TimeMachine (Rev.B)

[tomton]

Hi All,

Some time ago after years of thinking about doing it I have finally built my first MAME arcade cabinet (image below). The idea was to keep is as slim as possible as houses on average here in UK are rather small and finding space (and getting approval from my wife) for full size cabinet would be difficult. One below was 35cm D x 58cm W x 180cm H.
With looks I was going for Scandinavian furniture style so there is only white, black and natural wood colour. Originally black elements were only painted black but later I decided to vinyl wrap them in "carbon fibre".


I have recently sold this cabinet to fund my current project. Below CGI showing what I'm aiming for with the new one. This one will be powered by Hyperspin (as opposed to RetroPie in the old one) and will have LCD marquee display to be used with HyperMarquee.
In terms of hardware I will be using 20" DELL 2007fpb (IPS) 4:3 ratio for display (i have removed CCFL tubes and replaced them with LED strips to reduce power usage and reduce heat ouptut), 2x USB controllers, Intel i5 PC to run it all and hopefully LEDBlinky to light my buttons. For LEDBlinky I was planning to use NanoLED + WS2811 LED strip although NanoLED proves difficult to get hold of and may not meet my expectations (~16buttons with RGB lighting) so any advice is welcome.


This new project if actually fairly well progressed. Some images below.

[Drnick]

My first thought is Lose the bottom cupboard and then hang it from the wall, It'll give you somewhere to put your barstools.
I've seen some slimming done before but this is done to the extreme. A little too extreme for my taste.
But it does look like good work is being done and I can't really fault the design choice of wood and carbon fibre.

[LTC]

I will be using 20" DELL 2007fpb (IPS) 4:3 ratio for display (i have removed CCFL tubes and replaced them with LED strips to reduce power usage and reduce heat ouptut)

Hey, do you have any more info on that? I have that same monitor for a future project and would love to mod it to LED.

[javeryh]

Quick - someone get that cab a cheeseburger!

Looks good so far.  Profile is a little thin for my tastes but I completely understand what you are going for... in fact, if I wanted to build another full sized I'd have to compromise on cabinet depth too due to space limitations in my house.   

[tomton]

My first thought is Lose the bottom cupboard and then hang it from the wall, It'll give you somewhere to put your barstools.
I've seen some slimming done before but this is done to the extreme. A little too extreme for my taste.
But it does look like good work is being done and I can't really fault the design choice of wood and carbon fibre.

I need bottom cupboard for PC to power it all and will also use it to store my prized possession, ATARI 65XE and all its bits 
I'm also considering adding coin slot.

Hey, do you have any more info on that? I have that same monitor for a future project and would love to mod it to LED.

i have used kit like this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pcs-355mm-LED-Backlight-Strip-Lamps-Kit-for-19-TV-Repair-CCFL-LCD-Monitor/372374273276?hash=item56b33c7cfc:g:LUEAAOSwF8Fb4ZWQ although you can go for something closer to 400mm wide
here is a YT video to give you idea of what is involved in doing this
on piece of advice that I can give is be EXTREMELY careful with LVDS connection as it can be tricky to disconnect/reconnect and connection itself is VERY brittle. 


I have been thinking about button layout and wanted to get something as close as possible to SNES layout and came up with layout below. Is something like this OK?

[markiej]

Quick - someone get that cab a cheeseburger!

Looks good so far.  Profile is a little thin for my tastes but I completely understand what you are going for... in fact, if I wanted to build another full sized I'd have to compromise on cabinet depth too due to space limitations in my house.   

I think the thinness is more alarming when standalone.  When I picture this flush-mounted to the wall (as in completely gapless and remove the baseboard), it would look gorgeous.

[LTC]

i have used kit like this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pcs-355mm-LED-Backlight-Strip-Lamps-Kit-for-19-TV-Repair-CCFL-LCD-Monitor/372374273276?hash=item56b33c7cfc:g:LUEAAOSwF8Fb4ZWQ although you can go for something closer to 400mm wide
here is a YT video to give you idea of what is involved in doing this
on piece of advice that I can give is be EXTREMELY careful with LVDS connection as it can be tricky to disconnect/reconnect and connection itself is VERY brittle. 

