Bartop "BAR-CADE" project My 3rd attempt.

[Phreakwars]

So I'm discussing my last project with a friend over a few beers at his house.. And he says to me... that thing is AWESOME, you gotta build me one for my bar. So I'm like... hmm, one for your bar... why, this sounds like a perfect excuse to try my hand at a bartop machine... And why not.. I've already done a stand up years ago, and a cocktail just a couple weeks ago.. Bartop arcade?? Oh hell yeah.

Least this time around I can take a few lessons learned from having done my sons. I know that the joystick is gonna be a HAPP. Front End this time around is gonna be Hyperspin. I used AtomicFE in my sons mainly because he has soo many damn games. Hyperspin will be better suited on this build because of how cool it looks with wheel game names customized to look like their marquee logo, and for the cool visual effects I'm shooting for this time around.

Here's my first attempt at a customized Hyperspin and more then likely will be what goes into this build



Internal hardware is gonna be a bit different as well. I picked up an old eMachine T3642 with an AMD 64 4000+ and 1 Gig of RAM & 250 gig HDD, for free from my boss. I noticed I could get a 6000+ X2 chip off of eBay pretty cheap, so I'll probably pick one of those up to make it into a Dual-Core machine, and pretty sure I have a couple of 1 gig DDR2 memory chips stashed away somewhere I can slap in it. Video is gonna be an nVidia GeForce GT 730. That SHOULD be enough power to drive the gamelist I have in mind, and Hyperspin on medium settings.

HaRuMaN will be providing the shell. Going with "The Degenatron", and Malenko will have his hand in on it too with the artwork for the SIDES/CPO/Marquee.. THANKS IN ADVANCE GUYS!!!

The theme of this "BAR-CADE"?

BOOZE!!   

[Phreakwars]

OK, so I changed my mind about using that old eMachine for the project. Mainly because I wanna do another custom BIOS screen hack job with the "BAR" theme. Yeah, it adds a couple hundred to the total cost, but IMHO, it's worth it.. At least this time around, when I hack the OS bootup screen animation, I'm working with a horizontal monitor and not a vertical... MUCH easier.

Some of the parts are now on order... waiting for Paradise Arcade to get their store fully operational again so I can order the LED buttons, joystick and other misc items like daisy chains, wires, etc.

But anyways, here is what went into the shopping list so far:

Monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236115

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132052R

Extension cable:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812196873

Video Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500383

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116974

Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148787

3.5mm audio to RCA:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0PG06H5015

Audio Amplifier:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1HE2V64865

The speakers I have. I'll just use the 4" speakers I originally had purchased for my sons arcade, but swapped out for 6.5" Sony X-Plod's. Hard drive I also have. I'll just pull that 250 gig drive out of that old eMachine.

iPac was ordered the other day, going with the iPac VE. This time around, I'm going to use some plastic standoff feet to mount the motherboard, Hard drive, and even the power supply. Kind of have no choice since the space is a bit more limited.

[Phreakwars]

OK, here's a couple pics of what I have planned, special thanks to Malenko for the artwork he did for me.

This is a rendering of what the cabinet will look like


A close up image of the Control Panel


All printed out and ready to go.

[Phreakwars]

So how to light up that marquee??

My solution was to order this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000M25OTI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

I figure one mounted on top and one on the bottom should do the trick, and what's better yet, I can use the power supply's 12v current to drive it.

[matsadona]

In my first build I used a CCFL tube, but if I would do it again it would be a 12V LED strip. Cheaper, easier.

[rablack97]

led strip all the way.........2 rows so that it is lit uniform and not a line across the middle

sand the back of your plexi to diffuse if needed.

[Phreakwars]

Great idea. I'll remember that for the project after this one. I've already purchased the cold cathode tubes, so I might as well use them.

[Phreakwars]

Finally got my kit today, figured best place to start would be the control panel.

Here are a couple of images of what I have accomplished so far before having to go to work

[Phreakwars]

Coming along nicely. Just finished getting the graphics for the side panels on and bottom buttons installed. Next up. Mount the speakers and AMP. Then glue, then pre fit/drill monitor mounts.

[Phreakwars]

Amp and speakers are now hooked up and functioning... Sucks I'm working most of the weekend. I have to do bits of it here and there. But at least when I get off work tomorrow, I can proceed with gluing the cabinet together (hopefully). I just BARELY made it for the clearance for the marquee when I placed the AMP after the RCA jack was plugged in... Note to (MYSELF AND) anybody else who attempts a Degenatron the way I'm doing it with the AMP. Leave enough space for the RCA jack in the front, but don't go too far or the bezel will hit the AMP in the back. If you do it just right, you should be able to have access to the speaker volume knob even with the bezel in place, plus room for the LED/Cold Cathodes in the front for the Marquee.

