Arcade Bones (Marquee & Dashboard graphics finalised)

[Bones]

Thanks Pixel. I think for the moment I will get this bad boy finished and after it is "finished" and playable I will re-visit the speaker grills.

I might even play with the idea of space invader alien ship grills. Might be a cool theme idea...

[gsoul]

Can I just add that I also purchased stuff from our Australian Ultimarc Dealer and my card came in *EXACTLY* the same condition.

Not happy. I had to bend it back, and now the card wiggles around even with the screw completely tightened.

Unfortunately due to a bit of careless packing, I won't be buying from him either.

Like you, I wanted to buy local,  but when doing the maths, I could have saved $10 or so buying the parts direct from Ultimarc. Depends on the exchange rate of the day. Not to mention the stuff from ultimarc was foam wrapped, bubble wrapped and boxed.

My arcadeVGA was bubble wrapped, thrown into a larger than neccessary box with my buttons and joysticks. There was no additional packing and it rattled like a maracca when I moved it. I hate to think the abuse it must have copped while going through the Australia Post system.

Do yourself a favour, "Aussie Supplier" lift up your game a bit.

[Timoe]

The colors on your cabinet are amazing.  I dont know if its the angle.  but is that a different orange on the front than on the sides?

That is awesome, Rad or whatever they're callin it.  The cats pajamas.

[Bones]

Can I just add that I also purchased stuff from our Australian Ultimarc Dealer and my card came in *EXACTLY* the same condition.

My arcadeVGA was bubble wrapped, thrown into a larger than neccessary box with my buttons and joysticks. There was no additional packing and it rattled like a maracca when I moved it. I hate to think the abuse it must have copped while going through the Australia Post system.

Wow, so it wasn't just me. Our boxes were probably rattling next to each other the entire 1000km's! 

The colors on your cabinet are amazing.  I dont know if its the angle.  but is that a different orange on the front than on the sides?

Thanks for the colour approval. I knew it would be met with resistance and it was a risky move but it has also really grown on me. Not exactly sure what you mean by the colour on the front dude. There is no orange on the "front" but only one orange colour was used while painting if this helps!

[Bones]

Today I faced the painful grim fact that the continued sanding and painting were not giving my dashboard the appearance I wanted and hoped for. The shape is a tricky one to paint. I tried painting it by brush and also purchased a very narrow roller for the job but the more I try to get it right, the worse it is looking and the more time I seem to be wasting.

Today I headed off to a manchester shop. Never before have I seen such a concentration of blue haired flabby armed woman all congregating in a single area. It was disturbing to say the least.

I looked at several materials which I hoped to cover the area with. I wanted a black covering and found my options were pretty limited. Finally I decided on a black vinyl covering that had an unusual texture and purchased a big chunk of it for $4.00.

I again sanded back the dashboard and this time painted the top surface with glue. I layed the dashboard onto the covering and pressed it all down hoping the glue gets into the material and adheres well.

The weather here is wet and lousy at the moment so I will give it a full day to dry before I attempt to trim it with a razor blade. I am confident I should get clean cuts because the vinyl seems to resist the urge to tear of fray.

I have already anticipated some problems that using this material may create because it has a thickness I had not anticipated in the original design. I may have to adjust the height positioning of my volume pot and I suspect the little grills I made may be difficult to install due to the length of the screws. <bugger>

Here's hoping tomorrow is a clear day so I can take the coffin outside and sand up the previous undercoating applied months ago. I also need to make a few minor modifications to accommodate  the computer on/off switch which will be recessed and mounted underneath the front edge of the CP box.

[Santoro]

If the thinkness winds up being too big of an obstacle, you might try Parts Express speaker vinyl.

[Bones]

If the thinkness winds up being too big of an obstacle, you might try Parts Express speaker vinyl.

Thanks for the suggestion but I am here in Oz and it just wouldn't be worth the cost of freight or hassle. I am confident I will be able to solve any new problems that arise,  it will just be a matter of investing the time.