Thank you. Watched the video. Doesn't look like too hard of a project.

[tomton]

small update

control panel nearly finished.

For my RGB button lights I'm using WS2811 LED string + NanoLED controller from Ultimarc which is a much cheaper alternative to those custom made RGB buttons + controller. LED string with 25 LEDs that I'm using costed £4.68 ($5.75) + NanoLED controller £22 (~$27) with postage
It included a lot of additional work that I didn't expect because LEDs were sealed to protect them from the element and each had to be stripped from that protective coating to access soldering points. I also had to modify each of the brackets holding the LEDs. On the plus side it was a lot cheaper and personally I think it will look a lot neater having them all daisy chained.
If I was to do it again in the future I would get daisy chain that is not IP rated or just individual LEDs and solder it all myself as there was a lot of soldering this time anyway.

I should be putting the cabinet together today although my PC or Hyperspin setup is not ready yet 

[Arroyo]

I used addressable LED's in a little control panel I built as well.  I went with individual LED's mounted on a small PCB, and also drilled out the buttons to run the wires.  I like the resulting few wires, it makes for a clean looking panel.  It does however require a lot more work, and is much harder to swap out a burned out LED.  I'm impressed that you pulled each LED from a strip, that sounds like a lot of work, well done  .  If your curious here's how I did mine

Also curious to know what program you are using for your mock-up, the renderings are very photo realistic, and very well done.

[javeryh]

That's some really neat wiring.  This is looking good so far.   

[Kingcade]

The carbon fiber makes a really nice contrast to the chrome and white buttons. Looking good!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tomton]

@Arroyo - your control panel is... WOW! just WOW! 
looks like you have done it right (addressable LEDs) and I should have done a little more research before doing mine. I was hoping to save time by using daisy chain but in the end I had to solder each LED to new wires as the original ones were to thick and I coudln't install switches

EDIT: sorry, forgot to say that I'm using 3dsmax+Corona to create visuals. It's kinda what I do for living and these images I have posted here are not that great TBH 

@javeryh - thanks
@Kingcade - thanks


It's alive!!! (kind of...)

This is just a test of display and marquee using static images as I'm having huge problems setting up Hyperspin. It feels like someone made it overcomplicated on purpose. After coming from retropie where you just put a ROM in the right place and it works Hyperspin feels extremely user unfriendly. But maybe it's just me...

[Kingcade]

Just a really nice, clean cabinet - well done!

[Drnick]

Looks like it is going well.  Are you going to take it apart again and stain/paint/vinyl the inside?

[el3venth]

Absolutely love this shape.
I am very limited in space, any chance of sharing the design?
(Thanks from South Africa.)

[tomton]

Absolutely love this shape.
I am very limited in space, any chance of sharing the design?
(Thanks from South Africa.)

Hi,

I will get it uploaded for you in next couple of days. I don't have proper CAD plans for it but I will give you all necessary dimensions.

[tomton]

"Plans" for my cabinet below.

This is flexible and it was all built around marquee display (LG 25UM58 25" Ultrawide - stripped to bare display panel). Dimensions given below should work if you were to use the same panel but please double check and adjust if necessary.
All built from 18mm thick plywood. Width of the cabinet is just over 600mm but again this was dictated by that marquee display and you can change it.

It's all based on having 90* corners everywhere on front profile except for where control panel joins main display panel, angle there is 105*, if I had more space I would have tilted it back a bit further.

I have used quadrant timber profiles to partially cover marquee display and to give control panel round corner. This can be seen on closeups.

I would suggest building mockup from cardboard to see if all this suits you and if it doesn't make necessary adjustments. I've done it and I decided to make some changes which are now included in design below.

It can all be built from a single 2440x1220mm sheet of plywood. I have included a mockup of how you can get both sides from single 600mm wide strip and what remains should be enough for all remaining elements.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[luizw81]

Sorry if my reading comprehension skills suck but what kind of monitor did you use for the marquee?

