The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: chadwyk on April 29, 2019, 08:07:54 pm
-
Hey Everyone!
I've been watching this forum on and off for the past 6 months getting ideas and reading tips for starting my own project. Now that it is finally warming up here in Wisconsin and I can work in the garage comfortably, I decided it is time to just jump in and start - otherwise it would never get done. This project definitely seems daunting. I have very little experience woodworking, but I am a retro gamer, collector, programmer, and do IT for my day job so hopefully I won't have too many issues with the technical side of it all! I am a recently new homeowner and I figure this will be a perfect project for me to start fine tuning my handyman skills on a topic I love! Unfortunately I don't have many tools either, so this project is going to get expensive fast!
Today I took the first step, and got my friend to help me out with his truck, and we picked up several sheets of 3/4inch pine plywood, and extra wood just in case! I thought about other materials, but I thought pine fit my budget and project the best. Tomorrow I plan on picking up a jigsaw, router, and a few other odds and ends to help out.
The cabinet is going to be using @ChanceKJ's template for the sides. It's going to be a 4 player battleship CP. At this point I'm looking to get most of the parts from Ultimarc. I'd like to go full on RGB buttons and sticks. I want a spinner, trackball, plunger and side buttons on the CP for virtual pinball, and a couple light guns. Finally I think it would be cool to have the LCD marquee as well. As I buy the parts I'll update this post but I'm going to hold off on most of this until I am successful on the woodworking part!
These are just all ideas floating in my head right now. Things may change. Unfortunately I don't have any good ones for a theme or artwork yet. But in time that will come as well. I'm kind of taking the same technique as I do when I start a programming project. Just start. Get something done and move forward.
-
Good luck with the build. Can we assume you know not to angle player 3 and 4's joysticks :)
-
;D yup I’ve seen mistakes others have done. I’m going to have to play with templates as well. I want to avoid the crazy angles on the CP that dig into your hip too.
I might pump the breaks a bit and play with MAME and front ends. I had originally wanted to stick a 32” monitor in it. But large 4K TVs are so cheap these days, after reading some other threads I’m starting to like the idea more and more to mount a larger 42” panel vertically. If I’m going to have it do pinball, that might be nice to have. Though I might want the extra screen space masked off for other normal aspect games. I’m not real sure what’s all possible, or if I could make some sort of bezel that folds away for pinball.
Regardless, this may change how I build the sides of the cabinet and viewing angle for the tv. Going to do some testing with MAME and a smaller vertical monitor that I have to see if I like that idea.
Are there cons that other people have encountered with mounting a monitor vertical like that?
-
The biggest con seems to be screen placement and custom resolutions. If using analog/vga to connect to the screen you can move it around to top/bottom or 2/3rds of way up or pretty much anywhere you like. But if using Digital/HDMI then its pretty much top or bottom and no other choices. This then limits screen location/angle within the cabinet itself. I got as far as planning a big monitor vertically mounted machine with active marquee. First lot of wood arrived damaged, I got a refund and haven't gone back to it yet. Seemingly we may get a decent summer this year in the UK, if so then I am sure I will do some more work on it.
-
Good to know about the placement via digital input!
Going back to the Pinball stuff, I was thinking of some cool ideas where the cab could "transform" and it would lay flat for pinball. However, knowing my skill level with woodworking, I think I'm getting a bit over my head and wishing too much out of this project, which is what I do often when excited! As much as I want it to be able to do everything, I think I need to keep it simple. I may just remove all pinball ideas. If this project works out well, I may build a stand alone virtual pinball table instead.
I've been playing with MAME and HyperSpin/Rocket Launcher all day in a VM on my Mac. I really need to get it setup on my PC to play with vertical monitors.
I think maybe I'm going to make up a scale model out of cardboard before I do any cutting of wood, and see how best to fit the monitor in and if I have to adapt the templates in any way.
-
I did a few mock ups for a large 4K tv in portrait and even though a large 4K screen sounds cool, I don’t think I’m going to go that route. I don’t like that almost half the screen would be masked if I did a portrait mode monitor. The cab would also need to be significantly bigger. I still really like the idea of a 4K monitor though. It’s a shame I can’t find any 32” 4K TVs! :hissy: I thought about scaling it up to a 43” 4K tv but i popped in Turtles in Time and sat a foot away from an existing 42” tv I have and it seems too big and overkill. I want to keep it practical. I don’t want to spend a ton of money either on a 32” 4K pc monitor. I am looking at TCL TVs. They typically have low lag from my experience and they are cheap! So I’m leaning toward their 32” 1080p model.
So today I’m going to run to Staples and have them print my templates for side panels and start cutting wood after I run to Home Depot and pickup more tools! It begins! :applaud:
-
Well today was a busy day. I ran all over town. I went to look at TVs. Yeah I’m making the correct decision. 43” is too big. I went to Home Depot and bought clamps, jigsaw, plunge router, an orbital sander and some other odds and ends. I signed up for the Home Depot credit card and got $50 off though so that helped. Typically I don’t sign up for store cards but I thought why not. I have a feeling I will be back a lot!
I went to Staples and got the side panel template printed. I got home and cut it out. All ready to go, the wood is still too damp to cut :hissy: I tried cutting and got about an inch in and the saw was not liking it at all. It looks like I will need to wait until it dries out a bit. Maybe next weekend I can give it another go. Looks like rain all week too so the extra moisture in the air probably won’t help much either.
Until then I’m going to start designing the CP.
-
I don’t like that almost half the screen would be masked if I did a portrait mode monitor.
I thought about scaling it up to a 43” 4K tv but i popped in Turtles in Time and sat a foot away from an existing 42” tv I have and it seems too big and overkill.
You know those two cancel each other out, right?
(If you mask off 43% of the screen to make it square, and run bezels, it also ceases to be too big.)
-
Sorry, I should have been more clear. In the instance there with Turtles in Time, “too big” was in reference to being too close to the screen and not liking how large the actual visible “square” is. Not the physical size of the tv itself or aspect it was in.
If this project turns out well, maybe my second project will be more ambitious. :cheers:
-
I got side panels!!! I picked up a circular saw from my father and it made all the world's difference. I suck at using a jigsaw and was not able to make straight lines, even with a straight edge guide, but with the circular saw it was like cutting butter. Considering my experience with woodworking and power tools is near 0, I am actually really impressed with how well the two side panels came out. I cut them very close to exactly the same. Did not need to use a flush trim bit after all. I clamped them together after they were cut out and the few areas that didn't match up exactly, I easily sanded down with an orbital sander. I now have two side panels that are near identical. I need to sand a few high spots down on where the CP will sit though. Measuring with my iPhone, I noticed one is 6 degrees and the other 3. Next I'll be starting to plan out where to add my ledger boards. I should try to find some casters as well soon so I can start planning the base.
-
I've been brainstorming all weekend on theme ideas. I really don't like the idea of a general mish mash collage of characters. I think I am going to do a Ghostbusters theme. They have always been one of my favorite 80's franchises, and looking around I feel like there have not been many Ghostbusters themed cabs that I have seen. I also just ordered a 3d Printer for unrelated stuff, but I think I have some ideas that if they pan out, would be pretty cool for the theme. I don't know how feasible it would be, but I would like to disassemble the light guns, and 3d print new housings of the Proton Blaster and have them attached to 3d printed proton packs that would be permanently mounted on the sides of the cab or under the overhang of the CP. Either way if it works or not, I'm pretty excited about the theme. ;D
Now that I settled on a theme and colors, I just placed my order for t-molding and a router bit to make the groove. Tonight after work, I'm going to start with the supports for the side panels. I also ordered similar casters to what Chance used.
