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Author Topic: Nintendo cabinet build - Wreck-It Ralph  (Read 69415 times)

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meyer980

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #120 on: March 01, 2020, 06:43:14 pm »
Really like the CPO, with ralph sitting there.

My CPO had the instruction card printed right on it - seemed to work fine. If you don't plan on changing it, I don't see why you couldn't do the same.

Arroyo

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #121 on: March 01, 2020, 11:48:00 pm »
Looks really awesome all around.  No comments here.  You going to do side art as well?

« Last Edit: March 26, 2020, 05:04:36 pm by Arroyo »

Drnick

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #122 on: March 02, 2020, 08:24:16 am »
Just one thing,  Don't you want to change the word Fix on the control panel to Wreck/Hit/Smash or something else?  Unless Ralph is actually fixing stuff :)

Actually, just ignore the above, for some reason I thought you were going to go with a rewrite of the game where you were playing as Ralph, Instead I see currently it's more of a re-skin so game still plays same as Fix It Felix.




javeryh

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #123 on: March 02, 2020, 10:01:26 am »
Art looks great.  This thing is going to really pop once it is finished.  Not sure why the DK CPs had the clear section for a separate instruction card and I don't see any reason why you couldn't print it all at once.

wp34

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #124 on: March 02, 2020, 10:03:36 am »
Your art is turning out great.  That bezel is making me want to build another one...

meyer980

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #125 on: March 02, 2020, 12:07:15 pm »
Just one thing,  Don't you want to change the word Fix on the control panel to Wreck/Hit/Smash or something else?  Unless Ralph is actually fixing stuff :)

Actually, just ignore the above, for some reason I thought you were going to go with a rewrite of the game where you were playing as Ralph, Instead I see currently it's more of a re-skin so game still plays same as Fix It Felix.

I've created a game like you're describing for Unclear to use here (if he wants!): http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161917.0.html
I'm not sure if he's going to use it as his primary game though or stick with a logo-changed Felix. I think he's sort of building a Donkey Kong equivalent (cabinet/game named after bad guy but you play as the good guy).

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #126 on: March 02, 2020, 01:30:16 pm »
Thanks for all the comments.  I nearly gave up on the "building" bezel so I'm really glad I stuck with it now, especially given the amount of work and re-work it's now had.  It also made me re-think the CPO, which I think ultimately has worked out better.  Some of this was driven through the original concept art.  Finding three decent pictures to work with for the original DK CPO layout was impossible in the end without mixing styles.  Similarly, I'd managed to get a number of the Nicelander characters and really wanted to use those.

The marquee was an area that I hadn't really thought through, but once I got the logo font in place and looking so bold on its own I found that I didn't want to add much to it.  Simplicity won, in the end.  That simplicity ultimately then fed back into the CPO and solved my original artwork shortage when I was able to use the single image of "sitting Ralph", originally in greyscale but not too hard to tweak and colourise using other pictures as source for colours. 

I'm not 100% sure on the side art yet.  I've had in mind from early on that I might do something with the pixellated head of Ralph that featured on some of the posters.



Still to decide on that one.  One concern is that it's a red-heavy image and the current plan is a red cabinet.  Red on red won't work.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #127 on: March 08, 2020, 04:54:37 pm »
As the weather hopefully starts to improve, and with theme progressing, I'll hopefully get on with the actual build again soon.  I still need to buy all of the metalwork on the cab (coin door/bezel&marquee brackets).  I've asked before, but before I finally have to bite the bullet and import these things from the US can I just ask one more time if anyone is aware of any source of these bits in our nearer the UK?  Thanks.

hurricanefan

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #128 on: March 08, 2020, 05:28:10 pm »
Loving the new art!  This is going to be an amazing looking cabinet.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #129 on: March 26, 2020, 01:58:38 pm »
So, I rebuilt the base...

After months of winter building absence it seemed less of a task than it once did.  As a reminder, the previous base was about 1cm shorter than it should be, which in the grand scale of things wasn't a disaster.  But these cabs aren't the tallest in the world (although neither am I...) and, despite having bought smaller wheels in the meantime, it was still annoying me and now was the last real chance to do anything about it.  The new wood is a bit thinner but about 2cm taller, meaning that now the cabinet will technically be 1cm too tall.  I could reduce that, but I think I'm okay with this.

New base in all its glory.  It looks a lot like the old one, only taller.


The paint on the bottom (facing up) is completely pointless but might offer some tiny sliver of protection from any dampness coming up from the floor.  Plus it was easier to paint than to mask...

