Author Topic: Pixelbox (Read 104148 times)

vrf · « **Reply #40 on:** March 08, 2006, 08:26:08 pm »

Quote from: quarterback on March 08, 2006, 01:34:29 am

You should, of course, confirm that before blaming me for setting your new cab on fire

Yes, I want a mame cab, not a flame cab. (cue rimshot.)

It is 12v DC, so no problemo. Thanks!

vrf · « **Reply #41 on:** March 20, 2006, 02:00:34 am »

I'm starting to realize that my updates up until I get the case cut will be kind of boring....

"Hey, look, some more parts arrived today!"

or

"I drew the hard drive cage today! How exciting!"

Anyhow, these days I'm waiting for the rest of my parts and brushing up on my CAD skills. And of course tweaking (and re-tweaking) the design. I think it can work, but I really need all of my parts here before I can tell if there's enough room in the box. Might end up buying a laptop harddrive to save some inches. (By the way, does anyone know if I can mount a harddrive at a slight angle without any problems, or does it have to be level?)

Here's a look at the current size of the box:

I really want to avoid that "monitor is too small for the cab" look that you sometimes see on cabs. 10" wide seems about as far as I can stretch it before I have too much "bezel meat."

Witchboard · « **Reply #42 on:** March 20, 2006, 11:33:57 am »

Quote from: vrf on March 20, 2006, 02:00:34 am

Might end up buying a laptop harddrive to save some inches. (By the way, does anyone know if I can mount a harddrive at a slight angle without any problems, or does it have to be level?)

It should be fine. I've seen both desktop and laptop drives mounted all sorts of ways. One laptop even mounted it upside down. How big are you looking to get for your drive? You could look into the memory cards with an IDE converter.

vrf · « **Reply #43 on:** March 20, 2006, 09:17:15 pm »

Quote

How big are you looking to get for your drive? You could look into the memory cards with an IDE converter.

Yeah, I'd thought of that, along with one of the fanless low-power mini-itx boards. If I'd gone that direction, the case could be even smaller. (I could have used that cute little picoPSU for a power supply, too!)

But, after a lot of thought, I decided I wanted to run most everything that you can run on a full computer. (motherboard is a Commell LV-675.) So, I'll be wanting more disk space than a CF card.

Basically, this cab is going to have the grunt of a pretty nice laptop.

ARCADE5280 · « **Reply #44 on:** April 29, 2006, 03:25:08 am »

any updates?

I think the design and logo are really sweet! Show us more...

quarterback · « **Reply #45 on:** April 30, 2006, 03:51:16 pm »

Quote from: ARCADE5280 on April 29, 2006, 03:25:08 am

any updates?

I think the design and logo are really sweet! Show us more...

Definitely. I dig this cab's profile

vrf · « **Reply #46 on:** May 01, 2006, 03:48:33 am »

Thanks for the comments, guys! Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for some parts to arrive before I can do much more work on the design. I live in Taiwan, so I had several things sent to my sister in Colorado, who then put off shipping the package until I was literally reminding her every day. (To be fair, she's been insanely busy these last couple of months.)

The items in that package (now making their way across the world) are my CCFL tubes, speakers, fans and grills, trackball and hard drive. The other computer parts (CPU, RAM, etc.), I'll pick up at a local computer store. I bought the mini-itx mobo from the manufacturer here in Taipei.

Oh, for the encoder, I picked up an ipac because I didn't want a dedicated shazaam button. I needed a shift button with its own input. (Also, Groovy Game Gear wouldn't take an order from Taiwan.)

I've also piddled around with some marquee artwork, but I don't have any options yet that I'm happy with. Maybe I'll post some pics of these rejects if you guys promise to go easy on them.

So..... I'm excited to continue working on this project, but it's at a bit of a standstill for a while. Once I draw up the final CAD file, there will probably be an even longer suspension of updates because I won't be getting the acrylic cut until the end of August when I'm back in the States on vacation. The goal is to have the whole she-bang done by Christmas.

vrf · « **Reply #47 on:** May 02, 2006, 05:05:11 am »

Okay, here's a question for the power gurus around here. Will this mini PSU be enough to power my cab?

http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/sc.8/category.13/it.A/id.300/.f

It says it's a 200W PSU, so it seems like it should be enough.

