Half-Shell: a TMNT 1/2 size cabinet – Upgrades complete

[Slippyblade]

Like mine, you may have the back of the tube stick out further than the cab, and need to build a "hump" on the back door.

Which is not unheard of in the arcade world.  The Pac-Man cabaret has a molded plastic bubble on the back for the same reason.

[romshark]

Still working on the cabinet, but decided to post my current activity.



Mounted the plexiglass, joysticks, and buttons to the panels. They're not wired yet (the microswitches aren't even installed).


Similar to vwalbridge's Mini QBert build, I cut some Kydex strips. Although I found out that the sheets are smaller than I need. So, I tried to merge two pieces together. I taped them together on the inside, and used Bondo to even up the gap from the outside.



I also filled the retainer flap gap with Bondo to hold it's shape.



Took the marquee holders and sanded off the excess Bondo. I also carefully used my Dremel to even up the holders to look like one continuous peice.



Spray-painted the marquee retainers, as well as the marquee screws, fan bolts, fan grill, and power switch screws.







Took the metal plate from a Radio-Shack project box (I use the plastic lid when I use the box anyway). Bent it to a 90 degree angle in a vice, and drilled a hole. This will be my monitor glass retainer.




Here are my Jamma boards mounted on the slide boards. Just slide them in, connect the Jamma harness, and play. I printed some title screens and screenshots on my photo printer, cut them out, and glued them to the board.

In addition, I mounted a Sega Naomi to another slider board. When I'm done with that, I'm going to use it to wire the cabinet. There are two reasons for this:
   *The Naomi can use either a 15Khz or 31KHz monitor. In fact, the connector on the Naomi is a standard VGA port. So, I can hook up a normal PC monitor to check my controls wiring (the cabinet is a bit small to wire with the monitor installed and powered up. I want to take the safe route).
   *Naomi is the only system I have that can test all 7 action buttons per player (even though the max buttons any of my games actually use is 6). While neither Half-Shell panel has a 7th button, I plan to wire my connectors for full compatibility with my other controllers.

------------------------------
So that's where I am right now. After the Naomi board is done, I'm going to start wiring up the cabinet (while I have the first two live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies playing in my DVD player). First the power socket / switch part, then the controls, then the other cabinet stuff. The control panels will be last, and may be another time.

[harveybirdman]

Cool idea on the board labels, how are you going to switch games?  open it up and change?  If you need them the fully loaded extender harnesses from Twisted Quarter are great!

[romshark]

Yep, just open the back panel, unplug the jamma connector, slide the board out, put the new game in, connect up the jamma connector, and power on. Pretty simple.
I won't need a jamma extension for these (although I do have one, in case I need to test some board without putting it in the cabinet.)
So far, I wired up all the controller connectors, as well as the front coin buttons. Unfortunately, I somehow blew the bulbs in the coin buttons. Not sure how, as the bulvs should have been 5 volts (I'll measure later to make sure I've got the right voltage running to them.) Taking them apart, they're just jumbo White LEDs, so they should be easy to replace. I might look into a resistor to put in line with them.
Next parts to wire are to the audio system and monitor board. Getting closer to the end!

[romshark]

Just to note: these buttons are the Groovygamegear.com NovaGem coin buttons, and they did work OK when I tested them with my Jamma power supply when I got them. Dunno if I have something wired wrong, or if my Naomi PSU is too powerful, or if I hooked the lights up backwards. But I blew both LEDs (one even cracked in half.) So it's gotta be something on my end.

[Slippyblade]

Shoot Randy a msg, he might have some advice.

[romshark]

I might, but I want to check my connections first. Maybe try some spare LEDs I have.

[PL1]

Dunno if I have something wired wrong, or if my Naomi PSU is too powerful, or if I hooked the lights up backwards. But I blew both LEDs (one even cracked in half.) So it's gotta be something on my end.

