Main > Project Announcements
A Mame machine in an antique buffet - USB probs solved (I think!)
drventure:
Wow. I love that door knob backplate, but 83$ :dizzy:
Actually, I've played A LOT with Metallic sprays, and they do look good (just check out my buttons earlier in this thread :)
But... When they're right next to a real piece of brass, the effect, at least to me, is not so good.
I found some wood rosettes that I think will work well. I've drilled them out and stained them, Will get them in place tomorrow and see how that looks.
Here's the raw piece
I just drilled a hole out of the middle and used a dremel to even up the carving.
Unfortunately I burned out my Dremel in the process (at least the motor still runs but the bit doesn't turn, I think I can fix that though).
drventure:
Yeah! Just picked up a Dell 2405fpw for the cab. Speakers and now a screen! I might actually be able to play this thing in.... oh, who'm i kidding. I still gotta finish that Vacuum Tube marquee :)
drventure:
It's slowly starting to look like I might actually get this thing finished having something playable soon.
I had a pile of Fry's gift cards lying around and finally decided to pull the trigger for a mobo/processor/memory/HD. Already had a decent PS lying around, and I picked up a Dell 2405wfp a few weeks ago.
Here's the guts in all it's glory :)
Basically, it's an ASUS M3N78-VM mobo, with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e dual core processor, 2gb ram and a WD 1tb harddrive.
I had a PS around, and I'm using a USB Wireless G dongle for networking. No floppy, no cd, no dvd. It's been a big experiment getting windows on it with ONLY a USB drive.
But eventually, I was able to get it there. GPARTED is awesome, just remember to set the SATA device into ACHI mode (or whatever the heck the abbreviation is).
So far, the benchmarks are coming in right in line with my Core 2 duo, maybe a little shy, but certainly not bad for onboard video. I don't think I'll be playing Blitz, PropCycle, or gauntlet legends, but still.
Maybe there's some overclocking in my future ;)
Ond:
It's getting there eh? :) What onboard video card is on those mobo's? I notice you mentioned speakers as well, heh, your project is progressing in a similar way to mine - I just got my mobo etc and I'm testing speakers/amp/ps at the moment. I'll be interested to see what you come up with for your sound system. I'll be posting in a day or two my own progress. Did you end up making use of the EL wire for something (I might have missed it if you mentioned it). hmmm and more questions! :lol do you have some kind of opener Vid in mind - short and sweet but awsome, there are so many theme possibilities with this. There's a movie production company that has some elaborate shots of gears all turning and lots of gizmo's all spinning as their opening integration....damn I can't remember who has that. If you have some ideas in that area let me know if I can help.
drventure:
--- Quote ---There's a movie production company that has some elaborate shots of gears
--- End quote ---
hehe, way ahead of you there :)
It's Lion'sGate Films. I grabbed that shot off a dvd I had and have been playing with it ever since.
The mobo has an nvidia 8200 onboard. not a super fast chipset, but pretty decent. It appears to be running at about the same level as my ATI Radeon 1900xt, which is 2+ years old, and that was really what I was gunning for. Overclocking the mobo probably would help, as would picking up an optimized mame, but that'll come.
The speakers I've finished. Just haven't cobbled together some images. They turned out better than I'd hoped. The LEDs on the inside of the glass light up the glass and the edges, so the edges of the speakers flicker and glow too.
I ended up using a set of Altec lansing speakers vs 2321
I decased the speakers, and just decorated the subwoofer with some paint and brass corners (it's hung underneath so you really can't see it anyway).
They sound FANTASTIC, even being incased in glass lampshades. I was very surprised. I was all set to hear scratchy vibrations all over. And because they're computer speakers, the amp and all is all contained. I even mounted the headset jack and volume control buttons (with requisite brass knobs and mother of pearl LED lamp) at the back of the buffet with quilted taffeta.
Back to the opening screen, I suck at movie "production", I suppose. Basically, i cut the gears part, then had it flying out and "through" one of the numbers on my clock background for MALA, then the screen ends by fading into my MALA backdrop. It looks ok, but it could be better. It's short, too, at about 7-9 seconds. But, I have no decent tools for any of this, it's all Windows Movie maker, PhotoStory, an open source app that can reverse video and a mixing app.
I'm trying to come up with some good opening music. Believe it or not, I've almost settled on some music from the background of the kids game "Disney Princess-Enchanted Journey" (My 5yo daughters ;) )
I was asking her one day what music I should use, and she busted out with "How about some music from my princess game?"
Turns out, they're all just OGG files right there on the CD. I'd be happy to post what I've got so far. Do you do animation work?
Oh and the EL wire. Yes, I finished all 12 vacuum tubes, they're wired and operational but I haven't figured out quite how I'm going to mount them. In a shadowbox type thing, or on a plate with a brass wire "cage", on a gimbal, something else?
Just not sure there.
Oh and I found several antique knife switches (ala frankenstien) that I might use as the power switch for the whole thing. One is enormous and mounted on a solid slate panel. Weighs 9 lbs!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version