Here's a rundown of the system: Pentium M Dothan, probably at 1.7 ghz, 1 gig of RAM, a 3.5" hard drive, CD-ROM (for setup only), Tritton Soundbite USB-powered speakers, fans, and a couple of molex-powered cold cathode tubes. Also, the Lilliput LCD will be running off a 12v line from a molex connector.

Any help you can give would be great. Thanks!

quarterback · « **Reply #48 on:** May 02, 2006, 12:13:04 pm »

Quote from: vrf on May 02, 2006, 05:05:11 am

Okay, here's a question for the power gurus around here. Will this mini PSU be enough to power my cab?

Any help you can give would be great. Thanks!

I'm not sure I can help on this one. I'm not familiar enough with new CPUs/mobos and how much power they might need.

As far as the screen goes, I know that the specs on mine indicate that it wants more power than I expected. I don't remember mine off the top of my head, but you should be able to find that info on yours somewhere (on the back, in the manual, somewhere).

HOWEVER, my guess is that a chunk of the power requirement listed for my screen is actually for the built in speakers and mini amp. IOW, I don't think the screen pulls nearly the power that the specs list, but if I was to use the built in speaker, it would.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

vrf · « **Reply #49 on:** May 02, 2006, 10:18:22 pm »

Thanks for the reply. After doing some more reading and adding the power up again, I think this will be more than fine. The Dothan requires so little power that I could probably get by with a 120w PSU, even with the LCD running off of it.

I'm sure glad I decided to use a Pentium M board.

vrf · « **Reply #50 on:** May 07, 2006, 10:56:39 am »

OT: check out this guy's micro cab:

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/homebrew/diy-mini-arcade-139766.php

Mine will be smaller, but that's a neat little game box he's got there.

lettuce · « **Reply #51 on:** May 07, 2006, 03:01:15 pm »

Quote from: vrf on February 23, 2006, 10:53:09 am

Wooo, where did you get that from??

vrf · « **Reply #52 on:** May 07, 2006, 10:15:49 pm »

Quote from: lettuce on May 07, 2006, 03:01:15 pm

Wooo, where did you get that from??

Here's more info on the motherboard:

http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/SBC/LV-675.HTM

There's also lots of information and cool mini-itx projects over at www.mini-itx.com

vrf · « **Reply #53 on:** May 15, 2006, 03:51:01 am »

The power supply arrived today. I didn't realize how much of a brick the adapter was going to be.

Still smaller than the Xbox 360 one, though.

MameMaster! · « **Reply #54 on:** May 15, 2006, 01:03:37 pm »

what cpu is that?

EDIT...sorry I just found it in your thread.

But how much did it cost?

Hiub1 · « **Reply #55 on:** May 15, 2006, 02:02:37 pm »

Thats a damn tiny power supply.

Anyways, on with the project! I want to see it done!

Konrad · « **Reply #56 on:** May 15, 2006, 04:53:53 pm »

There are alot smaller 12V-PSU's available. You just have to look for CarPC-PSU's. Take a look at this

:
http://cartft.com/catalog/il/575

vrf · « **Reply #57 on:** May 15, 2006, 10:42:23 pm »

Yeah, that picoPSU is pretty cute. I needed a bit more power, though, since I'll be running the entire cab off of the PSU. 200w seems like it'll be plenty, and the PW-200M is small enough for my needs. I'm not sure how I feel yet about having the external power brick, but it did free up a lot of space inside the box. (For a long time, I was planning on using an SFX power supply.)

MameMaster, I bought the motherboard for $200 from the manufacturer. The 1.7ghz Pentium M will cost me another $200.

vrf · « **Reply #58 on:** May 17, 2006, 11:34:14 am »

Okay, this'll be my last "more-parts-arrived-today" post. (I know it's getting kind of old.) The big package from my sister arrived today. The two important items that I wanted to try out right away were the trackball and speakers.