Wheels against the new base:


And against the old:


The worst part was that I'd already glued and screwed the base part to the bottom panel of the cabinet, so it needed a bit of "encouragement" to remove.


That damage isn't as bad as it looks because I'd previously removed some of the paint to give the glue a better surface to bond to.  But there's still damage visible, especially because of the thinner wood.  This doesn't REALLY matter because it's the UNDERSIDE of the BOTTOM OF THE CABINET.  But hey, a little bit of filler doesn't take long for a rough fill.



After a quick spray it looks better, although resulted in overspray on the base inside because I REALLY couldn't be bothered to mask that!

Anyway, onto more practical matters, the wheels now sit below the surface by a reasonable amount.  I assume the point here is for these to be as close to the surface as possible to that the slightest tip allows the wheels to hit the ground.  But how close do they need to be?  I know Nintendo cabinets have some risers under the wheels for this purpose.  If I pop a bit of 6mm MDF under them then I'll end up about 5mm off the surface.  Is that okay or too much?  I could always route a few mm off a deeper bit of MDF if needed.



UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #130 on: March 27, 2020, 08:41:57 am »
Any particular thoughts on buttons?  I think I've mentioned previously that I'm probably putting a Servostick in this cabinet so that I have 4/8-way choice, which immediately compromises the control panel from being "Nintendo".  It's TobiKomi, so maybe that's okay :)  But what about the buttons.  Repro Nintendo buttons, plus the assembly mounts and switches are seriously expensive.  I'd have to import to the UK, and just the parts work out at about $20 per button.  I could use the Nintendo red for my buttons 1 & 2, and that'd be a reasonable colour fit.  The blue buttons for P1/2 are a bit more of a reach since my cabinet doesn't really feature any blue, although I could just about link them to some of the colour on the instruction card.  That's $80 on 4 buttons  :-\  I could go for standard 1P/2P buttons and standard buttons for my button 1/2 and it'd cost me about $10.  Any thoughts?  If I go for non-standard buttons then are there any particular recommendation on "good" buttons?  Thanks.

Arroyo

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #131 on: March 27, 2020, 10:03:56 am »
If you aren’t doing a Nintendo joystick, then it seems silly to pay all that money to be authentic with Nintendo buttons.  :dunno
« Last Edit: March 27, 2020, 06:35:35 pm by Arroyo »

Mike A

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #132 on: March 27, 2020, 10:05:26 am »
Agreed. Save the money for beer. Buy the cheaper buttons as long as they are quality.

wp34

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #133 on: March 27, 2020, 10:13:28 am »
If you aren’t doing a Nintendo joystick, then it seems silly to pay all that money to be authentic with Nintendo buttons.  :dunno:

To be fair the Nintendo joystick is the worst.  My daughter made me install one on her FiF (she's a purist).  It looks great but I don't like how it plays on many of the games.

Back on topic--Arroya is right.  No need for authentic buttons.

meyer980

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #134 on: March 27, 2020, 11:09:59 am »
In my Felix cab, went with a magstik plus and standard microswitch buttons.

It never bothered me, but then again, I've never owned an original either. I wouldn't worry about using authentic buttons though.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #135 on: March 27, 2020, 12:47:43 pm »
That was conclusive, thanks all!  Standard buttons it is!

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #136 on: March 29, 2020, 04:16:24 pm »
After many months of attempts I've managed to locate an old coin door, so that's one bit of the metalwork sorted.  Still need to get the three brackets (marquee + bezel), but reckon I'll have to import those from the US  :(

The coin door is in pretty good condition, although in need of a good clean before I can see if it needs any work.  You can see the result of a 30 second wipe with the paper towel in the bottom right.  I'm kind of hoping it doesn't need work, because then I'd need to decide how best to deal with it, but I can see some scratchs that suggest it could benefit with a bit of TLC.  Can I just sand it a bit and then give it a spray with something suitable for metal, or does it need more brutal treatment with wire brush/chemicals etc.?

The door doesn't shut flush in the top-left corner, which seems to be because the vertical strut on the rear of the door is making contact with the frame too early.  I've not figured out yet if that's a bend in the frame, a bend in the door, or the strut being not quite right.  The clamps are to hold it correctly closed for a little while to see if that's enough to fix the problem.



The coin mech plates on the front are mostly complete although have the expected level of scratching.  Unfortunately the coin mechs themselves are only partial and hence unusable.





