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Infinicade (fka My Cab Without a Name)
TAG:
Well, I discovered my first significant mistake/mis-measurement of the project (hopefully not the first of many). Since I couldn’t wait to see how it’d look, I put the TV in the cabinet for a test fitting. It just fit, with the front right up against the administrative panel. Unfortunately, that left no room for the backside of the buttons and microswitches. I guess that’s what happens when you change plans midstream after spending so much time designing and making calculations.
To correct the problem, I decided that my only viable option was to open up space in the back. I didn’t want to get rid of the 2x6 brace altogether, though, since it added stability to the cabinet. So what I did was drag the cab back out to the workshop, lay it on its back, grab my router, and route out half the depth of a good portion of the 2x6 brace. That would allow the TV to sit back an additional 3/4", which should be just enough for the TV and the administrative buttons to peacefully coexist.
Before I did the routering, though, I put the control panel box on the cabinet to see what it’ll look like.
Okay, maybe it’s too soon, but it was strangely satisfying to stand in front of it pretending like I was playing games.
Once I got to the routering, it only took awhile to get the opening cut out. In fact, it probably took me longer to clean the cabinet up again (remember, the router kicks out A LOT of debris)! Once it was all done, though, I took the cabinet back inside and put the TV back in. This time, it fit perfectly, right up into the routed area with room up front for the buttons. Plus, the routed area in turn provides additional support so that the TV won’t move back and forth or side to side. Here's a close-up shot from the back:
Here’s how it looks from the front:
Oh, during all this I also found time to prime and paint the CP box, as well as to prime the top of the control panel. Once that was all done and the cab was back inside, I attached the CP box to the cabinet by drilling holes through the box and monitor/CP shelf, then inserting bolts and threading nuts on from underneath.
Once that was done, I attached the Creative SBS 330 speakers (based off of Ldsfunaz’s guide).
Then I installed the red t-molding all the way around.
Next week, the control panel top: making joystick mounts, applying the vinyl overlay, and installing the t-molding. And no more mistakes, hopefully (but not likely!).
TAG:
My family was out of town last week, which gave me a little extra free time to work on the cabinet. Unfortunately, it also meant that I was left without a digital camera, so I had to take some using a disposable one. In other words, sorry for the low quality and lack of detail in the pictures this time around.
The first step was making the mounts for the four joysticks. I planned to bottom mount all of them and attach them with bolts threaded from below through top-mounted t-nuts.
For the joysticks, there’s an UltraStik up top for single player/alternating two player games, and a M.A.C.H. 3 style trigger stick on the right that uses leaf switches. For the bottom 2-player section, I had originally intended to use the ball-top Happ Supers available from Tornado Terry’s, but I got a great deal on two Happ Perfect 360s and went with them, instead. Finally, all the game buttons use Groovy Game Gear’s microleaf switches. As a result, I should have a control panel that’s pretty close to click-less!
First, I drilled holes all the way through the CP top at the corners of the joysticks, then flipped the CP over and used a forstner bit to drill out enough room for the t-nuts to be recessed. Once that was done, I pushed the t-nuts in, drew them deeper using a bolt screwed in from underneath, then pounded them down a little further.
I flipped the CP back over and test fit one of the Perfect 360s, and it fit, well, perfectly.
For the trigger stick, I had to make a couple more holes, as the stick had bolts on the top plate that needed to be recessed into the bottom of the CP.
For the U-Trak, I used the inserts that Ultimarc supplies. These things are easy to install, but the placement has to be dead on if they’re going to work as intended!
As I was test-fitting the trigger stick, I realized my second significant mistake/mis-measurement. Namely, the bottom of the trigger joystick was too deep to fit into the CP box! I have no idea how I messed that measurement up, unless I forgot that the CP box sides go on the OUTside of the CP box bottom, rather than sitting on top of the bottom. That makes a 3/4" difference, so that may very well have been my mistake. At any rate, I needed more room, and routering out 1/4" from the mount on the bottom of the CP top wasn’t going to be enough. I couldn’t router out the space from the CP box bottom, either, since the area that needed extra depth was too close to the corner for the router to fit. My only other option (that I could see through my growing frustration) was to cut a space out of the box bottom, router out a little shelf on the underside, and glue a scrap piece of 1/4" thick wood to the shelf. That would open up an extra 1/2" of depth for the joystick, which should be enough for it to fit.
I didn’t take any pictures of the process until the end, but here’s the patch from the underside, with the space on the sides filled up with wood putty:
And here it is from the other side:
Then I painted the patch, let it dry, and reattached the CP box to the cabinet.
While the paint was drying, I covered over the recessed t-nuts with wood putty, being careful not to get any too far down into the holes (I wasn’t careful enough, as it turned out, since I wound up having to scratch some out from the underside of some of the holes).
Once that was done, I covered the CP with black vinyl from Parts Express, then installed the t-molding around the edges.
Next up, I installed all the buttons.
Then I attached all the joystick bases, the U-Trak, and the SpinTrak.
I attached the IPAC to the underside of the CP and put in a couple wiring blocks to try and make the grounds neater. The I daisychained all the grounds and hooked them into the IPAC. I used wire clips to try and keep things neat (but was ultimately unsuccessful, as you’ll soon see).
Then I wired up all the switches and the Perfect 360s (using another wiring block), then installed the joystick handles.
(See what I mean about the “neat” wiring??)
Finally, I installed the marquee light (an LED strip from SuperbrightLEDS.com). Man, is that thing bright! I didn’t even try to take a picture of it lit up, since I know it won’t translate very well with the disposable camera.
That does it for this time around. Unfortunately, the P360s I picked up were missing the proper sleeves, and one of them was missing the pivot bushing. I put in an order for those parts, but I can’t do anything more with the CP stuff until they arrive.
Again, for those still following, thanks for the interest, and your comments are always welcome!
TAG:
Ever since I started this project, I've been trying to come up with a good, unique name for it. Unfortunately, I seem to be creatively tapped out, so I'm probably going to go with something admittedly generic like Arcade Overload.
I could wait until the perfect name pops into my head, but I really want to get the marquee ordered and put up ASAP.
Other possibilities included variants of Neverending/Infinite/Endless combined with Quarters/Tokens/Arcade. And the popular combined names like Infinicade, Electrocade, and Forevercade.
If I had only used white t-molding, I could have gone all the way and called it Genericade.
Anyway, no progress update, just sharing some stream of consciousness ramblings.
TAG:
No real update, as I'm still waiting on parts for the P360s, but I thought I'd post a better picture of the CP top now that my family's back and I have access to the digital camera, again.
As far as the name goes, my wife really likes Infinicade, and she's been wonderful enough to let me do this crazy project, so that might wind up as the choice.
TAG:
Well, I finally got the P360 parts this past week and was all set to get back to work on the CP...but then non-arcade cab problems arose. Our water heater decided to dump water out, leaving us with a big puddle of water under the rec room's wood floor. So the arcade's gonna have to wait until that rather more substantial project is taken care of.