1UP's Pac-Mamea -- construction details and more!

[1UP]

Hey, I finally updated my site www.1uparcade.com with lots of photos, graphics, and new details on the design and construction of my Pac-Mamea cab!  Be sure to read my introduction (underneath the news), I'm sure a lot of people identify with it!  Here's a peek at construction:

Once I had finalized the digital design of my cabinet, I transferred the measurements from the 3D model to the wood, and began cutting the side panels for the cabinet using a router.

[SirPoonga]

What speakers are those?  how you interfacing them?

[1UP]

What speakers are those?  how you interfacing them?

Whoops!  One more thing to add to my site...

They're Labtec Spin 500 series PC speakers.  They give decent sound, but the bass was diminished by removing them from their original housings...    Since they're PC speakers, they're just interfaced by the mini speaker jack that came with it.  All I did was extend the wires from the built-in powered amp to the speakers.  I used 5" Radio Shack speaker grilles to cover them on the cab.  They sound about as good as your average cabinet speakers...

[SirPoonga]

I was curious. I'm thinking redoing my sound system.  What I have is fine for just mame, but for other stuff it sucks.  I have some wharfdale bookselfs I might mount right behind my marquee.  I'd have to redo the current board the speakers are on.  The wharfdales, for bookshelf speakers, have awesome sound.  Unfortunately hiding them inside would dimish the sound.  So I might drill holes in the marquee..

now, since these are bookshelves, hooking them up to my computer is the biggest problem.  I'd like to just find simple amp kit and then attach a volume control to the top of my cabinet.


Oh yeah, isn't it nice to have wheels on the cabinet:)

[rampy]

I was curious. I'm thinking redoing my sound system.  What I have is fine for just mame, but for other stuff it sucks.  I have some wharfdale bookselfs I might mount right behind my marquee.  I'd have to redo the current board the speakers are on.  The wharfdales, for bookshelf speakers, have awesome sound.  Unfortunately hiding them inside would dimish the sound.  So I might drill holes in the marquee..

now, since these are bookshelves, hooking them up to my computer is the biggest problem.  I'd like to just find simple amp kit and then attach a volume control to the top of my cabinet.


Oh yeah, isn't it nice to have wheels on the cabinet:)

Also consider whether or not the wharfdales are shielded or you'll have nice purple splotches on your monitor (assuming a normal mounting location of course)

just a quick thought...

1up, been waiting for the page update with all the pac -mamea info/construction details... how will I get anything done at work today?!

rampy

[nipsmg]

1-up,

You do realize that you are probable single handedly going to be the cause of financial distress for many people after building that cabinet, don't you?  

Dammit! I haven't even finished my first (due to $$) and now I'm all excited about building my next one with a rotating panel!  

Great job on your machine.... It's probably one of, if not the most ingenious design for a cabinet out there.  The site looks great too.

--NipsMG

[ashardin]

SirPoonga, here is what I did, depending on your experience with Car Stereos you can make a very nice sound system for cheap.

I got a used 12 volt HAM radio power supply (regulated) off of ebay, and used it to power an old car amp I had.  I then got a cheap auto EQ with master volume on it to control the volume, and some auto speakers.  Get a 1/8th to RCA adapter from Radio Shack, and voila!  Total cost (since I already had the amp) was about $70, or the price of a nice set of amplified speakers.

I liked this so much, I decided to buy a 50 amp supply, 2 more amps, and since the EQ had front, rear, and sub outputs, I now have 5 1/4 coaxials on the top of the cabinet  (in the facotry location), 6 1/2 coaxials on the bottom (custom installed with grills), and two 10 inch subs in an auto box that I set outside the cabinet.  

I now have *great* video game sound that goes as loud as I need, and it doubles as a great sounding MP3 Jukebox (which is why I did all of this).

I used all throwaway brands (profile, Advent, etc) that are dirt cheap off of ebay since I wasn't looking for audiophile sound and I am very impressed with results.  Email me if you want more info or pics.

[1UP]

SirPoonga, here is what I did, depending on your experience with Car Stereos you can make a very nice sound system for cheap.