I've got a couple of Coin Controls mechs that are similar (and I've seen that style on plenty of other Nintendo cabinets, even if not original) and which I'll probably use instead, although they're untested so I need to look at them at some point.


meyer980

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #137 on: March 29, 2020, 05:25:39 pm »
Those replacement mechs work pretty well in my experience. I got a coin door in similar shape to yours, wasn't that hard to restore.

I used citrustrip to get the paint off, did some light sanding to get the rust off, and then painted it with Rustoleum black. Turned out fantastic.

You can see before/after here:
http://sergiostuff.com/2013/07/01/fif-jr-week-1/
http://sergiostuff.com/2013/08/08/fif-jr-week-6/
« Last Edit: March 29, 2020, 05:28:51 pm by meyer980 »

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #138 on: March 29, 2020, 05:57:32 pm »
Thanks, yours looks great in those photos.  I'm not sure yet if I need to take the paint off or it sanding will be enough.  I spent about 10 minutes earlier giving it a quick wash and can see a bit more what I'm dealing with now.  The plates actually cleaned up really easily and look a lot better.  The door itself has some light scratching plus a couple of small dents that I probably won't be able to make any better (and could easily make worse if I try).  I'm tempted to key the surface a little and try a spray, because if it all goes badly then I can always strip the paint at that point.  The hinge is fixed though, so spraying effectively around the door edges and frame is going to be interesting.



And I've got this terrible photo that I tried to take to show how the door doesn't close properly, which from holding the frame on a flat surface seems to be because of a slight twist in the frame.  It's possible that just bolting it to the cabinet might sort this out.  Not sure if you can make anything out from the photo, but I was holding the door in one corner and the camera in the other hand, struggling to take the picture :)


meyer980

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #139 on: March 30, 2020, 10:57:32 am »
I can't tell how bad of a twist you've got. Mine had a couple little dents that I straightened out with a hammer and some flat soft wood. But the hinge/frame itselft wasn't twisted, so not sure if that's helpful or not  :-\

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #140 on: March 30, 2020, 06:26:46 pm »
It’s not bad. I’ll get the mechs removed, get the hole cut in the front panel, then see how it looks when pulled straight by bolting it in place. Need to order some bolts...

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #141 on: April 01, 2020, 03:52:19 pm »
Not sure if the door has been re-welded on one hinge at some point, but the left and right ones are clearly different.  This isn't helping the door closure issue - one hinge is slightly higher than the other.



The frame is actually straight, which is annoying.  It would have been easier to bend the frame a little rather than the door!  I've got the coin mechs removed now and I've re-clamped the door to see if that will pull it straight.  I doubt it.  I suspect it'll just spring back when the clamps are removed, and then I'll have to think of something else.  I might get away with some blocks under the other three corners to hold them off the surface and then clamp the bad corner to try and bend it a bit.  New territory for me.



I've given the surface a very quick going over with a sanding block.  The existing coating comes off easily, removing the surface scratches, leaving the dents, and uncovering a few small rust spots and some bits that flaked back to the bare metal.  I might be able to just spray the whole door after a bit more sanding.  Any tips?  How am I supposed to effectively spray hinges or the edges of the door on the hinged side?  Should I just leave most of it alone and try to just spray the door and frame front face, or is there a better way I'm not thinking of?

jennifer

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #142 on: April 02, 2020, 12:20:03 am »
That dent you got circled won't sand out, that will need a touch of fill, the paint flaking off is adhesion issue, I would remove it with paint stripper and start over...The tweaked hinge, that is spot welded, run a 1/8 bit  halfway though the weld (but not all the way through) and then carefully follow it up halfway through with a bit as big as the weld, It will fall off...A good weld shop will realign it.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #143 on: April 02, 2020, 04:37:41 am »
Thanks, I'll have a look into those options!  If I end up stripping back to metal then I do have the challenge of painting the door and frame edges where they meet.  Is my best option there, if I'm removing one hinge anyway, to just bite the bullet and remove both hinges, then paint before reassembly?  I'm conscious of overcomplicating here!

