Showing off my new cabinet

[mike_bike_kite]

Thought you might want to see my little cabinet - just finished it 5 mins ago.

Main features are :

• It plays most the old games
• It's also a jukebox
• The buttons light up!
• It small enough to fit under a work table
• My kids (8 and 10) can use it easily
• It has a big fan in the front
• The innards are lit up in red

I put most of the details on my site http://www.bikesandkites.com/index_frames.html
you'll need to click on the arcade image to get the details.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Mike

[DeLuSioNal29]

Nice work.  However, I have to ask:  Why did you not have the joystick and button setup identical for both players?  The standard setup is to have the joystick on the left and the buttons on the right for both players.  I would have a hard time playing on the second player controller since the joystick would not be in my left hand.

[crummy]

That's very pretty. Any more, or higher res, pics?

[FrizzleFried]

Whoever plays that sucker must have some BIIIIIG fingers as there is a ton of space between each button.   And a southpaw if you wanna play 2nd player.

...and that has got to be the biggest freakin' computer fan I have ever seen in my life.  12v or 120v?

[mike_bike_kite]

Nice work - thanks

South paw - Normally just one player would play a game at a time and it works fine - I guess you get used to anything! My son and wife are left handed but I didn't design it that way for them - I just think the layout "looks" far better this way. I guess some people like a perfect playing environment while I get more of a kick from the end design.

Big fingers - The game play is fine - the game buttons are the blue buttons and the red ones are coin, single play, double play/shift. I didn't want 100's of buttons everywhere but instead wanted something minimal but playable. I do have big hands but my sons (8 and 10) plus all their mates seem to have no issues using the machine.

Fan - it's a 200mm fan and runs of 12v - there are 250mm fans available in the states and pre-fitted to cases over here in the UK but I didn't want to go through the problems of postage etc.  It has a speed control but the slowest setting is still too fast - I took the controller apart thinking it would just be a big variable resistor but it has 3 wires just going to an odd looking micro switch. Any ideas anyone? It's not child friendly at all but I figure they'll only poke their fingers in once.  It does look good especially with the circuit boards all lit up in red.

Bigger pics - there's higher res pics on the site if you click on any image but to be fair I just haven't had time to do the thing justice. I still have a few things I want to do to it to just finish it off a bit more.

Mike

[DaveMMR]

Nice work - thanks
 I just think the layout "looks" far better this way. I guess some people like a perfect playing environment while I get more of a kick from the end design.

So basically you're saying "just look at it's prettiness, you don't need to be able to play a decent game on it".  Sorry, looks are important but playability is slightly more important.

I like the cabinet except that one little pet peeve of mine.   To anyone else reading this, please fight the urge to get creative with your CP layout.  Yes, it's preachy and obnoxious but I've seen too many people regret letting their spatial OCD take over the design process.   Don't "mirror" player 1 and 2 controls, don't place buttons "randomly" or in "shapes", and, for heaven's sakes, please don't angle controls.    Just stick to the standards and they'll be no regrets.

I'm sorry - I still do think it's nice.  It's just that one thing that nags the living tinkle out of me.  But it's your machine, enjoy it.  :-)   Everyone can yell at me for being a jerk.

[superart]

edit

[mike_bike_kite]

So basically you're saying "just look at it's prettiness, you don't need to be able to play a decent game on it".  Sorry, looks are important but playability is slightly more important.

I'm married so the thing has to be spouse friendly which means it has to be compact and look pretty. Because of the size I can't, and wouldn't want to, fit every control conceivable to man. My original design wasn't even going to have the joysticks but the number of playable games was just too limited. As it stands the machine works well for the 300 or so games I have loaded. Certainly there may be issues for a few isolated games - I couldn't come up with a clean layout that worked well for Defender but, to be honest, I found it difficult to play on the original hardware as well.

I guess it all boils down to taste - I like a clean design, my kids wanted something that was fun to play and easy to use, and of course my wife would simply veto anything she didn't like. I like the machine simply because it's clean, compact and does nearly everything including being easy to play. I personally dislike machines that have so many buttons that they look like they have a serious case of acne. As it stands the wife thinks of it as an interesting curiosity rather than a loud abomination so it's a success from my perspective.

Mike

[Fozzy The Bear]

It has a speed control but the slowest setting is still too fast - I took the controller apart thinking it would just be a big variable resistor but it has 3 wires just going to an odd looking micro switch. Any ideas anyone?