-
I've been brainstorming all weekend on theme ideas. I really don't like the idea of a general mish mash collage of characters. I think I am going to do a Ghostbusters theme. They have always been one of my favorite 80's franchises, and looking around I feel like there have not been many Ghostbusters themed cabs that I have seen. I also just ordered a 3d Printer for unrelated stuff, but I think I have some ideas that if they pan out, would be pretty cool for the theme. I don't know how feasible it would be, but I would like to disassemble the light guns, and 3d print new housings of the Proton Blaster and have them attached to 3d printed proton packs that would be permanently mounted on the sides of the cab or under the overhang of the CP. Either way if it works or not, I'm pretty excited about the theme. ;D
Now that I settled on a theme and colors, I just placed my order for t-molding and a router bit to make the groove. Tonight after work, I'm going to start with the supports for the side panels. I also ordered similar casters to what Chance used.
You do realize that means instead of a coin door you have to have a containment grid entry port, right?
-
You do realize that means instead of a coin door you have to have a containment grid entry port, right?
Haha, I was thinking something similar to that too! :cheers: Still brainstorming... 3d print a trap too, and remove it from the containment grid to retrieve the coins :o
-
I spent a good amount of time last night in Photoshop with Chance's side panel template trying to figure out where to place the supports and how the panels should all be. I mapped it all out on a 1 inch grid along the whole template. This is the result. Everything should be "more or less" to scale. I warn, if anyone uses this, these measurements and placements are estimates. I'm sure the sizes of the panels may change as I go. I wanted some sort of plan before I started cutting though. Green is the wood panels, yellow is the supports, light blue is plexi, and dark blue are LCD screens. I have my panels offset from the outside edges of the sides by 1" except around the top of the Marquee where it gets funky with the angles. I thought about 0.5" but after playing with scrap wood in the garage to see how it would look, I thought 1" felt better. I hope I don't regret that later. The design for the base also needs work, but I'm going to wait for the casters come in so I have something more concrete to work with.
Also since I am planning on the computer living below the shelf, I didn't extend the shelf all the way back and put a lip on the back of it to prevent things from falling down. I did this because I wanted air circulation to the ventilation holes on the back panel. I don't envision storing anything more than a wireless keyboard and mouse anyway. The shelf doesn't need to be that large.
Finally, I think I finally found a supplier from Canada for an LCD Marquee. It's a little more than I would like to spend on it, but he is giving me a deal on it. I need to finalize the deal yet but it will be 1920x360 pixels, 1000nits brightness, 23.5" x 4.4" tall. With bezel it will be 24.1" x 5.2" x 0.5". I'm unsure if I would keep in in the bezel or not. I was thinking of masking off a border on plexi to place in front of it, then mount the LCD directly behind it. I'm not really short of space, so I might just leave the bezel. We'll see how it looks when I get it. Otherwise I'll need to figure out some sort of frame for it.
-
I cut the braces/ledgers last night and measured out where they go on one side. Need to do that on the opposite, then glue/screw them. Casters and T-Modling came today! I have off work tomorrow, and it is a long holiday weekend. I hope to have a lot of updates! It would be nice if I had this thing mostly built by the end! Crossing my fingers! Though I might just grill and drink on the deck too :o
I spent a lot of time this week doing concept art on a control panel design. I originally went with Jarret's Battleship, but I realized that it is too crowded for players 3 and 4. I rounded it out and changed the angles for 3 & 4. I printed it out and it feels much better and I'm pretty happy with it! I'll post an image of that soon. I may need help with other art though so have reached out for some help to some people on these forums.
I've also setup a new Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/chadwyksarcade/
-
The base is done!!! Aside from sanding with the rest of the cab....
Unfortunately, I have not got as much done as I had hoped during the long holiday weekend. I got the braces all glued on the side panels for the face panels. Then I moved onto the base and I got most of it completed.
Tonight I finally routed out the wheel slots. Unfortunately I couldn't get them fully carved out by my router, because it couldn't reach the whole area. So first I tried chiseling out the remaining wood which was not working too well, so I ended up drilling most out with a large bit and a spade bit. It may be a bit ugly but at least the ugly bits are hidden by the wheels. Not as clean as Chance's wheel slots but the wheels spin freely which is what is important.
Next up, cut the T-Molding slots and cutting the face panels and attaching them.
-
Nice start! You're getting along pretty well. Where did you get your leg levelers, and what size are they? I've discovered that the levellers most people are using for their cabs, are not the easiest thing to track down.
-
Thanks! A lot of planning goes a long way. I wish I had routed out those wheel slots before I assembled it, but live and learn!
The levelers are 4.5 inches tall. I found them on ebay $4.59 + $7.50 shipping for the pair.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LEG-LEVELER-HEAVY-DUTY-4-5-TALL-WITH-MOUNTING-PLATE/362350576966?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
The wheels were purchased here:
http://www.arcadeshop.com/i/146/arcade-cabinet-3-wheel-assembly.htm
-
I've been playing with photoshop a bit and doing mock ups of a CP. I initially wanted the shape that Chance used from Jarrett, but after seeing many posts about why it is bad, I decided against it. I used his file though, and rounded out the angles. I also used the advice found in the Starcade project (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,158565.0.html) and angled player 3 and 4 similarly to Maximus' build. I printed it out and I think Player 3 and 4 fit in pretty comfortably.
I'm still playing with the location for the spinner control and buttons. I feel like I should move them up a bit to avoid bumping any of Player 1 buttons during play, but I want to avoid hiding the face of the ghost as much as possible.
I think I am going to have to play with the color scheme and brightness. I printed it on my own color laser printer and everything was a lot darker than on screen. I saw that Lucian045 has some tips for color profiles and monitor calibration on some of his posts that I'll need to take a look at.
Anyways, here is what I have so far. This jpg isn't full sized - so that I could upload it at the 4mb file size limit. Feedback?
-
Put the spinner where the mouth of the ghost would be? You could always lose those 2 buttons completely then just use player 2's buttons for games (if you want to keep mouse functionality you can put the buttons pretty much anywhere).
-
You are giving track BALL a whole new meaning. Assuming ghosts have balls.
-
I've been playing with photoshop a bit and doing mock ups of a CP. I initially wanted the shape that Chance used from Jarrett, but after seeing many posts about why it is bad, I decided against it. I used his file though, and rounded out the angles.
I've heard that criticism mentioned a few times, but don't know where that was posted. Do you have a thread link?
Thanks for the info on the leg levelers, I did end up getting some from Ebay and can't wait for them to arrive.
As for the Ghost art, I think it would work mostly as is. It's hard to put a figure on a control panel without parts of it being blocked by something. I would maybe try shrinking the ghost a tad in scale, to see if you can get his eyes lower then the Launch row of buttons and his hands a little higher than the overlay on top of them. Face and eyes is what humans tend to focus on.
-
I’d lose the ghost off the control panel and keep all the other elements. It would look fine with them and without the blocked ghost.
-
I’d lose the ghost off the control panel and keep all the other elements. It would look fine with them and without the blocked ghost.
I second this. I assume you are going to putt he ghost logo on the side panels so no need for it on the CP.