If the LEDs lit up, they weren't wired backward. (reverse-biased LEDs don't conduct)

Sounds like you hooked the LEDs to a too-high voltage. (over 5v)


Scott

[romshark]

I looked at the NovaGemCDR page at GroovyGameGear.com, and found out what I did wrong:

Pre-Attached, extra-long 48" lighting wires with resistor termination.

Well, guess what part of the wire I cut off when I put them in my cabinet yesterday (to make the wiring look neater). I didn't even realize it had a resistor in it till I looked at one. 

I still have the wires, so I can use the original resistors with replacement LEDs. I put some red ones in for now, but they're nowhere near bright enough. I'll have to buy some new ones. I'll wait till after the monitor is installed, in case fixing the position issue involves buying new potentiometers or something (the electronics store [Cain Electronics in Norfolk if you're in Southeast Virginia] is about an hour's drive away) [edit: or the LEDs on his site, along with maybe a few other goodies).

I'll PM Randy to ask for information about what LEDs to get.

Thanks to everyone for their input on LED stuff. I'm glad I got it figured out (and really glad I burned out just the LEDs. Way cheaper than the game PCBs or monitor boards, even if I have to buy all new switches.

[romshark]

Got in touch with RandyT. He's going to sell me replacement LEDs at $2.50 each. So I ordered 4 of them, along with some other goodies from his store. I still need to remove the current wiring and put the resistors back in series.

Currently working on other parts of the cabinet wiring. Got the marquee lights installed. I'll upload the pics of my current work in a day or so.

[Slippyblade]

Randy's a good guy, glad you got it figured out.

[romshark]

I'll update more in the future (I gotta go to work now), hopefully tomorrow or Saturday. For now, here's a pic of the cabinet's current status:



Mostly working, still some stuff to tweak. Big thing right now is lack of audio from my TMNT board. I am getting sound from my Turtles in Time, and from my Naomi. I'll test my TMNT board with my Supergun after work.

Still gotta do the controllers themselves too.

[harveybirdman]

I don't know if it needs it but I learned a hard lesson about trying to "fix" audio on boards that simply needed the -5v hooked up.

[Slippyblade]

I don't know if it needs it but I learned a hard lesson about trying to "fix" audio on boards that simply needed the -5v hooked up.

Oops!  Did you pop anything in the process before your "A Ha!" moment?

[romshark]

I've got a genuine arcade power supply in there, - 5 volts hooked up and all.
Ive got some theories going in my head, but can't test them till I get home.

[harveybirdman]

I don't know if it needs it but I learned a hard lesson about trying to "fix" audio on boards that simply needed the -5v hooked up.

Oops!  Did you pop anything in the process before your "A Ha!" moment?

Yep my Fighting Hawk PCB has dead audio now, caused by trying to re-cap to fix an issue that didn't really exist.

Anyways back on topic, romshark can you comfortably play this from a sitting position?  What you using for game chairs?

[romshark]

Anyways back on topic, romshark can you comfortably play this from a sitting position?  What you using for game chairs?

For now, I'm testing and doing stuff just on my knees. Eventually, I'll probably get / build a small table to put it on. That's the reason I didn't put rolling castors on the bottom. Don't want it accidentally rolling off the table during heated play. I might look for leg-levelers (surprised I couldn't find any in Home Depot.)

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Ok, so here's what I've been doing between work and sleep.




Wired up the power socket /switch to the electrical outlet inside. I tested the outlets with a wiring diagnostic tool, to make sure I hooked it up correctly. Two outlets, grounded and everything.




Here's the mess of wiring my control panel harnesses. The Sega Naomi is inside, hooked up to the Jamma harness. On the left, you'll see a monitor showing the input test for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and the re-wired X-Arcade joystick.




This is the marquee: the NovaMatrix Linx 2 lighting system from GroovyGameGear. I wanted something I could power from the existing power supplies, instead of trying to plug in a 3rd item (when I only have 2 outlets, and I want to avoid adding multi-outlet units to my outlet.)
The NovaMatrix units have mounts for screws, but the sicky tape it comes with is really strong. I 'm not sure I can get them back off the board without breaking something.
The marque light board sits in the cabinet, mounted by a toggle bolt and wingnut.






