| Main > Project Announcements |
| 4 PLAYER RACING CAB – LED Outputs/ MameHooker/ OutputBlaster/ Physical RPM Tacho |
| << < (7/12) > >> |
| Fursphere:
--- Quote from: Pstylz on March 03, 2023, 01:49:50 am --- --- Quote from: Fursphere on March 01, 2023, 02:21:31 pm ---Any updates? :) --- End quote --- Hoping to get back here for an update in the next week or two! It's been a little challenging to find time to work on the project since my son was born, but I have been chipping away at it and collecting more parts for the other machines. I've just about finished putting together the bulk of two machines. Then I'll Router in the T-Moulding, wire it all up, then tear it down and paint. I also am looking at vinyl stickers, especially for the side panels. Not sure where to go for custom artwork though. Any ideas? --- End quote --- I hear ya. I built my first stand up arcade machine when my son was around 1 and that was a challenge. Then my first driving cab when he was about 3. I'm getting ready to start a twin racer build myself. For Artwork, have you seen gbeef's cabinet? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,111231.0/all.html Not sure who he had print it, but it turned out amazing. Sadly I ended up having to break down my cabinet before I got to artwork. It was just painted. You may want to consider adding in access hatches. In the rear of the head, I'd put a door or at least removable furniture screws so you can get in there easy. And I plan on making my new bases have the seat back flip up hinge style so I can put things like amps in the base cavity. I think I've decided on using the Daytona cabinet as my base model for the twin (vs the Sega Racing Classic style that I originally built, inspired by gbeef's cab), and plan on putting the PCs behind the LCD monitors in the heads - which means I need to way to get access to them. And lots of cable routing! So many cables. Anyway, great progress. Can't wait to see more! |
| Pstylz:
--- Quote from: Fursphere on March 09, 2023, 09:58:58 am --- --- Quote from: Pstylz on March 03, 2023, 01:49:50 am --- --- Quote from: Fursphere on March 01, 2023, 02:21:31 pm ---Any updates? :) --- End quote --- Hoping to get back here for an update in the next week or two! It's been a little challenging to find time to work on the project since my son was born, but I have been chipping away at it and collecting more parts for the other machines. I've just about finished putting together the bulk of two machines. Then I'll Router in the T-Moulding, wire it all up, then tear it down and paint. I also am looking at vinyl stickers, especially for the side panels. Not sure where to go for custom artwork though. Any ideas? --- End quote --- I hear ya. I built my first stand up arcade machine when my son was around 1 and that was a challenge. Then my first driving cab when he was about 3. I'm getting ready to start a twin racer build myself. For Artwork, have you seen gbeef's cabinet? http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,111231.0/all.html Not sure who he had print it, but it turned out amazing. Sadly I ended up having to break down my cabinet before I got to artwork. It was just painted. You may want to consider adding in access hatches. In the rear of the head, I'd put a door or at least removable furniture screws so you can get in there easy. And I plan on making my new bases have the seat back flip up hinge style so I can put things like amps in the base cavity. I think I've decided on using the Daytona cabinet as my base model for the twin (vs the Sega Racing Classic style that I originally built, inspired by gbeef's cab), and plan on putting the PCs behind the LCD monitors in the heads - which means I need to way to get access to them. And lots of cable routing! So many cables. Anyway, great progress. Can't wait to see more! --- End quote --- Twin racer project will be a lot of fun when you get around to it. I've definitely found it challenging to find the time, but things have settled now, so I've been putting in some more time :D :D :D Thanks for the tip - gbeef's cab is pretty impressive, especially for a build that was over 10 years ago! I hear ya about the access hatches.... probably something I'll add later as I haven't decided where I'll store all the parts (PC, power, etc). I was thinking of using the base for all of this and the foot plate will be removeable but that all depends on heat and cooling. I've finished building (mostly) the cabinets so I'll be fitting out the parts shortly which I'm pretty excited to do. I personally loved the original Daytona USA style cabinet, it brought back so much Arcade nostalgia, thats why I opted that style. Good Luck for when you begin your build! |
| Pstylz:
16/03/2023 - UPDATE ------------------------------- Apologies as it's been a while between updates - been a busy few months. :dizzy: I'll give you guys a basic breakdown of what I have been working on: CABINETS So I've just about finished building two of the cabinets. I pulled them both down and added the T-Molding groove - that was a bit of a stressful job as I've never used a router before (other than cutting out the Race Leader groove). It turned out pretty good and its in the centre lol, so thats a win! haha. In hindsight, I should have added the T-Molding groove as I was going, but I wasn't confident with the router yet nor certain on what actually needed the groove until the cabinet was finished. SPEAKERS I pulled apart the Logitech Z5500 speaker case(s), took the speaker out and then mounted them in the cabinet. Pretty simple process to take the speakers out. 4 speakers in total for each cabinet, all on a 15degree angle towards the player. I added the big subwoofer grill which is a much nicer finish than just a big hole lol. The Logitech Z5500 subwoofer/amplifier fits in perfectly. There's a bit of room there too, so hopefully heat wont be an issue, that will be something I will test later. SHIFTER I built the 4 speed HAPP Shifter holder, not entirely sure about it yet. I angled it slightly downward for a comfortable fit which works well, but the design is rather "boxy" so I'll hit it with the sander on the edges and see what happens. BASE I'll be