IMO, control panel art should be minimal and not too busy. Right now the ghost looks out of place.
-
You are giving track BALL a whole new meaning. Assuming ghosts have balls.
:laugh2: I didn't even notice I did that!
Thanks for everyone's input so far. I'll consider removing the ghost from the CP. I have not done side art yet, but was only planning on having a small Ghostbusters logo where the "No ghost symbol" is the O in "Ghostbusters" and placing it along one of the top angled borders. I'd was imagining a mural of some kind taking up most of the space on the sides, so that is why I wanted the ghost logo front and center on the CP.
I've heard that criticism mentioned a few times, but don't know where that was posted. Do you have a thread link?
Yeah, I've seen it several times in several threads as well, but the link in my previous post explains with illustrations the player angles and why Jarrett's design is too crowded.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,158565.0.html
-
Instead of muraling the sides, I think the no ghost circle logo in a nice big format would look great and have a nice visual impact. Less is more.
-
Instead of muraling the sides, I think the no ghost circle logo in a nice big format would look great and have a nice visual impact. Less is more.
I totally agree.
-
I like the banned ghost symbol on the side. Maybe with the name of the arcade box, either above or below.
-
I can say that for a number of years I have been thinking of doing a Ghostbusters themed cab. (Surprised?). One thing is I never wanted to do a black cab with just a no ghost logo.
One idea I have been mulling over had been making the entire cabinet reminiscent of the Ecto-1. Glossy White cabinet, Red t-Moulding, No ghost logo on the sides, maybe some tasteful chrome, Topped with a LED sign that scrolls text like "We're ready to believe you" and maybe a red spinning slot machine light on top if it isn't too much of a distraction.
Another thought, when I saw some people experimenting with plasma plates, I thought it would be really cool to get some art of a ghost being trapped printed on something somewhat see-through. My hope is it would give an moving illusion of a ghost caught in the electric field of a ghost trap.
(https://i.imgur.com/Bx0aqg5.gif)
(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/LameGentleAlligatorgar-small.gif)
Probably what I would lean on though is just really spending time for some unique art. I would probably have something made for me, but I have always been inspired by art of some of the art from early 80's machines. Arcade art of that era was all about an artists interpretation of the action going on in the game. So a picture of Bill Murray on the side would probably disappoint me. However Ghostbusters in action scrambling to fight a bizarre ghost just feels fun. I always loved this piece from the early real Ghostbusters concept art. Action. Chaos. Quirkiness. Impending doom. Not just a showcase of movie characters. I would love to do something along these lines for a cabinet.
(https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/1140x640/public/wire/legacy/the_real_ghostbusters_wallpaper_5-other.jpg)
Hope that helps inspire you a bit on art ideas.
-
If I were to do a Ghostbusters cab, it would be hard to top the artwork Zombie Yeti did for Stern.
I'd go simple if it were my own... just the no ghost logo without any writing on a black cab with maybe white T Mold. The title on marquee with maybe a little extra to make it pop, and the control panel would be either done up to look like the control panel was part of their equipment (think packs and traps for inspiration) or go opposite direction and just have a background scene like this of the firehouse:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/lego-dimensions/images/b/bd/LDlevel5.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150825143140
Kind of like TMNT in a way. Maybe add labels and stuff.
Simple and clean sides with just the logo gets the point across. It's a universal logo that's instantly recognized. Not too movie, not too cartoon based.
Then again, it's whatever floats your boat.
-
Yeah, I did some mock ups, and because the side panels are so narrow, I don't think I am going to put the logo on the side. It just doesn't get large enough, and then most of the side is blank. I'm leaning more towards modeling the art style closer to the Real Ghostbusters. There is quite a lot of awesome comics out there and there are several cover art images that would work nicely. The challenge is to get them vectorized and still look good. I have a while I think before I need to finalize the art though, so I'll come back to that.
I finally had some time this weekend to work on the cabinet again. I routed out the t-modling slots on the sides and started to glue together enough of a structure that I could glue both sides onto the base. So far I'm amazed how well I actually got the supports mirrored. I was envisioning those not matching up at all. Due to the awkwardness of gluing these first boards on its side with no one to help, I accidentally glued the tv mount board a little crooked, but that shouldn't matter too much as it is there more for support and it is hidden on the inside. Everything else is square. Now to cut the rest of the boards and mount the doors. Then on to the CP!
-
A complaint on my own ignorance. Next time I start a project, I need to pick out better wood. I had thought plywood was supposed to have a nice side and rough side. This wood must have been the cheapest of the cheap because both sides are pretty rough. I feel like I’m going to be using a lot of wood filler in gouges and lots of sandpaper on the rough spots from the mill. Oh well. Lesson learned! Hoping once sanded, primed and painted, then with the artwork it won’t be that noticeable.
Tonight I had a free hour and I cut the bottom front board and the drawer door. Still need to glue and fasten into place with hinges.
I really keep going back and forth on a coin door. It would be cool to have 4 slots but it’s such a hog on space especially if you have the coin boxes. I wouldn’t mind the same door Chance used but it’s sold out until September. I’d like this project to almost be done by then! I don’t want to glue the board in and cut the hole at a later date in case I really screw up with the jigsaw haha!
-
There are tons of different grades of ply. Check your local shop and always ask for furniture quality.
My current setup is laminated MDF because YOLO, but I've built some minor stuff with ply and it's good, albeit expensive.
-
Don't skimp on the coin door! You will always be thinking about it - might as well get it right now.
That plywood looks like it is going to be very difficult to get smooth. My guess is you will have to cover the entire thing with joint compound or something and sand it smooth otherwise the grain will show through. Maybe whatever vinyl sideart you are thinking of will hide it?
-
Don't skimp on the coin door! You will always be thinking about it - might as well get it right now.
Yeah, I decided on getting the coin door and pulled the trigger on the order. Although instead of getting the over under doors, I'm just getting the doors with the mechs. I'll make my own coin bucket on the inside to save space. The metal coin enclosure on the inside of the cabinet was what I was most worried about taking up the space.
I ended up ordering 2 of these from X-Arcade for $49.99 a piece. Though shipping surprised me with a whopping $40 for the two.
https://shop.xgaming.com/collections/arcade-parts/products/double-entry-arcade-coin-door-with-coin-mech
-
I can say that for a number of years I have been thinking of doing a Ghostbusters themed cab. (Surprised?).
One idea I have been mulling over had been making the entire cabinet reminiscent of the Ecto-1. Glossy White cabinet, Red t-Moulding, No ghost logo on the sides, maybe some tasteful chrome, Topped with a LED sign that scrolls text like "We're ready to believe you" and maybe a red spinning slot machine light on top if it isn't too much of a distraction.
Another thought, when I saw some people experimenting with plasma plates, I thought it would be really cool to get some art of a ghost being trapped printed on something somewhat see-through. My hope is it would give an moving illusion of a ghost caught in the electric field of a ghost trap.
(https://i.imgur.com/Bx0aqg5.gif)
(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/LameGentleAlligatorgar-small.gif)
Probably what I would lean on though is just really spending time for some unique art. I would probably have something made for me, but I have always been inspired by art of some of the art from early 80's machines. Arcade art of that era was all about an artists interpretation of the action going on in the game. So a picture of Bill Murray on the side would probably disappoint me. However Ghostbusters in action scrambling to fight a bizarre ghost just feels fun. I always loved this piece from the early real Ghostbusters concept art. Action. Chaos. Quirkiness. Impending doom. Not just a showcase of movie characters. I would love to do something along these lines for a cabinet.
