Need some advice re: a potential mini racer cabinet project idea.

[MrThunderwing]

Thanks dude. I ordered a sheet of variable size Ferrari water transfer logos for models from eBay earlier in the week. Currently winging it's way in the post to me from China.

[buttersoft]

I've looked at all the mini-consoles coming out over the last few years and felt nothing at all. But this is somehow different, it feels alive. And i just figured out why i'm enjoying it. It's not only that some of the more respected coommunity members are weighing in, it's the way you've just encapsulated our hobby in miniature. Like a terrarium

[MrThunderwing]

Ha! A terrarium, I love that  I'd been hoping for years that Sega would produce a little arcade racer system in a similar sort of scale to the Astro City Mini. I genuinely hadn't intended for this to turn into a little project, all I'd intended to do was just dress up the original cabinet like a mini Outrun and that was going to be it.

Quick question: If I wanted to plug a little LED into the 5v power out on the Zero Delay for a potential lit marquee, what's the proper name for the 2 pin connector things on it? Presumably, I can just buy these separately to wire up to stuff?

Decided to try Daytona in MAME last night, knowing full well there was no hope in hell of it running full speed in the Galaxy. Found a ROM that wasn't specifically for MAME4DROID, but it worked. It plays about the same as when I tried Daytona out for the very first time in Model 2 Emulator on my old Pentium 4 that had about half a GB of RAM, and an ancient AGP video card.

[buttersoft]

Those are JST-XH 2-pin connectors. Lots available on ebay or aliexpress

[BadMouth]

Those are JST-XH 2-pin connectors. Lots available on ebay or aliexpress

You might also find one on a cooling fan from a pc or other electronics.

Kits of the connectors aren't expensive, but the crimping tool kinda is if you are never going to use it again.  If you know anyone into building 3D printers, they will have the tool and a stockpile of connectors.

EDIT: didn't the zero delay come with a pile of them pre-crimped to leads?

[MrThunderwing]

Good point - it does come with a load of 2 pin connectors. I was thinking I wouldn't have any spare (as in all the ones it comes with would be used up by the buttons), but thinking about it, the PCB actually only has 7 inputs, so there should be some cables to spare.

This has actually just made me think of another question: Theoretically, if I wanted to add some additional mini buttons to the cabinet (always useful to have) like a little start and 'coin in' button in the area the coin chute sticker is, what would be the best option? Googling mini arcade buttons, the Suzo Happ mini buttons stuff seems like the smallest you can get from proper arcade vendors, but I think they'd protrude way too deeply into the tiny cabinet (the 'iceberg effect'). I've seen some really basic tiny buttons on Amazon that aren't specifically for arcade stuff, that look a bit smaller still, but it's saying they're 12v, so I don't know if they're usable?

My other thought was about whether to just use another PCB (like this one) to just wire two additional joypad style buttons in, but this feels a bit overkill for just two buttons.

[PL1]

This has actually just made me think of another question: Theoretically, if I wanted to add some additional mini buttons to the cabinet (always useful to have) like a little start and 'coin in' button in the area the coin chute sticker is, what would be the best option?

6x6x__mm or 6x3x__mm tactile buttons -- the blank indicates actuator length -- and perfboard/strip board/prototyping board are your best bet for shallow buttons.

This 6x6x7mm has an actuator that sticks up 3.5mm above the body of the button.

 

it's saying they're 12v, so I don't know if they're usable?

They're rated for 12v meaning that the contacts won't arc at 12v. 
- Don't try to use them with 120 VAC from a wall socket.

They will handle encoder 5v with no problem.


Scott

[BadMouth]

Just spitballing, but red plungers on black microswitches side by side kinda looks like a coin door if you could cut a perfect size square for them to pass through.

I don't have that color combo on hand.  Omron switches on sanwa pcb left, mini microswitches (probably too small) middle, standard arcade microswitch right.

You'd just push the plunger directly.

[MrThunderwing]

Thanks for the info Scott, those look like they'd be the route to go down, it I do decide to go down the extra buttons route. Having said that though...

Just spitballing, but red plungers on black microswitches side by side kinda looks like a coin door if you could cut a perfect size square for them to pass through.