I got a used 12 volt HAM radio power supply (regulated) off of ebay, and used it to power an old car amp I had.  I then got a cheap auto EQ with master volume on it to control the volume, and some auto speakers.  Get a 1/8th to RCA adapter from Radio Shack, and voila!  Total cost (since I already had the amp) was about $70, or the price of a nice set of amplified speakers.

I liked this so much, I decided to buy a 50 amp supply, 2 more amps, and since the EQ had front, rear, and sub outputs, I now have 5 1/4 coaxials on the top of the cabinet  (in the facotry location), 6 1/2 coaxials on the bottom (custom installed with grills), and two 10 inch subs in an auto box that I set outside the cabinet.  

I now have *great* video game sound that goes as loud as I need, and it doubles as a great sounding MP3 Jukebox (which is why I did all of this).

I used all throwaway brands (profile, Advent, etc) that are dirt cheap off of ebay since I wasn't looking for audiophile sound and I am very impressed with results.  Email me if you want more info or pics.

I'm just guessing, but i don't think SP wants to spend $70 on a sound system...

BTW, I'm not too worried about sound on my cab.  As long as it wasn't too tinny or muffled, some $30 PC speakers were fine by me.  When I swap out my cab's PC, I'll probably give that one to my wife, and her machine will become a jukebox.  That's when I'll get picky about sound!

And yes, having wheels makes things a LOT easier!  

[SirPoonga]

I'm just guessing, but i don't think SP wants to spend $70 on a sound system...

BTW, I'm not too worried about sound on my cab.  As long as it wasn't too tinny or muffled, some $30 PC speakers were fine by me.  When I swap out my cab's PC, I'll probably give that one to my wife, and her machine will become a jukebox.  That's when I'll get picky about sound!

And yes, having wheels makes things a LOT easier!  

Hey, I know there are $10 amp kits out there..
I am picky about sound now that I am running more than just mame on my cabinet.

[HeadRusch]

Its a mame cabinet.......unless its going to be a a 400 watt jukebox filling an entire basement iwth sound, even the best speakers are still going to sound like they're trapped in an arcade cabinet.

For $50 bucks you can get a set of the Logitech Z540's....2 satellites and 1 sub, and this combo sounds better than some 12" woofer towers I had from the 80's being powered by an old Sanyo component 80wpc amplifier.

I doubt the Warfdales are shielded, which is going to cause you a problem.

The logitech ahs a sub that will work just fine inside the cabinet.....
Thats what I plan on doing.  I have the $130 dollar Logitech Z560's on my main PC, and they're stupid loud.  I mean stupid loud, I mean cranked up on my PC with rap  in my basement I could hear and feel vibrations in my driveway, which is 1 floor up.

Itsnot as loud as my home theatre speakres of course, but for PC speakers they just own.   However, they're also a bit much for a MAME cab, UNLESS you want 4 channel sound (hang the satellites on rods behind the players heads) or plan on using your box as a jukebox...then I might go with the loud speakers...and let me tell you, the logitechs play LOUD.  Without distortion....

[SirPoonga]

Hey, I have my reasons for good sound in my cabinet.
hehe, now you make me want to put surrounds on, I could use zinc's QSound.  I also have a DDR simulator in my cabinet.  I also play nfl blitz and other PC games.  Having good sound is very nice for those.

[Brax]

Hey 1UP,
any chance we can get some shot of the wiring? I'd love to see how it's all routed........ where you've mounted your
I-PAC.... all that good stuff.

[1UP]

Hey 1UP,
any chance we can get some shot of the wiring? I'd love to see how it's all routed........ where you've mounted your
I-PAC.... all that good stuff.

It'll have to wait, I finally drained both batteries in the camera I borrowed, and I need to return it anyway...  Unless I can get away with using the crappy free camera I got from Earthlink (see the old pics of my prototype panels   )

[mtd]

For sound system interfacing you might want to look at the Hercules Game Theater XP sound card.  Not only is it a sound card, but a rack system as well.  I bought this system for my desktop PC, but it will eventually end up in my cabinet for MP3's.  Basically it allows PERFECT integration of PC and Home Stereo.  

Here is a decent review of the product.  http://www.tomshardware.com/video/01q3/010925/audiocards-11.html

Note: I purchased this from newegg.com.  It was available on their site last week, but I can't seem to find it now.  I paid about $110.00 for the system.