[DrewKaree]

Could you have thrown a staple or twelve in there to draw it tight around the shape?  I know it's too late now, but in case it has to come off....also, it looks like there's a padding you threw under there.  Is that the case, or am I looking at an optimical thingamabob?  Removing that might shave enough thickness off for your needs.  If it's an optimical thingamabob, don't mind me, I'll just keep playing with the foil quietly in the corner here.

I was gonna suggest you pick up a foam roller, but too late for that I guess 

If you'da just had that ciggy and stopped trying to cover up your shame from us, I coulda given you these ideas before you went and stuffed it all up.  I will accept your Kombi as repayment for your grievous error.  Mrs Bones can drive it over

[Bones]

The staples would have helped, your right. What I really should have done in hindsight is place a piece of wood on top after it was glued and glamp it all down to help with the adhesion. Too late now but.... 

There is no extra padding just the backing of the vinyl. Really, we are only talking 2-3mm so the extra thickness shouldn't be too "tragic".

If it is showing signs of not working the way I wanted I will tear it off and try again. If I continue to have problems I might look at re-engineering this entire section.

I coulda given you these ideas before you went and stuffed it all up. I will accept your Kombi as repayment for your grievous error. Mrs Bones can drive it over

Gee man, I would like to help but she can't drive a manual.

[Bones]

I figured my glue had enough time to dry so I attacked the dashboard with a sharp hobby knife. Carefully I cut out the speaker holes and then the rectangular access panel.

From the back of the dashboard I re-drilled the existing holes going right through the vinyl to accommodate the speaker grill holes & volume control.

All went well and it appears no modifications will be necessary.  Considering the ease I could have covered my whole cabinet in this stuff and saved a fortune and weeks of painting frustration.... I am pleased with the results and it almost has a classy look about it.

About bloody time.

[Bones]

I have now pre-wired the two smaller dashboard speakers and the dual gang volume pot. I won't be able to test everything until I get my PC but this should only be a few more days.

[spriggy]

Damn Bones!  Last time I was here, I was making bad coffin jokes.  Now.... you've made a whole cabinet around the beast.   Well Done!!

[Bones]

Damn Bones!  Last time I was here, I was making bad coffin jokes.  Now.... you've made a whole cabinet around the beast.   Well Done!!

Well almost a whole cabinet!

[Bones]

Didn't get much done today. I did do some more painting but with the rain continuing here and the slow paint drying time, I was fairly restricted in what I could do.

Additionally today I also installed the main speakers and marquee light. This was all pretty straight forward as I temporary assembled these months ago before painting. I can't install my flashy speaker grills until the glass goes in place because the speaker grills also stop my glass from falling forward.

I was going to use Velcro to hold in the speakers but I already had some brackets so I put them to good use. These brackets are off industrial sensors and I rescued them from the steel bin at work.

If it is a clear day tomorrow and I can get my garage cleaned up, I will get some help and put the monitor into its final resting place.

Also (again subject to the weather), I need to sand and repaint my CP box as mentioned earlier. Once the box is painted I can finally walk away from this dreaded painting task which has now taken about ten times longer than it should have.... 

[Jess--]

have just had a look at your speakers (on the same panel as your volume control)
I may be wrong but it looks as though you are planning on fitting that panel between your CP and Monitor

with the magnets being exposed the way they are you may run into problems with your screen if they are too close (funny colours etc)

[Bones]

with the magnets being exposed the way they are you may run into problems with your screen if they are too close (funny colours etc)

Don't bucking worry, she'll be right mate.

I got bucking magnets so it shouldn't be a bucking problem.



*Edit- You were right about the actual placement of these speakers being between the CP and monitor. I measured them and the closest distance to the monitor is 8 inches.

[M3talhead]

Wait, wait, wait....!!

You're going to tell me that 'Bones actually has class??

That this thing might actually turn out good!??!? 

