Main Restorations Software Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Everything Else Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements Monitor/Video GroovyMAME Merit/JVL Touchscreen Meet Up Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing Woodworking Software Support Forums Consoles Project Arcade Reviews
Automated Projects Artwork Frontend Support Forums Pinball Forum Discussion Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board controls.dat Linux Miscellaneous Arcade Wiki Discussion Old Archives
Lightguns Arcade1Up Try the site in https mode Site News

Unread posts | New Replies | Recent posts | Rules | Chatroom | Wiki | File Repository | RSS | Submit news

  

Author Topic: Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab  (Read 3894 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

javeryh

  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7901
  • Last login:Yesterday at 05:35:40 pm
Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab
« on: May 26, 2018, 12:02:03 pm »
Hey guys - I'm in the process of making a new cab (first one in 9 years!) and due to being completely out of space in my house I want to make something a little smaller than a traditional standup.  I have a bunch of questions (and will probably have a bunch more as I go) so I thought putting them all in one place might help.

I have a little bit of familiarity with Raspberry Pi in that I bought one, installed RetroPie and stuck it in an NES case for some console gaming.  That said, I think I want the Pi to behave differently for an arcade cabinet:

1.  I want to wire up a Male Power Socket w/Switch on the back and use the switch to power on and off the cabinet with a single button press.  Is this doable?  I've seen on/off tutorials so I assume so but not sure with this type of set up or if I need a standalone button.  I do not want to have to answer "yes/no" to power down. This needs to be SIMPLE.

2.  From looking at other projects, it looks like I can customize the RetroPie menu - are there any good tutorials on how to do this?  Ideally, I'd like to boot straight into the game list that has custom graphics with the marquee and video of the game in action.  Like this:



This is a Pi powered cabinet with a custom menu by @Vidiot here at byoac.  Ideally, I'd remove the boot up font and the raspberries that appear and replace it with a custom splash screen that goes straight to the game menu.

3.  Is there a way to combine emulators into one game list?  I plan on running MAME and Daphne (and MisFit MAME if that is possible) but do not want to back out to a separate "console" menus.

4.  Does "Attract Mode" or "Kids Mode" remove the ability for the user to get to any other screens other than the game list?  I do not want someone to be able to change any settings.

5.  Does an iPAC hooked up through USB work like it does hooked up to a PC?  What is the best way to wire the controls with the Pi?

That's all for now.  Thanks.   :cheers:

DaOld Man

  • Trade Count: (+4)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5139
  • Last login:December 13, 2023, 12:03:14 am
  • Wheres my coffee?
    • Skenny's Outpost
Re: Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2018, 08:58:27 am »
Your first question about the power switch. On my first photo booth project using a RPi, I used one of those switched power entry sockets that are pretty popular on here.
I unwired the switch from the high power part and wired the switch to a mausberry power circuit. (Cannot mix these voltages! So if you go this route, make sure you buy a power entry that will allow you to unwire teh switch part from the power part.)

https://www.mausberrycircuits.com/

The high power part of the entry socket wired to the RPi power supply. I needed 12 volts for fan and some IO, so I used a arcade type power source to power the 5 volts for the Pi and give me the 12 volts I needed.
Flip the switch on, Pi boots up. Flip switch off, Pi goes through proper shutdown then powers down.
I used a relay that the RPi turns on when it is on. The relay turns on the monitor and the 12 volts IO.

Sounds complicated but its really not.

You can also use a momentary pushbutton with the mausberry switch. Push on, RPi boots. Push again RPi shuts down and powers off. This is what I used on my console retros.

1500points

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 550
  • Last login:November 20, 2018, 01:44:12 pm
    • How to succeed at Robotron
Re: Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2018, 10:19:19 am »
I have built many pi powered mini arcade cabs that are played multiple times a week.

When I first started I got obsessive about worrying about software powerdown scripts.

But in use, I have never had one single issue with just powering off unit with a normal power switch to whole system.  Not once has it failed or corrupted something.

A pc cab on the other hand, i had to use the momentary switch to cpu to soft power down because windows profile had issues almost immediately upon trying hard power down.

