Author Topic: My first project, a travel Control Panel arcade. (Read 56050 times)

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #80 on:** March 30, 2006, 06:16:34 pm »

2 coats of primer and a coat of paint later, I'm getting close to finishing the corners. They look nice, too. I'll snap some pics when they're dry.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #81 on:** April 23, 2006, 01:21:29 pm »

Hey guys, updates and progress.

I got a few things done and have one major setback.

Well, I installed t-molding, hinges, drilled some holes and such, and now it's finally taking shape.

Unfortunately, my artwork sustained damage over the Easter break, we're not sure what happened. Somebody could have dropped something on it. Well, unfortunately it has a big scratch on it, I can't afford to buy new artwork...

Anybody know of a "win a free CPO" contest coming up soon?

Well, here are some pics. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #82 on:** April 23, 2006, 01:22:40 pm »

Two more

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #83 on:** April 23, 2006, 01:24:47 pm »

Last one.

As you saw in the first picture, the scratch is on the far left. You guys think I should change it? Just lie to me and tell me it adds character.

TOK · « **Reply #84 on:** April 23, 2006, 02:43:38 pm »

A bit of a rig job, but you could print an instruction sheet and stick it over that part of the art... There are a couple of these pre-made that are floating around. They just show which buttons to use to games that don't use all 6, etc.

Its nice art, be a shame to scrap it for that one mark.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #85 on:** April 23, 2006, 02:48:46 pm »

Actually...that's really good thinking.

Does the arcade art library have a few?

Maybe I can make one to show basic front end navigation information?

Thanks for the suggestion.

markrvp · « **Reply #86 on:** April 23, 2006, 11:52:13 pm »

It looks really nice, John. I have yet to build a cabinet or CP that doesn't have some kind of ugly spot on it.

Don't sweat it, it adds character.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #87 on:** April 24, 2006, 07:08:35 am »

Thanks!

I will be doing a bit more work on the construction aspects before I start wiring. I have a friend who will be photoshopping me a instruction card so I can semi-cover my mistake.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #88 on:** April 24, 2006, 12:17:42 pm »

Hey guys, I saw the instruction sheet on the arcade art library, does anybody else have any links to some good examples I can use for inspiration?

Much appreciated.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #89 on:** April 24, 2006, 04:31:23 pm »

I have another night of work ahead of me. Tonight's agenda is:

1. Installing the barrel lock for the lid.
2. Mounting the panel mount controller.
3. Drilling a few additional holes for power hookup and the on switch.
4. Attaching the fans.
5. Touch up paint along the laminate seams using a fine brush.

A pic or two when I get home tonite. The barrel lock mount is going to be pretty interesting, mostly because I'm not entirely sure how I plan on doing it yet. I have a few sketches, when I get to the store I plan on test fitting before I drill any holes.

Be back in a few hours!

SNAAKE · « **Reply #90 on:** April 24, 2006, 10:02:18 pm »

looking good !

what size t-molding did you use ?? I am guessing its not 3/4" cuz I dont see laminate edge showing.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #91 on:** April 24, 2006, 10:13:50 pm »

Yep, 3/4" for the t-molding.

Lots of cool updates tonite.

The hole for the power button was drilled in the back, along with a 1.5" hole for my power method. Well, I made a creative system to power this guy. We have single outlet surge protectors where I work and I took the casing off, drilled mounting holes the entire way through, and mounted the whole shebang onto my box. The male end sticks out through the hole so I can carry the extension cord seperate instead of it dangling out of the box, alongside with the surge protection.

I also added a barrel lock to keep the lid down and to keep my friends from messing with it. I took a picture to show you how I went about it. Basically, I took a normal barrel lock and bent the catch plate at a 90, and on the lid I used a mending bracket and some washers to create an area for the lip of the catch plate to...um...catch. It worked beautifully.

I also got some nice, dense foam rubber for the lid, to keep it from rattling and such.

Lastly, I installed the fans. I plan on removing all that after I mount my computer in order to touch up the fanholes with some black paint. Time for pictures!