The marquee and holders, installed. Last pic is it lit up. The light looks a bit white. Maybe I can add a yellowish paper behind the marquee to make it look more "normal," but nothing to worry about for now.



The speaker. It's mounted on a smaller wooden board with screws (with the protruding ends of the screws cut off and ground flat with a moto-tool). That whole assembly is glued in place in the marquee box.


Here's the wiring in the cabinet, before the CRT is put in. Zip-ties and sticky holders keep the wiring in place. I hope to tidy it up a bit more in the future.


Decided to add a pic of my internal switch board. I have pushbuttons for test, tilt, and service. There are also a bunch of toggle switches:
   *Marquee switch. Turns it on and off.
   *Coin button switch. In the down position, the buttons are lit, and act as regular coin-up buttons. In the up position, the lights are out, and the buttons act as service and test.
   *Power selector. Chooses between the Jamma power supply, and another connector to a different system (such as the Naomi, which has it's own dedicated power supply.)
   *Button 4 switch. Switches the button 4 input between the Jamma harness and the EXT harness (that connects to a kick harness or similar.)
   *Button 5 switch. Similar to the button 4 switch. My Naomi JVS-Jamma adapter uses button 5 from the Jamma edge connector. I did this to handle any games / systems that use this oddball standard.

The board also has a coin meter, so I can keep track of my plays if I want to.

It's a odd shape, bacause I had to build it to fit in the available space. I plan to build a similar one for a future full-size cabinet upgrade.

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Audio

Ok, so I posted before that TMNT1 had no sound, but everything else did. That's because the amplifier (from a cheap USB speaker from Amazon.com) ties the -line in and -line out to ground. The power for the amp comes from a 5 volt tap on the video chassis board (since it used to have a jamma connector on it, but only had 5-volts for the included PCB. No -5 or 12 volt).
Turtles in Time ties the -Speaker connector (solder side of the PCB) to ground, just like the amp board. Perhaps this is needed on stereo systems to keep both speakers in phase? Anyway, this isn't the case on the (monaural) TMNT1 board. Normally, these are directly connected to the speaker(s), so ground is irrelevent. Not so much when I have an amp that does kinda connect back to the same ground on the PCB.
So the fix? For now, I disconnected the -line in wire, and it works. So do the other boards. I might take my Radio Shack project kit, and try to use the audio transformer to isolate the PCB from the amplifier to see if that makes a difference.

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While typing this, got the replacement bulbs (for the Coin buttons) from GrooyGameGear, as well as some other stuff (like some leaf-switch buttons to mess with.) I already wired the resistors (about 22 ohms each, I measured) back in, so I should have the lights working in no time.

Gotta go to work again, but this is the last time for a while (we're closed all next week). So I hope to get stuff done before I have to go back, since when we start again, we're on 6-day work weeks for a while.

[Aceldamor]

I don't know if it needs it but I learned a hard lesson about trying to "fix" audio on boards that simply needed the -5v hooked up.

A buddy of mine learned a similar lesson with Rastan (board doesn't even work without it)

[Aceldamor]

Very ambitious project that has turned out really well done! Gratz on your progress.

[romshark]

Everything was going great. Still testing a few things, but I was so close to calling this complete, and uploading the finished build pics.

Then, I screwed up. Big time.

I put a game board in to test, and went to stand back up. When I did, I hit the neck board with my hip. This resulted in...a broken CRT neck.



 

After a short break to calm down, I went back to look (and yes, I made sure the cabinet was off and unplugged before leaving for the break). Yup, it's broke wide open, with some of the pins broke off. The rest of it was still in the neck board.

Heartbroken, I looked on the Internet. As luck would have it, I came across a new exact replacement tube (37SX110Y22-DC05) at searspartsdirect.com of all places. I'm too far invested into this project to just quit, so I ordered it. Cost me about $105, and it won't be here till about July 19th.