(https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/1140x640/public/wire/legacy/the_real_ghostbusters_wallpaper_5-other.jpg)
Hope that helps inspire you a bit on art ideas.
Haha, you pretty much described a lot of my Ecto 1 themed New Ghostbusters 2 Nintendo build I started last year. Like you said, I had to create my own art from scratch....as there just isn’t a lot of out there. I have a feeling with the new movie coming out next year there’s going to be a lot of Ghostbusters Arcades being built. It’s an awesome theme for sure!
I’m loving this build thread, great job so far!
-
:cheers: Did you ever post that? I swear somebody had that idea fully fleshed out, and I was looking for evidence, but came up empty handed. New GB2 is an awesome game, BTW.
-
:cheers: Did you ever post that? I swear somebody had that idea fully fleshed out, and I was looking for evidence, but came up empty handed. New GB2 is an awesome game, BTW.
Thanks! I didn’t do a build thread but I’ve been posting bits and pieces of it on Facebook and Instagram....the GB got shared quite a bit before I finished it....so not sure if it’s mine you saw. Ive been kinda keeping it on the down low until August when I was planning on showing it. I did a lot of hand sculpted features on it...it’s been really fun...and challenging. Craftymech (long time member here) is currently helping me program the roof rack topper I fabricated. I’ll post a couple pics when it’s 100% done.
It’s just such an awesome theme, the colors and graphics are really fun. I didn’t 100% theme mine towards New Ghostbusters 2....I used green slime instead of pink, and used the marshmallow man in my art instead of vigo or the Statue of Liberty.....because I really wanted a cab with the marshmallow man on it. Haha.
Can’t wait to see yours finished! I’m currently Ghostbusters obsessed so I’m loving this project. I’d definitely consider adding some sort of light bar, or topper on there. And the containment unit coin door as well. It really puts it over the top. :cheers:
-
Haha, you pretty much described a lot of my Ecto 1 themed New Ghostbusters 2 Nintendo build I started last year. Like you said, I had to create my own art from scratch....as there just isn’t a lot of out there. I have a feeling with the new movie coming out next year there’s going to be a lot of Ghostbusters Arcades being built. It’s an awesome theme for sure!
I’m loving this build thread, great job so far!
In doing some research, I did find images that look like they were yours? It was all white, and had all the lights and stuff from the top of the car on the top of the cab. It looks like you pulled all the images from the thread though recently. https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?p=3980981.
But I found some of it on Google Images. I initially posted them here to show, but I just realized it was your work and you are planning on posting again soon, so I don't want to spoil it for you!
I like your containment unit coin door and was kind of what I was talking about in a previous thread that would be neat to emulate. Though unsure if I'd model it after the movie version (square) or the cartoon version (round). Also not sure how the coin doors I just ordered will fit into the design. But I think it would be cool to have an actual hole for the containment unit, that you could slide a trap into. Then when you pull the containment unit handle, it would dump the coins that had been collecting inside the machine, into the trap.
For a topper, I was playing with the idea of 3d printing a translucent Slimer coming out of the top of the cab, and putting some sort of LED in him to make him glow. Just ordered some plastic filament which should be arriving today to test that out :applaud:
Thanks for the positive feedback everyone! Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks this would be a cool concept! :cheers: I still have a long way to go, but I can't wait till it is done!
-
Right on man, I appreciate that! Yeah, that’s mine. I started that thread and then I realized I should probably dial it back until it’s done. I just finished designing my artwork this week...so it’s about ready to go off to the printer.
I think that your containment until coin door idea is awesome...I didn’t go that far...it’s just a matter of how much time and money you want to spend. Believe it or not, I have over $1000 just in the topper parts and such for my cab..and about a hundred or so hours of hand fabrication....so the sky is the limit...and I’m far from rich...I just really wanted a Ecto1 cab. Haha
Look forward to seeing it come along!
-
Well that was way faster than I expected! Nice little package waiting for me when I got home from work. Coin doors are here! The first real arcade hardware for it. No turning back now! :applaud:
-
Awesome! Those look like a good size too... Nothing beats the coin door. I have coin buttons on my cabs but I also keep quarters in a dish downstairs. Almost everyone uses the quarters.
-
I haven’t been making much progress lately because it was found out that my mom needed open heart surgery, so it’s been a stressful month but she is is now on the road to recovery! It has also been way too hot to work in my garage! Finally some relief came today.
This weekend I picked up some Logitech z625 speakers and an open box Samsung UJ59 32” 4K monitor from Best Buy. It might be overkill for this project but I debated getting a cheaper 1080p one but in the end I decided to go 4K so I hopefully have more options for scanline filters. But now I need to upgrade my pc to run 4K at 60hz lol. For now I’m limited to 2k at 60hz or 4K at 30hz. That upgrade will come later.
So today I went to test mount the screen and ran into a few problems.
I knew the board was glued in a little crooked, but I figured that wouldn’t matter because it would be hidden behind the screen - I just had to make sure to mount the screen level. So after mounting the screen, the board stuck out the bottom a couple inches and looked bad because it was not square. I debated sanding it down level but I wanted the screen to look like it was floating.
I decided to do it the better way and I sacrificed the board and ripped it out which was actually easier than I thought it would be since it was glued in. I recut a shorter board and glued it in. Much better now, but the supports on the sides stick further down where there isn’t a board anymore. Before glueing the new board in I tried to pry the supports off to cut shorter ones but was unable to do so and I didn’t want to damage the sides. I don’t think it will be that horrible though once painted black and behind tinted plexi.
-
I really need to stop procrastinating! I have a party in October that I would like this done for! I will try to finish cutting all the boards for the cabinet this week so I can move onto building the CP.
I just placed my order at ultimarc for all my control panel parts. I hope that's all I need anyway... jeesh... goodbye savings! haha... Still need to get light guns, but I'm going to wait on that a bit. I want to research that a bit yet.
I settled on the following:
Goldleaf RGB buttons
servostiks with the RGB add-on
2 I-PAC Ultimate I/O's to handle all the buttons I have.
U-Track trackball and Spintrak spinner with flyweight
-
Tonight I cut the coin door holes. I was worried about that because I’m not so good with the jigsaw, but slow and steady worked perfectly. I glued the board in and started to sand it flush with the shelf, but I over did it in a spot on the left :banghead: You can see it isn’t flush with the board above it for the hidden door. Ah well, wood filler is set and waiting for the to dry. I’ll need to use it along the borders of the sides anyway where my cuts were not totally straight and there are small gaps. (Coin doors in picture are not bolted in, so they may not be totally square)
Now that I got that done, I’ll focus on cutting the rest of the boards this week and glueing them in and mounting the doors.
Progress! It may be slow, but it’s something!
-
Construction looks hella clean. Excited to see this finished.
-
Thanks! I’ve never done any wood working before, but I like to think I am fairly artistic and crafty. I have made a few mistakes, but so far they all seem to have been fairly minor and repairable. It definitely has been a learning experience!