Oooooh, I'm liking your thinking there chief. A little bit of DIY guerilla arcade button usage - like it. Y'know, I've just remembered I've got a single solitary leftover full size arcade button from when I was putting my barcade together all those year ago... Might pop it open and see if the plunger's oriented the right way around that I could just use it like that.

[BadMouth]

If you have to pop it open, it uses keyboard type switches instead of classic microswitches.
Still might be of use, but won't be the same type switch.

[MrThunderwing]

Could I get away with just wiring those mini tactile buttons straight to the encoder, rather than using a perfboard? Would I need to solder/crimp a ground and input wire to each of those 4 connectors in the bottom or just to 2 of them?

[PL1]

Could I get away with just wiring those mini tactile buttons straight to the encoder, rather than using a perfboard?

The perfboard provides a way to backstop/mount the switch.  Without the perfboard, you'd try to press the tactile switch actuator and the button would just fall into the cab.   

You could use non-conductive hardboard or a 3d printed holder in place of perfboard.

Would I need to solder/crimp a ground and input wire to each of those 4 connectors in the bottom or just to 2 of them?

Solder the 5v common wire (remember it's not ground on the ZD) to one leg and the input wire to the farthest leg away from it.  i.e. pins 1 and 4 or pins 2 and 3. (click on the 2nd pic from my previous post for a better view of the schematic and pin numbers)
- This way you're guaranteed that common and input are not accidently tied together on one side of the switch. i.e. pins 1 and 2 or pins 3 and 4.   

    1---|---2
          |
           \       <== Pole of SPST switch.  Pressing the actuator connects 1+2 to 3+4.
          |
    3---|---4


Scott

[MrThunderwing]

OK, gotcha! Thanks again Scott, greatly appreciated 

[MrThunderwing]

Progress! Control panel PCB successfully connected up to the arcade encoder, as well as 2 LEDS for the marquee and some of the extra mini buttons. I can take no credit for most of this though, this was the work of my mate James who did all the soldering as we used the very helpful info provided by Scott as a guide and between us figured out what went where input and ground wire-wise. I provided some very helpful assistance by holding the odd wire or bit of solder in place.

[MrThunderwing]

Hmmmm, this would definitely make my cable management a bit easier... One ordered from.eBsy.


Edited:
Trying to find a "one cable that does all" seems to be a major ballache for this Samsung phone. The OTG cable works great for the arcade encoder, but if I plug a male-to-male USB cable in and plug it into the mains it doesn't seem to power it. I bought a little micro USB right angled connector to try and help the phone fit better into the mini arcade case, but when I plug the arcade encoder in, via the OTG, it doesn't power the encoder. Gnnnn. But if I use the phone's included micro USB charging cable in conjunction with the right angled micro USB connector, it does charge the phone. FFS.... There's a micro USB device that charges called a Lava SimulCharge USB 1-Port Adapter that looks like it'd solve this, and has a nice small form factor, but I cannot find one in stock anywhere.... Seems there's some other hubs with a charge cable function, but they're a bit big and have got more connectors than I need.

Oh well... The front of the arcade cabinet is now basically a plug n play arcade pad, so if I decide (in the long run) it might just be easier to go down the PI Zero 2 route with a 3 Inch screen, it's still an option. I'm still pressing forward with the phone plan - I'm thinking I'm just going to have to make it somehow that I can access the micro USB charging port underneath it to swap out the encoder cable for a charging one. I think this is where a small base underneath it might be in order, which also allows for some extra space for the charging cables to poke our of... it might be useful if I could stick the encoder down there too, as I t didn't realise it was going to have an LED on the actual board itself and I don't want any extraneous light in the mini cabinet itself, other than the marquee LEDS.

Oh, and the Ferrari logo transfers arrived from China. Whoop!

