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finshed bartop
hobsonschoice:
OK, at this stage i have painted the whole cab with primer and then sprayed using a metalic car paint.
I have also masked the cab and painted the edges yellow.
I wouldn't do it this way again. next time i will construct used a wood thick enough to accomodate T-Molding. The painting was a real mess and kept seeping under the masking tape etc. Used a lot of white spirit to tidy it as i went.
You will also notice the backlight installed.
This is a mains powered small undercabinet type light about 8 inches long. cost about 15€.
If possible try to avoid mains powered backlights because they need switching on and off seperately from the computer. The best solution would be some kind of light whic derives its power from the computer.
I might review my setup and hack the battery connections on the laptop and see if i can find a decent voltage to do this in the future.
You can also see how the shelf slides in now.
You can see the on/off wire temporarily fed through the speaker holes. These are just bare ended wires i touch together to recreate the on off action of the laptop.
hobsonschoice:
Here is another direct view from the back.
Note the magnetic latches on the side. This is how the back panle is held. It gives me easy access and was a much simpler choice than hinges etc.
hobsonschoice:
Ok, almost there.
I now have to arrange the control panel.
This is the most exciting part of the project but also the most daunting.
I cut out a piece of wood that overlapped the cab by about 1cm at the front and sides. Then curved the edges and sides with the electric sander to get a nice smooth feel allround.
measure where to place all your buttons. I actually cut out real size buttons from paper and blutacked them around the panel until i had the right layout. took a while but finally got it to accomadate a two player setup.
Buttons where bought from ebay and i bought a Keywiz from Grooveygames.
I then drilled all my holes with a spde bit, and had to dremel them a little larger as it seems that you can not by a spade bit between the width of 25 and 30mm. looked everywhere but could only buy a 25mm or a 30mm not 26M as required for the buttons.
hobsonschoice:
you can see here how it looks before the control panel is installed.
Note the speakers are just laying on the bottom of the cabinet for now.
Later i would hack these open and hang them on the inside of the cab behind the holes .
The volume control was extended through a hole in the side of the cab behind the left speaker grill. Not the best of places , it is handy but not pretty there really. i would rather have had it hidden beneath the lip of the control panel on the side but by this point there was not enough room for all the buttons joysticks ant the amplifier board with extended volume knob under the panel.
hobsonschoice:
OK, before installing the control panel, i have bought 4mm plexiglass from B&Q.
I have cut a panel of this with a jigsaw and slotted it in front of the lcd dsiplay.
It is held in place by the back of the lower Marquee shelf and a small peice of superglued wood at the base. this makes it really easy to remove at this point. once in place it is supported by the bezel. the bezel then in turn is wedged from behind to keep the whole thing fixed. Doesn't move at all at this point but if i need to replace it at anytime it would be a 10 min job.
The marquee also is a strip of plexiglass with a printed marquee. The light leaking through will be fixed later with a small wood strip inserted as a frame from behind which seals the leaking light and holds the marquee in place.
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