Mike A's end to procrastination

[Mike A]

Yeah. You piss it all out of you.

[jdbailey1206]

Yesterday was a beautiful day...

Oh that Mid West snow fall....

-I still need to figure out a way to not go through all of the work Opt did to make a monitor shroud.(which looks great BTW)

Did he send it to you or you know how Opt made one and you don't want to do it?  From the tutorials I have seen online it looks fairly simple.  A little searching should warrant someone who makes them out of mat board.

[Mike A]

It is straight forward, but getting the curve right seems to have taken him some time.

I have a couple of ideas brewing. Of course that might just be the baked ziti from last night.

[jdbailey1206]

It is straight forward, but getting the curve right seems to have taken him some time.

I have a couple of ideas brewing. Of course that might just be the baked ziti from last night.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=17175

Don't know if that helps but its one I have found while digging for my SW cab.

[Mike A]

Thanks. I need all the help I can get.

[opt2not]

-Once my artwork is done I can apply it and mount the controls.

I need to get on it soon. I’ve been pulling late nights doing OT (luckily working OT from home), and haven’t had time for any hobby stuff. Must be the universe balancing out from that frantic restore schedule I forced before the holiday break.
Your art is my priority now once I get some hobby time.

[Mike A]

That's cool. I don't want you to feel pressured.

It will be done when it is done.

[opt2not]

Do you want my cardboard prototype to cut your own bezel?

[Mike A]

Let me see what I come up with. If I can't get it right I would be glad to use your prototype.

[Mike A]

My PCB rack is done.




Here is a shot of it in the cab but not secured yet.



The player 3 and 4 condenser board will be mounted above the rack.

I thought I was going to have to pin about a bazillion dupont connectors for this project, but it turns out they can be purchased at a reasonable price.

There stereo sound connectors on the multi PCB are all 4 pin dupont headers. Same with the stereo headers on the PCBs. 4x12 = 48 pins.

The P3 and P4 controls on the PCBs are each 15 pins for the Konami games and I haven't even really looked at the non Konami pin outs yet.  Right now that is 2 Konami games. 15x4 = 60 pins.

I have 2 other 4 player PCBs right now. Assuming they are similar to Konami that would be 60 more pins.

If you add all of those pins together....you have some kind of mental problem. It is a lot. Especially considering I already need to pin the molex headers for the CP connections.

For those of you who are good at counting, yes there are 7 slots in my rack and only 6 slots in the multi PCB board.

I did that for positioning. some of these arcade PCBs have and auxiliary sound PCB. They take up more space so I put in an extra slot to help with positioning.

I am going to slap together a temporary control panel so this thing will be playable for my arcade party later this month.

[Arroyo]

Those PCB slots is exactly what I want to do on future cabs.  Will you be able to swap them out from the front maybe through lifting the control panel or maybe the coin doors?  Or will you have to do a reach around the back?

[Mike A]

The reach around of course.

My new arcade layout makes it easy to access the back door of all of my games. I will post pics of that later. Every game has been moved.

I have the same slot system in my candy cab. PCBs are interchangeable between the two.

[javeryh]

Sweet dados.

[bperkins01]

Nice rack  ;P

I won't even mention the reach around.

I have a better idea of what your doing now - looks really cool!
However - I'd relish wiring up a ton of Dupont pins myself - But I get its not for everyone.

Keep 'em coming 

[pbj]

Paint it black.

[Vigo]

I'd agree if it was mdf. That nice of wood deserves a natural rack. Maybe just rub in a little wax or oil to make it easier to pull in and out of the slots.

Don't forget to dim the lights first.

[Mike A]

I knew if I posted enough pics that Vigo would want to make sexy time with my arcade machine.

[Vigo]

Getting there.  I'm just waiting for that Trog to go in. I love Simpsons any day of the week, but I love machines that are a bit more exotic. 

Also looking forward to seeing that Moo Mesa getting popped in. You got that game hyped for me.

[Mike A]

I have a couple of JAMMA extenders on order. Moo Mesa and Trog are both mounted to their backer boards. I need to fab a bracket to hold the Trog volume pot in place.

I cut a temporary CP last night. This week will be spent wiring the CP and wiring the P3/P4 condenser board.

This machine will be playable very soon.

[Mike A]

Dupont cables should arrive today. That will take care of the connections between the PCBs and the P3/P4 condenser board.

I laid out my tools and materials to crimp the molex connectors for the CP and I realized I have every damn molex connector except the 9 pin connectors. I need 4 male and 4 female.

I ordered those last night along with a purple ball top shaft for my P2 joystick.

If I had the molex connectors this cab would be playable by tonight.

