My 1st Cab from scratch! - Updated! (May 12th 2005)

[Franco]

Just about finished my 1st cab from scratch. I only stumbled over this site a couple of weeks ago (doh!!) so I havent been posting pics as its been built. I have progress pics and I should be posting them on a site. If any wants to see anymore let me know and ill post some more pics.

Spec:-

P4 3GHz, 512DDR, 340GB HDD
22" CRT Monitor
Two T-Stick Plus's
Two Happ Rotaries with Custom Stainless Sticks
Happ Ultimate Buttons
I-Pac 4
Druins Rotary Interface
4 Player Over/Under Door
Pioneer 6x9"s
Mutant Amp
Separte ATX Power Supply
4 100mm Blue LED Fans
15w Strip Light
Custom Switch Plate











Id just like to say thanks to every one who has helped me on my build, both on this forum and on the mameworld.net forums, with out your help much of my build would not have been possible.

Any feedback would be great.

Thanks.

[walls83]

that is the coolest Keyboard drawer Ive ever seen.   Very nice cab.


Could you put up something about how you did the keyboard drawer buttons?

[loddie]

Those chairs are awesome, where'd you get them?

[Franco]

that is the coolest Keyboard drawer Ive ever seen.

[Franco]

Those chairs are awesome, where'd you get them?

Thanks, I think they are pretty sweet, and a hell of a lot more comfortable than they look!

I got them off ebay for my birthday this weekend. I got them two of them for

[JonnyBoy]

That's a killer cab, I dig it. And you just gave me the urge to use chrome T-molding on my project, it looks cool as hell on yours.

[Santoro]

Looks good, the switch panel is a nice touch.

[Walkinshaw]

I finished my Cab about 6 months ago and have been adding little bits to it ever since. We seem to have chosen the same artwork which I think rules.

Might be time to publish some pictures of mine(Just finished adding 2 360 steering wheels and pedals on a removable panel).

Good work on yours here, looks very nice although if you don't mind me saying I would of changed the orange Arcade text as it has nothing to blend with on the cab. To me it just looks a little out of place. Just my 2 cents.

My Cab is black / blue and a little red so I changed the orginal text in the marquee to my own text and coloured it black. Looks 100% better.

[cholin]

I love that CP artwork.  Nice switch plate too   Nice cabinet, like the color scheme...

[Franco]

Thanks for the comments guys. 

Yeah walkinshaw, I knew as soon as I saw the atrwork that I needed to have it, great minds think alike eh? Yeah post some pics, Id be intrested to see what you have done with the graphics. I chose the yellow as I planned on getting matching sideart but funds havent quite let me as yet. 

[Walkinshaw]

I have a few pictures I can post, but I will post a whole lot in my own topic soon =)







Its changed a little since these, I have stickers on the buttons for pause, coin etc, plus changed a few colours over. This design was sitting on a hinge but now that has gone as I have gone with a removable panel for steering wheels. I just need to get off my butt and post some stuff from the help I got from the guys on this forum. Finished my jukebox as well but again too damn lazy to post stuff =)

[GGKoul]

What do the switches say?

How did you wire them up?

[Franco]

Lookin good walkinshaw! I like the mame font, looks kinda Jap-style, sweet!

My CPs missin a trackball really, luckily like you I made my CPs modular so I can easily add another.

[Walkinshaw]

The funny thing about my trackball was the fact I didn't think I needed one from the start. So when I first designed mine I thought, I'll add it in later.

After snapping 1 perspex piece before I got all the buttons and everything drilled out and fitted to the cab I realised I wanted a trackball. I had to remove everything again a few weeks later, and prayed that I didnt snap this one just to add a trackball and 3 buttons.

A note for all, plan your CP well, if you are not sure about adding something research it beforehand, especially if you plan to put perspex over the top.

[redcoats]

Hey Franco if I were you I would build some sort of box to cover up those connections under your switches. Just for safety. I would be a little worried with touching the marquee wires underneath, everything else would just be a little zap. Beautiful Cab by the way. I always thought the chrome t-molding would be a little to flashy, but seeing it on your cab changed my mind. Awesome job!

[Franco]

Thanks redcoats. You know what that exact thing happend! One of the connectors came off the marquee switch and touched the coin mech switch, BANG!! Ooops! Blew all the coin lights, knocked all the power off in my house and fried my comp, ouch! Luckily I managed to get a brand new (and higher spec) one from my insurance company 

Im thinking about making a box like you mentioned. I also need to make sure that the wires dont come unconnected inside the box otherwise there is no point having the box i suppose, hmmmm (thinking).

Thanks for your comments!