Once again, the trackball is the Happ 1 1/2 mini-trackball. (It's priced too high, I think, but Ponyboy saved me a little money.) It feels like a very high-quality trackball, very well-built, but it's clearly not a real arcade ball. It doesn't spin nearly as long as a real arcade TB. That said, it's so much better than anything I've tried in this size. I think it's as close to an arcade ball as I can get for my micro control panel. I'm pretty happy with it.

For speakers, I picked up a Tritton Soundbite. It's a pint-sized USB-powered speaker set, and it seriously sounds awesome. I didn't think I would be able to get such nice bass response in a size that would fit in my micro cab, but this little bugger booms along very nicely. Very clear audio, too. I'm going to try to hack the thing apart so I can run the mini speakers up to their proper place under the marquee. I'm very happy with this little set.

One weird thing happened tonight, though. The Soundbite pumped out the audio for MAME and some MP3s really nicely, but wouldn't play the audio straight from a CD. Anyone know why? A software glitch, or maybe because it gets the audio over the USB cable?

Well, I guess now all the measuring and drawing begins!

liquid8 · « **Reply #59 on:** May 17, 2006, 07:31:20 pm »

man that thing is small.. really can't wait to see to this finished. I like the acrylic idea, so you decided to go with black? It still looks a little odd in the mockup with the joystick. I wonder if there is a shorter one you could use, it just looks out of porportion, but maybe that's just the mockup pic.

vrf · « **Reply #60 on:** May 17, 2006, 11:53:20 pm »

Yeah, it may just be the inaccuracy of the mockup. That said, I know that the joystick and such will look a bit out of proportion, but there's nothing I can do about that on a cab this size. I really wanted to use genuine arcade parts.

I figure that, once mounted, the stick will look about like it does on Byrdo's Sanwa-based mini stick. Just imagine a few more buttons, a trackball, and a mini-cabinet attached to it!

vrf · « **Reply #61 on:** May 21, 2006, 02:16:11 am »

I've been flirting with the idea of changing my cab's name to "pixelbox" for some time now, but hadn't mentioned it in my thread yet. The new name seems to roll off the tongue better, and is easier to fit into artwork. Here's a quick sketch.

Still not sure yet if I'll switch names, but I'm leaning that way. Your thoughts?

DrewKaree · « **Reply #62 on:** May 21, 2006, 01:41:59 pm »

Skip that gray box and just have the letters in there with the colored "rays". The box just seems to add a clunky feel to the marquee.

vrf · « **Reply #63 on:** May 22, 2006, 11:02:48 am »

Good call on the gray box. Here's another quick mockup.

Thanks for the tip!

vrf · « **Reply #64 on:** May 23, 2006, 11:06:53 am »

more dinkering around with some marquee sketches. Not quite what I'm after, but closer.

odysseyroc · « **Reply #65 on:** May 23, 2006, 11:50:33 am »

I like the one with the tiled texture. I think you need to lose the gradient and texture on the type and put that bold outline on it.

theCoder · « **Reply #66 on:** May 24, 2006, 02:10:24 am »

I also like the tiles. What about transitioning the color of the text from blue/green/yellow/red to red/yellow/green/blue. Just an idea.

I really like the small trackball, nice low profile. I'm going with a 3" Happ transparent trackball on my project. I bought it primarily because I'm going to light my buttons and the ball. I'm afraid it may be a bit too large for my CP. Oh well.

vrf · « **Reply #67 on:** May 24, 2006, 11:30:50 am »

Quote from: odysseyroc on May 23, 2006, 11:50:33 am

I like the one with the tiled texture. I think you need to lose the gradient and texture on the type and put that bold outline on it.

I kind of like the texture, but you're right about the outline. The text doesn't quite pop off the bg without it. Here's one with the texture and an outline. I'll retool the text with a heavier outline (and probably a different font) later.

