Twin Cabinet Build

[Fursphere]

Sweet!

I'd cover the stainleas view button plate carbon fiber vinyl wrap so it matches the gauge cluster.

That's a good idea.  I was thinking about using the laser cutter to cut out a new bezel - maybe plastic or something, then wrapping it.

And speaking of the 'view buttons' - any idea what size bulbs those are?  I've dug through the Sega manuals for Daytona, Sega Rally, and a few others and I couldn't find a reference to a replacement bulb anywhere.    I'd like to swap them with LEDs, as a have a pair of PACLED64 boards I'd like to use for this.  Otherwise I'll have to build a separate relay board with independent power or something.

EDIT:  They appear to be #51 or #53 bulbs.  Finally found a reference on there. 

[Fursphere]

Got the shifter mounted over the weekend.   Its pretty rough right now, I'll pretty it up later.  It's very sturdy, but there is a little flex in the dashboard backing plate itself.  I made a bracket for the bottom to fix that, but I need to get the cabinet top back on the base and properly aligned before I can mount that.   Only I get some proper bolt and do a little more cleanup work, I think I can create and 3D print a wedge piece that'll  cover up everything.   The wood block is just a temporary spacer.  quick and dirty. 

The Fanatec shifter almost fits in the same footprint as the original Sega shifter, but is offset enough were I can't really use the original Sega shifter top cover place.  Oh well.

[Fursphere]

Worked on overall alignment issues last night.   It seems the hardest part of this build has been getting the two cabinets as close to perfectly aligned as possible.  Small imperfections in the base leads to gaps and non-square alignment in the heads up top, which then shows up with the topper installed.

I'm not sure I'm happy with the shifter being in the default Sega cabinet position.   Feels too high when messing around with it, but its pretty dang close to the stock shifter.  I'll have to do some play testing.

[bobbyb13]

Continues to look awesome.
My approach has always been if I'm making this thing from scratch even if I'm using some original parts I very well just might rethink the ergonomics of things like the shifter you are talking about.
Make it work for you, I say!

[Fursphere]

Thanks!   

Here is where I'm at as of tonight.    Did a bunch of painting over the weekend, installed the t-molding, and bolted just about everything together.  The M6 bolts I need to mount the second Fanatec DD should be here tomorrow, so I can get that installed.  Then its back to working on the dashboards...  Then the floor boards...  Then the shifter and handbrake mounts...  Then the button wiring...   And the speakers....  and amps..  and bass shakers...   and the race leader lights...  and then maybe some side art... 

Please excuse the mess than is my front room.   

[BadMouth]

Dunno what it is, but the step of adding t-molding is some kind of threshold between screwed together wood and real arcade machine for me.  Looks awesome.

[Fursphere]

Over the past week I installed the speakers, amps, bass shakers, dashboards, VR buttons (wired to I-Pacs, no illumination solution yet), and built the LED light bracket for the topper.  The bass shakers aren't cranked way up - but they add just enough to really improve the overall experience.  These two Arua transducers are actually left over from my original driving cabinet.  Knew I'd use them some day.

The LEDs are RGB with a remote (that works through the topper).   I used aluminum 1/16" x 1" strips and built the frame.  The LEDs themselves are just some cheap $15 kit off ebay.   Being able to DIM them down so they're not blinding is really nice.  They also remember the last state they were in when the power is lost, so they go on/off with the left cabinet/PC. 

[buttersoft]

great stuff. I really like the idea of RGB LED's for the marquee. Will let you adjust the colour temp until it's right, and also setup some cool effects in MAMEhooker if you want.

I've also 100% got to look into some bass shakers at some point

[Fursphere]

Got one of the shifter braces installed.   Need to finish the other one still.   Its kinda ugly (needs a little more shaping), and the welds suck because the gas regulator on my MIG blew up, so I was welding without shielding gas (argon/co2 if you're curious).  Always something.   I'll pull it off and paint it when I finish the other one.  But it completely eliminates the little bit of flex the shifter had.    I was also able to lower the shifter about 1/2", which made it feel a lot more like the stock Daytona shifter location.  So far I'm happy with it.   

I'm also experimenting with the Mini Stream Deck.  I had them (two of them, one on each cab) on my standup arcade cabinets, and came to the conclusion that they didn't really add any value there.  So I moved them over to the twin cabinet to see if I can find use for them.       At least I got them cheap on eBay if nothing else.   

[buttersoft]

With my cabs i used to find that people, not even just kids, would push buttons randomly, and the easier the buttons were to reach/see the more they got pushed. Moving commands like exit-game and test-menu buttons off the wheel was a must. I went to a pair of G25 wheels, which have a dozen buttons on the shifter, making them much more likely to be ignored. So i think that pad is a good idea

[Zeosstud]

That looks like it is going to be a hell of a good time!!  Hope you enjoy the heck out of it and I hope you can manage to get Rush 2049 working in network mode even semi reliably.. :-)

Zeosstud