Yeah! Stick a coil of Ni-Chrome wire inside behind it and your cab can double up as blow heater     
250mm what are you trying to cool!! a nuclear reactor?? 

Seriously though...... Just stick a big wire wound resistor on the +12V side of it and that should slow it down for you.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Flip_Willie]

250mm what are you trying to cool!! a nuclear reactor?? 

   I have two 250mm fans in my cabinet  ( I definitely should have thought that one out that before I installed them). Even though the fans are on the back side of the cabinet, I can feel the air blowing from the front --especially when I have my coin door opened.  It seriously feels like I am cooling down my room when I turn it on.

   They are as loud as heck too...  Though, that just gives me an excuse to turn the volume up louder. 

   I am thinking about installing a switch so I can just manually turn then on once in a while.

Just as it is,
Flip Willie

[AtomSmasher]

250mm what are you trying to cool!! a nuclear reactor?? 

   I have two 250mm fans in my cabinet  ( I definitely should have thought that one out that before I installed them). Even though the fans are on the back side of the cabinet, I can feel the air blowing from the front --especially when I have my coin door opened.  It seriously feels like I am cooling down my room when I turn it on.

   They are as loud as heck too...  Though, that just gives me an excuse to turn the volume up louder. 

   I am thinking about installing a switch so I can just manually turn then on once in a while.

Just as it is,
Flip Willie

Just install a potentiometer so you can slow them down.  With two fans that large, you should be able to turn the speed slow enough that they are whisper quiet and still pushing quite a bit of air through.

[Avrus]

That's really odd, I have two 200mm's in my cabinet and you can't hear them over background noise in the house.

[Flip_Willie]

Just install a potentiometer so you can slow them down.  With two fans that large, you should be able to turn the speed slow enough that they are whisper quiet and still pushing quite a bit of air through.

   Thanks, that is a good idea, I will definitely keep that in mind. 

That's really odd, I have two 200mm's in my cabinet and you can't hear them over background noise in the house.

    Mine are loud.  They look neat though. *Picture*

Just as it is,
Flip Willie

[AtomSmasher]

Just install a potentiometer so you can slow them down.  With two fans that large, you should be able to turn the speed slow enough that they are whisper quiet and still pushing quite a bit of air through.

   Thanks, that is a good idea, I will definitely keep that in mind. 

Just thought I'd add that fan speed controllers are extremely cheap if you don't want to add the pot to the wires yourself
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118217

[mike_bike_kite]

I should point out that cooling don't appear to be necessary assuming you have vent holes to allow the air to flow through the cab (mine has a hole in the base and vent holes near the top). I simply put the fan there cause it looks good. The fan is also nearly silent as most of the modern large case fans are. It also provides a big hole for the sound to come out (there's some hefty speakers in my little box).

Oddly the air from the fan blows out rather than sucks in - this means your knees get a little cold while playing but at least it stops the issue of trousers (or children's body parts) being sucked into the fan.

I tried using resistors to slow the fan down as mentioned in the earlier posts. I tried lots of different combinations going from 1k ohms down to 80 ohms but the only effect I found was that the fan would just take longer to reach full speed than normal, if I raised the resistance any more then the fan simply stopped turning. I'm guessing the PWM is the way to go forward but I've ordered one of the fan controller parts anyway.

I still have a few bits to do to finish things off

• I'm trying to source some acrylic sheeting and then work out how to bevel the edges and drill some holes in it to fix everything in place.
• I want to loose the windows XP initial boot up screen.
• I'd also like the front end to play an audio clip when it starts any game up.
• I've ordered a intelliplug to turn off all the extra hardware when the PC turns off.
• I've also got to think up another project to keep me interested and out of my wife's hair.
  

Mike

[Paladin]

I slow down fans by swapping the yellow/red wires in the molex connector.  That way the fan gets 5v instead of 12v.

[mike_bike_kite]

Just to say I tried a fan controller (just a variable resistor I think) on the 20cm fan but it didn't really work. Either the fan wouldn't turn or it would start to turn slowly and then slowly build up to full speed.

I didn't try using the 5v line instead of the 12v - I wasn't sure whether this might blow a fuse or something.

Mike

[AtomSmasher]

Just to say I tried a fan controller (just a variable resistor I think) on the 20cm fan but it didn't really work. Either the fan wouldn't turn or it would start to turn slowly and then slowly build up to full speed.

Thats wierd.  I have controllers on all the fans in my pc case and it works perfectly.