Main > Project Announcements
A Mame machine in an antique buffet - USB probs solved (I think!)
Ond:
--- Quote from: drventure on July 28, 2009, 11:39:53 pm ---
I'd be happy to post what I've got so far. Do you do animation work?
--- End quote ---
Great to hear the speakers turned out well, yep I can animate something original or maybe tidy/improve what you've already got. The Lion'sGate opener is very elaborate and something similiar would require many hours of work BUT there are other possibilities... Email me what you've got if you like, and I'll have a look.
drventure:
Finally got some pics put together of the speakers I've torn up and rebuilt for this cabinet
First, I started with some 25c (yep that's right 25c at Lowes) glass fan lampshades. I cut a base for the back and used some long screws from an old attic fan motor to hold things together
Then I picked up a couple RGB leds from Radio shack and mounted them in a hole drilled in that plate. But a simple RGB wasn't enough :). I came across a pile of those "fake tea lights" with a flickery orange LED inside for 50c each. So I bought a pile of them and started hacking them apart.
Inside, they're REALLY simple. just a 3v battery, a switch and the LED. The LED actually has a tiny little chip in it that handles the flicker.
Turns out, with the proper resistor, you can drive these straight from an LEDWIZ.
So there will be some RGB goodness going in but mostly it'll be flickery candle light that illuminates things in this cab.
Once I'd fixed the LED's in place, I had to do something with the sub. It was going underneath the buffet, so it really wouldn't be seen much, if at all. Still, i couldn't just leave it as a big silver/black box, so a little paint, some brass trunk corners, and flowery bits laters.
And here it is in its new home.
The speakers had a little control panel with a headphone jack, vol knob, and indicator light ,etc. I mounted those in an upholstered panel near the back of the cab, but still accessible. Had to add more brass bits :)
And the final result looks like this. I also upholstered around the lifts so you really don't see any of that hardware any more. I've kind of shifted from a "full out steampunk" theme to a little more subtle "refined Victorian SteamRapscallion" theme.
And up close on the speaker itself.
I don't have the LED's wired yet, but I have powered them up off the battery. They make the entire glass shades glow and flicker as if candles were in there. It's a really neat effect that turned out better than I could have imagined.
I'm not sure if it comes out in the pics, but the speakers are on flexible goosenecks, which lets them bend over into the cab, so everything folds up nice and tidy still. When it's closed, there's literally no indication of what's inside.
Now, the big issue is figuring out how to mount the mobo, PS and hardrive up underneath there, but not have it all just hanging out.
I'm guessing I'm going to go with a stained a trimmed walnut box with some more brass corners and acorn nuts all around.
But if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them! The wackier the better. I'm open. I was at one point considering putting the sub and PC in a small antique trunk and parking that to the side of the buffer, like an end table. But I decided all-in-one has a better feel to it.
drventure:
Oh, and I forgot the steampunk part. They aren't speakers.
They're "Crystaline Audiometric Projectors"
;)
Ond:
Beautiful, love those Crystaline Audiometric projectors :lol very nice touch with the flicker effect, it would be great to see them working (video hint). You really are having fun with this. I can imagine the perplexed/enchanted look on ppls faces when you explain it all to someone for the first time i.e. not BYOAC folk who already have been following along. Where ya gonna fit the giant Frankenstien switch?. It would be cool to have some kind of electrical sizzle sound when it switches on.
drventure:
Yeah, I'll have to get the PC finished up and in place before I can get any video shots of the lights in action. But I'll get some up.
You're right about the looks. Esp when it's all closed up with an old picture frame and a few candle sticks on top. Take em off, lift the top, fold the front doors, and lift and slide out the CP, and the reactions have been great. And that was with no screen, no PC, nothing lit.
I lost my bids on the knife switches (the dang things went for >50$ + shipping!).
So I'm keeping an eye out for more.
Considering I can get a .5 inch copper bar for about 5$ a foot, I might just make one!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version