Full Game and Audio Compatibility

[SirPoonga]

Teh hercules sound thing is awesome, I know someone with it, a little out of my price range:)  I;d rathe put that on my main computer, not the cabinet.  I jsut need good 2 speaker sound, that;s a little over kill.

[1UP]

YIKES!  I've run out of monthly bandwidth for the first time since creating my site!  I've had more visitors (about 1200) in the last ten days than I usually get in a month!  Over 1.2 gigs of transfer...I'm gonna have to optimize some jpegs...  Note: I've taken down the 2.5mb sideart file for now.  Go ahead and enjoy, but it's gonna cost me a few extra bucks...

[enemyace]

1UP,

Would it be possible for you to make your MAX models available for download at your site? I'm especially interested in the scale models you made for the joysticks, buttons and such, they would be such a great tool for planning cabs in 3D (if I ever get around to it). Especially since I have the same trigger sticks =)

Thx,
EA

[1UP]

1UP,

Would it be possible for you to make your MAX models available for download at your site? I'm especially interested in the scale models you made for the joysticks, buttons and such, they would be such a great tool for planning cabs in 3D (if I ever get around to it). Especially since I have the same trigger sticks =)

Thx,
EA

I might post the models of the parts later on.  Right now my bandwidth use is thru the roof, and I'm trying not to have too big a bill this month.  Looks like things are leveling off though, so I might post them after the first of the month.

BTW, I recently realized that the models for my buttons are a little off.  Actually, I discovered this when I had my CP artwork printed out, and the REAL buttons almost covered up the button labels!  There was supposed to be more room around the buttons there...    I actually made the buttons for another model that didn't have to be as accurate, and forgot to resize them properly... DOH!

[rampy]

1UP,

Would it be possible for you to make your MAX models available for download at your site? I'm especially interested in the scale models you made for the joysticks, buttons and such, they would be such a great tool for planning cabs in 3D (if I ever get around to it). Especially since I have the same trigger sticks =)

Thx,
EA

I might post the models of the parts later on.  Right now my bandwidth use is thru the roof, and I'm trying not to have too big a bill this month.  Looks like things are leveling off though, so I might post them after the first of the month.

BTW, I recently realized that the models for my buttons are a little off.  Actually, I discovered this when I had my CP artwork printed out, and the REAL buttons almost covered up the button labels!  There was supposed to be more room around the buttons there...    I actually made the buttons for another model that didn't have to be as accurate, and forgot to resize them properly... DOH!

How much bandwith did you go through 1up (and how much did it run you)?

rampy

[1UP]

How much bandwith did you go through 1up (and how much did it run you)?

rampy

Over 1.4 gigs in less than a week!  This was right after I posted my project last week, and it seems now that everyone who wanted to see it has done so, as the usage is slowing way down.  I pay $10 a month to run my site ad free on Hypermart.net, which includes 1 gigabyte a month of transfer and 75 mb of storage.  I've never gone over my transfer limit before, but it's only $1 per 100 megs over the limit, so I'll get charged like $4 or $5 extra this month.  No biggie, but I was scared it'd be more like $30 at the rate it was going!  That's a couple of Happ supers...  

[SNAAAKE]

1up,
tell me somethin.
How come those free sites never run out of bandwith.

When I checked the aggrement box,It didnt say anything about running out.

SO,is it all free trafic ?

I know geocities runs out but what about others like fortunecity and tripod.
Somebody wanna tell me what the deal is?

[SirPoonga]

free sites limit their bandwidth because they don;t have the hardware to handle.  It;s free, they aren;t going to be spending big bucks for the best.

If you want a high quality site for $5/mo goto featureprice.com  featureprice is what this forum runs on.

[dhansen]

I use hostsave for www.doughansen.net.  5 GB bandwidth per month 10 pop accounts 100mb of storage etc.

http://www.hostsave.com/hosting/plan_features.htm

Doug

[SNAAAKE]

free sites limit their bandwidth because they don;t have the hardware to handle.  forum runs on.

HUH?
you gotta read what you are writing man.Did you mean free sites dont limit?If so then I am safe.I dont have money to pay for sites dudes .

[1UP]

free sites limit their bandwidth because they don;t have the hardware to handle.  forum runs on.

HUH?
you gotta read what you are writing man.Did you mean free sites dont limit?If so then I am safe.I dont have money to pay for sites dudes .