-
Well I spent the day in the garage cutting wood. I almost got all the boards fit and cut for the cab. I still need to mount the back doors with the hinges. It's finally starting to look like a cabinet! Then I can move on to the CP. :applaud:
I also mounted the front drawer door with the European hinges. I'm using Besta hinges from Ikea. However, due to me mounting the door inside of the sides (if that makes sense?), instead of flush, I had to put the hinges on blocks raised up a bit. I'm unsure how Chance was able to do it without raising them up. I thought I got very similar ones to his. Also the "push to open" mechanism doesn't really work at all. I think it's because the door is only about 6 inches tall and it might not have enough work to open the door. The hinges are pretty stiff. I'm wondering if using WD40 on them would help loosen them up a bit. I'm unsure how to handle that, I might just get different basic hinges. I'm hoping the hinges work better on the rear doors as those are larger doors.
What wood filler do people like? I have been using DAP, and I have not been happy with it. After it dries, it just crumbles away while sanding it, often times making me have to re-apply some more. I'd like something more solid! :angry:
Also kind of funny, it seems making diagonal cuts with this wood is really hard on my circular saw! I blew the breaker on the power a few times! :o
-
Got a little more work done tonight. I got all the last of the boards for the cabinet cut. Some of them are gluing now. I’ll finish the rest tomorrow. Basically I ripped the bottom marquee board out lastnight before the glue was fully set because I screwed up and the front face of the board was at a 45 degree angle, and I decided I wanted that flush so I could use a bracket to mount the marquee and then I changed how the speaker board would sit against it flush.
Also tomorrow I need to rip out the top marquee board. It was probably the first board I cut, and man is it crooked. :laugh2: I didn’t realize how bad until I noticed parts weren’t matching up quite right. So that’s being replaced. Should be easy to cut out. Depending if I get everything glued tomorrow I’ll work on mounting the back doors, then I’m done with the cab - not counting sanding and prepping for paint. I’ll then move onto the CP.
I’m trying to decide the wood for the CP. I wanted to keep it the same plywood as the rest, 3/4” pine. But now I think i’m going to go with 5/8” mdf and 1/8” Plexi to make it the same thickness of 3/4”. I’m hoping with the cp art, it won’t really make a difference what kind of wood it is. I can’t find 5/8” pine plywood around me in a size I can easily pickup, so mdf it is!
-
Looking good, man. For wood filler I just sweep up some clean MDF saw dust and mix it with some wood glue into a paste. Dries hard as a rock.
-
not counting sanding and prepping for paint.
Have you considered laminating as an alternative to painting? Plywood is tough to get a smooth finish and judging from the boards in your pics I’d bet that you won’t be happy with the finish as it will show all of those grain lines. Just a thought. Course if you’ve already glued things this wouldn’t be an option.
-
I didn’t even know that was an option! But nah, I’m fine sanding it. It’s just going to take forever, and like you said I might not get the grain out with this quality of wood I picked, but honestly I kind of like it!
-
Looking good, man. For wood filler I just sweep up some clean MDF saw dust and mix it with some wood glue into a paste. Dries hard as a rock.
Can you use that in place of Bondo?
The fumes from Bondo are crazy and I wish there was a decent alternative.
Looking good Chadwyk, progress is moving right along!
-
I've never actually used bondo. :-[
-
I've never actually used bondo. :-[
Guess I'll have to give it a try and see how they compare. Bondo can be nice when you have a serious gap to fill or cut a corner or something off. Not sure how the wood filler would do in those cases. But since I'm gearing up for the gap-filling, sanding bits...this will be the time to test (and start saving MDF dust!).
-
I didn’t even know that was an option! But nah, I’m fine sanding it. It’s just going to take forever, and like you said I might not get the grain out with this quality of wood I picked, but honestly I kind of like it!
Maybe take a scrap piece and test it on the side before you commit to a process for the whole cab?
-
Its looking great so far. I would second using laminate . After my painting my cabinet , The next one i do will be laminate . ITs so much easier , and the result is awesome.
not counting sanding and prepping for paint.
Have you considered laminating as an alternative to painting? Plywood is tough to get a smooth finish and judging from the boards in your pics I’d bet that you won’t be happy with the finish as it will show all of those grain lines. Just a thought. Course if you’ve already glued things this wouldn’t be an option.
-
Laminate is best left to your kitchen counter.
-
I didn’t even know that was an option! But nah, I’m fine sanding it. It’s just going to take forever, and like you said I might not get the grain out with this quality of wood I picked, but honestly I kind of like it!
Maybe take a scrap piece and test it on the side before you commit to a process for the whole cab?
Oh, definitely. If it's one thing I've learned, it's testing on scrap might take additional time, but will save you even more time and less headaches in the long run.
-
I worked a bit this past Sunday again on it. I finished up and repaired the Marquee, and I got everything glued on, and doors mounted on the hinges. Last things left on the cabinet before paint prep, is to cut holes for speakers, vents, and locks. I accidentally bought cam locks too short. Luckily they are cheap. I also have to notch out part of the bottom door like Chance did, to place a power outlet.
I'm not super happy with the back doors. They sag a bit, so to close them properly, you kind of need to lift up on them a bit. I know I can play with adjustments on the hinges, and I might have to sand down the bottom of the doors a bit more. At least they *shouldn't* be needed to be accessed very often, so I hope it doesn't turn into a big deal.
Overall though, I'm fairly happy with how it's coming!
-
This past week I did a bit of research on plexi. I could not find it in the size I need for my control panel, so I ended up ordering a giant sheet from Menards. At least I'll have extra in case I mess up! Will also use some for the marquee. I have to wait a few weeks before it arrives though.
I also ordered a smoked sheet cut to size, online for the screen which already arrived. I was debating how much tint to get. I saw people suggesting 13% - 30% light transmission with the lower number being best. I opted for 13%. I hope it won't be too dark.
I cut out a test control panel for just player one and trackball so I can start to learn how to wire the controls and play with the software. I played with LEDBlinky a bit this week and was surprised how simple it is once you understand how to use it. I was under the impression I would need to configure each game in my library. Instead I just have to do the ones that it doesn't recognize, and you can do default configurations for entire emulators which is nice too.
Sunday I spent all day trying to figure out the best method to finish the wood and get the deep saw mill marks out. I started just with low grit sand paper. I soon realized that was a losing battle. I don't know if it is a good or "proper" method, but I ended up covering the top and sides in a layer of wood filler. I proceeded to sand it back down to the wood level leaving only the filler that was in the saw mill gouges. There are some patches I may need to go over again where I didn't use enough filler, but overall it seems to have worked fairly well, and I'm happy with the results! :applaud:
I also had a lot of neighbors stop as they walked by asking me what I was building, lol... Everyone seemed to think it was pretty cool!
Pictures - before sanding, during sanding, after sanding.
-
I've been looking to source a "stretched" or "cut" LCD for the marquee for a while now. They seem to be really hard to get especially in the sizes I want, due to the fact that they actually cut an LCD to make them. For some reason, China seems to be the only place where they are made. I reached out to a few suppliers in the US but even they seem really shady and after some initial back and forth, never got back to me. I tried contacting people on Alibaba, and also no responses. I think maybe everyone wants to sell more than 1 unit and just ignores me.
Today I bit the bullet and bought one on eBay. It should fit perfectly in my Marquee assuming they send me the correct one, will only need to black out about 1.5 inches on each side of it in the marquee box. Unfortunately I'm still nervous about it this purchase, but at least it has eBay backing it vs some random Chinese company taking my credit card info.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/28-32inch-1-3-stretched-bar-lcd-module/303185036089?hash=item46973c8339:g:N4EAAOSwI6lc71EI
It doesn't have too many details, and doesn't have the driver and power boards built into the bezel like others I've seen, but that shouldn't matter since it will all be housed in the marquee box and not visible anyway. One image does show the boards and power adapter connected. I reached out to the seller and they said everything in the picture is included so I hope he's right or I'm going to have to look into those too! At least they don't look that expensive to get.
Here's hoping it gets here in one piece!
-
Probably too late if you already ordered - but there is a forum member that has some 19" stretched lcds for sale for $200 shipped ( http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,159888.0.html ) - Not quite the size you wanted but he might have some contact for getting a larger one for less than the $540 that vendor wants :dunno
-
Probably too late if you already ordered - but there is a forum member that has some 19" stretched lcds for sale for $200 shipped ( http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,159888.0.html ) - Not quite the size you wanted but he might have some contact for getting a larger one for less than the $540 that vendor wants :dunno
Yeah, I know it's a big chunk of money, but I've been resigned to that fact since I decided to go with an LCD marquee. Luckily I don't have much debt, no kids, and no wife to tell me no! :laugh2:
The few other people that did get back to me all quoted me higher than this for smaller sizes around 24". Most 28" were a few hundred more than what I'm paying. So I feel like I'm getting an OK deal.
-
Yeah, I know it's a big chunk of money, but I've been resigned to that fact since I decided to go with an LCD marquee. Luckily I don't have much debt, no kids, and no wife to tell me no! :laugh2:
The few other people that did get back to me all quoted me higher than this for smaller sizes around 24". Most 28" were a few hundred more than what I'm paying. So I feel like I'm getting an OK deal.
Yeah they are definitely not an inexpensive addition but is a very nice touch on the cab when finished - and for a 28" model that is a decent price considering how hard they are to source - Look forward to seeing the progress on the build.
-
Found the specs on the LCD.
http://www.panelook.com/VLT320-SBL-FHD-131_Vitrolight_28.0_LCM_overview_29735.html
-
There is always more work to be done than I think when working on this project. I had wanted to start priming the cab this weekend but that didn’t really happen. I did finish sanding it, drilling holes for cables, and removing the hardware for paint prep. I need to sand the back doors yet but it’s been raining so much and I need to do it outside. I did start priming the backs of the doors which will be unsanded.
I also killed my drill when using the hole saw. It wasn’t a very powerful one. It now smokes and smells horrible if I run it for more than a few seconds. So a trip to Home Depot and I’m back in action. Ended up buying way more tools than I need in a bundle but I kind of wish I had some of these earlier in the build!
Tomorrow the LCD for the marquee is scheduled to arrive. I’m excited to play with that. My goal is to get the cab painted this week. Then this next weekend build the control panel box. Then paint that next week and start assembly of the electronics. I’m having a party 2 weeks from now and it would be nice if I could get it playable, though not finished with the art or 3d printed guns.
-
Rain vs sanding outside. I hear ya. Never paid this much attention to the weather lately. It's like a race against time.
I killed a drill, a mouse sander, and a new orbital sander. The last one was inexpensive so probably just not a good quality. The other two were over a decade old, so not too surprising.
I'm rooting for you to pull this off in 2 weeks!
-
Rain vs sanding outside. I hear ya. Never paid this much attention to the weather lately. It's like a race against time.
I killed a drill, a mouse sander, and a new orbital sander. The last one was inexpensive so probably just not a good quality. The other two were over a decade old, so not too surprising.
I'm rooting for you to pull this off in 2 weeks!
Thanks, I think I'll need a bit of luck! I have a lot to go and it seems daunting to get it done in 2 weeks. I think I can do it if no big hiccups arise when building the CP box. The weather is going to be nice after work tonight so I'm going to try to get those doors sanded and primed when I get home. It would be nice if I could get the cab primed with a layer too, but with the sun going down earlier and earlier that may not get done. I may need to invest in some good shop lights!
-
Started priming the cab last night. I totally under estimated the number of cans I need and ran out. I should probably buy more of black and clear too after work tonight. 🤣 DHL did not deliver the marquee yet. Booo... hope it gets here today. Tracking said it went back to Illinois for some reason. I’m confused.
-
... DHL .. I’m confused.
I've had a package make it to our local distribution hub 40 minutes away, then magically end up on a truck and move two states north before eventually getting re-routed back to the proper destination. Madness.
-
Well it came... small problem... I must have either messed up the conversion of mm to inches or mis-measured the size opening when ordering. I thought it would fit. It does not. I have a 6 inch tall hole in my marquee box. The lcd is 6.5”. I just recalculated everything and yeah.. sadly it was my screw up.
It could be worse. I think if I carve out a notch on the top and bottom board it would fit in perfect and would give me an easy way to mount it. The problem is how do I cut the 1/4” both on the inside of each board? I could use a rabbeting bit and route it.. but I don’t think my router will fit in the marquee box to allow me to cut it. I might need to get creative. I think the router kit for my Dremel might work... yet another tool/bit to buy!
First thing... power it up and make sure it works.
-
Works flawlessly! Though It would be nice if the monitor detected the new “cut” size rather than the original native resolution size, I found out that’s how most work, and there are ways around it. Basically I think each marquee image needs to be the native resolution size and you just place what you want shown in the upper third. I have to do more reading on it but that seemed to work with the wallpaper. I quickly threw together an image in photoshop to test, seen here. EDIT: It looks like Hyper Marquee may run in a window so there may be no need to have those larger marquee images. I'll test that out once I get it installed in the cab.
At least I can calm those fears of spending that much on a monitor that won’t work.
-
Wow, that looks beautiful. Will you run an animation on it or maybe just use it to switch out game marquees? I think I would have it running a Ghostbuster logo with animations the whole time.
-
Yeah it looks real nice. I’m happy. I’m planning on using it to swap out marquees. Tho I’m really unsure what I can do with hyper marquee. Overlay high scores? Flash controls before a game? Eventually I’d like to make or find some ghostbuster animations as well. So much other work to worry about before I get to that point! I haven’t been making much progress this week with the rain. Looks like sunny days ahead tho!
-
Ok... priming resumes tomorrow! :applaud:
Tonight I got a router bit for my dremel... and 2.5 long hours later I now can fit the LCD in place for the marquee. The carving isn’t pretty but it holds it in place and I’ll have brackets holding the LCD and Plexi in place to prevent it from falling out... which will also hide the ugly carving where I messed up in a few spots.
Not sure if it’s good or not, but the top board bows up a bit, so it made my life a little easier so I didn’t have to carve out as much wood in the center of the top board lol.
I will need to make a couple black spacers 1.25” wide on each side of the LCD. I’ll probably just 3d print those.
-
That marquee looks amazing - all kinds of possibilities there. I like the idea of showing the controls for the game.
-
In between coats of paint today I ran to Home Depot for more cans of spray paint... and I got into a fender bender in the parking lot.. :banghead: My poor Audi TT... Luckily it looks pretty minor and is mostly paint scratches on my bumper. Damage done to other vehicle looks minor as well, hopefully. This will be the most expensive cans of spray paint I’ll have bought! :angry:
Anyways... still waiting for paint to dry. Tonight I will sand and apply 3rd layer of black paint. Tomorrow will be clear coat and building the control panel.
I 3d printed marquee spacers, cut Plexi for marquee and cut the brackets for the marquee. I fit it and took a picture. I’m torn on to keep brackets silver or paint black. I kind of like the contrast of the aluminum color. This picture doesn’t show Plexi as I didn’t take off it’s protective layers yet. 3d printed spacers turned out better than I thought they’d look.
-
I think I would go black so they match the spacers. Also, you probably want more attention on the marquee than the shiny retainers. Did you use aluminum L-brackets for the retainers?
Sorry to hear about the fender bender, parking lots suck!
-
I think I would go black so they match the spacers. Also, you probably want more attention on the marquee than the shiny retainers. Did you use aluminum L-brackets for the retainers?
Sorry to hear about the fender bender, parking lots suck!
After lots of searching and asking multiple people at Home Depot, finally someone understood what I was talking about! I originally found stair edging but that had grooves and had a side that was rounded.. then I found the wall bracket for suspended ceilings but it was 12 feet long and wouldn’t fit in my vehicle, so I finally found someone that showed me where they had aluminum L brackets that will work great which were 3 feet long. Sadly I walked by them a million times without seeing them!
Today was a long day but I cut my CP and built the CP box. I have some sanding to do but it’s coming along. The cabinet is now painted and clear coated. I still have to paint the rear doors and the CP box I just built. Also need to cut the Plexi for the cp and drill the holes for the buttons which kind of scares me... that Plexi was not cheap for the odd size sheet I needed.
Even if I get it all built by my party this next weekend I think I’m going to hold off on bringing it inside. I don’t think it’s going to be enough time for the paint to cure on all the parts. I really hate a room smelling like spray paint. Oh well... it will just be another excuse for another party when it’s all done! ;D
-
Did a test fit to see how the control box fits on the cabinet. I was worried it would be too low because I am tall, at 6ft6. It is perfect height for me though. Tonight will sand it, drill holes for cables, etc and hopefully prime it if I have time.
-
I drew first blood tonight. I’m sitting in the ER now. Stupid drill slipped and I was in a rush. The Forster bit rolled across the top of my thumb... yuck. I’m going to take it easy from here on out and I’m taking away my goal of finishing by this weekend.
-
This can't be good...How bad is it?
-
Not horrible. It could have been much worse. I probably could have skipped the ER but I panicked when I saw flaps of skin and lots of blood. 3 cuts.
2.5 hours later and only one needed 3 stitches. Glued up the others. Funny thing is I never felt any pain. The needle they used to numb it and push the stitches through hurt more!
I now have a new respect for taking my time and not rushing. That’s something I did when I started this project but have done less of as I’m nearing the completion.
-
Crap, man! Yea, definitely take your time. I found when I started to get tired, better to just call it a day than push myself. The number of mistakes I would end up making wasn't worth trying to get it done faster. Since those mistakes always set me back even more. Hope that thumb heals up soon!
-
I took the last few days off, but I feel like I'm kind of addicted to working on this thing.
I want to get this thing done before it gets super cold and we get a blizzard. I need to bring it into my basement through the backyard which will be easier, so I don't want a ton of snow... Luckily I don't live a couple states west because they are getting hit hard this weekend!
Tonight I decided, what the hell... my thumb is *smurfed* up but doesn't mean I can't work on it at all. I started painting the doors up.
I then have to admit I was kind of timid after my injury... but I picked up that drill again and finished the holes needed in the CP box and mounting panel. The only major holes I have to drill yet are in the mdf and plexiglass for the CP buttons, which I am hoping will go rather smoothly.
Kind of funny... of all the tools to injure me, I didn't think it would be the drill.. I thought when I started, for sure the circular saw would :laugh2:
Tomorrow I'll continue painting up the doors, then I am occupied with my party this weekend, so next week I'll start a new, and figure out how to go about cutting the plexiglass to match the CP. I'm thinking rough jigsaw pattern first, then using flush trim bit. I just hope I don't crack the plexiglass. I will practice first on scrap plexi.
-
i am still scared of circular saw..not tryna be the next final destination victim out here :dizzy:
-
Kind of funny... of all the tools to injure me, I didn't think it would be the drill.. I thought when I started, for sure the circular saw would :laugh2:
And because you didn't think it would, it did :)
As for the plexi make sure you have a fine tooth thin blade, put painters tape along the line you want to cut then cut through the tape. When I did mine I clamped most of it between 2 pieces of mdf to minimise chances of cracking. For the holes I used a drill bit that would normally be used on Tiles to make a starter hole and then the router and pattern bit.
-
Kind of funny... of all the tools to injure me, I didn't think it would be the drill.. I thought when I started, for sure the circular saw would :laugh2:
And because you didn't think it would, it did :)
As for the plexi make sure you have a fine tooth thin blade, put painters tape along the line you want to cut then cut through the tape. When I did mine I clamped most of it between 2 pieces of mdf to minimise chances of cracking. For the holes I used a drill bit that would normally be used on Tiles to make a starter hole and then the router and pattern bit.
Thanks for the advice! Didn't think about using tape on the line. I did pick up some special plexiglass blades.
-
My router is the one that scares me the most. Every time I fire that thing up, gripping it with two hands, I start to think about how fast that super sharp blade is turning. Luckily, I don't faint! :laugh2:
But here's a funny thing...I use the router outside, and for whatever reason attract bees. I don't know how many time now that I've had it going, then had to quickly shut it off, as a bee or yellow jacket buzzes in to sting me! Yesterday, just the noise of the shop vac attracted some bee while I trying to get things setup.
-
But here's a funny thing...I use the router outside, and for whatever reason attract bees. I don't know how many time now that I've had it going, then had to quickly shut it off, as a bee or yellow jacket buzzes in to sting me! Yesterday, just the noise of the shop vac attracted some bee while I trying to get things setup.
That's funny you say that! When I fired up my router last weekend to add the t-molding slots to my CP, a bee was pestering me too, haha :laugh2:
-
How many cans of spray paint did you go through? Did you spray while it was assembled?
If there is ever a next time, I think I would go spray cans. The roller brush/paint method doesn't seem as durable, and is so hard to get to a smooth finish.
-
Let's just say it was a lot of cans, and in the end was not cheap. I didn't actually count. If I had to estimate, probably about 8 cans of primer 14 cans of black, and 3 of clear... but I'm still not done with everything... I definitely went through the most of the black. On the last trip, I found that they restocked with taller cans that had a bonus 20% paint in them, which was nice. Everything got at least a layer of primer depending on how it was absorbing. Then insides a layer of black, and outsides are getting 3 layers of black, then a couple light layers of clear.
It's obviously not perfect, and I'm sure many in this forum could do better but I'd say it it actually came out pretty good for my first time. :applaud:
I actually blame the wood on some of the imperfections. After priming, the grain definitely swelled in areas and started to peal up and chipped away in others. Luckily, mostly on the side panels which will be covered with art eventually.
I'm kind of unhappy with the bottom of one side where you can see side to side motion from spraying it, even though I tried going all directions and I did several layers and sanded between layers... Again, not too worried because of the art going over it.
I painted it fully assembled, except I removed the doors and am currently doing them separate.
I also had problems with the speaker panel, I feel like because it was angled, it wanted to run more. But overall not too many streaks, and if there were some, I sanded out the ones I could find.
If you plan on using cans, definitely get one of those trigger attachments for the can! I'm glad I did, and even with that I got a blister haha.
-
Wow, that is quite a few cans!
