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Mameroom Ultimate Arcade II projects
jlfreund:
Ya, I thought about the golden tee problem, and I could've separated the joysticks another couple inches, but that would start to strain the SmasthTV configuration (an important one for me), and wouldn't do much to help Golden Tee (which I'm not interested in). I'm much more interested in using the trackball for Centipede, Marble Madness, and Missile which doesn't require much open space behind the trackball.
Jason
NightGod:
Why not go with the first configuration and add a second joystick to the right of each of the player's buttons-that way you can play two-player Smash TV ~and~ eleveate Golden Tee issues?
jlfreund:
Ya, I thought of that (for the purpose of 2 player smash TV, not for Golden Tee), but didn't like the extra width.
jlfreund:
CUTTING CP:
We finished cutting the control panels today. It took about 5 hours to drill, route, and jigsaw out all the holes and beds for each one. Cutting the control panel tops is the biggest job of the project.
For the drilling, we used a 1 1/8" Forstner bit -- an excellent $15 investment. To drill the holes, we created a sandwich with: sacrificial scrap plywood on bottom, then 5/8" MDF control panel top, then the 1/8" acrylic cover, and finally the 3/8" plywood template on top. All 4 pieces were clamped to the workbench.
There were two problems drilling the holes. First, when cutting the acrylic layer, it was easy to chip, even using the clamped sandwich and forstner bit. On the first panel set, there were about 4 badly chipped holes (2 of which will be covered by the lip of a button and dust cover of a joystic). For the second control panel, we didn't chip at all. I think the main difference was that this time, when my buddy applied pressure to the top when drilling, he put his hands right next to the bit when I was drilling in the acrylic layer. This extra pressure where it counts, combined with maybe more sensetivity when drilling the last 1/16 of the acrylic probably helped.
The second problem was with creating the plywood template. When drilling the template holes, there were 4 (out of about 24) buttons that slipped due to the top layer of the plywood shearing off. I didn't notice the slippage until the holes were all done. To compensate for this, we had to move the template around and re-clamp when using the template to drill out the last few holes. I think the work-around for this problem is to invest in some hardwood or MDF for the template piece.
The template was absolutely necessary for drilling the control panel. Otherwise, you can't count on the forstner bit holding steady.
We also used a 3" hole saw for the Trackball hole on the acrylic that just plugs right into my hand drill. Even though the hole saw has big teeth, it was the perfect size and did an excellent job cutting the hole. Luckily, a friend let me borrow the saw because I think it's a $30 item. We just sandwiched the acrylic between the sacrificial piece and a template piece of plywood on top that had a hole already cut out with the hole saw as a guide.
For the routing, we had to create beds for the joystick and trackball mounting plates. Because our CP will be covered by a sheet of artwork, we didn't need to use jigs or get perfect edges. We made the Joystick beds 1/8" deeper than the plate thickness because the stupid mounting plates don't have counter sunk holes for the screws that screw through the board (All sticks are Ulitimarc Mag Stick Plus). But it doesn't really matter.
One difficulty with routing -- because we were eyballing it, it was very difficult to see the boundaries for the beds. To solve that, we used masking tape to outline the beds -- which gave good contrast when looking though the router protective shield. The masking tape was a nuisance as we dragged the router across the board, so we had to use scotch tape to tape the tape down so it didn't get caught on the router base.
The jigsaw work was extremely easy -- both drawing the pattern and cutting. During the routing, hole saw work and jigsawing we constantly had to double check the positioning of the hole for the trackball. Luckily, our Happ 3" trackball has a removable plastic gasket on top, which, when removed, gives you a nice lip that is exactly 3" dia and just the right height to lie flush with a 1/8" acrylic CP overlay piece.
Jason
jlfreund:
MONITOR STAND AND BEZEL:
We also finished getting setup to install the monitor in the cabinet today. My monitor is a 21" Dell CRT. It was about 4 hours of work to:
1) Create a stand out of 2x4's and plywood to elevate the monitor to eye level
2) Measure and tape off the lexan bezel that was already cut to size
3) Tape off the monitor screen
4) Spray paint the bezel and monitor face black using hobby paint designed for lexan model car bodies. It took about 1.5 cans of paint to put enough coats for the 25" x 27" bezel and face of the monitor.
5) Shim, level, and screw in the monitors tand into the cabinet
6) Install bolted eye holes into the cabinet to anchor some straps for holding the monitor steady. Without the strap, the monitor would probably jiggle a lot under normal gameplay usage. Even with the strap tightened down, I don't think the jiggle will be completely avoided because the Dell monitor stand is kind of susceptible to bumps. Note the bolts are very sturdy because they use a small washer on top and a big one underneith to allow me to tighten them down good.
Jason
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