jennifer

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #144 on: April 02, 2020, 06:23:36 am »
It will have to be welded before it is painted, best to have that done first,( both hinges if you have too) then strip it with cheap stripper, and  neutralize it with mineral spirits, (wash the hinges out good with the spirits) and a scrub the whole thing everywhere with a gray scratch pad, that dent could be filled with lead but that takes a bit of old world skill, polyester body filler is the modern equivalent...That grey scotch pad will leave fine scratches on your new steel, that is necessary for adhesion, (red or green pads are too coarse) the paint won't fill them use a grey one (or 400grit paper)...Paint on that was a spatter finish, (clean it with alcohol, and hang it with a clean wire) It was not a super shine, and as such you can hide a problem a bit by pre spattering the area before painting the whole thing ...Bomber cans work well, but put it on in 3 light coats doing the edges first, then faces...It is not in bad condition, and should clean up nice.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2020, 06:25:17 am by jennifer »

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #145 on: April 06, 2020, 04:09:20 pm »
Thanks, that's really useful.  Not sure how easy it's going to be to get near a welder right now, so we'll see how things go as time goes on!

In the meantime, I thought I'd cut a hole for it.  I've had the panel ready for ages, so I marked it up and was a bit surprised quite how close to the top of the panel the hole goes.  I'd cut this panel slightly long to make sure it didn't end up not fitting (easier to cut than lengthen!) but I'm now leaving it as that slightly long length in order to give a bit more strength to that top edge.  The excess isn't much and will fit fine in the space.  It's made me realise that I need to look at how this panel is supported internally.  On the edges there's the blocking, but that relatively thin bit of remaining MDF will need some suppport in case it takes any knocks.

One other (kind of obvious) thing that's worth mentioning is that there's also not a huge amount of space between the edge of the frame and the fixing holes, so I needed to get the door hole size tight but without creating loads of pain widening it repeatedly.  I measured carefully for the door, and made sure to cut as far as my pencil lines rather than inside them. 

I've seen a few coin door holes in other cabinets and it looks like a common approach is to drill a hole in each corner that actually extends out past the required size, then use that hole to get the jigsaw in for cutting.  That leaves you with a rectangle for the coin door but with the excess of each initial drill hole in each corner.  I wanted to drill those initial holes so they'd be cut out completely with the bigger cut, but that meant dealing with the curve in each corner.  The door frame is a right angle, so there's no way to absorb the curve there.  In the end I cut a very small hole as far into each corner as I could in order to remove as much of that corner as I could, then a larger hole further in for the jigsaw cut.  Hopefully a picture makes that easier to understand.



I then use a jigsaw to remove the main piece of wood, following up with the router + pattern bit to tidy up the cut. 



I'd considered some kind of jig to get the corners as close as possible, but ended up just eyeballing into each corner.  Mistakes here won't be visible when the door is fitted, but as it was the routing went well.  A few seconds with sandpaper around the edge and I had a hole.  I'd then planned to take a file to the remaining wood in each corner, which wasn't much anyway, but as it was I couldn't find my file  :censored: so I resorted to a sanding block.  Luckily that was still quick work.



Even better - door fit first time, and nicely snug.



UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #146 on: April 07, 2020, 03:40:24 pm »
Since getting to a welder or even getting out to buy paint stripper is a bit tricky at the moment I thought I'd take a look at the sanding approach to stripping off the old paint from the door.  It didn't take too much work with an oscillating sander to take the paint from the door face.



I want to make sure I can actually get to any areas that I strip in order to paint them, so I've only taken the left side of the door off so far.



There are parts of the frame that will be hard to sand and even to spray, such as bits on the inside of the door.  I think I'll leave the inside as is because it's not in a bad state, with just a few bits like this might-be-rust-or-might-be-dirt that I can probably clean up a little.



I'm justifying this because it seems to have been done in the past.  The inside of the door and the frame is a fairly smooth finish, whereas the door and outer frame is more hammered.  There's a small amount of paint damage inside, some of which might be the door catching the frame slightly, but it's going to be shut 99% of the time!  Having looked it over I think I can get to all the sides of the door to re-spray, so they'll be getting sanded down.





UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #147 on: April 07, 2020, 05:46:06 pm »
Mocking up some cabinet colours...  The hardest thing here is that whatever colours I find online are pretty much guaranteed to look nothing like the online images in real time.  I don't want to waste money on loads of cans trying to find a good colour...


jennifer

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #148 on: April 07, 2020, 08:10:03 pm »
That will work and looks good.. Those dents will need to be filled with putty, and primed, (available in bomber can) or you will see the work area through the paint. That hammer finish is going to be quite forgiving in terms of hiding blemishes, 😉
« Last Edit: April 07, 2020, 08:13:25 pm by jennifer »

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #149 on: April 08, 2020, 07:10:29 am »
Thanks.  I like the sound of forgiving!

meyer980

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #150 on: April 08, 2020, 09:15:05 am »
I think the red on the furthest left picture looks real nice - the whole thing looks terrific.