What do you guys think? Not bad for a 17 year old hack.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #92 on:** April 24, 2006, 10:16:45 pm »

Excuse the fingerprints, I plan on cleaning those up soon.

Below is a picture of the barrel lock, if you look at the lid on the picture above, you can see the mending bracket where it catches.

If you need any other pics just let me know.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #93 on:** April 25, 2006, 10:39:22 pm »

She cleans up nicely.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #94 on:** April 25, 2006, 10:41:12 pm »

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #95 on:** April 25, 2006, 10:49:21 pm »

Next...wiring...

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #96 on:** April 26, 2006, 04:58:27 pm »

Went and bought wire tonite down at Radio Shack, I have 150 or so feet. I got 20 guage, right smack dab in the middle of what was recommended. I plan on starting the wiring tomorrow night. Expect pictures.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #97 on:** April 27, 2006, 12:47:09 pm »

Quick question,

Should I assign buttons one two and three to the top or bottom row? It would seem logical to assign 1-3 on bottom and 4-6 on top because of the possibility of hitting the bottom buttons when playing a game only requiring the top. Is this how I should go about it?

dpz147 · « **Reply #98 on:** April 27, 2006, 01:37:59 pm »

I'm fairly new to all of this but asked the same question when I was building my cab. It seems that most people do the top row 1-3 and bottom 4-6. That's the way I did mine and haven't had any problem hitting the bottom row.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #99 on:** April 27, 2006, 03:29:49 pm »

Thanks for the response. That seems a bit more logical, I'm just second guessing myself.

dpz147 · « **Reply #100 on:** April 27, 2006, 03:47:22 pm »

Looks great by the way!! I've been showing it to some of my friends who don't have room for full cabs and they are quite interested and waiting to see the final product.

Have you had any luck with the instruction card?

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #101 on:** April 27, 2006, 04:28:41 pm »

My friend is the one with the photoshop skills and we are working on something together over the weekend. I'll keep you updated.

Thanks for the compliments, that means a lot to me. I'll snap some pictures tonite after my wiring experiment.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #102 on:** April 27, 2006, 04:33:39 pm »

My friend suggests I call it the Porta-Jon.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #103 on:** April 27, 2006, 09:21:34 pm »

Rough night guys,

I thought mounting the computer would be a piece of cake, boy was I wrong. Getting everything organized and secured was such a royal pain in the butt. It took two hours to get the entire thing together, I hope everything is in working order when I put it on.

I left it at work for the night, more work tomorrow.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #104 on:** April 28, 2006, 07:03:13 am »

Okay, I'll elaborate on what went wrong last night.

For those of you looking to build one of these, make sure you make it a bit deeper than 15 inches. My motherboard refused to orient the way I originally wanted. Also, the power supply leads were another problem. I had to extend about 4 molex connectors using some stranded core copper wire and heat shrink tubing. Now my friend and I are just about done, we are going to do a bit of grounding and start wiring up the panel itself.

I need to stop at Radioshack before heading back tonight, I leeched the store of crimp-on connectors.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #105 on:** April 29, 2006, 05:43:39 pm »

Okay, I was up late last night doing some more work on installing the computer.

I reoriented the motherboard, and then all of a sudden, things just started dropping together. I was able to set everything up so that not only is there a ton of airflow, but I can easily open and close the CD tray (which was a previous concern). Right now it's an absolute rat's nest of wires, mostly because of the front panel mount. I ordered some organizational supplies from the store, they should be in next teusday and will make this rat's nest look 100 times better. I did get curious and plugged it in...

IT POSTS!

Both drives were read, the panel mount even worked when I displayed the BIOS on my downstairs TV. Not only that, I left it idle for an hour, my temperatures floated around 65 degrees F, about 20 or so C. I'm really really excited about that.

The motherboard is on "stilts", actually, the sides are mounted on the one-by-ones and I used threaded posts and flat flanged T-nuts to make a support of sorts so the entire thing is sturdy as a rock. The room underneath also makes for plenty of airflow.

I made a mounting bracket of sorts for the CD drive and hard drive by using some stuff lying around the store.