[bperkins01]

Looking forward to seeing it!
I'm a bit lucky - we have a real electronics store about 25 min away.  They have a very good selection of all of these types of things. 
The decision is - is the drive worth my anxiety to get something done..    95% of the time = yes.

[Mike A]

There WAS a Radio Shack ten minutes away from my house. Losing that store really sucks.

[bperkins01]

I have this place:  https://www.youdoitelectronics.com/

They don't have EVERYTHING...  But they have a lot!  and its pretty well staffed.  Only once or twice they didn't have some weird part I needed.
A 3 pin molex panel mount connector - ended up in China for that one..  (replaced broken one on my power brick)
and a couple of tiny ceramic caps..

The last few years of Radio shack here - they never had anything..  ahhh  the good old days..

[Mike A]

Crimping a million molex pins. Oh what fun.
I dug out some 12 pin connectors.

[bperkins01]

Crimping a million molex pins. Oh what fun.
I dug out some 12 pin connectors.

So much fun.  If I were there....


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[Mike A]

Player 1 is wired up and working.

Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa is glitching out when I run sound through the stereo header.
When I unplug it and run mono through the JAMMA connector it works fine. Oh well. That is a problem for another day.

[nitrogen_widget]

I knew if I posted enough pics that Vigo would want to make sexy time with my arcade machine.

Is that Baltic birch plywood?

[Mike A]

It has a birch veneer on top. Leftovers from cutting my cab.

[Mike A]

Oh, by the way, still crimping cables.

[Mike A]

I need a bigger coffee pot.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[jdbailey1206]

That is a problem for another day.

Word.  No sense in cleaning the windows on a new house if your roof isn’t on.

[Mike A]

Play testing has begun. This is my testing CP box.



Trog



Wild West COWboys of Moo Mesa



I need to do some monitor tweaking for color, contrast, and brightness.

I found a vertical hold setting that all of the games like.

Trog plays like ass with 8 way sticks. I was hoping to get away with it since it is not a super skill high score seeking game.

The problem is it is too frustrating. I need to see if different sticks work better. Otherwise Trog will need a dedicated 4 player 4 way stick cab, or I will need to use 4 to 8 way switchable sticks. I am not happy about either option.

[Mike A]

I am going to replace the orange stick and buttons with purple.

I think I will replace the white start buttons with buttons that match the player controls.

[javeryh]

Looking good.  Nothing beats a CRT.

[Arroyo]

....I am not happy about either option.

Swappable panels? Swappable sticks?

Swappable panels seems pretty cumbersome but may be an option.

You may recall I put a mounting plate in my test control panel to swap sticks (wing-nuts for ease of unscrewing and Molex connectors for easy electrical swap).  You wouldn’t need the metal plates if all your joysticks were a Happ pattern.  Biggest problem there would be if those are original Wico’s (ball top doesn’t screw off) then it’s more involved to remove them and put them back in.  If you were to consider this option perhaps the reproduction versions have screw tops for the balls and it might make this option more viable.....:

[Mike A]

Children and adults with the minds of children play my games. Even switchable 4 to 8 way sticks will be a pain in the ass at parties.

I either need to find sticks that are a decent compromise or more likely, Trog gets its own cab.

This cab has a multi switcher. I can switch games from the CP in seconds. That all goes down the toilet if I have to swap panels or switch sticks.

[Arroyo]

I know what you mean.  I feel forever stuck in the land of arcade compromise.

Want many games....not enough space.  Put many games on one machine....controls don’t all work.  Build big Frankenpanel....it all kinda sucks.  We need to become millionaires and have our own warehouse

[bperkins01]

My 4 way 8 way sticks work pretty good - (but I have no point of reference - maybe they suck)
LEDBlinky switches then back/forth..

Looks good

[Mike A]

I know what you mean.  I feel forever stuck in the land of arcade compromise.

Want many games....not enough space.  Put many games on one machine....controls don’t all work.  Build big Frankenpanel....it all kinda sucks.  We need to become millionaires and have our own warehouse

I have the space. I just don't feel like building another cab right now. Maybe it is time to start stalking Craigslist for a 4 player junk cab.

I am in the middle of a major arcade room rehab.

[javeryh]

Children and adults with the minds of children play my games. Even switchable 4 to 8 way sticks will be a pain in the ass at parties.

I either need to find sticks that are a decent compromise or more likely, Trog gets its own cab.

This cab has a multi switcher. I can switch games from the CP in seconds. That all goes down the toilet if I have to swap panels or switch sticks.

What about a ServoStick?  Could that be configured to switch automatically using the boards?  It obviously works with a PC.  I agree that if guests have to trigger the switch themselves it will be a disaster.