In summary, you can be ocd and techie as you want about pi designs but in practical use the need for a fancy soft power down is unwarranted per practical experience.   Even if the sd card did get corrupted it takes less than 15min to write or overwrite a new image assuming you backed up your working pi image (such as backing up with win32diskimager, read instead of write)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

1500points

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 550
  • Last login:November 20, 2018, 01:44:12 pm
    • How to succeed at Robotron
Re: Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2018, 09:29:15 pm »
3.  Is there a way to combine emulators into one game list?  I plan on running MAME and Daphne (and MisFit MAME if that is possible) but do not want to back out to a separate "console" menus.

4.  Does "Attract Mode" or "Kids Mode" remove the ability for the user to get to any other screens other than the game list?  I do not want someone to be able to change any settings.

5.  Does an iPAC hooked up through USB work like it does hooked up to a PC?  What is the best way to wire the controls with the Pi?

That's all for now.  Thanks.   :cheers:

ipac just plugs in like any key encoder such as the zero delay, works fine.

attract mode is what you want. it really is quite easy to setup and there are multiple platforms that are supported. you'll see the config in the setup menu.
then you can let people play it but they won't be able to get into admin stuff without a keyboard attached.  very slick.
retropie isn't kid or public friend due to the admin stuff you can't lock out, but attract mode....dah bomb.
check out the "arcadeSD" theme that frizzlefried is hosting on his site, it is very simple and intuitive for kids/public.

barrymossel

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 498
  • Last login:October 29, 2021, 11:25:52 am
  • Spectrum
    • forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,157647.0.html
Re: Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2018, 02:15:35 pm »
3.  Is there a way to combine emulators into one game list?  I plan on running MAME and Daphne (and MisFit MAME if that is possible) but do not want to back out to a separate "console" menus.

4.  Does "Attract Mode" or "Kids Mode" remove the ability for the user to get to any other screens other than the game list?  I do not want someone to be able to change any settings.

5.  Does an iPAC hooked up through USB work like it does hooked up to a PC?  What is the best way to wire the controls with the Pi?

That's all for now.  Thanks.   :cheers:

ipac just plugs in like any key encoder such as the zero delay, works fine.

attract mode is what you want. it really is quite easy to setup and there are multiple platforms that are supported. you'll see the config in the setup menu.
then you can let people play it but they won't be able to get into admin stuff without a keyboard attached.  very slick.
retropie isn't kid or public friend due to the admin stuff you can't lock out, but attract mode....dah bomb.
check out the "arcadeSD" theme that frizzlefried is hosting on his site, it is very simple and intuitive for kids/public.
That's not entirely true: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Child-friendly-EmulationStation
« Last Edit: May 29, 2018, 07:09:30 am by barrymossel »

1500points

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 550
  • Last login:November 20, 2018, 01:44:12 pm
    • How to succeed at Robotron
Re: Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2018, 08:13:33 pm »
haven't heard of kid and kiosk mode, i'll have to try it out and see how it works. good find!

javeryh

  • Trade Count: (+1)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7901
  • Last login:Yesterday at 05:35:40 pm
Re: Some questions about using Raspberry Pi for an Arcade Cab
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2018, 12:40:10 pm »
Your first question about the power switch. On my first photo booth project using a RPi, I used one of those switched power entry sockets that are pretty popular on here.
I unwired the switch from the high power part and wired the switch to a mausberry power circuit. (Cannot mix these voltages! So if you go this route, make sure you buy a power entry that will allow you to unwire teh switch part from the power part.)

https://www.mausberrycircuits.com/

The high power part of the entry socket wired to the RPi power supply. I needed 12 volts for fan and some IO, so I used a arcade type power source to power the 5 volts for the Pi and give me the 12 volts I needed.
Flip the switch on, Pi boots up. Flip switch off, Pi goes through proper shutdown then powers down.
I used a relay that the RPi turns on when it is on. The relay turns on the monitor and the 12 volts IO.

Sounds complicated but its really not.

You can also use a momentary pushbutton with the mausberry switch. Push on, RPi boots. Push again RPi shuts down and powers off. This is what I used on my console retros.

Thanks!!  I think I'm going to add a momentary pushbutton to the back of the cabinet for powering on and off so I don't have to mess with the switch.  I went ahead and ordered one of these things:



So I'll hook this up directly to whatever I use to power the pi and the switch will just control whether power can pass through but not actually turn anything on and off.  The momentary pushbutton (plus a script if I'm understanding this correctly) wired to the pi will safely turn it on and off.

I think that takes care of my first question...