So, that's where I am now. But don't worry. Half-Shell will be completed.

[Slippyblade]

Nooooooo!  Oh, the humanity!

I've never broken a tube (knock on wood), but then again I've not really had much chance too.  I can't imagine the anguish that would cause. 

[HaRuMaN]

Good luck with that website:

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Sears_PartsDirect

[romshark]

Good luck with that website:

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Sears_PartsDirect

....

I think I'm gonna need a drink tonight...

[HaRuMaN]

Or 2

[opt2not]

Gotta watch those childbearing hips!

Those hips don't lie (about breaking CRT necks)!

Hey man, it ain't hip to break things...


ok I'll stop. 

[romshark]

Such is the problem with working with a smaller cabinet. I had to sit down to work on some stuff, since everything is so close to the floor.

So, my plan is:

1. Pray SearParts actually works out for me.

2. If not, keep an eye out on eBay or similar for another tube, or maybe a whole Gameroom Classics bartop (if the price is low).

3. If that fails...Half-Shell will probably be switched to an LCD screen. Though I'll hang on to the other stuff, in case I find a CRT in the future.

I'll try to do research if other CRTs will work with this neckboard (13-pin) and will fit with my current mounting hardware.

[Waaaghinator]

Bummer. Here's hoping the shipping is far more expedient than the estimate predicts.

[HaRuMaN]

I've been picking up complete 13" CRTs with chassis off eBay for ~$160 shipped...

[ppv]

Ouch!!!  Damn that is bad luck! Sadly, I can see myself doing this! Hope that this store will work out, because this labor of love deserves a CRT...

[yotsuya]

The saddest sound in the world is the hiss of a necked monitor....

[romshark]

I suppose even a 13-inch CRT is better than an LCD. I'd probably also have issues finding a 4:3 LCD to fit the exact same size screen anyway.

The issue that concerns me is mounting a different model CRT and chassis board. I think most CRTs are mounted to a shelf below it. My current CRT is front-mounted. So putting a shelf in would be a bit of a process, and would also interfere with the game board area. Lots to take into account here.

Getting the same tube would be the best, if I can get one. Gonna wait till I find out if SearsParts works out for me.

The saddest sound in the world is the hiss of a necked monitor....

Oddly enough, I didn't hear anything. Though I was distracted by the visual scene. Sounds like you've had some monitor necks break too.

[yotsuya]

I suppose even a 13-inch CRT is better than an LCD. I'd probably also have issues finding a 4:3 LCD to fit the exact same size screen anyway.

The issue that concerns me is mounting a different model CRT and chassis board. I think most CRTs are mounted to a shelf below it. My current CRT is front-mounted. So putting a shelf in would be a bit of a process, and would also interfere with the game board area. Lots to take into account here.

Getting the same tube would be the best, if I can get one. Gonna wait till I find out if SearsParts works out for me.

The saddest sound in the world is the hiss of a necked monitor....

Oddly enough, I didn't hear anything. Though I was distracted by the visual scene. Sounds like you've had some monitor necks break too.

More than once, my friend.

[opt2not]

I suppose even a 13-inch CRT is better than an LCD.

QFT 

[romshark]

Alright, it's been a while. Here's the update on this whole thing.

First, I have another CRT monitor on the way . More info on that below.

So, when last I posted, I had ordered a new CRT tube from Searspartsdirect.com. It was also pointed out that the site has abysmal customer ratings.

The next day, my order status changed (and stayed like this for over a week):



Yeah, I don't think anyone is actually making CRTs. I was a bit hopeful that maybe Irico had some old units still on a pallet in a warehouse somewhere. If I'm really lucky, they'd send me the whole pallet, just to get rid of those tubes. Yeah, really wishful thinking.

Oh, and SearsPartsDirect had already charged my credit card, before they even knew if they could ship anything. .