[MrThunderwing]

Lads, quick question. I had to cut a whopping gert hole in the back panel, back when I was first starting this,  to remove the AAA battery compartment the original hardware was using. I've still got the original battery cover. What would be the best option to fill this gap? Either using the battery cover as part of it and filling the gaps or something else to fill the whole hole. I was thinking maybe some fibreglass kit that you can fix car bumpers with?
Or is that going to be a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and there's actually some easy plastic putty filling type solution?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074KHWKPV/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B074KHWKPV&linkCode=as2&tag=journeytomy0c-21&linkId=aad8e73f8b05e5d7e427da844535a078

[BadMouth]

I wouldn't spend money on a fiberglass repair kit.  It looks like ABS plastic.  If it is, you can weld in scrap ABS from the battery compartment using acetone.  Both by softening/melting together the edges with it and by making a thick slurry that can patch holes.  To make the slurry, cut it up into TINY pieces and let it soak in about an equal amount of acetone.  If you sand and polish afterwards, you can get it fairly smooth.  It takes some time to get a feel for it, but is a pretty neat technique to have in your arsenal.  I did this to hack the dust collection port on my planer to make it exit the other side.  Worth a try for the cost of a bottle of nail polish remover.  (Black parts are random scrap ABS from elsewhere)

[MrThunderwing]

Interesting, thanks BM. So, does the slurry just harden and cure or something over time once you remove it from the acetone?

[BadMouth]

Interesting, thanks BM. So, does the slurry just harden and cure or something over time once you remove it from the acetone?

Acetone melts it.  When the acetone evaporates out of it, it hardens again back into solid ABS.  It's kind of like applying heat to melt it and letting it cool to harden, but chemically.  It does take some technique.  To make a slurry or paste you've got to let the abs sit in acetone for a fairly long time depending on how big the chunks are (I make tiny crumbles)  To join big flat pieces, you can just soak the edges for less than a  minute and then push the melted edges together.  It will look messy, but can be sanded down.  You can brush it on with an acid brush but in my limited experience it needs to be wet down several times before the area softens up enough to join.

A couple youtube videos that came up in a quick search.  The baking soda and super glue trick also came up, which might also work.


Hadn't seen someone use straight slurry with window screen, but I might use that one in the future.

(He could have just joined the edges without using an extra piece for reinforcement)

[BadMouth]

To clarify...
What I would do is glue or acetone weld the battery cover that was removed into the corner of the opening you've made and then use flat pieces cut from the battery compartment to fill in as much as possible.  Then fill in smaller holes and low spots with slurry made from the rest of the battery compartment.  After is has hardened, you can sand it all smooth.  You could theoretically sand it with progressively finer sandpaper and then polish it.  Faster route would be glaze putty and spray paint after sanding.

[BadMouth]

Just had a thought... If you haven't made a mess yet (it will look horrible before it looks good), you could try to make a big rectangle separate from the cab before messing with the cab.  Then if it goes wrong, at least you haven't melted part of the cab.

[vandale]

You guys are going far and beyond what I expected. Well done!!!! Im impressed.

[MrThunderwing]

Thanks for all the info and the video links BM! 2 bottles of Acetone ordered from Amazon! I've got a load of leftover plastic sprue from a (still Outrun related) Monogram Ferrari Testarossa plastic model kit I put together awhile back, I purposely didn't get rid of it in case I could use is somehow for this project (it's even the right colour), is that going to be the same sort of easily melty type plastic do you reckon?

You guys are going far and beyond what I expected. Well done!!!! Im impressed.

Thanks dude. Yeah, I'm surprised myself I've actually ended up progressing as far with this as I have. It'll be nice if I can just stick the landing now and get it all packed up into something that's useable and aesthetically pleasing 

[MrThunderwing]

So the USB B to Micro USB cable arrived in the post and when I plug it in it doesn't appear to be providing any power to the encoder...  Uggghhh. Is the cable busted or is there some reason why it wouldn't power the encoder? Is it normal that some things seem to only charge but not operate USB plug in stuff and vice versa? (Edited: found the answer myself - Cables with micro USB can often be charge-only cables that miss the data lines. Wish there was some way to know which one is which, none of the places that sell them seem to differentiate) I've got a couple of old USB A to USB B cables in my box of 'old cables that might come in useful one day'. All these old cables work with the encoder and the OTG cable I bought, I'm wondering whether it might be easier to just cut one of them up and get rid of all the excess cable in the middle and make a DIY super short USB B to A cable by splicing it back together with some electrical tape.

Also, I'm in the process of making plastic slurry. It's quite oddly fascinating to watch all the plastic  just slowly dissolving into mush...

[buttersoft]

You're right about those cables. At least %50 of the micro-USB cables i run into are charging only, and kinda useless to hang onto.

You might be better off splicing cable that you know work, yes. Soldering would be neater, if your friend was willing to help again.