I'm sure they have limits, they just don't tell you about it.  But you'll find out when you get 60000 hits to your free site on the same day...

[SirPoonga]

free sites limit their bandwidth because they don;t have the hardware to handle.  forum runs on.

HUH?
you gotta read what you are writing man.Did you mean free sites dont limit?If so then I am safe.I dont have money to pay for sites dudes .

Technically all sites have their limits.  And yes, I meant free sites tend to have bandwidth limits, you mentioned geocities....

[SNAAAKE]

I'm sure they have limits, they just don't tell you about it.  But you'll find out when you get 60000 hits to your free site on the same day...

Well,
Do you really get like that much hits?What happns if you run out?What...gotta wait like a month to get your site back online ?

[SirPoonga]

I'm sure they have limits, they just don't tell you about it.  But you'll find out when you get 60000 hits to your free site on the same day...

Well,
Do you really get like that much hits?What happns if you run out?What...gotta wait like a month to get your site back online ?

It all depends on how it is implemented.  Geocities has an hourly limit.  Some sites have a monthly limit.

[1UP]

I'm sure they have limits, they just don't tell you about it.  But you'll find out when you get 60000 hits to your free site on the same day...

Well,
Do you really get like that much hits?What happns if you run out?What...gotta wait like a month to get your site back online ?

I had over 85000 hits (I think that means how many clicks and links and pages got viewed within my site) most of those on the 17th (which happened to be a Friday -- don't you guys have anything else to do on a Friday night?   )  That was from over 1000 unique visitors!  Everything peaked on Friday, then tapered off to something more like my usual traffic, which is about 1/5th of that.

[)p(]

I'm sure they have limits, they just don't tell you about it.  But you'll find out when you get 60000 hits to your free site on the same day...

Well,
Do you really get like that much hits?What happns if you run out?What...gotta wait like a month to get your site back online ?

exactly...it happened to me a lot with my emulaxian site...that is why I had to move the 3darcade stuff over to mameworld although I really hate advertisements...

Peter

[rampy]

I'm sure they have limits, they just don't tell you about it.  But you'll find out when you get 60000 hits to your free site on the same day...

Well,
Do you really get like that much hits?What happns if you run out?What...gotta wait like a month to get your site back online ?

I had over 85000 hits (I think that means how many clicks and links and pages got viewed within my site) most of those on the 17th (which happened to be a Friday -- don't you guys have anything else to do on a Friday night?   )  That was from over 1000 unique visitors!  Everything peaked on Friday, then tapered off to something more like my usual traffic, which is about 1/5th of that.

You'll want to look at page views instead of hits 1up... a given page can have multiple hits because of the images.  Each call to the server to retrieve something is considered a "hit" so when someone loads an htm* page it then goes out and grabs the images for that page with each image counting as a hit...  and those images/pages can be cached locally in the browser, so that;ll effect a "hit" count as well...

*Shrug* just an fyi

rampy

[kspiff]

Hello.. as I had already suspected, I will now have to eventually build another cab.. this just serves as an inspiration.. but a few questions:

1.) Is that flat black t-molding on the undersides edges? I always thought that might look odd, but it really is a nice touch..

2.) Is this MDF?

3.) Did you paint the inside of the cab black or is that laminate also?

4.) Did you get all your hinges/casters from a Home Depot/Lowes-type store? What kind of hinges for the front/back doors (my current cab just uses regular hinges which look a bit out of place)?

I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but this would help me get started. Thanx, and keep up the great work.. I've been drooling over this thing all week now!

k-spiff

[1UP]

Hello.. as I had already suspected, I will now have to eventually build another cab.. this just serves as an inspiration.. but a few questions:

1.) Is that flat black t-molding on the undersides edges? I always thought that might look odd, but it really is a nice touch..

The t-molding wraps around the entire side panel for protection.  If you're talking about the bottom edge of the front kickplate, I beveled it with a power plane, then put on some black iron-on melamine edging tape.  I did this to all the raw edges of my cab panels where t-molding wasn't appropriate (around the edges of doors, the ends of control panels, etc.)  You really need to protect the edges of the melamine panels, cuz that nice finish will chip right off given the slightest chance!

2.) Is this MDF?