I got lucky this time, considering I didn't take the RCA jacks into consideration when I mounted the amp.

[vwalbridge]

Looks like you are working with melamine?

I've never worked with that before so can you tell me exactly how you are gluing it?

As I understand, you can only glue it where there is exposed wood right? The melamine surface itself is far too slick to glue right?

[Phreakwars]

Looks like you are working with melamine?

I've never worked with that before so can you tell me exactly how you are gluing it?

As I understand, you can only glue it where there is exposed wood right? The melamine surface itself is far too slick to glue right?

Yes, only gluing on exposed wood. HaRuMaN's kits are CNC cut so that your only able to glue exposed wood ends together. I'm using Gorilla Glue wood glue, weighing it down with an old PC.. I'm guessing that should be enough weight. I have 1 side glued in and just flipped it over and glued the other side about 10 minutes ago. Gonna let it sit till around 2:00 tomorrow when I get off from work. Gonna work on getting the iPac mounted in and some of the wiring done tonight. Then tomorrow I'm gonna attempt to mount the screen.

[Phreakwars]

I also ran into some clearance issues with the LED buttons up front. They bump into the joystick, I'm gonna put some spacers in them and change the microswitches to some low profile ones I have lying around and see if that fixes the problem... if not, I'm gonna have to come up with another solution.

[Phreakwars]

Cabinet is now glued together and drying. Still lots of work to do. Got the monitor temporarily placed in so I can mount the brackets. Just going to let it dry overnight and go at it again tomorrow. Plan on tinting the glass for the bezel, and putting some black tape around the monitor frame. Still need to hook up cold cathode lights. Happy to report that the spacers and lower profile micro switches did the trick for the problem I was having earlier. Mounts for the monitor lined up perfect, although I had to use a couple of tiny washers for the included screws (will post pictures later, along with FULL DETAILED iPac VE and LED wiring images).

[Phreakwars]

OK, I layed out and color coded all the wiring. Decided to make all the button wires on the top control panel the same color as the buttons themselves



Used a few cable tie downs to keep the wires from getting all cluttered up



Here is what it looks like on the iPac VE



If you look close on the iPac, you'll notice that 1SW1 & 1SW2 both have 2 wires going into them. I suppose I could have just used 1SW7 & 1SW8, and configured in MAME, but it just makes it easier for the modification I made to the cabinet... I added buttons on the sides for pinball games. Also put black duct tape around the monitor edges to hide branding, buttons, LED power light glow, etc...

[Phreakwars]

Had a minor setback today

The Intel motherboard was DOA...

But, not a prob. I happened to have another ASUS based board on hand but in AMD form, so new config consists of an ASUS AM1I-A (mini ITX form factor) and an AMD 5350 CPU... sooooo.. I figured since the 5350 runs a Radeon 8400 and has no PCI-E slot for the GeForce 730, I'll have to ditch that idea and use the onboard 8400 graphics.. oh well, no biggy.. Hyperspin should run pretty well on it... or we shall see anyway. Power supply is a Rosewill SL-300TFX

EDIT: Yeah, I know... I have quite the mess going on right now.



Oh yeah... and I did manage to get the plexi glass bezel tinted as well.. Hides the monitor black duct tape job I did around the edges quite well. I'm thinking, but I have to remeasure, with that ITX board, I'll be able to mount the motherboard behind the monitor and have room to mount the 2.5" HDD right next to it, leaving PLENTY of space on the bottom for the power supply and power strip. So what I did is drill some holes in a 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapter bay, and mounted the 2.5" in it. The I'll use the holes I drilled to mount the hard drive to the back of the monitor.

[HanoiBoi]

Nice project and good progress. 

One thing that threw me off were the red, white and blue buttons.  They kinda scream USA, and seem a bit out of place given the artwork.

[Phreakwars]

Actually wasn't my decision. I would have preferred maybe all blue, or all red. I'm taking my que's from the guy it's meant to be built for. Just like on my son's.. I thought the Mag-Stick plus controllers were awesome, but he insisted on the Happ's instead... meh... what do ya do!! 

But anyways... motherboard will fit on mount behind monitor, but looks like it's gonna be a tight squeeze.. I haven't installed the back access panel yet and I am a bit worried about the ram hitting it when it does get put on... otherwise it fits in nice. But, might just end up mounting it on the base of the cabinet instead.. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I'm still in the process of configuring Hyperspin, so I'm gonna take a break from the build process for a few days and focus on software. BIOS has already been customized with the same logo on the CPO. Still need to hack the OS and change the boot animation, startup screen, shutdown screen, etc, etc...