The great Internet search continued. I checked selling posts on the forums (here, at KLOV, thought about joining neogeo.com to see their selling forums.). I checked Craigslist. I checked eBay. I would check multiple times a day. Trying to find either the tube, or the whole GameRoom Classics bartop arcade it originated from. "Arcade", "CRT", "Gameroom Classics", "Taito Classics", "SNK Classics". Tried multiple search terms.

It was decided that I'll probably need a whole new CRT system, chassis board and all.

There's a 14" Wells Gardner that I was eying on eBay. I looked at it for days. Until I realized it said "VGA". So the hunt continued.

I took a close look at some 13K7203 Wells Gardner monitors, for sale by KLOV user 87 t-66.. These are NOS, still in the packaging, and only turned on to make sure they work.

Looking at the specs on the Wells Gardner website, and measuring my broken CRT, it's a darn near perfect fit (maybe a few modifications. This tube may actually be a half inch wider, based on the front mounting tabs). So, I joined KLOV forums and bought the monitor. 87 t-66 has been helpful in just not selling me the CRT, but letting me know what type of connectors I need for power and signal, and a possible issue when mounting into a k7000 frame (which I'm not using a frame, but still, good to know.) And both 87 t-66 and Wells Gardner state that this system does
not require an isolation transformer.



(Images from 87 t-66s selling post over on KLOV. I haven't received the new CRT yet.)

So this new tube is the same, or maybe slightly larger than my old one. Does this mean my old tube was really a 13", not a 14"? I may do some actual comparisons before installing the new unit, before I get rid of the broken one.

(Oh, and I have the broken neck wrapped in a few layers of masking tape, to prevent cutting myself or pieces of glass from falling out.)

So my new tube is set to arrive Tuesday. I already picked up the connectors, so I can test the monitor. Any actual installation into Half-Shell will probably have to wait till at least Sunday, though, due to work.

Oh, and what of the Sears order?

I talked to and bought the WG monitor from 87 t-66 on Thursday (mostly communicating on my breaks at work.) Friday morning, Sears emailed me saying "The item(s) for order W726117 is(are) discontinued." (Yeah, I know many of you are shocked by this.) They also stated that they'll refund my credit card. So...at least I didn't have to file a credit card dispute or anything messy like that.

The old chassis board will be removed from Half-Shell and put in storage. I'll document how everything is hooked up. I won't be searching nearly as much for a replacement tube, but I'll keep an eye out. If I can get another tube for it, maybe I could use it in another build (*Cough* MsPacmanCocktailTable *Cough*).

And to prevent damaging my new tube once it's in (since it sticks out about the same as the old one), I'll make use of my Jamma extension cable when testing different boards and systems. That way, I won't even have to mess with the back of the cabinet (and keeps me away from the CRT).

My plan of attack:
*remove the old chassis board
*route new power lines for the sound amp (the old one used the +5V line on the old chassis board. I doubt the WG board has a 5V port I can safely tap into.)
*carefully discharge the new CRT, document and take pictures of how the chassis and tube connect to each other.
*test-fit CRT tube in Half-Shell, and modify the cabinet as needed.
*See if I can put a small shelf inside, right under the control panel, to mount the chassis control PCB (where the size and postition controls are).
*Hope my old bezel still fits. If not, find a repacement, or
*Mount chassis board, hook everything up.
*Test everything.
*Have the Turtles save April and defeat Shredder.

[Slippyblade]

Glad you were able to find a replacement.  I was so hoping the CRT wasn't the death of this project.

[harveybirdman]

Yay CRT for the win!

[romshark]

Got the new monitor today and tested it.


(There's a protective plastic on the front of the tube.)

I had to do a yoke flip (the image was reversed left to right. Maybe it was intended for a mirror cab?), but the monitor works great! Actually, I haven't adjusted a single pot (only the connector to do that yoke flip), but the image already looks better than I could ever get that old Gameroom Classics CRT.

Installation into Half-Shell pending, as I still plan to do it the way I posted before.

[romshark]

Here's the last in-progress update post. The cabinet is done after this!




