Hi All,
Time has passed since my last update on any progress.
I'm getting married in a few weeks so lots of thing has to be done and unfortunately that means a little time left dedicated to any cabinet improvement.
First of all, I received my control panel and it rocks...
It was really well packed by Knievel and everything was as displayed on pictures, perfectly wired and assembled :-)
Really professional job!!! Thanks a million to him !
Taking back his words: "I've spent as much time on this one as if it was one of mine..." and I should say that it is effectively the case, the result speaks for itself.
In the same package I received the ArcadeVGA, Universal monitor mounting brackets, 4 cabinet handles.
I got as well my package from Happ's Suzo, that includes cabinet corner protectors, 2 player coin door, 27" monitor bezel.
I should say that I haven't got the time to test everything out yet (Control Panel included). I know it could be odd to some of you not to try out this beauty but I had other things left that I wanted to do first.
DONE LIST:- Drawer rails have been replaced by metal ones
- Drawer back metal retainer has been put in place
- Tablet has been installed as drawer bottom was to low to permit an ideal use of any mouse or keyboard.
- Wireless Mouse and keyboard tested and set up.
- Coin Door installed and coin mechanism tricked to allow use of BYOAC coins.
- Back case installed for speakers, that has a dual utility (Improve sound reproduction and prevent light from marquee to light the entire inside cabinet). The speakers have been shielded to lower/avoid any effect on the monitor
- Monitor mounting brackets installed
- Monitor fixed to mounting brackets
On that point I should say that fixing these mounting brackets was quite hard as I wanted to respect the same angle as the one from the top cabinet part.
The monitor weight was so huge that it was impossible to use it directly for fixing those.
Fortunately, a thread on BYOAC forum helped me to figure it out... Use of a piece of wood cut with the same dimension as the monitor frame and fix mounting brackets directly on it....Locate the angle and depth wanted and fix directly the brackets onto the cabinet. :-)
I will not fix the cabinet handles now, as I want to avoid any additional wood work for the moment. Moreover I can't figure out exactly where would be the best position for these handles.
The cabinet corner protectors from Happ's were not as expected. I haven't succeeded in fixing them correctly, there was always a slight empty space from the corner and the cabinet.
Fixing them correctly would need to scrape my cabinet corners in order to respect the corner form and slope of these Happ's protectors --> Not way, I will scrape my cabinet for these I prefer to go without them.
TO DO LIST (in priority order):- Cut monitor Bezel and install it
- Order Plexi for Monitor and Marquee
- Fix Control panel & wire coin door to it
- Install ArcadeVGA in computer
- Set up ArcadeVGA, Set up Control panel
- Boot up everything and test hardware
- Install plexi, marquee
- Set up monitor settings when plexi is installed
- PLAY THE HELL OUT OF IT... and enjoy pure arcade feelings :-)
- Fix Cup Holder...
- Order more coins but nickel ones this time (Any new runs of nickel tokens available form Santoro's website ? Please do some more ...) Can't wait to order 2006 version :-)
In the mean time, Pixelhugger will work out the marquee...
Find below additional pictures...
The lens was not cleaned enough that why you can see some artefacts on the picutres.
Drawer (New rails, metal back drawer retainer)
Tablet
Speakers back case

Installed coin door
Mounted monitor and mounting brackets

Cup Holder

See you soon
Jontox