Author Topic: Jukebox Project (Read 13963 times)

Homebrew · « **on:** July 17, 2004, 11:29:33 am »

Having thoroughly enjoyed building my arcade cab, i decided long ago that i wanted to build a jukebox. About a year and half later it has begun and i'm about halfway there. The shape of this jukebox is based off an 80's AMI/Rowe jukebox. It will run a complete car audio system with 2 amps, an EQ/Crossover, two 10" subs, and a 5-1/4" component set. The amps are powered by a 60A Tripplite power supply. I've had it together for testing and it proved to reach a ridiculously loud volume. Without further delay, here are some pics of it in its current state:

Right now i'm trying to fix some problems i've ran into regarding heat. I designed this from scratch and the inner dimensions turned out not to be as open as i planned. As a result the the amps, pc, and power supply are going to be cramped together and i can forsee alot of heat. the powersupply within an inch of the sub amp and the two generate a decent amount of heat. So right now i'm trying to create a decent airflow system. I'm also trying to get ideas for color schemes, lights, and other appearance related things. I want this to be flashy just like your typical jukebox. However since its not the bubble tube style jukebox, i'm short on ideas. Any suggestions for the finished appearance are greatly appreciated. As it stands i still need to finish mounting the keypad and cut the openings for the monitors in the front panel(front panel isn't in the pictures). At this point, i'm considering remaking the front panel out of lexan and paint it from the backside, so that i can put lights behind it and light up a design or something. Still tossing around ideas at this point. Let me know what you guys think as well as any suggestions.

-Kevin

Matt, GoC · « **Reply #1 on:** July 18, 2004, 01:05:20 am »

First, if you do that paint the Lexan idea, I'd not use lexan but something MUCH cheaper. While browsing Fleet Farm today, I walked past the display that I got my plastic for my arcade I'm building from. I noticed they now had Lexan as well. The price? $40-some for a decent sized sheet, while the same size of acrylic plastic (Plastikote is the brand) was about $11. It's very clear and strong. I had to use a stronger version for my CP because the cheaper stuff would crack from drilling fast, but if it's just to cover up something, you should go cheap. As far as heat, get some quiet PC case fans, and mount them in the top and bottom backside of the juke. Have the bottom ones pull air in, and the top expel the air. This should create a nice airflow. For really hot areas, perhaps a fan above and below using the same idea would help. My roomate has a computer with 4 case fans, a CPU fan, and the power source fan running at once. The fans are all cheap and quite noisy, so if you value your quiet when the juke's not running, get quiet fans. Most fans have a decible rating.

Hope I helped...?

Homebrew · « **Reply #2 on:** July 18, 2004, 10:56:43 am »

Thanx for the reply. When i said lexan, i really just meant an acrylic. I sometimes use lexan, plexi-glass, etc. interchangeably. I'm planning to use fans, i'm just trying to come up with a system to directly pull/push air across the powersupply and amp. I may actually try to enclose them further so i can ensure that heat in that particular area gets removed. That enclosure would get its own fans. Sounds a little odd, but i'm still playing around with ideas. Thanx for the input.

-Kevin

Matt, GoC · « **Reply #3 on:** July 18, 2004, 12:20:36 pm »

How about sticking a pipe or duct of some kind over the amp and power supply and using fans at the ends to draw the heat through? You could stick one directly over the out fan of the power supply and use fans on the end there to relocate the hot air so it doesn't sit there... it'd be silly looking but it may be better then frying your expensive (?) amp. You could also look up cooling tricks used by computer overclockers to get a general idea.

DrewKaree · « **Reply #4 on:** July 29, 2004, 06:32:20 pm »

Quote from: Apocalypse Never on July 18, 2004, 12:20:36 pm

How about sticking a pipe or duct of some kind over the amp and power supply and using fans at the ends to draw the heat through? You could stick one directly over the out fan of the power supply and use fans on the end there to relocate the hot air so it doesn't sit there... it'd be silly looking but it may be better then frying your expensive (?) amp. You could also look up cooling tricks used by computer overclockers to get a general idea.

It shouldn't look silly, since it'll be inside the thing, and the only people who'll ever see it are people he wants to show it off to, in which case, he'll have a chance to explain and dazzle them with his heat removal solution! I agree that a heat pipe of some sort will be most efficient. Since this will be run from A/C, how about going to the local Home store and looking in their ductwork section. They will sell a fan that sits INSIDE the duct (this is used to pull cold/hot air to a section of the house that has bad airflow) which means all you have to do is get a flashing to mount in the top of the juke, screw the duct to the flashing, hook up the fan, and bingo, you're golden with the heat.