Created a wood board to mount the new chassis to. This board also has a terminal block for the monitor signal (layed out in the same way as the connector itself. That's why the syncs are all seperate, and there's a "key" slot.) The board was then wood glued and screwed to the cabinet, where the old chassis board was removed from.



Removed the old Gameroom Classics monitor chassis board. Had to reroute new power lines for the sound amp board (it originally got power from the chassis board, but there's no place for me to tap into power on the new one (there probably is, but I don't feel like poking around a monitor chassis board.) The terminal block was also removed, as the new board has a terminal block on it. I'll put the old chassis board away for now.



The old and new CRT tubes. They look like they're the same size.



And...the new CRT fits! It fits perfectly snug between the wood "spacers" (the blocks against the tube on the left and right.) So I guess the old CRT was really a 13 inch tube.



Here's the back of the CRT, all hooked up to the chassis board. The wires going to the neck board were just a bit too short, so I put spacers (made out of an old pen) on the chassis board bolts (glad I used long bolts). Now the wires run perfectly, and aren't too tight or anything. I tested a game with it, and the monitor works perfectly! Time to add the final bits.



I mounted the monitor control board just under the control panel. Even with the control panel base plate installed, I can adjust the monitor easily just by removing the control panel top.



Checked to make sure my back door hump doesn't hit the back of the CRT. No issues here. The monitor assembly doesn't seem to stick out as far as the other one, but it does a bit. So I still need the hump.




My existing monitor bezel fits nicely. Also put the monitor glass on (after cleaning it and the CRT with Windex), and installed the monitor glass retainer bracket.



The control panel base attaches to the cabinet using bolts and wingnuts. The rest of the control panel secures to this base part using these flush-mounted hex head bolts.


Now that I have a 5-volt line running for the amp, I tried switching my intake fan to it. My fan is listed as 12-volt, but it runs noisy and pulls in a lot of air like this. By a lot, I mean when the monitor and back door are in place, air is coming out of the top vent. And around the monitor area. And the control panel seams. Just way too much air. Putting the fan at 5 volts still has air coming out the vent, but not trying to come out of every other opening. It's also a lot quieter.

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So that concludes my build of Half-Shell, the 1/2 size Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cabinet. The final product pics will be a separate post.

[romshark]

Finished product pics! After 4 months of making this on my spare time, and a few disheartening setbacks, I finally finished it!

Two of these are from my Galaxy S7 Edge, since they came out nice.














Took some pics next to a chair, for size comparison. Just like Vwalbridge did on his finished mini-Qbert build.

The next two are the ones from my phone:





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Back of the cabinet, without the back door.


Back of the cabinet.


Power input, switch, volume control, and intake fan.

---------------------------------


Played my TMNT board. First game I beat on this cabinet!

The other games I only played a level or two.


Simpsons:


X-Men:


Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on my Sega Naomi.



Guilty Gear XX. One of my favorite fighters in my Naomi collection.

---------------------------------

So that ends this build. There may be minor tweaks to do. Paint touch-ups and so on. I want to get a small table to put it on, to make it easier to play.

Thanks to all that looked and commented on this topic (and those that looked, but didn't comment, which I'm extremely guilty of doing in a lot of topics), and thanks to all the restoration and build posts (both here and other places) for showing me the finer details of this type of cabinet.

Commentors:
yotsuya
sealcouch
Slippyblade
Aceldamor
dmckean
harveybirdman
opt2not
DarthBS
ballboff
HaRuMaN
mourix
PL1
Waaaghinator
ppv
baritonomarchetto (in a separate post for get my monitor working, before I broke it.)

Also thanks to:
RandyT and Groovy Game Gear for controls, coin buttons, marquee lighting, a few more odd and ends, and selling me the LEDs I stupidly burned out.
Scott and GameOnGrafix for the artwork.
dheck for uploading the edited control panel artwork to GameOnGrafix.
Home Depot for tons of wood, some paint, and a lot of screws and bolts.
87 t-66 on the KLOV forums for the beautiful monitor.

And others I'm probably forgetting.

[GSXRMovistar]

Love it! very cool.