[j123vt_99]

very cool.. why did you go with such a powerhorse for the computer? seems like overkill

[redcoats]

Thanks redcoats. You know what that exact thing happend! One of the connectors came off the marquee switch and touched the coin mech switch, BANG!! Ooops! Blew all the coin lights, knocked all the power off in my house and fried my comp, ouch! Luckily I managed to get a brand new (and higher spec) one from my insurance company

[Franco]

Thanks redcoats. You know what that exact thing happend! One of the connectors came off the marquee switch and touched the coin mech switch, BANG!! Ooops! Blew all the coin lights, knocked all the power off in my house and fried my comp, ouch! Luckily I managed to get a brand new (and higher spec) one from my insurance company

[ras2a]

Excellent cabinet mate, lovin the toggle switches...WELL cool.

Craig

[whammoed]

Nicely done.  The custom metal touches really set it off.  Shiny metal dust washers = sweet.

[Franco]

Thansk guys! 

Ive just bought a n64 and a playstation off ebay. My plan is to hack the fronts off them and mount them into the front of my CP and then hack some leads to them so they plug straight into my n64/ps=>USB adapters.

This way I should be able to plug my ps and n64 pads straight into my cp rather than opening my cp and plugging them into the adapters inside (and should look pretty sweet too!)

Ill let you know how I get on!

[Franco]

Nothing too major in this update, just a few purchases really.

I made some ally joysticks to replace the stainless ones for my Happ rotaries as they were just too heavy, the ally ones feel spot on!

 

I also ordered some white button bezels to replace the top row of my one and two players. Primarily to distinguish the Neo Geo buttons but also because I was slighty bored with 100% blue buttons.



I also decided to change the coin door push button assembles to blue, just to co-inside  with the rest of the cab. I also changed the bulbs to Happs 3 white LEDs, they are bright but not as bright as I had hoped, should have got super brights really.



Thats everything done up to now. I still getting round to installing some N64 and PS1/2 ports on the front of the CP, im hesitant purley because it means putting power tools to my CP but I will get round to it (sometime

[Veinman]

Very cool setup!

[devmod]

Hi there.. Very nice CAB; I'm thinking about building a Mame cabinet soon, but I still dunno what to do about the CP layout

I think if the 3 and 4 players' positions are in a diagonal way in relation to the monitor, does this bother these players, or they just adopt the same position to play than the 1 and 2 player? like moving the joystick diagonal left up instead of moving the joystick up...

i dunno if i explain clearly , but I'm sure u will understand the concept .

(BTW my first language is Spanish  , so sorry for my poor vocabulary )

Thanks, devmod 

[Franco]

It all depends on the players preference i suppose.

Players three and four are angled towards the screen at around 20degrees. I chose this route as the angle of the buttons and the sliced corners on the CP make the player stand facing the center of the screen. This means that the player presses up at 90degrees to their shoulders, just as players one and two do. It does, however, mean that the angle you push the joystick is not exactly the same the angle players one and two but this does not cause a problem and no one who has ever played on my cab has commented on it.

If I had a larger monitor (mine is only 22") I would have liked to have all players facing the screen at 90degrees. I could have done it with my current setup but it would mean players three and four would have to look over at an angle to the center of the screen and this would also make my CP even wider and I was already at the maximum width I wanted to go.

Sorry if this isnt to clear, I hope you get the jist.

[devmod]

yeah , i understand what u mean , thanks for answering i was a little worried about that , i wanted to ask before deciding my design for the CP. I dont have a big room for the cab so i guess will go with the same design as yours.
Thanks, Bye.

[Knievel]

Kudos again on the cab Franco, here's a look at that marquee I mentioned...



I did a few versions of it but I'm not at the right computer at the moment. I've got one that's all silver text if you don't like the yellow Pac.

[Orclord]

It's Toggle switch Franco....


Heh....

Just seen this.....


We tried to kill him off on Mameworld.....

Well some Dumb Yank did

[Franco]

Ha ha, Yo Orc! I knew my alter ego would come back to haunt me. Cant i just be plain old Franco again? 

Yeah you guys nearly fried me but think I must have been destined to finish this cab!

Wonder which dumb yank you could possibly be talking about? 

[Orclord]

Ha ha, Yo Orc! I knew my alter ego would come back to haunt me. Cant i just be plain old Franco again?

[JoyMonkey]

Id just like to take this oppertunity to thank Peale for desgining the marquee. I got the graphic of a homebrew site and it never gave reference to the creator. Ive just found out from another forum that Peale is the talented guy I should be thanking, so.... thanks!!!

Hey! I designed that marquee for Peale! Oooohhhh, why I oughta...

Actually, most credit for that should go to Rom for making the beautiful Fusion background in 3D Studio.

[HAWKXP]

  i think the cp on this cab is very nice indeed and i love the crome edging strips as well plus the controls are top notch,overall i think youv done a great job

[nullb0y]

very nice

[Franco]

Whoa! Cheers all! Can't beleive people are still looking at my cab! Must be something to do with my avatar and sig