Something else, in case you don't want to go that route, is to have your fans blowing air over your amp, and then just have two or three passive heat vents at the top which can easily be disguised. Some 120mm's (the super quiet kind, I think Vantec made the ones I have, and at full blast, they are quieter than the rinky-dink stock fans on my PC, but like it was said, check the dB rating on 'em) at the bottom blowing air over your amp and the hot air will escape out the top like most older arcade games were designed. They usually didn't use fans, and didn't have coolign probs (I KNOW, some may have, I'm just generalizing!)

Good luck, and BEAUTIFUL design...I may be flattering you by imitating it when I get that far!

Homebrew · « **Reply #5 on:** July 29, 2004, 07:59:22 pm »

Thanx for the suggestions guys. I've been into overclocking for a while so i'm no slouch to cooling, but multiple heads thinking on the subject are better than one. I'm gonna try some other placement ideas i've come up with recently and see what happens. I'm still trying to determine lighting ideas, so that will most likely impact the cooling situation so i'm gonna wait till i decide on lighting before i make the final decisions on the cooling system. On a side note, i've decided to make the front panel out of acrylic and may add an acrylic overlay to the control panel. Painting the acrylic from the backside will add some flash to this thing hopefully. Still looking for suggestions for appearance enhancements.

-Kevin

NIVO · « **Reply #6 on:** July 29, 2004, 10:11:43 pm »

heya homebrew. I'd recommend some panaflo fans, super quiet at high flow. Ebay'ers usually have solid deals on these and you can score a LOT of them usually. Cya, oh and keep the pics coming, I like the classic lines of the jukebox homey!

Homebrew · « **Reply #7 on:** July 30, 2004, 01:32:04 pm »

I usually swear by panaflo fans, but in this case, quiet isn't as much of a concern, i'm more concerned with airflow. Even at a low volume, the music should mask the sound of the fans. Panaflo's aren't really high flow though, that just have a very good noise/flow ratio. There are some new low noise fans on the market called Silenx, these are actually quieter and flow more air than the same size panaflo. Or at least thats what their specs indicate. The few reviews i have seen have been on par with this, but i still wouldn't claim it as fact at this point. I'm considering picking a couple up for my main PC, but they're a little expensive at around $15-25 a piece depending on size. For now i'm switching my attention to lighting and other appearance enhancements. Once i have this thing functional i'll make the final decisions on cooling. Thanx for all the input thus far guys.

-Kevin

Homebrew · « **Reply #8 on:** August 22, 2004, 07:26:13 pm »

Well i've made some progress, i've mounted all the computer/audio components and wired everything up. Just need to finish routing some of the wiring. I also bent the plexiglass front panel into shape and am now deciding on how i want to mount it. As far as the airflow concerns i had, i decided to mount four vents in the back. Each vent will have a 92mm or 120mm fan mounted behind it. I think this should be sufficient to keep things cool.
I also redesigned the sub enclosure so that i could move the primary midrange drivers to the bottom next to the subs. The reason for this is because at high volumes it was ubearable to stand in front of the jukebox to make a selection becasue the midrange were aimed right at your face/ears. I plan to add another set of midrange speakers to the original location(on the control panel), but i will keep the volume on these much lower than the other drivers.
The last major hurdle is to shield the subwoofer(s). The magnetic field from the sub is proving to be more powerful than I anticipated when the volume is cranked up.
Beyond this, all i need to do is decide on a color scheme and any lights or other visual elements. Here are some of the most recent pics:

Thanx for looking,

-Kevin

walls83 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 22, 2004, 07:54:34 pm »

Looks increadible. That thing is going to shake the house down.. I love the keypad where did you get it and how does it hook up.?

What are the two monitors for?

walls83 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 22, 2004, 07:55:10 pm »

Oh what software are you using for it?

Homebrew · « **Reply #11 on:** August 22, 2004, 08:11:03 pm »

The keypad is from jameco, you can find it here:
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=121971

Its a matrix keypad, but i've decoded the matrix and hooked up each key individually. I posted instruction on how to do it here:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=14302

I think it could shake the house down if i tried. I assure you, it is VERY loud when cranked up. I'm using two monitors for two reasons. The first being that my design for the jukebox is rather wide and would have alot of empty space if only one monitor was used. The second reason being the cool factor. I'm running Virtual Music Jukebox and i original thought its dual monitor support had more options than just displaying lyrics or a video on the second monitor. I mistakenly thought i could span the album listing across the 2 monitors. So right now i'm thinking about running visualizations or something independantly of VMJ on the second monitor. I'm still undecided. Thanx for the comments. Any suggestions on visual elements i could add to the cabinet are greatly appreciated.

