RayB's AMUSEMENT 360 - STATUS: Almost done

[arcadefever]

nice cab i really like red and yellow colour i also like the control panel the way the 4 push button are set up cant wait to see it finish 

[RayB]

Still dragging on. Had software problems. Now they are fixed. The PC boots straightinto GameLauncher. If anyone needs help using GL, PM me.

Spent all weekend going through the lists and sorting them by:

A. Removing clones and regions I don't want
B. Removing entries that don't even work (I don't know why my list generator included non-working games!)
C. Dividing entries between horizontal and vertical.

phew! It's very time consuming.

[RayB]

Finished my software setup (more or less) so next step was installing the ArcadeVGA card.

That also meant pulling out the 19" Happ Controls Vision Pro II that had been sitting new in box since I got it in May 2004. (Wow, sad huh?)

Before hooking all this up, I had to pull the RGBvhg connector, and wire in my JAMMA harness wiring to it. Once that was done, I hooked everything up, powered the monitor and then the PC.

YAH! NICE! Gamelauncher looks good!

Next, sizing. I ran a few various Horizontal games for starters. I picked Rolling Thunder (one of my fave games) and size the image according to that. Then ran some Neo Geo games.

It is amazing what a difference it is to see these games running on their original intended display device!! As I said in another thread, even though I had seen these games running flawlessly on a PC monitor with effects that simulate an arcade monitor picture, seeing it on an arcade monitor is like stepping through the looking glass from PC world to Arcade world. It's such a difference! Really worth the $160 the monitor cost.

So next was to see how Atari medium res games looked. They look pretty good. Kinda an "interlaced" look to them. But very small. I'm not sure MAME is picking the best res for these games.

Same goes for SMASH TV, Tengai, etc. They are basically a very small square in the middle of the monitor. :-(

[RayB]

Resolution problem PARTIALLY solved. I had forgotten to use a resolution tool. So I used Mamewah's res tool. I followed the directions, created INI files, etc.

Now I believe that DMAME 0.78 doesn't even use the INI files. It didn't have an INI directory to begin with. It didn't have a path entry in MAME.CFG. And when I change the resolution in some INI files and test the changes out, I see no difference.

For example, GUWANGE runs a small box. It's a vertical game, so I expect black borders on the left and right, but it has large borders top and bottom too! After using the res tool, it made no difference. I even went in the INI and editted it to 800x600. No difference. 320x240. No difference. I don't think the INI files are used at all. Must have been a featured introduced later than 0.78.

Beyond that, using the res tool did help with SOME games. I believe that it's the deleting of certain resolution modes from the list that helped in that respect. (Tengai went from running in a small box like Guwange does, to fill most of the screen).

Should I delete more modes? Maybe the ones that are 53hz? Maybe even some higher ones?

[RayB]

Here's a photo of my setup. Nice and junky looking eh?

1 = PC
2 = JAMMA harness plugging into a JPAC
3 = a keyboard! yay
4 = my temporary single-player control box
5 = new Vision Pro II 19"

[RayB]

Though I still have minor software issues (as mentioned above--re resolutions) I have proceeded to installing hardware.

I have opted to keeping everything decased, and mounting everything securely so that the cab can be moved and even tiltled on its back without a single part moving. I'm going to have to build a couple small "shelves" for the drives, and something to secure the cards to.

I had to find myself an ATX power cable extender, because otherwise everything had to be mounted really close together. I could use a longer EIDE cable as well, but I only have the one (got TONS of old IDE cables though, but they don't work with the ATA100!)

Photos forthcoming...

[RayB]

Here are a couple pics. As you can see, I have very little room to work with, hence part of why I opted for no PC tower.

[Havok]

Looks good. I love Rolling Thunder! Good test, but then any game is a good test...

[RayB]

My favorite game.

[RayB]

Update:

Now painting side 2. Painting is taking a while. It requires 16 hrs drying time between coats, so that works out to one coat per day. I should be done this phase by Wednesday (Nov 16).

I'm a bit disappointed with the results. It looks good painted (white) and all, but even though I sanded between coats, I still have a bumpiness to the finish. I think I would have had to sand alot more and put alot more coats. But in the end there's no way I'm going to do that, given the drying time. I want this sucker finished.

So in the end: 3 coats primer, 2 coats finish (melamine, satin finish) with a slight texture.