picking up some 2.5mm checker plate Aluminium sheet to add to the base next week. TV BEZEL I have a few adjustments to make for the TV bezel and need to find a secure way to fasten it. Fortunately when you open the TV and remove all the unnecessary parts (speakers, support brackets) it's actually very light so I may not need to create a VESA mount as well. Should be safe enough to fasten the TV to the TV bezel itself. LED LIGHTS I decided to change from my original idea of solid strip colour 5050 RGB LED Strip to individually addressable WS2812B LED Strips. I'm going to use one ESP32 board and flash it with WLED - because I am nottttttt (yet) skilled in the way of Arduino haha. With WLED I can send specific commands via JSON or HTTP API to change the colours and even individually control each strip. I'm looking to have a long U shape strip underneath the cabinet, individual ones on each side of the cabinet, one in the footwell and perhaps on the back of the unit. The WLED controller will also be sound reactive so I can turn that feature on/off - for example, during attract mode. I also purchased some "ring" style LED's that I can hopefully fit inside the speaker covers - this will be something to play with later down the track. I'm not experienced with WLED or WS2812B addressable LEDs, but I'm looking forward to the challenge of figuring it all out. From the tutorials I've seen on YouTube, I "should" be able to make it all work. ELECTRICAL AND PARTS So far I've picked up: * terminal strips * I have some spare 4 core 15AWG wire which I can use for LED's and just about any power requirement. It's handy that it's 4 core so I can manage the wires neatly * fused power plug port * USB (dual) D Type socket * LAN D Type socket * All arcade buttons * Rear brake lights * Rear license plate light * Z5500 converter cable * Speaker covers * Cable ties * Mounting Feet * LED mounts * 120mm fans * 80mm Tacho TO DO NEXT * Cutting out and adding the checker plate sheeting to the base * Finish TV Bezel and mount * Install LED strips * Install PC and parts * Wire it all up >:D >:D >:D I'll be adding regular updates as I complete each task ;D :pics |
| Pstylz:
05/04/2023 - UPDATE ------------------------------- So.......electrical ehhhh?!..... well, found a few challenges here ! :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :dizzy: Firstly, to give you context - there are 5 independently controlled WS2812 LED "strips". These are each connected to a specific GPIO pin on an ESP32 with WLED software controlling the LEDs. - Race Leader - Left Side (under side panel) - Right Side (under side panel) - Pedals (footwell) - Base - (soon to add circle WS2812s around speakers also) My "idea" was to use MAMEHOOKER and PACDRIVE and a RELAY BOARD to: - Switch ON/OFF the lights from game outputs - Send JSON API POST commands to WLED to change colour / change effect / make sound reactive So as an example, when Daytona USA boots up, MAMEHOOKER will set up all LED strips as following: - Race Leader = White + max brightness - Left Side, Right side, Pedals, Base = PLAYER Colour + max brightness - i.e Player 3 would be YELLOW THE CHALLENGES...... The above seemed like a pretty good idea at the time - it would mean I could freely change all aspects of each strip independently as well as using OUTPUTS from games to control features. First issue was the RELAY BOARD - not sure how I forgot about the "clicking" a relay makes when switching ON/OFF :banghead: so you could imagine how loud that was when the RACE LEADER strip was flashing. So I had to scrap the relay board. I'm not sure I can connect the WS2812 negative to the PACDRIVE (to get the same outcome as the RELAY BOARD) as I'm not sure if the current would be too high - the LED strips are independently powered by a 5v power supply and I think I would need to ground that 5v power supply to the ground on the PACDRIVE also.....? So until I'm sure I can safely ground the 5v power supply to the PACDRIVE my alternate solution is to connect power for the LED strips directly to the 5V power supply and use JSON API POST commands to WLED to control the strips ON/OFF / Colours / etc. ^this seems to have worked, however, I feel there is a bit of a delay between MAMEHOOKER detecting an output from the game, sending the command to WLED and then the LED strip updating. I need to do more testing here. Ideally, I'd like to hook the negative wire of each LED strip directly to the PACDRIVE (as long as it is safe to connect the ground of the 5V power supply to the ground on the PACDRIVE) - that way the PACDRIVE can do the ON/OFF switching instantly. I also had significant grounding issues with the LED strips. I purchased extra 3 pin male and female connectors and soldered them to the LED strips for easy connect/disconnect but they were useless. Some LED strips were acting like they did not ground correctly or signals were being interrupted as some of the LED strips didnt seem to be able to hold the selected colour. Took a lot of head scratching to figure this out. So I changed them all out and soldered stronger more insulated connectors. I seem to still get some of the LED's dropping in and out though which is puzzling. I feel it is a grounding issue. More testing required here. I've wired up all the buttons and button lights. I mounted the 4 speed HAPP Shifter (took a few goes to be happy with the positioning of it) and wired it up to the Zero Delay USB encoder Works like a charm! :applaud: On another note, I received the checker plate aluminum sheet and cut it to size - really makes for a nice finish. I'll post some photos later today ;) |
| Pstylz:
05/04/2023 - UPDATE ------------------------------- Here are some progress shots of the electrical work so far. (Dont judge the wiring just yet :dizzy: I still have to tear down the cabinets and paint them - I'll neaten up the wiring then) I've also fitted the checker plate aluminum sheet :) It's looking like I may have just about all the components, computer, etc positioned behind the control panel (if it all fits). I was originally going to put them all in the base, but I found this area pretty good for access. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |