MVS-99-6 - Project on hold until further notice (2014-03-10)

[vrf]

Four control panels. I admire your persistence, the need to get it exactly right.

Me... I just did this...

[Yvan256]

Four control panels. I admire your persistence, the need to get it exactly right.

That's still less work than what Bender did... a complete prototype cab + the actual cab.   

[Bender]

well the thing folds up does that count for anything?

I had a secret hope that the prototype would work out and I wouldn't have to build the second one, but I made too many mistakes. I feel like I'm a better builder now beause of it

the 360 sticks I made straight off, actually 2 at the same time

but you do have to get it right or it'll drive you nuts

[Yvan256]

Okay... I've written directly to Sanwa, Shinden, LizardLick and even asked for Digi-Key to carry these Shinden SDP-1003C-41 white/white buttons.

Yes I could order directly from ArcadeShop.de, but it's the shipping cost that's the problem. I do understand that shipping overseas is costly, but I hate paying 15$USD to ship 30$USD worth of buttons...

Yes, I also asked ArcadeShop.de if they could ship surface instead of air, let's see what they say.

I'm going to use my current SDM-20 buttons in the meantime, but it sure kills the overall Neo-Geo look of the CP. 



follow-up: Sanwa: replied, doesn't have those. LizardLick, tried but couldn't find a supplier. Shinden, no reply at all. Digi-Key replied, doesn't carry those nor anything that doesn't have a black bezel. ArcadeShop replied, surface shipping cost is so close to air shipping it's not even worth mentioning.

So all in all, everybody except the original manufacturer replied. 

I guess I have no choice but to order from ArcadeShop.de 

[Yvan256]

Buttons ordered from ArcadeShop.de  I just can't have black body buttons with colored plungers, especially not after all the CP revisions I have made to make it look more like a real Neo-Geo CP! I ordered 11 all-white and 4 all-black buttons, 15 of those buttons being the maximum weight that fits under 0.5kg. Three of the all-white are for the CP of MVS99-6 (duh) and two of the all-black are for Colecade.

Hopefully I'll be able to finish the sides this week-end. Not having the sides ready is holding me back to work on the other parts because of the 0.25" edge all-around the cab and the many angled cuts I will have to make.

In the meantime that small LCD is giving me headaches so instead I'm working on the PIC16F84 + dual 7-segment + coin switch part.



And no, the final version won't be such a mess.   

I also need to find a cheap source for a tiny piece of smoked plastic to put over the 7-segment display so that the unlit segments aren't so visible. I have searched for thin frosted plastic school binders but I can't find any in black. Maybe I'll make the circuit, add a battery so it's portable and just walk around in stores to test the thing "live" with the materials I find. 

"What are you doing, sir?" "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just testing the opacity and diffusion of the materials."

[Epyx]

Maybe I'll make the circuit, add a battery so it's portable and just walk around in stores to test the thing "live" with the materials I find.

"What are you doing, sir?" "Oh, don't mind me, I'm just testing the opacity and diffusion of the materials."

Lol...I do things like that all the time...samples of paint etc...recently I brought a laptop to Best Buy and asked the store manager if I could test it with a few LCD tvs (Hyperpin).  Yes, he let me but I sure got the stares...oh well, if I am going to plunk down the cash for a tv...darned right Im gonna make sure it works...plus they decrease the chance of me coming back with a return

[vrf]

So are you going to resell some of the extra buttons to help you cover shipping costs?

(I'd take two black and two white, although that would clean you out of black ones.)

[Yvan256]

So are you going to resell some of the extra buttons to help you cover shipping costs?

(I'd take two black and two white, although that would clean you out of black ones.)

I only really need two blacks for Colecade, so that would be okay. I overdid it with the whites simply to max out the 0.5kg limit, even if I ever build three MVS99-6 that's only 9 buttons, so two whites would be okay too.

"Parcels weighing up to 2 kg will be shipped by airmail (delivered in 3-7 days)", so I guess I could receive the parts as soon as next week.

[Ryglore]

"What are you doing, sir?"

Well, isn't it obvious? I'm making a weapon out of office supplies.... moron. 

[Yvan256]

I've finally completed the sides of the cabinet. They've also been routed for the T-molding, so from now on I can work on the other panels (bottom, back, top, etc).

[Bender]

I have some 1/8" smoked plexi scraps that I think might work for you. If your interested PM me and I'll send some out
if that's too thick you can try neutral density gel filters for photography (the come in different degrees of darkness)

[Yvan256]

I have some 1/8" smoked plexi scraps that I think might work for you. If your interested PM me and I'll send some out
if that's too thick you can try neutral density gel filters for photography (the come in different degrees of darkness)

Thanks for the smoked plexi offer and the tip, I'll check with the local photography store later this week about those. A very thin filter would be easier to fit than 1/8" thick plexi, so I'll try that first.