NOTE TO ALL: Don't use my project as a guide for the order you should do things!!! I am all over the place. Painting the sides should have been done right after I primed them. But due to space constraints, I went ahead with other tasks.

For example: I had already applied my black vinyl to the front. Now, when painting the sides white, I risk getting paint on this! I also had installed my monitor. That means the bolts that hold the monitor rails are there, on the sides. I had to tape them up to try and prevent paint getting on them. Ideally, get your painting 100% done first, then install guts. (OH sanding your coats adds dust to everything!) I knew all this but just wanted progress so I did things out of order.

[menace]

looking good--do you find the decased pc too loud?  I opted for decased once and would never do it again--the fans were just too loud.  I guess you had space restrictions--but nothing a hammer and a jigsaw couldn't fix 

How is game launcher as a FE?  I have never seen it running so I was curious--have you tried other FE's--any comparisons?

[RayB]

looking good--do you find the decased pc too loud?

Yes/No. It is a little loud.

[RayB]

Getting closer! Getting closer!

1. Painting is complete! Sides are white (satin finish melamine). Took two coats of super adherant grey sealer primer, then 1 coat of melamine primer and finally two coats of final melamine top coat. Sanded inbetween coats, but not enough to get a perfectly smooth finish. The end result is still acceptable.

2. Added blue t-molding. Unfortunately, turns out what I needed was 11/16" width. What I had was 3/4". There is an overlap on either side of about 1mm. It's not noticeable to the eye, so no biggie (besides, t-molding.com only carries this weird width in black).

3. I ordered a plastic bezel from Happ Controls, for 19" monitors. Well I encountered a couple problems with it. First, the center cut-out is not sized correctly for 19" monitors (maybe that's why these are on sale for $6 now?). Overall, you lose almost a whole inch in height and width.

Normally, if this cabinet were meant for one game only, this wouldn't be that big a deal, since I can squish the picture down to fit correctly, but in this case since we're dealing with multiple resolutions, some games are already squished quite a bit, and it would suck to squish them down even more just because of this bezel!

So I cut it down as best I could with my jigsaw. Not an easy task considering it's a curved shape. In the end I have a slightly uneven shape, but it shouldn't be too noticeable.

Second problem was that in cutting and fitting the bezel, I managed to get two small scratches onto the otherwise new monitor. 


Here's the lastest photo:

[RayB]

Control panel art file is now waiting for Scott at MameMarquees!

[RayB]

Yesterday: Measured and cut holes for speakers. Mounted speakers and plastic speaker covers. Looks nice!

Plan for today:
 - Mount amplifier circuit and knob
 - cut holes for power switch
 - wire sound and amp circuit

[RayB]

Thought I'd add more construction pics, since people like photos!

I cut this hole for the speaker by first drilling a hole, then using a jigsaw.

[RayB]

Here's the panel with the speakers and speaker covers mounted. The covers are simple $1 plastic covers (Active Surplus in Toronto), but they look much better than in this photo.

The second photo shows the panel mounted.

[RayB]

Here you see my sound amp. It came from a $25 set of PC speakers. The original sub-woofer is still in use in the very bottom of the cabinet. Lucky for me all wiring that it came with was just the right length to reach.

To mount this, I had to drill a couple holes in the corners of the circuit board, as well as glue a piece of wood to the side of the cabinet so I could mount the whole thing as flush to the top as possible.

I drilled a hole about 1" in diameter in the top. I mounted a plastic rectangle to cover the bottom of the hole. A hole in this plastic piece allows the potentiometer "rod" to poke through. On top, the actual knob is attached. The end result is that the volume know does not stick up past the wood of the cabinet, but it's still fairly easy to adjust (with normal size fingers!)

[RayB]

Here is the recessed volume knob:

[RayB]

While I was drilling the hole for the volume knob, I also drilled one near the back left side for the master AC power switch, and I mounted the switch.

[RayB]

Lastly, here is most of my hardware mounted.

A: Here is a JPAC and JAMMA harness

B: Here the CD-ROM is mounted with brackets on top of two wood rails. Underneath is the 30g hard drive.

C: Here you can see my L shaped solution for holding my cards in place. The idea with everything here is to have everything mounted and secured so the cabinet can be moved without fear of anything falling or disconnecting.

D: The way the cabinet was designed there's a shelf (as you can see. Below this shelf I mounted the power supply (you can barely see it) and to the left I mounted a power bar.