UnclearHermit

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #151 on: April 10, 2020, 10:20:04 am »
Thanks.  The chances of any paint actually matching any of those colours is, of course, zero.  But it's something to aim for.  The artwork colours are generally taken from the Disney artwork colours, but there's nothing to stop me tweaking them a little if it helps match up with the cabinet colour.

On another topic, I'll probably have a PC in this because of flexibility and because I'm most familiar with PCs and Windows.  I'm thinking of a simple amp for the speaker like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amplifier-TPA3116D2-Subwoofer-Solicitation-Speakers/dp/B07QF93WWL/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=TPA3116&qid=1586513973&sr=8-7

I could adjust the volume in software, or I could just use the potentiometer on this board and mount it near the coin door on the inside for easy access, or I could present the volume knob externally somewhere to make it user-friendly.  If I go for the external option then any recommendations on where to source some kind of external knob and whether it will attach through in some way or whether I need to cobble something together?

Also, having read lots about ground loops and separate power supplies then is the recommendation to have a separate power supply for this amp?

Thanks!

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #152 on: April 10, 2020, 10:32:40 am »
Agreed on the one on the left.  This is all coming together very nicely.  Good job on making this your own but keeping with the Nintendo layout. :applaud:

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #153 on: April 10, 2020, 10:47:26 pm »
If your machine is going to play the leaked Disney FiFJr arcade software - Windows PC is pretty much the only option. PCs run MAME fantastically and are easy to configure so I think you're making the right choice.

For the few cabs I've built, I've put volume control inside the coin door. Using the volume knob right on the amp pcb. I find I rarely need to adjust it so no need to make it external, imo. As for the ground loop issue, it's only ever been a problem for me when my amp is ALSO getting power from the computer itself (in my case, powering the amb through a spliced USB cable). If your plan to power the cabinet is having a small surge protector inside the cabinet, and you'll be plugging the amp into that, I don't think you'll have a problem. At least, I haven't.

Edit: If ground loop noise IS a problem, I've fixed it with this little piece of magic: https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Ground-Isolator-Stereo-System/dp/B019393MV2/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2YMFCWT8K86CF&dchild=1&keywords=ground+loop+hum+eliminator&qid=1586573339&sprefix=ground+loop+el%2Caps%2C161&sr=8-7
« Last Edit: April 10, 2020, 10:50:06 pm by meyer980 »

Mike A

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #154 on: April 11, 2020, 01:25:41 pm »
Quote
I've put volume control inside the coin door. Using the volume knob right on the amp pcb. I find I rarely need to adjust it so no need to make it external, imo.

This should be carved on stone tablets.

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #155 on: April 12, 2020, 04:38:21 pm »

For the few cabs I've built, I've put volume control inside the coin door. Using the volume knob right on the amp pcb. I find I rarely need to adjust it so no need to make it external, imo. As for the ground loop issue, it's only ever been a problem for me when my amp is ALSO getting power from the computer itself (in my case, powering the amb through a spliced USB cable). If your plan to power the cabinet is having a small surge protector inside the cabinet, and you'll be plugging the amp into that, I don't think you'll have a problem. At least, I haven't.

Edit: If ground loop noise IS a problem, I've fixed it with this little piece of magic: https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Ground-Isolator-Stereo-System/dp/B019393MV2/ref=sr_1_7?crid=2YMFCWT8K86CF&dchild=1&keywords=ground+loop+hum+eliminator&qid=1586573339&sprefix=ground+loop+el%2Caps%2C161&sr=8-7

Great stuff, thanks.  I've no desire to put random knobs and buttons on the outside where I can avoid it in some other way.  I'm working through the various service functions at the moment to try and figure out what I need.  Volume can go inside then, so that's one down.  I'm going to need a power button of some kind somewhere, that's pretty much unavoidable.  And I'll probably have a "back" button for exiting games etc.  The machine will boot into Fixit, but will also play a selection of the best vertical games.  I could use shift functions instead of dedicated buttons, but I'm weighing up ease of use, accidental usage etc.  Any buttons will probably go on the underside of the horizontal panel above the coin door, so they'll be pretty much out of view.  Need to find a power button that can't be accidentally nudged during play.  I could put all of these buttons on the inside, but opening up the coin door just to turn the thing on seems inconvenient.  I'd put power on the back of the cabinet but I can't be sure that the back of the cabinet will always be accessible enough.