[DrewKaree]

Never let it be said that Bones is a classy guy.  I've met some people worse than him that have projects turn out right.  Class has nothing to do with it.  He's probably afraid if he doesn't finish it, the wife won't let him live down "another one of those stupid projects that prevent you from doing some real work around the house".

Once the box is painted I can finally walk away from this dreaded painting task which has now taken about ten times longer than it should have....

I'll have that HVLP sprayer write-up finished soon.  My time frame is about a month after you need it

[Bones]

I'll have that HVLP sprayer write-up finished soon.  My time frame is about a month after you need it

---smurfette---

[Bones]

Today as planned I got some help and lifted the monitor into it's final resting place. Somewhere in my sty of a garage are the right size screws to fix the monitor into place but I can't find them, so for the moment the monitor is held in place with a single cable tie. 

Also did some work on the CP box but it was too damn hot in the sun so I found some other stuff to do which included installing the monitor controls (again accessed through dashboard), and a few other minor things.

Had enough for today so hopefully the weather will hold out for more sanding and painting tomorrow.

[Bones]

Blessed with another rainy day in Sydney I decided now would be a good time to finalise the wiring on my dashboard pot/volume control.

I used an old computer to set everything up and wired a "pot testing" rig.

It took some time to wire as the concept was still new to me and I was working things out as I went. Despite reading the tutorials I still struggled with the concept, something unnatural about about having three wires when my brain kept telling me I only needed two....

When I was finished wiring it the way I thought was correct, I fired everything up and popped in a John Couger CD. I instantly had sound and the volume control worked!

My jig looks pretty crappy and I am sure the audiophiles with cringe with discomfort but it works fine, there is no crackling or static in the speakers so I might just leave everything as is rather than re-wire it.

It was quite a buzz to hear sound coming out of my cabinet for the first time and it put a stupid smile on my dial. A great bonus is the speakers sound heaps better than they did when I first purchased and tested them, I think it's has something do with their mounted position and the closer proximity to my skull. Either way, I am real pleased with toady's outcome.

I will put a graphic together on the wiring for my cab sound system when time allows.

[Bones]

I will put a graphic together on the wiring for my cab sound system when time allows.

Much of the original wiring information was gathered from here and Oscar deserves the full credit.
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/volume

*Edit- Pic labels updated.

[Bones]

Today I picked up my new cab PC. It has been built with the following specs;

3.0GHz Celeron CPU
1024Mb RAM
160Gb IDE HDD
DVD Rom
1.44Mb floppy (I didn't order this, looks like it was thrown in as a freebie!)
ArcadeVGA
*Ruuning XP

I also supplied the PC shop with a little plug (the same type I mounted on the rear of my CP for the coin mech connections), this little plug has been wired to the motherboard thingy where the on/off power button would normally connect to and has been externally mounted on the PC.

The idea is I just connect a microswitch into this plug so I can turn the PC on/off from a more convenient location, in this case from underneath my CP via a switch I will recess. The reason for a plug is so...well so I can unplug it easily if I need to remove the computer in the future! 

At the moment I have not wired up the connecting plug so I have to turn the PC on by making the connection with a rusty old nail.

Many will say the computer is overkill, but I will only partly agree. I went this way because I didn't see the point in installing an older computer that could handle MAME, but would struggle with newer games. Right now I have a dedicated computer that should suffice for a few years and run most things I throw at it.

I have also been buying computers from this guy for 15 years and I got it for such a good price the decision was an easy one.

[Bones]

Being excited to crack the PC's cherry was met with some initial video card problems. When first switched on the display looked horrible. The colours were wrong, the screen was flickering, this was not what I expected to see.

After some fiddling and several cigarettes, the problem was fixed by running some of the Ultimarc programs I downloaded from their web page.

Firstly I ran cat-uninstaller.exe to remove any previous ATI drivers.
Next I ran the supplied Ultimarc disc with the correct ArcadeVGA driver.
Finally everything came right after running the AVGA_TriSync.exe utility.

All I can say is WOW. The display looks bloody great!