[tomton]

Sorry if my reading comprehension skills suck but what kind of monitor did you use for the marquee?

Monitor used for marquee LG 25UM58 25"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-25UM58-inch-Ultrawide-Monitor/dp/B01BV1XB2K
It's partially covered to give it visible image ratio I was after. I looked into sourcing half FullHD (1920x540) display from China but would have been extremely expensive.

[EssexMame]

Love it! Clean and non-fussy. The slim won't be to all tastes but totally practical for a UK flat/house!

[el3venth]

Thank you so much for the plans.  Busy planning mine for the holiday season now.
Got a free 32" screen, so will have to fit that.
Thanks again.

[javeryh]

This thing came out awesome.   Very clean construction. 

I love the dynamic marquee - is there a tutorial somewhere on how to get this working?  Where do you get all of the HD art for it?

[tomton]

Thanks for the compliment 

I have used LaunchBox / BigBox for this machine which is really easy to setup and will download for you all the graphics for the marquee. At first I was planning to use Hyperspin + Hypermarquee but I found it to be extremely difficult to setup.

I have recently sold this machine and I'm now designing Rev.C

below little video to show how it turned out

[vertexguy]

Love the look of this cabinet!  Nice and retro!  Since yours is complete, any issue at all with it wobbling or wanting to tip forward with heavy play?  That's a concern of mine with the slimmer cabinet designs.  Also what's the total weight of the cab?

[javeryh]

Thanks for the compliment 

I have used LaunchBox / BigBox for this machine which is really easy to setup and will download for you all the graphics for the marquee. At first I was planning to use Hyperspin + Hypermarquee but I found it to be extremely difficult to setup.

I have recently sold this machine and I'm now designing Rev.C

below little video to show how it turned out

Very very cool.  So LaunchBox/BigBox just downloaded all of the marquee art automatically?  Did you have to touch anything up or match the marquees to the right games? 

If you are thinking about Rev.C take a look at Mimic (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149109.0/all.html) for how Laythe hid a giant TV inside to allow for a larger screen.  Might give you some ideas...   

[tomton]

i was worried about wobbling as well as it was quite top heavy but with PC at the bottom and after levelling it with adjustable feet (make sure you have those) it was fine. i was considering fixing it to the wall like you do with normal cabinets but it was rock solid even with two adults playing a game and pulling on joysticks.

I didn't weight it but would say it was around 45kg/100lbs

@javeryh - yes, launchbox will download all images and match them to games. I only had MAME and ATARI 5200 on my cabinet and both worked fine. Just so you know because there is 1000s of MAME games some less popular titles will not have nice HQ marquee image but you can always create one if you want 
That project you posted link to looks awesome but it looks like it requires custom frontend (or heavy customization) and I don't want TV for my main display (I want to use IPS screen with LED backlight) but it does give me some ideas 

[ZTylerDurden717]

Big fan of bottom mounting the joysticks.  I did the same cause I was adamant of the sleek look instead of rusty bolts on the top-end.

If you had to maintenance the control panel would you have to pull the wood screws out or do you have some kinda hinge method in the back?

Also, do you usually keep the bottom cabinet open for air flow?  I haven't seen a photo of it enclosed with the hardware in there.

[tomton]

Big fan of bottom mounting the joysticks.  I did the same cause I was adamant of the sleek look instead of rusty bolts on the top-end.

If you had to maintenance the control panel would you have to pull the wood screws out or do you have some kinda hinge method in the back?

Also, do you usually keep the bottom cabinet open for air flow?  I haven't seen a photo of it enclosed with the hardware in there.

I don't like visible screws/bolts either 
there is plenty of space there to manoeuvre small electric screwdriver if i ever had to unscrew joysticks
doors are always shut and locked so kids can't get inside there is a small intake fan in bottom corner on the back of the cabinet to provide fresh air supply. can't provide photo as I have sold this cabinet and working on new one...