Nope, black prelaminate particle board (melamine).   (Guess I should put that on my site...)

3.) Did you paint the inside of the cab black or is that laminate also?

As I said, the panels were made from black melamine, but I messed up the inside surfaces so bad (from chipping during sanding, and a few drill mishaps and a couple drops   ) that I ended up finishing the inside with black laminate.  Added quite a bit to the cost.  DOH!

4.) Did you get all your hinges/casters from a Home Depot/Lowes-type store? What kind of hinges for the front/back doors (my current cab just uses regular hinges which look a bit out of place)?

Although I wanted to use hidden cabinet hinges from a place called Contractors Warehouse, I found them unworkable (they're made for mounting doors externally, not flush with the cabinet.)  The best hinges turned out to be piano hinges, (continuous hinges?) found at Home Depot.  Although they are visible from the outside, they're often used industrially in the same kinds of applications, so they don't look unauthentic.  I used these on my front door and all my control panels for access to the wiring.  A bit of a trick to install, though.  You'll have to find a way of supporting the doors while you get the first few screws in.  My back door still has the hidden hinges, since I installed that door first.

[SNAAAKE]

Nope, black prelaminate particle board (melamine).   (Guess I should put that on my site...)

Yo,weren't you makin fun of my cabinet the other day?
Like its only particle board inside and would be damaged with water or something(Heh...like a care.I sold the cab already).

Guess we are even now .You are using pre laminate too .

Anyways,
Had a simple little question,where did you get that speaker grills again?They look cool and I was thinking maybe I get those.Also,what did you use when you laminated melamine wood with yellow formica?
Contact cement?

does it bond well?
Any problem using contact cement over melamine wood?

[TazMan]

Control Panel

On the prototype it appears you have the one / two player buttons on a separate panel that doesn't rotate (that makes sense -  don't need to buy three sets of those that way).  On the finished cabinet I can't see any seam for that part, or did you decide on losing the stationary part and added those buttons to each side?

Thanks

btw - one bad --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- design

[1UP]

Yo,weren't you makin fun of my cabinet the other day?
Like its only particle board inside and would be damaged with water or something(Heh...like a care.I sold the cab already).

Nope, that wasn't me.  I've hardly been on the board lately anyway.  I've always thought melamine would be fine with t-molding and wheels (don't understand why some folks are so freakishly paranoid of ANY kind of particle board, I've yet to see it rot in an indoor cabinet situation.)  Although, I might as well have used something uglier like plywood, since I ended up laminating both sides of both panels...  

Anyways,
Had a simple little question,where did you get that speaker grills again?They look cool and I was thinking maybe I get those.Also,what did you use when you laminated melamine wood with yellow formica?
Contact cement?  does it bond well?
Any problem using contact cement over melamine wood?

You didn't read!    As I told SirPoonga above, the speaker grilles were from Radio Shack.

The contact cement I used was Formica brand, bought at the same lumberyard as the melamine.  It's like a big paint bucket full of industrial strength rubber cement.  You coat both surfaces and let them dry for 30 minutes, then put the parts together.  Once you do, they're not coming apart without serious damage or injury!  It bonded well to any surface I used.

[SNAAAKE]

well...fair enough..I am gonna get some laminate tomorrow to finish up new cab...thanks for answer as I was kinda worried that melamine wood and formica wont stick well..AND now I know

[1UP]

Good luck!  BTW, I've already started designing my next project:



For the next time I get some bad KFC!    Nothing like a good game of Frogger to keep things moving.  Heehee...water and logs...

[1UP]

Control Panel

On the prototype it appears you have the one / two player buttons on a separate panel that doesn't rotate (that makes sense -  don't need to buy three sets of those that way).  On the finished cabinet I can't see any seam for that part, or did you decide on losing the stationary part and added those buttons to each side?

Thanks

btw - one bad --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- design

Once I started to model my control panels in 3D, I quickly realized that the old design (with the separate start buttons on a hinged plate) wasn't going to work, so I had to put start buttons on every panel.  No biggie, it just means buying 4 extra buttons.  I ordered too many white buttons for my test panel, so there were plenty to spare.  I wanted different looking buttons on the Tron panel too.  It all ended up for the better anyway, the design is simpler and looks sharper this way!