-Kevin

walls83 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 22, 2004, 08:14:19 pm »

It would be sweet if you could run the music videos on the other one. But I could only imagine how many hard drives you would need to have all the music videos.

Homebrew · « **Reply #13 on:** August 22, 2004, 08:24:09 pm »

Quote

It would be sweet if you could run the music videos on the other one. But I could only imagine how many hard drives you would need to have all the music videos.

I'm not so much worried about that as trying to collect all those video's. As crazy as it sounds, i actually have spare 80gb and 160gb hard drives laying around. Plus only the popular songs off albums usually get videos. That leaves alot of songs that wouldn't display anything on the other monitor. I'm still brainstorming on what to do with the other monitor. I'll figure something out hopefully.

-Kevin

walls83 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 22, 2004, 08:54:28 pm »

http://www.mentalfx.com

Heres the kind of thing you need running on the other PC. I used to have a bunch of these DVDs when I was In college

But I cant find them. Maybe look on ebay for some videos like this.

Homebrew · « **Reply #15 on:** August 22, 2004, 08:58:05 pm »

Quote

http://www.mentalfx.com

Heres the kind of thing you need running on the other PC. I used to have a bunch of these DVDs when I was In college But I cant find them. Maybe look on ebay for some videos like this.

Wow, thanx for the link. I'm definetly gonna have to take a deeper look at that site. Might be just what i need. Thanx,

-Kevin

Homebrew · « **Reply #16 on:** September 22, 2004, 05:43:13 pm »

It's been a while with no updates, as i haven't had as much time to work on the jukebox as I wish. I have made some small progress though. I've bent the plexiglass for the front panel and for the top/control panel covering. Most of the front and all of the top of the jukebox will be covered by painted acrylic.
I decided on this since this will allow me to provide a shiny finish in which the paint can't be scratched like it normally could. I also thought it would be wild to do some parts out of bent plexi. Bending the plexi was easier than i thought with the right tools, but you do have to exercise patience. The pieces i've done so far, are not perfect, but they'll do. I've broken several sheets of the thinner stuff i'm using for the top/control panel due to impatience. It's a learning curve, but i'm progressing. Without further delay here are some pics (trying out the new digital camera as well):

Setup for the final bend on the top/control panel covering

The finished product(still need to trim the excess)

Another of the finished product(still need to trim the excess)

Poor shot of the plexi front panel. (poor because this is the only shot of these four taken with my old digital camera. That camera is on it's last leg)

You can see more pics of the build at:
http://home.comcast.net/~homebrewracing/

Click on the jukebox to see the juke pics. Please execuse the poorly designed website. It was really only built so that friends and co-workers could see pictures of what i had built. My web programming skills really lack.

-Kevin

DougHillman · « **Reply #17 on:** September 22, 2004, 07:31:41 pm »

Looking better and better with every update.

How'd you go about bending the acrylic?

Homebrew · « **Reply #18 on:** September 22, 2004, 07:42:35 pm »

To bend it i used this:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=usplastic&category%5Fname=59&product%5Fid=2301

I have the 48" version. It takes 20-45 minutes of heating to make the bends depending on the severity of the bend and the thickness of the acrylic. For the top/control panel piece, i used .080" plexi and it took 20-25 minutes to heat for each bend. The front panel is 1/4" plexi and took the whole 45 minutes in order to make the bend.

-Kevin

PedroSilva · « **Reply #19 on:** September 23, 2004, 01:00:36 pm »

Quote from: Homebrew on September 22, 2004, 07:42:35 pm

To bend it i used this:
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=usplastic&category%5Fname=59&product%5Fid=2301

I have the 48" version. It takes 20-45 minutes of heating to make the bends depending on the severity of the bend and the thickness of the acrylic. For the top/control panel piece, i used .080" plexi and it took 20-25 minutes to heat for each bend. The front panel is 1/4" plexi and took the whole 45 minutes in order to make the bend.

-Kevin

Very nice ...

