size once we reduced the scale of a full size MVS into a bartop and also Yvan already had lots of Sketchup models of MVS cabs as he built (is building) his own MVS style bartop...MVS-99-6
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94770.0.
We might as well work top to bottom and I can explain each item, why we chose it and provide links to those who might want to do something similar in the future.
MONITORS:
MARQUEE LCD-This is a 12.3" LCD, ultra wide screen sunvisor monitor, 1280 x 480, I ordered off ebay
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/DVI-VGA-lcd-controller-board-12-3inch-1280-480-LQ123K1LG03-lcd-panel-/181460591337?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a3fe4e2e9. I have ordered all the LCD's off of Chintobby and he has been quick to respond and shipping has been fast. I have no issues whatsoever with the picture quality. Viewing angles, colour and brightness are all 9/10. Here is a pic of it displaying a Neo Geo marquee.
MAIN LCD SCREEN-This is a 15" LCD, 4:3, I haven't hooked it up yet, but there is no reason it won't fit the bill
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/HDMI-DVI-VGA-Audio-Lcd-control-board-15inch-LQ150X1LG96-1024-768-1050cd-m2-lcd-/181272151361?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a34a98541.
SIDE ART LCD's-These are 12.1", 16:10, IPS panels
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/HDMI-VGA-AV-Audio-USB-FPV-Controller-board-12-1-HV121WX5-120-1280-800-IPS-LCD-/181567950019?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a464b0cc3. I also haven't hooked these up yet, but being IPS panels, my only concern right now based off the specs is brightness. These panels weigh less than my iPhone and are like 3-4mm thick. There were better monitors (visually) for me to choose from on Chinatobbys store, but the LVDS cables exited the screens in horrible positions. Also, these panels have a very smooth flat bottom making it easy for us to embed them in the cab sides. Another reason for choosing them were their 16:10 aspect ratio, it seems to be a better match for side art than the wider (or thinner if you are mounting them vertically like we are) 16:9's.
COMPUTER-Due to the size of a bartop (and with all these LCD controller boards flopping around inside), I went with a Mini-ITX board
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/AM1H-ITX/.
Computer specs...
OS-Win7 64bit
CPU-AMD AM1 Kabini 5350
RAM-4G AMD Radeon DDR3 AE34G1609US
PSU-Corsair CX430M
SSD-Crucial 128GB MX100
How to display to 4 monitors? There is a few different routes here...
1. Add a video card that supports 4 monitors
pros:
would probably give me the most flexablility in regards to resolution, refresh rates
based on most 4 monitor graphics cards they would be uber powerful
cons:
cost
heat
power consumption
driver issues
2. USB 3.0 to HDMI/DVI
pros:
dead easy to set up
cool running
low power
cons:
not as configurable
cost
3. RasberryPi
pros:
cost
HDMI out
cool running
cons:
I have no clue on how to make it display, maybe
https://pipresents.wordpress.comSD cards can exibit premature failure, finite read/write
High res art will fill an SD card fast
CABINET CONSTRUCTION-I am using the same melamine chip board shelving I have used on all my builds. I get it from Home Depot and it comes in 30" x 60" and 30" x 72". We are using wood dowels for are joinery as it is strong and is completely hidden, giving the cab a clean profession look. One of our first projects together was creating a dowel jig to accurately locate dowels into opposing panels...the jig works perfect.
CONTROLS/MODULAR CONTROL PANELS-None of these items have been ordered yet, but think Kade/Servo Sticks/Happ buttons. I currently have an X-Arcade stick and buttons inserted into the first prototype control panel and they can stay in the prototype. We will probably make a 4/8 way with 7 buttons CP, a trackball CP and 360 wheel CP (we can build anything we want and we will go into greater detail on these once the basic cab is built). Here is a pic of the first prototype...
ART-Last fall I bought a large format printer that prints 24" wide by as long as I want, so we will be designing and printing our own artwork on adhesive poly (already bought the poly and tested a few prints, they look good). Also bought a cold roll laminator and I have gloss and matte over laminate to test (the matte is close to the polycarb textured overlay you see on some control panels). Since we are doing two cabs, and art is very subjective, Yvan will design his own and I will design mine. I think Yvan wants to go a little more traditional and kind of hide or seamlessly integrate it into his art and I think I want to go the obnoxious, bright "Yes I am an LCD in a cab side" MALA layout kind of side art, maybe anime styled.
SOFTWARE-Going to run MAME (obvious), but which version I am not sure. I have a complete .106 and a complete .156. I know after .106 MAME gets more demanding and with the AMD Kabini 5350, and multi monitor, not sure I want to tax it with the latest. I might have to use a specific build to use marquees? I don't think I need to worry about it as bulbousbeards "Big Blue Frontend" now supports more than 2 monitors (4 in total), I asked him to add the 4 monitor support a couple of days ago and he graciously did it...thanks BB. His dynamic marquees don't care about ROM name, you just add the image you want displayed when you edit the game list, it doesn't rely on MAMEs built in marquee support. For those interested
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,142948.0.html.
So to wrap things up, Yvan and I are going to do another week of testing on the laminated particle board with our router bits for a smooth, chip free finish and cut our last prototype sides. I will then do final assembly on the prototype cab so we can trouble shoot and make adjustments. Then it will be time to cut two cabs and start final assembly. I promise to take as many pictures as I can and document as much as I can. Once we complete this MVS styled cab (and a host of modular control panels), we look forward to designing 4 or 5 more styles of side panels based on other popular cab designs (think Gauntlet/Taito/Centipede...etc). Here is the current state of my gamesroom bar...LCD central...
Note: This build is a complete 50/50 collaboration between Yvan and myself...this is not mine or Yvans, it is both of ours. Special thanks again to BB for the multi monitor support (in his PM to me, he said he was already thinking about adding additional monitiors for instruction cards, so it looks like it was already planned, but nice of him to add it when I asked).
Hopefully Yvan can chime in now and go over the main LCD, the scaling of cab and artwork and talk about us going in a new direction with the main monitor, as the bezels are more square than 4:3, so we are thinking IPS widescreen with a portion hidden behind the speaker panel similar to Griffs MvC redux.
Please feel free to comment and offer suggestions.