crazy ideas

[lakkdainen]

I'm interested in some crazy cabinet design ideas.  Mostly I've been thinking about lighting the control panel.  Has anyone made a panel top completely out of plexiglass?  Then you could put neon lights or those lazer leds from glowire.com behind it.

How about green neon ground effects underneath the cabinet so it has an eerie glow?    Maybe a black light behind the marquee?  Chasing christmas lights with one light in each pushbutton?

I want something truly unique and cool.

[SirPoonga]

Been there, done that.

These aren't new ideas.

What do you mean completely plexy on top, like no wood under the plexi, hahahaha, no strength.

[ArcadeFX]

lakkdainen, I think a all plexi control panel would be a great idea.  You can order 1 inch and half inch plexi glass/acrylic.  Contact your local car audio deal in town.  If they are any good you they can get you some. This is used pretty frequently in custom sub enclosures.   You might have to pay a pretty penny to have it custom cut and drilled to your liking.  I think it would be well worth it.  Let me know if you give it a go.  Put some neon under it and you would have one sweet control panel.

[darkmanx]

lol, i would hope you would tidy up any "spaghetti wiring" under there if you went that route. maybe you could put like a thin piece of wood over all the wiring with some holes for the wiring to get through. just to hide clumps of wire and your encoder or whatever. then set the lights on top of that.

[VMJ Team]

My second arcade cabinet...Ultimate Arcade...has a backlit control panel:

http://www.cybertechdesign.net/arcade/

I used 3 sheets of 1/8" plexi.  I spray painted one of the sheets with translucent paint, then sandwiched a piece of white tissue paper in between the layers of plexiglas.  It works very well and is very strong.  I wouldn't suggest slamming your fists  down on it though (which can happen in intense game play).  FYI,  no matter how you light your control panel, I don't see how you can get around the problem of being able to see the shadows of the control bases.  For example, you can totally see a dark outline of the joystick bases and pushbuttons.

[aramis]

I would go with polycarbonate (Lexan) instead of acrylic (Lucite, Plexiglass).

a 1/2" Lexan panel would be pretty much bulletproof, literally. And it doesn't crack when drilling as easy as acrylic does.

And, after cutting, you can get really good edges with fine wet sanding and buffing. But better yet, try to find a place that can vapor hone it for you. They basically let acid vapor eat away at the plastic for a short time, and it gets ultra polished. You would only need to worry about this with an exposed edge, of course....

[tellarite]

Well, about a month or two ago I was walking around Home Depot, and got to thinking about some crazy ideas. Not that I would do any of these, but they popped into my head for just an instant:

1) How about pouring an entire cabinet out of concrete? You wouldn't have to worry too much about your monitor or your computer overheating too much. Concrete is a good insulator.

2) Looking for a good texturing surface for a control panel? Try Shag Carpet. (Just don't spin that trackball too fast... ouch.. rug burn)

3) (I lied, this one I might try..) Luminescent paper. They sell these big rolls of paper that if you run an electric current through it, it glows. You can cut it into different shapes (To a degree) ... that'd be some cool side art.

[Frobozz]

Ooohhh!  You know those lightning discs they sell at novelty shops?  The ones used in Star Trek The Next Generation as Borg rechargers?   How about embedding a pair of them into the sidewalls of a cabinet.

And for those who have the Tron / Neon itch, here's a term that is your friend: "Cold Cathode".  Developed by the military specifically for lighting electronics.  They are brighter, smoother than neons, will last longer than you will, and produce almost no heat.    pcmods.com has some for computer case lighting.  I have a green one in mine.  Been thinking about their application in MAME cab design

[DerrickRe]

How about a strobe light under the track ball?

[Billabong]

Well, about a month or two ago I was walking around Home Depot, and got to thinking about some crazy ideas. Not that I would do any of these, but they popped into my head for just an instant:

1) How about pouring an entire cabinet out of concrete? You wouldn't have to worry too much about your monitor or your computer overheating too much. Concrete is a good insulator.

2) Looking for a good texturing surface for a control panel? Try Shag Carpet. (Just don't spin that trackball too fast... ouch.. rug burn)

3) (I lied, this one I might try..) Luminescent paper. They sell these big rolls of paper that if you run an electric current through it, it glows. You can cut it into different shapes (To a degree) ... that'd be some cool side art.

Interesting...wouldn't want to move that concrete one though!!

What about a 'wearable' control panel? You know, sort of like that old Nintendo Power Glove? No, now that I think about it...it wouldn't work...

I like that one example who turned his computer desk into a control panel!

Seems like almost everything practical has been done...

What about really bad control panel designs? How about lots of buttons all over the place, with no labels? Or only a stick and no buttons?
Or control panel made out of marshmellows? What about ham? Has anyone worked with ham?

Later,
Billabong

[CthulhuLuke]

Strobe lighted track ball is the coolest one I've heard yet.  I was thinking about how cool it would be to rent one of those giant presentation halls, and use the LCD projector to play Mame on, maybe bribe the janitor of my school or somethin.  Also I thought about what it would be like to have carpet on everything except the control panel part, because then if you people loungin around, they could lean on your cabinet and what not.
 I just thought of something interesting, why not put two of those "drink" holders on the top sides of your arcade machine, and get those straws like on those beer hats coming down the side of the cabinet, so you could drink "soda" and play at the same time.  I think I'm going to do this one, but having one of those keyboards with the Frequency wireless things on em, so you can just leave the keyboard on the side of the control panel until you need it.
    -cool ideas all
   -CthulhuLuke

[Agent Davis]

SirPoonga wrote:

Been there, done that.

These aren't new ideas.

What do you mean completely plexy on top, like no wood under the plexi, hahahaha, no strength.  Otherwise, my cp has all plexi on top.

That's kind of a contradiction don't you think?

[ErikRuud]

Let' see,

I remember seeing an article about some designer that had made a stereo system that had concrete housings, complete with rebar sticking out at the corner.

I haven ot seen it in large rolls, but the glowing paper is simular to the glowwire that has already been discussed.  MicroMark is a good source for smaller sheets and the correct power supplies for this. Part number 25010 or 82691.  The 82691 looks very interesting.

If you want to have a clear control panel, you might want to check out some of the RC Car sites, or Larger scale slot car sites.  They often have wire that comes with silicone insulation in a number of colors.

The plasma discs and spheres are an elctromagnet device, and you may have trouble if they are too close to your monitor.

[Billabong]

I've been working on a totally see-thru cab.
Here's a picture:

















Doesn't it look great?

Later,
Billabong

[Carsten Carlos]

Where did you get this cool joysticks? Would love to have them, too!

[David]

How about these on your cab?

https://ssl.adhost.com/noveltylights/merchant.cfm?pid=54&step=4

[CthulhuLuke]

Or how about lowering your cabinet and adding hydrolics??  haha, lights suck, no offense to all, but I guess they're a little too azn for me.  I see those deusches with those floor effects on their cars and I'm just like "lame!!"  The only somewhat cool thing I've ever seen is my friend had this little clip on canadian/hong kong thing onto your car's stereo that scrolls with lights, it's pretty small, but it's cool lookin cause it's ilke a frequency observing thing.
 -sorry to offend those into wasting money on lights
    -CthulhuLuke