****Completed pics added in my 7/10 post****
Midway thru building my 3rd machine; this one a bartop based around an old arcade tablet I no longer use. It's an Acer Iconia that won't update past 4.1, which made locating some apps rather difficult. I didn't go the r-pi route because I really wanted it to play Pinball Arcade, as well as all the usual nostalgic emus. The encoder was not recognized as a gamepad by the older Android OS (and I couldn't find a viable root for this model, either). So I did some digging and found an apk that translated the inputs into key commands. Strangely enough, my 8bitdo Zero bluetooth was recognized immediately, but it's just too small for me to hack and solder easily.
Next steps are cutting plexi for the marquee and bezel, and finalizing how the tablet's going to rest in there before I do the final gluing for its backrest. The control panel won't be glued, in case I need to get to the wiring; I'm looking into using some strong magnets or cutting some thin velcro strips to secure it for play.
Ran into a little snag when I decided to use LED buttons rather than the shorter ones that were supplied with the zero-delay encoder I got on A-zon. I was careful to measure before ordering, since my cp is pretty shallow, that I'd have the depth to fit them in. I didn't count on the quick disconnects adding so much to the button depth when I hooked the new buttons up, so I'll have to solder the wiring, and I'll be able to gain that extra quarter to half inch needed for the cp to rest again where it's supposed to.
Because switching between emulators isn't easily done on a tablet with a gamepad, I'll likely have to cut out an open part in the bezel (the size of the display) so the touch screen can be accessed. The plexi is thin enough that I don't anticipate much of a aesthetic hit, with less than a 1mm gap between the plexi and tablet screen. I have a battery-powered led strip to use to light the marquee, and I'll probably ask for opinions on artwork when that time comes. Will be updating as things move along...