I'm keen for some pics of the plastic slurry results! Never tried that way myself. I have done the baking-soda-and-superglue method though

[MrThunderwing]

Well, after an overnight soak in the acetone, all the leftover red plastic sprue from the model Ferrari has turned into a pliable blob about the same consistency of the T1000 from Terminator 2 (or plasticine if you go in for more standard units of measurement). It doesn't seem like the sort of consistency I could brush on to something, but I think it might be useable like this if I put the (still solid) battery cover in the middle of the hole and I squidge this in place around it. I wonder if Acetone in the UK is sold at a less strong concentration than the US, which is maybe why it hasn't fully dissolved into the solution?

[MrThunderwing]

OK, so found the solution to the data/power cable issue - I bought a combined Charging/OTG hub from Amazon for £10. It's actually pretty slim. It's got a little Switch on the side to swap between USB and charging mode. So I've got a slim black box I can fit the encoder and Hub into (just about) and the excess cable, which will be the base. I'm going to cut a little slot in the bottom of the cabinet and the top of the base for the PCB wires to pass through and another for the Hub's micro USB to plug into the phone. I'm going to have to drill another little hole in the side of the cabinet to physically attach a little lever to press the phone's power on button (I'm not crazy on the idea of making a small hole in the side artwork, but the level of phone disassembly required to try and get to the on/off switch and wire it up to the cabinet's existing on/off Switch, and the potential to damage the screen in the process, seems on a whole other level of complexity, compared to wiring up the PCB). I'm going to cut another hole in the side of the base and position the hub next to it, so I should be able then to power on the phone, charge it and operate the control panel, without actually having to open the arcade cabinet to get to it. Once it's finished it'll sit on the base like so (I'm going to beautify the base a bit in the finished product, so it's not quite so obvious just a bit of leftover Amazon packaging). I'm going to use some small neodymium magnets hot glued in place on the base of the cabinet and the top of the base to hold them together, so they are still easily detachable if I need to get to the hub for any reason.

[MrThunderwing]

Well, BadMouth's melty plastic idea seems to have worked pretty well. It's still a bit squidge and pliable at the moment, but I'm hoping over the next 24 hours it'll fully solidify so I can give it a sand and get it looking nice and smooth again.

[BadMouth]

 

That's really good for your first time messing with it! 
I was afraid it was going to be the wrong type of plastic or turn into too much of a PITA.
Kinda glad that I didn't look at BYOAC today until you posted success.
It can look reaaallly bad early in the process sometimes. 

The spru probably would have disolved further if left longer or shredded first.  I prefer the consistency you got.

[MrThunderwing]

Some further progress today. I cut a hole in the area where the marquee was and replaced it with a bit of clear plastic (cut from a CD case) and then used a bit of plastic sprue (more leftover stuff from the model Ferrari kit) to create a mount for the LEDS and then hot glued them in place. I also cut the hole in the bottom of the cabinet for all the encoder wires and charging cable to pass through so they can sit in a separate base. I was also able to see how the phone would line up inside the case with everything in place and drill a tiny hole in the side to use another bit of plastic sprue as the 'on' button (physically pressing the on button on the phone) and I was able to see how it'd look going through the side art, with the stuff I was just using as mock ups. Some backwards progress as well unfortunately, the right directional input has stopped working, I think as I was manhandling the PCB through the hole I'd made in the base of the cabinet, the solder on that input got detached or something (it looks weird on the PCB), so going to be taking it back up to James' at the weekend (he reckons it might just be a bit of dodgy soldering on his part on that connection).

[baritonomarchetto]

It's time to learn how to solder man 

[BadMouth]

It's time to learn how to solder man 

+1

It looks like the trace has lifted off the board which sucks.  Might be salvageable, but if not the wire can be soldered elsewhere or to the switch itself.

If you decide to learn to solder, the most important advice I have is to get a flux pen and use it every time.

[MrThunderwing]

Yup, the Trace had lifted off. I managed to catch my mate last night and we were able to fix it by soldering the right input directly to the leaf switch. The trace on the 'reset' button had also lifted and that wasn't salvageable unfortunately. Fortunately, it's not really been an issue though, as we'd previous wired up a load of extra mini buttons. I've connected them up to the 'plinth' the cabinet is going to sit on, rather than trying to find space on the mini cab itself.