GodSin · « **Reply #20 on:** September 24, 2004, 12:05:03 pm »

thisd is looking really nice, keepo up the good work ... Ithis would be something I would love to build but I am limited for space as it is and I just have my one cabinet

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=25089

Homebrew · « **Reply #21 on:** September 24, 2004, 05:23:11 pm »

Thanx for the great comments guys. Its coming along, just alot slower than i'd like. I'm hoping to get it painted and the t-molding installed in the next couple weeks. Still need to order the t-molding though. Money is a little short after buying the new digital camera though. It was a worthy investment though. Its much better than my old digital camera. I'll keep the progress updated. Thanx for looking,

-Kevin

Homebrew · « **Reply #22 on:** November 02, 2004, 07:34:15 pm »

Its been a while since my last update, but the jukebox is nearly complete. I need to finish installing the lights and paint the front panel, buy another sub, and create sudo-marquee. For some reason the photos don't quite reflect the shade of blue i used, so i photoshoped the first pic shown to better illustrate how the blue looks in person. Still its not quite the same shade of blue.

pointdablame · « **Reply #23 on:** November 02, 2004, 08:11:47 pm »

Looking great.... the more of these Juke projects I see, the more I want to build one someday.

Keep the pics coming

Craig · « **Reply #24 on:** November 03, 2004, 05:31:36 am »

Same here. Good job. Keep it coming.

Zakk · « **Reply #25 on:** November 03, 2004, 02:12:03 pm »

I agree, these dedicated jukeboxes are killer, maybe we should start a BYOJC website!

scottie4442 · « **Reply #26 on:** September 24, 2005, 08:25:00 am »

I just aquired a Real 80's model Rockola CD Jukebox that I am converting to an MP3 jukebox (the CD and 45 part do not work, but the Amp and Speaker sections work fine, so I can hook up the sound board output directly into the jukebox amp, to cool). I posted here to tell anyone thinking about making one like this jukebox that wants the measurements, I will be happy to do this for them, but I will be honest, my graphic design skills are non-existant, so I the drawing will be rough, but the dimensions will be accurate. I will start another post with all the specs of my jukebox after I can get some pictures taken, probably this weekend or next.

dmsuchy · « **Reply #27 on:** September 24, 2005, 08:33:12 pm »

I love how you routed the side panels for the blue line detail! How did you do that? Jig?

Zakk · « **Reply #28 on:** January 05, 2006, 06:15:44 pm »

He hasn't been on here since May, so I guess we'll never know for sure.

Homebrew · « **Reply #29 on:** January 16, 2006, 02:23:49 pm »

Sorry guys, I seemed to have stopped getting email notifications for this thread for some reason. I haven't been on here much with so many other different types of projects I've been working on over the last year or so. All I used to do the routing was a straitght edge clapmed down. Had to really take my time since the straight edge was so thin, if I wasn't carefull the router would pull up over top the straight edge. The routed outline and the custom fitted plexi on the control panel were the two things i'm most proud of. I ran out of money and got sidetracked on some other projects, so as it stands the juke isn't completed the way I'd like. I plan to redo the control panel plexi and the front plexi panel. Still need to setup some lighting and the car audio amps are likely getting ditched in favor of a home theater amp setup. It's also still running with one subwoofer missing. I may ditch the idea of subs in favor of regular woofers because i'm just not getting the sound I'd like. I really like the added bass, but the midrange just doesn't seem to mix well it. It almost seems like I'm missing some frequencies or something. I've tuned the crossover and eq a million times over and just can't seem to get it how I want it. Gonna be a while before I get around to the changes though, just not enough money to go around. Just before christmas the power supply in my arcade cabinet went and took the PC with it. Worst of all it even fried my lightgun. So I'm still in the process of getting it back up in running. So many projects so little time/money. Thanx for all the comments posted guys. I'll try to keep an eye on this thread in future.

-Kevin

c64rulez · « **Reply #30 on:** January 17, 2006, 02:42:13 am »

That is some bad news man. I wish for you to be able to complete this project like you meant it to be.

I have only one word to describe it

WOW

I hope everything will eventually turn for the best (Please excuse my english

)


Main	Restorations	Software	Audio/Jukebox/MP3	Everything Else	Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements	Monitor/Video	GroovyMAME	Merit/JVL Touchscreen	Meet Up	Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing	Woodworking	Software Support Forums	Consoles	Project Arcade	Reviews
Automated Projects	Artwork	Frontend Support Forums	Pinball	Forum Discussion	Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board	controls.dat	Linux	Miscellaneous Arcade	Wiki Discussion	Old Archives
Lightguns	Arcade1Up	Try the site in https mode		Site News


Unread posts \| New Replies \| Recent posts \| Rules \| Chatroom \| Wiki \| File Repository \| RSS \| Submit news