Today I also purchased a 20 meter network cable so I could reach my PC office router and register the operating system. I also finally worked out how to network the cab PC to my office PC for easy file sharing, a process which is still running.

[grueinthebox]

Was that a 10k ohm pot you used for the volume?

[Bones]

Was that a 10k ohm pot you used for the volume?

No, it is actually a 100K pot.

I will edit my diagram advising of this.

[babydickonboard]

monitor looks great inside the cabinet.  good work bones.  i wish now that i would of spent the extra money for an arcade monitor. 

[Bones]

Today I brought some cardboard and started playing around making a bezel template. Although I didn't follow Tailgunner's $2.00 tutorial (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=17175.0), it is definitely the inspiration for my cardboard design.

This crappy version still needs some fine tuning but its purpose is to help me work out the angles, size and final positioning. When I get it all right and to my liking I hope to produce a more respectable version.

[ginno]

Not interested in forking out a few buck for a plastic bezel?

I would have went with a real one if i didnt use a trinitron tv, could save you a bit of stress in fiddeling around and then not being happy with the end result...

Thant said, not a bad effor for a first try...

cheers

[Bones]

Not interested in forking out a few buck for a plastic bezel?

I was very interested in the plastic one however Happs wanted over $100 just for freight and finding one locally turned out to be a dismal failure.

Basically left with no choice but to make my own.....

[SNAAKE]

your cabinet is too nice to have a $2 bezel..why dont you try and see if ponyboy can hook you up with a bezel

[Bones]

your cabinet is too nice to have a $2 bezel..why dont you try and see if ponyboy can hook you up with a bezel

Already tried. Freight is the killer. Getting it here undamaged is also a big challenge.

Remember the bezel will be under tinted glass so this should help hide any imperfections......

[Setabs]

Why not try using fiberglass?  Use the $2 one as a template for the fiber glass.  I bet you would only need 2 layers to get it stiff enough(no jokes please  .)

[nostrebor]

If you apply the same care and tenacity in making a $2 bezel, as you have put into  everything else on your cabinet, it will come out just fine. Especially if you are using tinted glass.

Spend the $100 on artwork or ??

[DrewKaree]

I can see it now.  The headlines will read "Man decides to paint cab orange, but somehow is unable to avoid peer pressure and spends tens of tens of dollars getting a bezel that isn't going to make the HUGE difference people are thinking"

Yeah, that's just how it'll read

Excellent job on the bezel, Bones.  YOU are right, it'll look PERFECT behind the tinted glass, and probably not a SINGLE chucklehead here would be able to tell the difference when you're done

Of course, even if I couldn't tell, it'd be the first thing I'd point out to you when I saw it   Better throw Mrs Bones on top of me to distract me, and QUICK!

[Bones]

The horrid job done on yesterday

[Bones]

I felt this idea might work so today I went to a picture framing shop that sold cardboard. I selected a piece of 2mm cardboard that was white on one side and black on the other.

I got home and transferred a corner design to the new material and ran some tests on how well it would bend, I discovered that to get a clean fold that would not pull the black layer off the cardboard, I needed to score the edge that was on the opposite side of the fold. As this material was much thicker than my trial pieces I also had to make some adjustments to accommodate the extra width.

I made several more templates before getting a result I was happy with.

[Bones]

Once the 4 pieces were cut out I was ready to assemble.

[Bones]

I put it together and temporally fixed the folds with some masking tape and checked it for size. It was pretty close and only a small trim was required on the sides to tidy it up.

I then proceeded to use a hot glue gun to fix the folds into place. Each corner I did stiffened the whole assembly.

This pic is of the back which shows how the folds fit the design.

[Bones]

And finally a few pics of the finished bezel. The cardboard cost $12.00 and I already had everything else needed (ruler, knife, scissors & glue gun). I may get a black marker and dark the white cut marks although I kind of like the way they frame the monitor area so will probably leave it.

From start to finish it took quite some time, probably about 4 hours. I found it very difficult to photograph, to the naked eye the entire section is pretty much invisible under the tinted glass as I suspected