Any servicing of the machine that requires keyboard etc. will involve connecting to USB ports inside, but I might extend one up so that it's accessible from the coin door.  I'm toying with that one because, depending on monitor choice, any operation of Windows is going to be pretty limited and might require a secondary monitor connection anyway.  Generally I'm hoping that once everything is up and running that I'll just clone the disk and "fix" anything that way. 

In other news, I've started filling those dents in the coin door.  Having never worked with any kind of metal filler before I opted for what looked like something aimed at newbies.



This is a tube of stuff where you cut off as much as you want, "knead" it together, then it hardens with 10 minutes and is fully set in an hour.  "Knead" to me called to mind "hands", but the packaging is careful to note that you shouldn't be touching this stuff, which led to an entertaining attempt to hand-knead the relatively stiff compound whilst wearing the type of plastic gloves that you find at petrol stations for when filling up the car.  That went as well as expected, after which I resorted to mixing it with the filling knife that I was going to be using.  All went fine from there.

I went for a slight over-fill...


and then sanded down...


The smaller dent at the top went well on first attempt.  I'm on attempt three on the larger one.  The first fill had a slight unfilled ridge.  Second brought that ridge up fine, but I then noticed that the dented area extended a bit further to the right, so third fill has hopefully sorted that.  At the moment it's hard to tell how good a job this is.  The levels feel about right, but you can clearly feel the texture difference when moving from metal to filler.  Jen suggests above that priming will be necessary, so hopefully after I tackle that then I'll have a better feel for the final finish.  At the moment I'm fearing that this whole exercise will be a load of time to move from a couple of small dents to a couple of blindingly obvious repair patches  :)
« Last Edit: April 13, 2020, 01:14:12 pm by UnclearHermit »

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #156 on: April 16, 2020, 05:44:51 pm »
Did a final clean of the coin door and then masked off the door ready to paint the frame.



I had a plastic sheet down and gave the frame its first coat.  The spray goes on really nicely with a nice finish.  I left it for 15 minutes and then returned to give it a second coat, only to find that the wind had got up outside and blown into the garage, which I'd left open to help fumes escape.  It was completely calm when I left it.  That breeze was enough to pull up one of the sheet's edges and deposit it onto the wet frame  :hissy:
 :banghead:
So, thoughts of getting the remaining coats on the frame tonight are now out of the window, and next time I have free time I'll probably have to sand the whole frame back to bare metal again. :'(

After a lot of grumbling I forced myself to move on and cracked on with getting the riser plates for the wheels drilled and into place.  I clamped some offcuts underneath when drilling just to stop blow outs.  I'll finish off the wheels next time, after which I'll have the base of a cabinet, if nothing else!


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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #157 on: April 16, 2020, 05:46:10 pm »
It also strikes me that I'm now four pages into this build, and about a year, but it still feels like I have a long way to go!  Onwards...

meyer980

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #158 on: April 16, 2020, 05:51:50 pm »
It also strikes me that I'm now four pages into this build, and about a year, but it still feels like I have a long way to go! Onwards...

Don't let this depress you. The building is the best part! Seriously. My first full size build took just over a year (with some finishing touches done several years later) and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Heck, I gave the machine away.  :P

Playing the games is easy, anyone can do that. But only us BYOACers understand the love of building what we play.

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Re: Nintendo cabinet build - now with possible theme!
« Reply #159 on: April 16, 2020, 09:49:42 pm »
Whoa, You are getting a little ahead of yourself...Let's go backwards a minute, That putty you are using is for patching oil pan leaks or something, But you got it flat so let's just leave it there and hope for the best, We need to bury that with a glaze putty, At the car store they sell a cheap laquer based stuff in a toothpaste tube, cheap, and shrink, but fine for that...Level it off, lightly sand, permatex rust kill actually acts like a sealer, spray the area, primer would be optimal but in the interest of saving some money, paint the area (just the spots) 3 light coats let dry, lightly sand...And hang it on a wire, frame door open and all, wipe it down with alcohol, and paint it all at once...This way you don't have to tape it off to do it in stages, tape on fresh paint should be avoided, especially with a cheaper, slow drying hammer finish bomber can, since it will leave tape marks...Paint it all at once, no paper, no tape, just really clean and door open so you get everywhere...It is frustrating I know, but once you understand flat and compatible, there ain't much you can't do.