Notice how all wiring is cable-tied and secured! If you do it right the first time, you avoid headaches down the road.

[markrvp]

Ray:

From reading some of your other threads I see that you like using a Jamma harness with the JPAC when doing MAME cabinets.  What is the advantage of going that route over using a keyboard encoder to interface the controls?

[RayB]

From reading some of your other threads I see that you like using a Jamma harness with the JPAC when doing MAME cabinets.

The JPAC has a video amp and cut-off which will cut off "bad" resolutions that could otherwise damage the monitor. I also like just having everything wired to the standard, should I decide to make this  cab work with JAMMA game boards.

[Buddabing]

Lastly, here is most of my hardware mounted.

A: Here is a JPAC and JAMMA harness

B: Here the CD-ROM is mounted with brackets on top of two wood rails. Underneath is the 30g hard drive.

C: Here you can see my L shaped solution for holding my cards in place. The idea with everything here is to have everything mounted and secured so the cabinet can be moved without fear of anything falling or disconnecting.

D: The way the cabinet was designed there's a shelf (as you can see. Below this shelf I mounted the power supply (you can barely see it) and to the left I mounted a power bar.

Notice how all wiring is cable-tied and secured! If you do it right the first time, you avoid headaches down the road.

Please post a closer-up picture and description of (C).

Thanks!

[RayB]

Please post a closer-up picture and description of (C).

The steps I took were as follows:

1. I found a spot for the motherboard where it would not be in the way and there would be room for the cards and the cables that get plugged in them.

2. I used PCB feet and mounted the motherboard.

3. Now with the motherboard secured and cards fully inserted, I could mount the "L" shaped wood so that it would be snug against the tabs of the cards. I used L-brackets to secure it BUT NO GLUE. It must be removable in case I ever want to change cards.

4. Last step is using small screws to secure the card tabs to the wood post.

[RayB]

I had a new back door cut. Routed out a "lip" at one end (first time using a router!). Took a bit of sanding down to get it to fit in. Next will paint it black and install a cam lock.

Otherwise the status of the project is: Waiting for the CP overlay to arrive. Scott (MameMarquees.com) was very quick in printing it up and sending it out. Hopefully I will have it by next week!!

[AC.]

Looking good!  Will be a great machine.

[RayB]

Control Panel printed by MameMarquees has arrived!

[RayB]

OK So what have I been doing for almost 2 weeks?

First, I cut my button holes. It was a challenge keep the overly in place to mark all my hole centers correct, but I think I managed it. So then I used the standard 1 1/8" hole saw to cut the main button and joystick holes. In cutting the holes I somehow managed to get one joystick hole to be a bit oval. Hopefully it's not noticeable. 

Complications came thereafter: First, I needed the correct hole size for Atari volcano buttons and small Radio Shack pushbuttons. I ended up buying a giant 1/2" drill bit. I had a hard time deciding between this and a cheaper spade bit, but I figured the standard bit would be easier to keep centered (the position really matters!)

So I drilled those. Next dilemma. How to route out wood underneath so I could mount these buttons (they are made to be mounted to thin surfaces--my panel is 3/4" thick).

I toyed with the idea of making mounting plates (Great solutions were presented here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=47178.0 ) But that would require routing out some precise rectangles for the plates. I only have a basic high-speed router, which I find difficult to do precise cuts with (unless we're talking straight edges). I bought a Dremel router attachment, but it ended up not fitting my Dremel (back to the store it went!).

So I decided in the end that I will glue in the two Radio Shack buttons. As for the Atari ones... I finally figured out that I could use some short hole saws I had to cut out a portion of wood on the under-side, and leave a thick enough layer at the top to mount the buttons to. (Keep in mind folks, that although there are solutions, I'm also trying to keep budget down. A Forstner bits, new tools, etc, are all expensive options for cutting a few holes. The Dremel kit I could see myself re-using, so that's why I bought that...)

I measured the max thickness I could keep. It ended up being 3/16ths", and what do you know, my short hole saws were just the right length to leave that much! I clamped a 2x4 under my panel and clamped it all to my work table. I drilled a small guide hole to help keep the hole centered right. I cut out two circles wide enough to accomodate my Atari buttons. I cut two more smaller circles to help in the chiselling out of the wood. The drilling process ripped most of it right out.  So then I used the router to even out what was left to a flat surface of the right thickness.