Ignore the mess, it will be alievated soon, but incase you were curious of how it looks right now.

Thanks guys.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #106 on:** April 30, 2006, 07:45:59 pm »

A special shout out to ArcadeEd, thanks for the power button lead, it works great!

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #107 on:** May 01, 2006, 10:30:52 pm »

Another productive night.

I was able to bundle a lot of the clutter together and adhere the cables to the back wall of the box using these ziptie fasteners. As you can see, a lot of the clutter has been eliminated, and the clutter that is left (on the far left side) will be eliminated shortly.

I also started wiring player two, and will finish that tomorrow night. I should have all the wiring done by wednesday evening, and then all I have left is software related stuff. I'm really starting to get excited.

What do you all think of my bundling?

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #108 on:** May 03, 2006, 12:24:18 am »

I have another update.

Player 2 is entirely wired, I am starting player one tomorrow. I formatted my drive and installed XP without a hitch. The mouse buttons work.

Temperatures around 75-80 degrees F.

I'll have pictures tomorrow.

Navmaxlp · « **Reply #109 on:** May 03, 2006, 02:57:08 pm »

Looking really good. How's the cooling? Seems like it wouldn't get too hot but you never can be too sure.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #110 on:** May 03, 2006, 03:19:44 pm »

I have two fans pulling air and one blowing in. I've had it on for hours in my semi-hot bedroom. It never went about 79 Farenheight. If I have any problems I'll be sure to let you guys know. I plan on finishing the wiring this evening.

Almost there.

Thanks for the kind words.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #111 on:** May 04, 2006, 08:38:31 pm »

Okay, I'm done wiring!

The microswitches on my T-Stick had the NO and NC different than the other cherry switches on the buttons.

After a bit of tinkering, all the controls work perfectly.

I'm in the process of setting up GameEx, etc.

I plan on transferring all my other stuff over soon.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #112 on:** May 04, 2006, 08:39:12 pm »

Here she is as of current.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #113 on:** May 05, 2006, 11:36:35 am »

Okay, everything works.

When I start it up it automatically shoots the video to the TV, which is good. Sound works. All my pushbuttons work along with my joysticks.

I am using my MP3 player, which is detected as a Mass Storage device, to begin the "migration".

I'll get some working pics up soon.

I'll also be ordering a turbotwist next paycheck.

Does anybody know if the IPac has trouble with USB to PS2 converters?

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #114 on:** May 10, 2006, 08:52:49 pm »

It's been pretty much set up for the past few days, I've been too busy playing it to show progress.

Two last things that need to be done.

1. Finish loading the software (which may never happen, I'll always find something to add).

2. Light the trackball (haven't had time, plan on doing that next week).

Here it is, plopped in front of my TV, running GameEx with the Galaxian theme.

Any comments/questions?

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #115 on:** May 10, 2006, 08:55:07 pm »

Oh yeah, I forgot. Make that 3 things.

I need to buy the spinner and install it. It'll most likely be a turbotwist.

dpz147 · « **Reply #116 on:** May 11, 2006, 07:56:31 am »

Looks great!!!

Looks like the instruction card covered that scratch pretty good. That was a great idea! Can you put up a shot of the card? I'm kind of interested in how it's layed out.

JonnyBoy · « **Reply #117 on:** May 11, 2006, 11:03:29 am »

I have the source file at home, I'll post it when I get back.

unix4hire · « **Reply #118 on:** August 17, 2006, 04:30:51 pm »

I love your project, I'm trying to design mine right now (well, have been for the past year or more!) and I'm definitely going with the portable all-in-one idea. So far yours looks totally awesome! I imagine now that you have it working you probably haven't put much effort into the last 3 things you wanted to do because yuo're too busy playin it!

Could you tell me the dimensions of your entire box? I'm specifically interested in the depth at each end (front/back). Also, how much does the complete unit weight?

And how about posting that instruction card

Nice work!

BlinKY1337 · « **Reply #119 on:** August 17, 2006, 08:29:51 pm »

Nicely done sir


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