The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: hbm*rais on December 10, 2004, 08:01:32 pm
-
This is my first project. It
-
This is the mock up made by my friend Fernando. It helped us alot in deciding that it was the right size of cabinet.
I
-
And this is the current state of the cabinet...
-
Very cool. I'm wanting to build one of those for my Neo-Geo MVS. What size monitor are you going to put in it?
-
I
-
Great job so far. I can't believe how well it has come out, especially since my plans were pretty pathetic! Let me know if there were any other measurements you needed.
-
Can you e-mail me the plans in PDF? My brother-in-law went crazy for my full sized cab, but has been having a lot of trouble finding trashed cabaret to convert. This is perfect for him! Really nice work!
-
Stuzza,
Your plans weren
-
Looks good, I like these style cabs and they are fairly unusual too. Good work :)
-
Thanks Minwah! I loved your System 1 cab too, it
-
Well, this is the last week of classes, after that we lose access to the woodwork shop until sometime in January. So we have to try to finish as much as possible until Friday.
We
-
It
-
And the glass....
-
That glass will work fine. Looks really good. I don't know about the paint. I'm in the middle of painting a 3/4" plywood shelf with black water based paint. The reason I chose water based is because I'm painting in my garage and didn't want the fumes, and wanted an easy cleanup. I'm pretty sure with MDF you're going to have to use a primer to keep the wood from constantly soaking in your paint. If you have access to a spray gun, I would use that. I've seen guys get mirror finishes on their cabs with that method. Mmmmm... pretty.
-
Thanks for the input Witchboard.
I forgot to mention, I think I am going with a semi gloss finishing. Red or blue on the sides and black on all the rest. I still haven
-
hbmorais,
Fantastic work. I too am working on a lowboy in Australia... except it has been taking me way too long.
I just had some questions to ask you about how you went about mounting/holding the tv shown in the pictures. Also how are you looking at supporting the monitor once you get around to it. Brackets? Decasing it and using the frame around the monitor to support it?
The reason why I ask is that I am looking at installing a 20" or 21" pc monitor and any tips, tricks, or design ideas that you could share would be fantstic.
Thanks again and good luck!
-Alex
-
Thanks zzsprade,
The actual building took us around 2 weeks, plus 1 week for painting. But that
-
Zzsprade,
This picture is from the cabinet with the PC monitor. You can see the wood pieces we had to use to hold the circuit board under the monitor.
Before actually cuting the hole in the plywood panel for the monitor, I would mount that panel in the cabinet and draw some rough lines where you expect the screen to be. Fernando didn
-
Finally, this is the current state of my cabinet. We finished painting it yesterday.
My intention was to use water based paint and a roll but so many people told me that using oil based paint and a spray gun would give better results that I had to go that way.
The result wasn't near as bad as I feared, but also not as good as I hoped.
The main problem was two fairly deep scratches that didn't appear on the raw MDF, neither when we sprayed it with the matte gray primer, but just jumped in my face after the first coat of shiny red paint. If we had the time, I would come back to fill and prime it. But we hadn't.
We gave it two coats of paint and that paint has a very good coverage, but I'd love to give it a third coat, just for good measure.
At the end of the day the result was pretty good and I
-
Well, after a slow start this year, I resumed work on my cabinet. I have had an awful amount of problems with the hardware. I guess that
-
That's a nice bezel.
-
Excellent work on your cab. :)
-
Thank you. Yes, that's exactly that kind of $2 bezel ;D .
Yeah, the circuit board mounted to the wall looks slick. It makes it seem like a real cab not something home made. I couldn't do that to mine though. The wires that link the circuits to the tube in the PC monitor are much shorter than the ones in the TV.
Unfortunately Fernando has gone a bit overboard now and mounted the whole computer to the sidewall. I don't like the idea very much. I'm using an old PC case to keep the computer parts together in mine.
Note to self: I have to talk to him about that HD just inches away from the subwoofer. Looks like a bad idea.
Yes, I did consider the heat venting, although I have done nothing about it yet. Fernando installed a big 120mm fan on his one. I'm using mine opened until I have finished the configurations and resolved what to do about the coin door.
That's a nice bezel. Is that the $2 kind from the new user FAQ? Also, I like how the one cab has the monitor chassis mounted to the wall instead of having it hang off the tube. Pretty slick. Can't wait to see the finished products.
Oh... I guess it's a $.50 bezel. ;D Again.. looks great!
Also, have you considered your heat venting? I didn't notice any fans or air holes. The one with the amplifier for the bass escpecially.
-
Thank you tailgunner!
Your idea for the $2 bezel is incredible. I'm amazed by how well it worked.
If there was a Mamey for the Best All Around Hack or Most Creative Use Of Card Paper, you should win it ;D!
Excellent work on your cab. :)
-
OK, this message is just to bring my thread back from the dead and show you the current state of my cab.
The control panel has been rewired and is now finished. I intend to move the start buttons to the vertical panel and put a spinner in there in the future, but it's finished for now.
I installed two 5" car speaker amplified through some El Cheapo 2.1 computer speaker. The speakers have blue cones that give a nice blue glow when the marquee is turned on.
No real marquee for now. Just a b&w Galaga mock-up as a place holder. I'm researching my options at the moment.
-
Very, very nice, one of my favorites. Two requests though, even if you aren't going to wire it up, put on a coin door to make it look authentic. Also, please dont put a "mame" marquee on their, make something unique, or put a single game marquee. GOOD WORK!
-
sweet cab. I am thinking about buildng one of these myself. I really like the design and dimensions
-
Glad to see it's finished. It looks really good. I was wondering if your speakers were a distraction when playing games. Normally it's not a big deal when the monitor is more upright, but do you get a reflection on the glass protecting your monitor, and if so, is it distracting?
-
Thank you all for the positive comments!
the3eyedblindman: Your requests will be granted ;D!
I do intend to use a coin door, but for cost reasons I'll have to make due with a used one, bought from a local operator I know. Importing one is out of que$tion. Brand new local ones are also pretty expensive.
The pictures show the door I'm probably going to buy and Fernando's cabinet equipped with a similar door. As you can see, they are much more "plain" than the American ones. The one I'm buying is also a bit damaged, but I should be able to fix it.
I still don't know if I'm gonna keep it polished steel or paint it red or black. Suggestions are accepted :D.
I originally intended to use just a small coin plate in the front door, like in the Australian lowboys, but the door will allow me an easier access once I put the computer inside the cabinet.
-
the3eyedblindman: Oh, and about the marquee... I'm leaning toward the Galaga marquee for now. In the future I may try to make something "unique" if I feel inspired :D. The MAME marquee was never an option. I agree with you that it has been overdone and it really wouldn't make sense. This cabinet will be used to emulate old console games too and even when it comes to arcades, I'll probably use Kawaks and Raine alongside MAME, so there's no reason to give the whole marquee to MAME ;).
-
Glad to see it's finished. It looks really good. I was wondering if your speakers were a distraction when playing games. Normally it's not a big deal when the monitor is more upright, but do you get a reflection on the glass protecting your monitor, and if so, is it distracting?
Thank you. No, the speakers are not distracting, at least not to me. You can't see the light coming from them directly while playing. You do see the reflection on the glass, but it is faint and located above the screen area. I was more worried about the light of the marquee shining in my face. I thought it would be uncomfortable, but I barely notice it while playing. All in all it makes for a nice "ambiance" :).
-
Dude, for real, nice cab. As for a coin door, all I did was post in the buy sell trade forum for a used over under coin door, and within minutes I got one like new for 5 dollars, a new coat of black paint and new coin door stickers and it looks great. As for a marquee, I had one made with 40 mini marquees of my favorite games by snaake, I try making it look authentic as possible, I consider myself very "high standard", I only like the best, and I wanted people to think it was a real arcade machine. Your machine looks great, I love it, keep up the GREAT WORK!
-
Hey,
Sorry to drag up an old post.
Living in Aus, Ive grow up playing on lowboys.
I really like you cab.
Could you please share you plans with me?
miikeboyle@hotmail.com
Thanks
Mike
-
(@ Mike: I just sent you the plans)
I've been meaning to wake up this post myself for a long time.
The cabinet is more or less finished (do they ever?) for about an year now. In the mean time I got married, moved, had to take care of a lot of repairing and refinishing in my old apartment, so there hasn't been much new on the cab. It did see a lot of play, though ;-).
What's new:
I installed the coin door. It's the kind we use in Brazil. I debated if I should paint it red or black, but decided to keep in unpainted. I like the stainless steel finishing. It had lots of scratches and some dents. I took care of most of the superficial damage, the rest adds to the "real arcade" feel ;-).
I also printed (ink jet) a Galaga marquee for it. My plan is to eventually have half a dozen marquees laser printed for it and keep changing them now and then. All real games, no custom or MAME marquee.
What's in the (hopefully near) future:
A new 2-player CP. I already have the controls. I'm working on the design.
So here it is, my lowboy in its new home:
-
Hey,
Sorry to drag up an old post.
Living in Aus, Ive grow up playing on lowboys.
I really like you cab.
Could you please share you plans with me?
miikeboyle@hotmail.com
Thanks
Mike
I am sure there is a fair amount of interest here hbm*rais if you could put the plans up on the board some how.
From memory the last set have disppeared off the page they were previously, on which was from someone here in Australia.
Any chance you wouldn't mind sharing them?
-Alex
-
Alex,
I'm glad to see the interest in the plans.
They were previously hosted in my old ISP here in Brazil ("down under", but not Australia ;-) ). They're nowhere to be found on the web now, unless someone "mirrored" them. I will still e-mail them to anyone who wants though.
As for making the plans available, I certainly don't mind sharing them. If anyone wants to host them, be my guest! However, this plans consist of just a Illustrator 1:1 file (I also did some work on "translating" the plans to SketchUp)
. Lot's of measures and angles are not stated clearly, they have to be "measured" using Illustrator tools to retrieve the information. It world be cool if someone with technical training would take a look at them and make something more professional.
Anyone up to the task?
-
hbm*rais, you Lowboy is awesome, you've finished it off so well.
Thanks for your advise on my cabinet it was very helpfull. Just one other question, what type of glass did you use to cover the monitor? I've heard people talk about something called greylight...
I can host your plans on our server at work if you wish.
-
Thank you Simon.
I used 6mm grey tinted glass. The kind you find in any glass shop. It works great for me. I also don't think safety glass is really necessary in this design.
I have heard of greylite, but don't anything about it. It's probably called differently around here.
Feel free to put the plans on your server.
I'm using SketchUp to produce some detailed 3D images of some parts of the project, I think it will make it easier to understand the plans. I'll send them your way if I think they turn out OK.
-
hbm&rais: I have hosted your Illustrator plans here:
http://users.on.net/~holdennut/lowboy2.zip
-
Would it be possible for anyone to convert the plans hbm*rais has klindly put together into pdf or another format? Having some problems with illustrator.
-Alex
P.S. Thanks again hbm*rais
-
zzsprade: You should be able to open this version with Adobe Acrobat Reader 7. However without the Illustrator tools you won't be able measure the angles and dimensions correctly.
http://www.users.on.net/~holdennut/lowboy2_CS2.zip
or
http://www.users.on.net/~holdennut/lowboy2.pdf
-
I have converted it to PDF file but i have no where to host it.
Email me at miikeboyle@hotmail.com and i will email the plans to you
mike
-
I have converted it to PDF file but i have no where to host it.
Email me at miikeboyle@hotmail.com and i will email the plans to you
mike
Mike are the same as the ones above (coverted to pdf) or a different set?
-Alex
-
Apologies - it took me a while but I saw holdennuts edit.
-
Thank you Simon.
I used 6mm grey tinted glass. The kind you find in any glass shop. It works great for me. I also don't think safety glass is really necessary in this design.
I have heard of greylite, but don't anything about it. It's probably called differently around here.
Feel free to put the plans on your server.
I'm using SketchUp to produce some detailed 3D images of some parts of the project, I think it will make it easier to understand the plans. I'll send them your way if I think they turn out OK.
I'd love to get a copy of your sketch-up file. Any way you could post it somewhere?
-
I can PM you the SketchUp file. Just send me your address.
I wouldn't like to put the file on the web for now. As I started to "unmount" the model to get some pictures showing details and measures, I noticed there are a lot of problems in it. Some pieces have wrong measures, some don't align perfectly... Not a surprise, as it was the first time I ever used SketchUp.
I'll try to correct it as I go along making the detailed pictures.
The SketchUp model is still a nice help in visualizing how everthing is mounted, but for precise measurements one should refer to the Illustrator file.