In other news, the measuring/drawing work is coming along. It seems my profile with the thin CP is going to work pretty well. Here you can see how the trackball and joystick fit into the design. You can also see how far the joystick will rise above the top of the CP.

By a nice coincidence, the thickness of a mini DV tape is exactly 12mm--the same thickness as the top slab of acrylic on my CP. (Actually it will be two 3mm pieces and one 6mm.) So I got a little hands-on test of how far the stick will come up. It's just a bit short if you compare it to most Sanwa mountings, but the size of my cab plus the mini balltop make it seem okay to me. (But maybe I'm biased. Does it look too short to you guys?)

Timoe · « **Reply #68 on:** May 24, 2006, 12:09:59 pm »

I wish there was a way you could route out the bottom for that joystick. But even without that, you'll be fine. Its still taller than a MsPac Reunion stick.

liquid8 · « **Reply #69 on:** May 24, 2006, 07:09:04 pm »

wow, and I thought it was going to look too tall

looks okay to me. I like the new artwork, should fit real nice with the box.

theCoder · « **Reply #70 on:** May 25, 2006, 01:32:48 am »

Quote from: vrf on May 24, 2006, 11:30:50 am

It's just a bit short if you compare it to most Sanwa mountings, but the size of my cab plus the mini balltop make it seem okay to me. (But maybe I'm biased. Does it look too short to you guys?)

How low is the bottom of the monitor in relation to the top of the CP? You're hand might block your view of the screen if the stick is too tall.

vrf · « **Reply #71 on:** May 25, 2006, 02:07:05 am »

Quote from: theCoder on May 25, 2006, 01:32:48 am

How low is the bottom of the monitor in relation to the top of the CP? You're hand might block your view of the screen if the stick is too tall.

Yeah, that was one of my concerns when I first started this project, and one reason for the bottom mounting. After measuring and the mockup, I'm pretty sure that this won't be a problem for most players. Players will look down and over the stick into the display. (Short kids might have the blocked-view problem, though.)

My idea is that it'll mostly be used on tables or desks that you can use a laptop on. No lying down in bed, or any other situation where the head is on the same plane as the LCD.

vrf · « **Reply #72 on:** May 28, 2006, 11:29:43 am »

couldn't resist slapping the marquee on an updated model. (Pathetic, I know.)

Timoe · « **Reply #73 on:** May 28, 2006, 11:44:10 am »

Build it. You gotta build it. You have the weekend.

stellarola · « **Reply #74 on:** May 29, 2006, 02:05:09 am »

Yea man! Build this baby already!

vrf · « **Reply #75 on:** May 29, 2006, 09:49:14 pm »

patience, patience...

But yeah, maybe I need to hold off on the little "design tweak" updates and wait until I've made more substantial progress.

tore- · « **Reply #76 on:** June 09, 2006, 10:55:17 am »

I demand an update!

vrf · « **Reply #77 on:** June 09, 2006, 11:10:48 pm »

sorry man, not much more is new. Just more planning and such until I finally get the acrylic cut. (Probably not until the end of July for that step.)

I'm considering a little "weight" loss for the design, though. This would make it about 12 1/2" tall if I decide to go with it. Not sure yet.

Oh, and I also switched speakers. I really wanted better stereo separation, and the Soundbite just wasn't cutting it there. (Although I loved it's clarity and bass response.)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1763806,00.asp

theCoder · « **Reply #78 on:** June 10, 2006, 09:29:01 pm »

Smaller is good, as long as you don't mess up the playability.

It must be driving you nuts not being able to actually build this thing where you are.

vrf · « **Reply #79 on:** June 10, 2006, 10:46:23 pm »

Yeah, I probably could work with some local sign shops/laser cutters over here, but my Chinese is not that great and I'd have to have a friend help out. Besides, I've really been impressed by the service at Pololu. (A really nice lady named Candice has been great about answering all my questions on the whole process.) So I'll probably wait until I'm back in the States for a few weeks so I don't have to pay for the overseas shipping.

EDIT: I changed laser shops. I didn't want to pay for the overseas shipping, and I wasn't able to finish the design in time for my trip back to the US.


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