So, I'm actually nearly finished now! I cut all the requisite holes in the plinth last night for the mini buttons and the charging cable and switch for the OTG hub to poke out of. I covered it in black (slightly sparkly) sticky back plastic. Got all the cables squashed into the box, I've made an on/off button on the side, attached to the actual phone's power button with the teeniest smidge of hot glue. Once it's powered on I can get in game ok from the auto starting front-end and can power off the screen OK too. Got all the artwork in place (including the steering wheel Ferrari logo) and all the side buttons on the plinth work OK. I managed to secure the encoder in place in the box with a few little splodges of hot glue on the cardboard, which I let cool then was able to screw into. The encoder seems to not be playing up and has connected up each time I've powered it on. I've also got the new monitor bezel in place I created (out of a CD case) which I masked off and painted today. I'm just doing a bit of final work on the back cover where I cut the big hole in it to remove the battery compartment. The plastic slurry had a sort of weird honeycomb look to it when I sanded it, so I'm trying a small layer of wood putty over it with further sanding just to try and plug the holes (I'm not too bothered if it doesn't quite sort it, no one's going to be looking at the back of it)

[MrThunderwing]

Back panel

[MrThunderwing]

I put together a very small video showing it in action on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/MThunderwing/status/1638678410640736256?t=k 8WIqlJ4F5jmREZ486O0YA&s=19

[MrThunderwing]

OK, back panel on. I probably could've tried to get it looking a bit prettier, but, ehhhh... As I said before, no one's going to be looking at the back of it.

So, the mini cabinet is now 100% finished at last. Here's a couple of before and after photos with the spare one I purchased off Amazon right before I started.

[BadMouth]

Cab looks good.  Not crazy about the cardboard base, but you've spent enough on that I wouldn't sink any more into it. 
(I say as I order aluminum extrusions for 3D printers I don't need and will nickel and dime me to death before they are functional.)

[Fursphere]

(I say as I order aluminum extrusions for 3D printers I don't need and will nickel and dime me to death before they are functional.)

This post speaks to me!  Bought a Tevo Tornado (CR10 clone) few years ago, and spent enough to buy a second upgrading it to be a Prusa MK3s clone (Crearibo build if you're interested).    Then I bought a Prusa MK3s and haven't really used the Tornado since. 

[MrThunderwing]

Cab looks good.  Not crazy about the cardboard base, but you've spent enough on that I wouldn't sink any more into it. 
(I say as I order aluminum extrusions for 3D printers I don't need and will nickel and dime me to death before they are functional.)

Yeah, the cardboard base was a little bit half-arsed in all honesty, I just wanted to try and get the project finished up this week whilst I had a week off work and the creative energy to put into it. It does the job though and it isn't too egregious looking IMHO. From a functional point of view it's been pretty useful as well to have easy access to the OTG hub, as every once in blue moon it doesn't activate the encoder and I have to unplug and plug the encoder USB back in again, which kicks it back into life.

I literally just thought of a possibly more aesthetically pleasing solution this morning than the cardboard box though, which would've been to use one of those metal HDD enclosures you can buy to turn your the leftover HDD from your old PC into a plug and play device for you new PC. But that would involve more expenditure and work and extricating those mini buttons from the side of the box would be a major PITA now (although having said that I've still got some spare).

Using the Android phone route I did, there was just no way to squeeze everything into the mini cabinet. Although the encoder itself isn't all that big, it's stuff like the size of the USB cables sticking out the end that just take up that bit of extra room. I think it definitely would be possible to fit everything in the mini cabinet with a PI Zero 2 and mini screen, as I believe you can just wire all the inputs directly to the PI via the GPIO pins without the need for a seperate encoder, so if any PI savvy peeps out there want to give this a try, I'd love to see the results.

[MrThunderwing]

Video of the finished cabinet in action:


Ma-hoosive thanks to everyone in the thread who's given me advice (in particular PL1 and Bad Mouth for their advice on wiring PCBs, Encoders, teeny arcade buttons, OTG cables and melting plastic with acetone) and anyone else who's provided encouragement to go ahead and do this, especially as the original opening post was just about whether it'd be feasible or not. Cheers fellas! It's been greatly appreciated from start to finish.