After that, I examined the results and, well, I had to wonder why the routing hadn't removed more. My original hole saw circles seemed to go much deeper. How was this possible?

I unclamped everything and looked under at the top of my panel. HORROR! Two half-circles where it had cut right through. Crap! It shouldn't have cut that deep!!

So I re-clamped the 2x4 under the panel and I filled in all the outer edges of the hole with Gorilla glue, otherwise there's no way the surface would hold up to button pushing, wiith holes half-cut.

That's where I'm at now. The Gorilla glue is amazing. It foams up to fill in cracks and then hardens quite hard. I will need to route out the holes again to remove excess glue. I have my fingers crossed as to what I'll find when I remove that 2x4...

[RayB]

I messed up the CP installation. The part that bends over the top and back of the panel won't stay glued (even though I used some Krylon super-strength spray adhesive).

The part that bends 45' on the front, had bubblling at the corner. I just couldn't get it to stick down. So I had the BRIGHT idea to cut a line with a razor blade. (By "bright", I mean STUPID). Totally messed it up. Looks like crap now.

Also one of my button holes is off-set. I'm sure I marked my hole centers perfectly but I guess the drill must have jumped when I cut that one.

 

I'm too embarassed to post pics.

~Ray B.

[walls83]

PICS PICS PICS

 


The crowd chats....

[Bones]

I had enough disasters with my project to flush away any remaining dignity, I expect the same from you.

PICS PICS PICS
BTW- I swear by my method of using two prints. Check my thread. The scrap print can be low quality (black and white or whatever) so cost shouldn't be an issue. Drill through the scrap print to ensure everything lines up perfectly and then apply your quality print over the drilled holes. Then all you have to do is cut the print using the holes which act almost "spigot" like.

You simply can't stuff it up doing it this way even if you tried.

[RayB]

BTW- I swear by my method of using two prints. Check my thread. The scrap print can be low quality (black and white or whatever) so cost shouldn't be an issue. Drill through the scrap print to ensure everything lines up perfectly and then apply your quality print over the drilled holes. Then all you have to do is cut the print using the holes which act almost "spigot" like.

yeah but... how do you accurately paste together two 8.5x11 sheets and then have it match the results from MameMarquee?

Maybe I shouldn't mention this but Scott at MM is toying with the idea of offering a black & white template as an option (for extra fee of course).

----------

OK so as with all obstacles in life, there's always a solution. I fixed up my f**k-up.    I found my metal ruler, and cut a straight line in the top portion of the overlay, at the very edge of where it bends 45'. Then about 1/8" below that, on the front part, I cut a straight line too. Removed the excess overlay and now I'm left with a perfectly straight line right at the corner of the CP. I just need to fill in the gap with a black line (maybe with a sharpie).

So having fixed that up, I installed all my buttons. It's looking good!

~Ray B.

[RayB]

Fine, you want pics:

Here's the screw up...

[RayB]

And here it is "fixed". I still need to fill in the "gap" I created with black paint.

[RayB]

And here is the horror that is the backside of the CP. What you see here is old holes filled in, some Gorilla glue (the yellow blobs), etc.

And you can see I fixed the non-sticking overlay by 1. Cutting the overlapping part down so it was about an inch (used to be about 3+ inches). Then I stapled it down.

[walls83]

 

I dont think I needed to see that...

Looks like you got a good fix going on though.  What about white paint instead of black?

Just a thought.  Keep on Trucking.

[RayB]

Looks like you got a good fix going on though.

[RayB]

Installed all buttons. Installed one joystick and spinner. Overlay is bubbling up a bit around one carriage bolt. Oops.  Wired up player 1. Didn't play much. Couple rounds of Pac-Land. One round of Shadow Dancer. A bit of EDF. Then the phone rang.

My monitor definitely needs tinted plexi over it. I think the JPAC makes the image brighter and more saturated than it should be.

Next day I made the GF play a round of Tetris. She seemed to have some difficulty placing blocks accurately (overshooting intended destination). I think maybe my Wico is too sensitive...

[RayB]

My control panel is now fully populated and 60% wired up. P1 and P2 are playable. Spinner is not hooked up. Admin buttons are not hooked up.

I ran out of QDs and so ended up soldering all my ground wires.

I'm in a dangerous time now! I still have a few things to do on this cab, but the games are fully playable! You know what that means!!