[Yvan256]

Long weekend equals a lot of coding. A huge total of 49 lines of assembler code (not counting blank lines, constants, labels and comments)! 

I also cleaned the circuit a bit, it looks a bit better and (most of) the resistors aren't all over the place anymore.

"I did all this coding and all I got was this lousy T-sh... I mean number."

Behold, the answer to life, the universe, and everything!



The red paper over the 7-segment display is used to diffuse the LEDs otherwise my webcam would explode or something.

The next big step will be to read from the coin mech switch and increment the displayed value, from 0 to 99. I also want to scroll "1990-2009" on start-up, 1990 being the year the MVS was released and 2009 being the year for MVS-99-6 (or "1990-2010" if I can't get it done within the next four months or so). 

[Yvan256]

I forgot that I also worked on the control panel front/bottom panel, which was glued yesterday. I'll need to strengthen it with brackets before doing the rounded edge because I used my test control panel jig as a stress test and while the glue held the wood itself didn't. 



Also, I want to thank javeryh for the bolts, I couldn't find such small ones locally. These will hold the plexiglass of the CP, so I had to get really tiny bolts.



Much appreciated javeryh, thanks! 

[HaRuMaN]

Why do you need bolts to hold your plexi?

[Yvan256]

Why do you need bolts to hold your plexi?

The real MVS cabs were built this way and I'm trying to copy as much details as I can while still doing a single-player mini-bartop cabinet. I think four bolts should be enough but I might use six anyway for that authentic look. Javeryh sent me eight bolts so I do have enough to do that.

There's also the fact that I can't use the buttons to hold the plexi since my panel is made from 5/8" thick MDF and the buttons are for metal panels. I will probably end up clipping the buttons to the plexi and use the bolts to hold the plexi to the MDF.

[javeryh]

Those bolts are looking good!   

Man this thing is going to be nice when it is finished.  You are like Batman or something making that circuit yourself. 

 

[Yvan256]

Man this thing is going to be nice when it is finished.  You are like Batman or something making that circuit yourself. 

There's so much work to do that I try to simply do one sub-part at a time. Right now I'm working on the coin switch/credit display part, which is part of the control panel.

The PIC microcontrollers are really not that complicated, at least not the entry models. Here is an easy-to-follow tutorial, though I did see a lot of errors in there. The PICs only have 35 instructions and a very simple internal architecture (RISC) so it's easy to learn how to use them. They're also very low-cost and require inexpensive programmers so that's also two good things going for them.

edit: the 16F84 is obsolete and has been replaced by the newer 16F88 which costs even less and is a much, much better chip.

[clickhea]

can you give us the measurements for this project?

i dont want the rotating screen or anything

[Yvan256]

can you give us the measurements for this project?

i dont want the rotating screen or anything

You mean the overall cabinet size or actual details plans?

[clickhea]

actual detail plans if possible

id like to make one for my room really like your shape

[Yvan256]

actual detail plans if possible

id like to make one for my room really like your shape

Well all I did was take the shape of a real MVS cab and then I cut the bottom. 

As for detailed plans, well, I'd rather not do that until I've actually completed the cab. There might be errors that I will only see while I'm building the cab.

Here's a four-pages Letter-size PDF that you can use to cut the sides, though.

edit: I'm getting an error when trying to view an attached PDF or ZIP file... anyone know why?

[Yvan256]

I worked a bit on the control panel, attaching it to the bottom panel with a small piano hinge. Yes I know the screws and bolts are poking through, I'll cut them later.



I also worked on the marquee area, the top and bottom are holding only by friction/compression on the plexiglass. It's only a black and white print for now, I'll get the marquee printed on photo paper for the final version. It's not going to be backlit but the LCD screen for the mini-marquee does light up. The plastic retainers will also be black for the final version. I can't seem to find any in black locally. 

[vrf]

Nice work! What did you use for your marquee retainer? I might switch to that... 

[Yvan256]

Nice work! What did you use for your marquee retainer? I might switch to that... 

It's a simple L-shaped plastic molding, except I cut one side to the thickness of the MDF. I need to remake it with a black molding since it will probably cost a lot less to buy a new black one than try to paint or dye the white one. In the meantime I'm using the white retainers however, so my project isn't stopped by a part being the wrong color (I'm looking at you Sanwa SDM-20!).

[emphatic]

Wow, that control panel is very nice. With the white buttons on there, and the color CPO it'll look awesome.

[javeryh]

It's only a black and white print for now, I'll get the marquee printed on photo paper for the final version. It's not going to be backlit but the LCD screen for the mini-marquee does light up.

Why not?  Backlighting the marquee is extremely easy to do and it makes a cabinet pop when you see it all lit up.  Do it!

Looking great by the way.   

[Yvan256]

Why not?  Backlighting the marquee is extremely easy to do and it makes a cabinet pop when you see it all lit up.  Do it!

