Well, haven't posted in a while, but it's not for lack of progress! I've had my nose to the grindstone and have been working on a variety of different things.
Let's see, where to begin? First, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was having problems with the GGG Electric Ice ball "sticking" in my Happ trackball enclosure (i.e. it wasn't rolling smoothly). I was determined to make this ball work, because it's just so cool, so, after talking with RandyT, I decided to try putting thin spacers between the two halves of the enclosure. Just cut up an old credit card, which turned out to be just the right thickness and inserted them where all the screws are. The ball rolls smoothly now -- though still not
quite as smooth as the original ball. Not a very sexy solution, but effective nonetheless...
I also worked on getting the LEDs and LEDWiz all wired up. It was a bit intimidating at first, but once I got into a rythm, it wasn't bad at all. One of the most time consuming (and important) aspects of the process is determining the placement of the various boards and the direction things should face so that all of the wires reach their respective connections AND it all looks relatively neat and tidy at the end.
Here's what it started out like...
And the finished LED wiring...
That white terminal block at the top connects the "power" wires for all of the LEDs together. I basically made small jumper wires that go between each terminal so they're all connected as a single circuit, then a 5v power source was connected to the end terminal, providing power for all of the LEDs. There are other ways to do it, but this seems to be the cleanest method. Still need to put an inline fuse on the power wire.
What'ya know... it all worked the first time!
My WG D9800 monitor also arrived in perfect condition (thank you FedEx!). I felt sorry for the poor lady that had to haul that 100LB behemoth up the relatively steep incline to my front porch. I offered to help, but she kindly refused.
The OSD functions, for anyone that might be interested...
I also purchased the bezel that Xgaming offers for the D9800. I had heard of others having problems with the bezels from Happ not fitting the D9800.
Been working on the computer to run the whole thing too. I basically cobbled together a bunch of parts I had lying around and came up with this:
- AMD Athlon XP3200+ (2.2GHz)
- Asus A7V880 Motherboard
- 1GB Corsair PC3200 RAM
- ATI X1650 Pro AGP Video Card (256MB)
- 160GB HD
- 450W Antec TruePower PSU
- Sony CD/DVD Drive
Certainly not a cutting edge system by any means, but I'm hoping it will run everything I need it to. Worst case, if I'm not happy with it, I can upgrade it to something much faster for around $200.
I chose to use an ATI card because my understanding is that they are generally more compatible with sailorsat's Soft15KHz utility, which enables "normal" video cards to output the native arcade resolutions. This utility is only needed if you have an arcade monitor though.
I initially considered mounting all of the components directly inside the cabinet, but after thinking about it decided that I liked the idea of being able to easily remove the whole system for cleaning and repairs. So, I took an old case and stripped it down to the frame, then mounted everything.
For the OS, I used NLite to make a custom XP install CD with all of the unneeded "junk" stripped out. It worked nicely, and I haven't put a stop watch to it, but even on this modest system I'm guessing it boots up in around 15 seconds or less.
Once I got the OS loaded, I started focusing on software. Loaded Soft15Khz, LEDBlinky, RomCenter, RomLister and a whole host of other utilities I can't even remember at the moment...
Also started working on getting my FE (Hyperspin) set up. I spent 3 days downloading the EMUMovies (over 40GB!). Still need to download the Themes.
I've decided that the software aspect of this process is by far the most complicated. There's just SOOO many different components and various tasks required to get everything working right.
I couldn't stand the suspense any more, so I hooked up the monitor to take a quick peek and see how things look. Looking great so far!
And finally, I went and purchased the plywood yesterday. Decided on 3/4" cabinet grade birch plywood (3 sheets). Man, this stuff is heavy! I can't even imagine using MDF...
Of course, every good project is an excuse to buy more tools... So I picked up one of these too...
Nothing fancy, but it should do the job, and was a pretty good deal for $119. It's 2HP, variable speed, fixed base and plunge, 1/4" and 1/2" collets, and has some pretty LED lights built in.
Now I need to start building the cabinet and wire up the buttons/IPAC.
Anyway, that's all for now. Stay tuned...