Lighting ideas for Tron MAME cabinet

[Drakkorcia]

So, I am yet another fearless arcade warrior who is going to attempt to slay the mighty beast that is building a Tron upright cabinet that will have the appearance of Tron, artwork and lighting of Tron, but with a PC inside to run MAME and all my flightstick and spinner games. I have found just about everything I need from Phoenix Arcade but would like to hear ideas on how to handle the lighting. What I see at this point is if I use the 18" fluorescent UV bulbs I can plug them into the power strip inside the cabinet so when I turn on the cabinet power the AC fluorescent lights will come on and I will then hit the PC power to turn everything else on. Or if they make LED UV strips I might be able to plug those into USB or the PC power supply? I would be interested to hear the communities ideas on how to handle this as there may be elegant ways to light this cabinet that I never thought of. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[mahuti]

For what it's worth, LED UV's aren't as nice as fluorescents (in my opinion) especially not for Tron which shows the bare bulb.

In my case, I've always run a switching power supply in my cabinets, the kind that real cabinets use, and then either wired the PC power directly into the cabinet power, or added an accessory plug, and plugged the PC in. Everything else is powered off of the switching power supply's 12v or 5v outputs. The PC's have been the kind that turn on automatically, and the same with whatever monitors I'm using.

But, you can do as you say, just use a power strip in the cabinet and have the PC turn on automatically if possible.

For shutdown, you may want to wire a PC power button into the front of the cabinet. I used to have on on the inside of the coin door so no one else could mess with it. On my cabinets I always built them like they'd be used in a retail environment... solid... to that no inattentive drunken guest or obnoxious little kid of guest could do much damage.

[alfonzotan]

Here's what I did, you'll notice it's far from a Tron replica, but I definitely wanted it to have a "Tron on Steroids" vibe.  Both lights are standard under-shelf utility fixtures that I decased.  I tried some early LED strips for the CP light but hated how they looked, switched over to a traditional neon black light later, and I did exactly what you're thinking of, just ran all the AC plugs (computer, lighting, monitor, etc.) down to a surge protector inside the cabinet and then ran its cord through a hole in the back door. 

I'm very glad I built it before Tron parts went through the roof...



(Yes, that's a Frankenpanel. Bite me, it's great.)

[Drakkorcia]

Hey, nothing wrong with a Frankenpanel as long as it works.