The problem is the LCD mini-marquee. This thing is a small motherboard that's quite a bit bigger than the visible area. If I were to try and backlight the rest of the marquee I would get a dark rectangle area around the mini-marquee. I also can't remember if the real Neo-Geo MVS cabs had a backlit marquee, or if it differed from model to model (ex: 1-slot MVS could be backlit, 2 and 4-slots not backlit, 6-slots backlit, etc) because of the different designs of their marquee/mini-marquee(s) area.

Looking great by the way.   

Thanks! It's going much slower than I expected, especially for such a small cab. What is slowing me down is the coin mech, the coin counter 7-segment display and the LCD mini-marquee. I've also never done a motorized rotating monitor but at least I shouldn't have weight problems with that part. 

[Yvan256]

Well, the scrolling of "1990-2009" didn't turn out as impressive as I thought.



The problem is the double "9" in 1990 and the double "0" in 2009. I also made a mistake in the last "frame" of the animation, where it ends with "0 " instead of "9 ", which doesn't help the whole thing.

Since the whole "scroll 1990-2009 on start-up" idea isn't working, does anyone has ideas on what I could scroll instead? Keep in mind that I need to avoid similar double-digits or double-letters (so "HELLO" wouldn't work either, not to mention the mess of uppercase-lowercase on a regular 7-segment display).

I could also be an animation with the segments of the two digits, etc. Any ideas?

[Yvan256]

I know a simple 7-segment display isn't as fun as pictures of a whole cabinet, but... no comments? I'm sad. 

I might try to scroll "1 9 9 0 - 2 0 0 9" instead of "1990-2009", it should be much easier to read!

[emphatic]

Don't be sad, just post some hotter pics! 

[Yvan256]

One at a time, they just seem to bounce around....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzHFr2R1mh8[/youtube]


Two at a time, I lose the scrolling effect but it's much easier to understand.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfPPGfRfUN8[/youtube]


I might try one at a time, with a blank between digits. Or I might just give up and do a moving pattern of a few segments moving around the two digits, like a snake, before entering into "credits" mode.

[emphatic]

Wow, that's much cooler. Sorry, I never understood I had to click the .gif to see the animation before. 

[Epyx]

The two at a time seems to work fine as the brain comprehends pairing pretty easy.

[Yvan256]

Third time's the charm?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzJoBnrH8fk[/youtube]

Looks much better IMHO.

edit: wow, YouTube didn't like my "optimize for server" setting on this one. 

Not really a problem though since I recorded two "loops" of the animation...

So, what's better? This one or the one which shows two digits at once? (19, 90, --, 20, 09)

[Bender]

not to rain on your parade

It's obvious you put a lot of work into the animations, but I still just looks like flashing random numbers to me

I don't think two digits is enough to create an intelligible scroll (of words or numbers)

What is the significance of the dates?

what about a little animation that outlines the square then maybe flows around and through the frame like a snake?

[Yvan256]

not to rain on your parade

It's obvious you put a lot of work into the animations, but I still just looks like flashing random numbers to me

I don't think two digits is enough to create an intelligible scroll (of words or numbers)

What is the significance of the dates?

what about a little animation that outlines the square then maybe flows around and through the frame like a snake?

Most of the work was to display the two digits at once (they're multiplexed) and hook the whole thing on an timed interrupt. Doing the animations after that is a piece of cake.

Yeah I know two digits isn't enough for readable scroller, but I had to try a few tricks anyway.

The dates are: 1990 for the launch date of the SNK MVS Neo-Geo system (according to Wikipedia anyway), and 2009 for the year of MVS-99-6 (unless I can't finish in the next 3.5 months). 

I also think it's going to end up with a snake-like animation made up of 3 segments going around the two digits... perhaps "enter" from the right side, go around the digits, then "exit" to the left side.

[Ryglore]

Those videos of the display animating make my head hurt. Nice work, but I agree with Bender, it's prolly best to do the snake animation with it...

[Bender]

It's true, you just don't know till you try

[Yvan256]

They're finally here!



Here they are, neatly packed, to prevent scratches at the top.




What some people call over-packaging I call protect the products you are shipping to prevent damage. What good is it if you receive an under-packaged product that is damaged during shipping and needs to be replaced?




Finally, no more body-of-a-different-color-than-the-plunger madness!




And here's three of the white buttons, finally in their place at the top of the control panel. Believe me, it was worth the wait!




Here they are from another angle, forgive me for the crappy black and white paper overlay. It's temporary you can be sure of that!




Close-up of the "Pause Game" button at the top right of the CP.




And just for kicks, here's a shot from under the control panel, opened up for access. The mini-PAC will be located "under" the main buttons, left of the metal bracket. You can also see that the credit display pcboard will have to be thin enough for the joystick cable to pass on top of it. Shouldn't be a problem, however.