What order to do things in?

[RayB]

MAME builders! I ask you, in what order do you recommend doing things when it comes to building a conversion cab? (ie: cab pre-exists, and will be MAME'd)

I have the following accomplished:

- Purchased all parts and tools required
- Have a cabinet, ready for conversion
- Have a new monitor waiting in its box
- Have hooked up spinner and trackball to Opti-pac in a "cardboard" control panel.
- Have mounted joys and buttons in a "cardboard" control panel, but have not hooked them up to anything

Remaining tasks, which I don't know what the best order is to do:

A. Strip Cabinet of unwanted hardware, like old monitor, maybe the switcher power supply, and the old hacked up JAMMA harness

B. Paint the cabinet.

C. Set up the software on the PC.

D. Get all the hardware working as a JAMMA set-up: PC, new monitor, JPAC, required power supplies... (Should I do this in the cab or outside the cab first?)

E. Add controls, artwork and t-molding. (I assume already that this is mostly the last things to do).

I guess I'm mostly wondering about B, C and D. I've seen other MAME'ers who have the monitor and stuff in the cab, and they just cover it up to prevent paint getting on it, and they paint the cab.

On the other hand, I know it makes sense to paint with the hardware gutted out of it, but then I might damage my paint job when adding all the hardware. Furthermore, I what my monitor is a dud? Should I be testing that before mounting it?

~Ray B.

[paigeoliver]

Well, if everything is gonna be coming off/out, then it might as well be off and out while you paint.

I personally usually put the monitor in very last thing, as everything can be tested with the monitor outside the machine.

[Gameboy.au]

I'm of the same opinion.  

Do it in what ever order you want, and what you feel comfortable with.  I got the whole idea for a cabinet from a friend that did one, and after asking him the same question, he said that "it'll chop and change as you go.  New ideas will come up and you'll implement them instead"

I'm waiting for the moment to get my monitor (mine was actually faulty... grrr), but while I was waiting, I stripped the cabinet, resprayed with paint sections that needed re-doing, reinforced the monitor shelf, and rewired my fluros.  

I also decided that the wiring I originally converted froma gun fighters PCB wasn't just 'me', and it was extremely messy and all over the place, so I bought new wiring and will be having MOLEX quick disconnect plugs on them so I can quickly take off the control panel. (ahh... the new control panel... now made in stainless steel....)

As you can see, all your ideas will be all over the place, but try and do it in the order you had above. If you wire up the whole thing correctly, it shouldn't actually take too long to strip it if you implement a new idea.

Have fun  

[greywolf22]

Yeah, I agree with pretty much everything else that has been said.  When I did my cabinet it was already stripped (nothing in it at all), so I took my time and sanded, wood puttied it, primered it, painted it (you get the picture).  The computer and software can be set up outside your cabinet and put into place later (something to do while letting the coats of paint dry).   . And the monitor was also the last thing I put into place.

[Goz]

Definitely put the PC in last, if you plan on completing the cab on any sort of schedule. Half completed cabs hav a way of sucking you into gameplay and once that happens the road to completion can become long and bumpy.

just my .02

-Goz

[fredster]

After the cab is done, then do the CP.  Test all of it outside the machine to make sure it's working.

Then put the guts in the machine.

Monitor Last.

[paigeoliver]

Putting the monitor in LAST ensures that you won't get sucked into gameplay and not finish your machine.

[Lilwolf]

LOL!

I did the opposite!  

and 4+ years later... I still haven't added my monitor bezel.. And most of my control panels don't have tmolding or even vynal.

I would say... but man I'm don't teach by example

two projects.

1) get everything working outside of the cab... computer and monitor... Work on the software...

while..

2) get the cabinet stripped and painted.  Spend a great deal of time cleaning out the crap... it will make all the other work better.

Also... if you are keeping the existing jamma or anything... then clean up how its mounted (remove extra wires not used.  Any old standoffs from old conversions... ect..  Also, look at the wiring.... see if you should rewire anything... any need quick disconnects ect...

if not... Rip it down as far as you can go.

I would say as a next part... mount the monitor (sorry everyone)... but not completely.  If its an easy in / out (nice feature since its a HUGE chunk of weight)... Just to make sure its all ok, and can mount well.  If you have to build something to mount the CRT on, you will want to do that before there is a bunch of other stuff in the cab.

Next... CP... and test with monitor and eveyrthing outside the cab.

Next... SideArt, Tmolding... Everything should be really plug and play now and all fully tested.. So before you go much farther... start making it all like nice.

Then move it all in.

Then write your own frontend... This will take you the next year+

Then add hotswap control panels so your never really done... And it will also make a good chunk of your cash going to ebay looking for the perfect defender joystick... because none of the others allow the reverse button in the right place... And a 720 joystick!  OOOHHH YEAH!

[Howard_Casto]

None of these things should be done first.  Software should be taken care of first on a test system.  First off, well it's free so screwing up is allowed, an ssecondly getting the fe and other things just right also helps you figure out which games you'll actually be playing and thus how to do your cp layout ect....

The worst mistake I see is people making a cab that haven't ever used anything other than mame32.  What they end up doing is giving up and run mame32 on their cab because it's already built and they are impatient to play.  This is a cardinal sin in my book.