I do have one of those trigger tops. Pretty nice. I've used it to spray my retainers, door handles, and other items. What did you use for clear? I'm really thinking I should spray something over the top of the acrylic for protection. I keep feeling like if I just look at my cabinet funny, it's going to get another paint scratch.
-
This is the paint I used.
-
Awesome, thanks! I'm not sure if I can use the clear enamel over acrylic paint, so I'll have to look it up.
-
Today took longer than I’d hoped. I cut the Plexi for the CP and drilled all the holes.
I wasn’t sure the best way to cut it. I snapped it into a rectangle. Then using a scrap piece I tried cutting with my jigsaw and Plexi blades. That was not working and I’m glad i tested it first. It was cracking bad. So next I tried my dremel but that didn’t really work and melted it. Finally I just took out my router with a flush trim bit and that worked great! Cut it like butter!
Drilling the holes was stressful afraid of cracking it. I did in between a couple buttons but they are small enough I think the button bezels will hide them. I lined it up with my cp after and the holes don’t all line up. They are close though. I’m unsure how that happened as I clamped them down together and drilled pilot holes through each.
I think I can still make it work by using my dremel and router bit for it and expand a few of the holes. I tried on a test piece.
Most carpentry should now be complete. Going to sand the cp and box down tomorrow and start to paint. I’m unsure if I should route out insets for the trackball and joysticks. That might have to be done too.
Last night I brought the cabinet into my basement. Though it still smells like paint a bit.. not too bad. I mounted the speaker grates, tv, and t-molding. Unsure if I should have waited for that until I get art done, but I wanted to see what it looked like. If I have to remove it to apply art, oh well.
Unfortunately my cat seems to think it’s some sort of new cat tree! :laugh2: She better not scratch the paint!
-
2.5 hours later and only one needed 3 stitches. Glued up the others. Funny thing is I never felt any pain. The needle they used to numb it and push the stitches through hurt more!
This I can sympathise with. Someone cut my thumb open with a knife (don't ask...) on the side of the knuckle many years ago and there was a reasonable amount of blood but after that I was more fascinated watching the two flaps of my skin move around. After they forgot about me for a while in the hospital (literally, they left me in a room and forgot I was there until someone asked about me) I had to get two infections into the side of the thumb, right on the bone of the knuckle. That first injection is still the most intense pain I've ever experienced. Far worse than the knife cut, and luckily far worse than the second injection. I guess the first one was kicking in. After that the stitches were just uncomfortable, but again I actually quite enjoyed watching that get done! Twenty-odd years later I can still see the scar from the cut and the scars from where three of the stitches were. I'm not entirely convinced I'd have been worse off overall if I'd just pulled the thing together, stuck a plaster over it and hoped for the best ;D
-
Congrats on making it out of the woodworking phase! It can be nerve-wracking at times, that's for sure.
-
Yup! Thanks! Feels good to be nearing that milestone. First layers of black went on the cp tonight. Last night I figured out the hinges for the top of the cp. Also painted the marquee brackets.
Today I spent a good deal of time working on art. I think my CP is basically done for art. It hasn’t changed a whole lot from the original image I posted. I removed the texture on it which makes it look more crisp and I moved the admin buttons around and the spinner. Still debating keeping the images of each of the real ghostbusters for each player. I like the idea but it might just look too cluttered.
I think for the side art, instead of having a big mural, I’m going to go more minimalistic since the side panel isn’t very wide for much art.
I’ll post it once I have it all made.
-
What's the profile look like with your cp on? Looking back at pics, I hadn't realized you didn't have much space on the side. I'm in the same boat, with the design of my cab. I'm still going to try to get some art in there, but it's going to have to fit a skinny triangle.
-
I mean it's the same as Chance's, but it's not that great if you want to fit 4 Ghostbusters shooting ghosts or something. I think the majority of the artwork is going to have to live on the bottom half. Kind of like what Pauly did on his Ready Player One build.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,146068.0.html?PHPSESSID=5kbjd01l2tnsav3120m47csd92
I look at some of the older retro cabs and the artwork is more centered vertically. Oh well, at least it doesn't take up a ton of space like those larger cabs! Simpler is probably better anyway.
-
Oh well, at least it doesn't take up a ton of space like those larger cabs! Simpler is probably better anyway.
With your control panel attached I bet that cab takes up at least as much space as an original cab. Probably more.
What are the dimensions?
-
:laugh2:
You are probably right in square footage since it is pretty wide.
The cab alone is 6 foot tall, 32" wide, and 22" deep at the deepest part where the CP rests.
With the CP attached, the whole unit is 32.5" deep.
The CP is 46" wide, 17.5" deep, and 4" tall.
-
Yup. My Konami 4player cab is 27 inches wide and the CP is 37 inches wide.
It is 34 inches deep. With the CP attached it is about 38 inches deep.
-
Well, I've been doing a lot of work in Photoshop the past few days. I think I've come up with a concept that I finally like. I don't think it is too "busy" and I think it works well. I removed the button locations on the CP, since they are already drilled, I don't want the final artwork to have the white circles on it, in case the holes don't exactly match up when I apply it.
So, here's what I've been working with. I would have put Slimer on a side panel, but that was just way too much green. I'm also going to have a 3d printed slimer as a topper, so I thought it would be redundant and went with Zuul.
Credit on Stay Puft and Zuul goes to the following people I found on DevientArt. I modified each image, changed the background color and vectorized/colored in Zuul.
https://www.deviantart.com/thuddleston/art/Stay-Puft-Marshmallow-Man-498274272
https://www.deviantart.com/j-wrig/art/Ghostbusters-Terror-Dog-718839459
Just realized most of the greens in the image are outside printer gamut... guess I'll be working on fixing that next.
Here is my latest draft..
Thoughts? Suggestions?
-
This looks so awesome!
-
Only criticism would be the size difference between stay puft and zuul hound :) Can you size up the nice little doggy about 30% bringing it more in line with puffy?
-
Will probably look great once printed. Design wise, I would definitely leave off the player avatars on the control panel. Or maybe move them above the controls. They just look too busy to me.
I'd also be tempted to leave off the Ghostbusters logo on the side. It looks a little off to me. Maybe if the logo was up at the top, diagonal, following the lower marquee portion. Or maybe move the logo just above the bottom images.
I agree with Drnick, Zulu should be bigger, too much empty space there.
I'm sure you will be happy with what's there, but some minor tweaks might bump it up a notch.
I'm working on my art right now, and it's been taking quite a bit of time, fiddling every night. But I know I'm going to get to a stage at some point, where I just want to be done! ;)
-
Thanks everyone for the input.
The other idea I was thinking of, instead of having the avatars for each player, where it currently says Player 1, Player 2, etc... make little name badges in the font that they use on their uniforms and place them there.
My co-worker actually said the same thing about making Zuul bigger. My argument is, if I make him much bigger I think his horns might get cut off... Also he is much smaller than stay puft! Stay puft is the size of a building! :laugh2: But I get your point.
I did have the Ghostbusters logo originally diagonal and it didn't look right. I played with it along several different edges. It just led to too much "empty space". Also this logo is more in line with the logo from the opening sequence from the movie.
I feel like I could endlessly tweak this thing! I need to call it quits at some point, but I feel I'm almost there! :applaud:
-
Oh yea, if you want to keep the size ratio, that makes some sense. But in that case, I think I would add a background graphic behind Zuul. Flames? I'm not sure. Just looked at the DeviantArt pic of Zuul, I think I would keep some of the temple imagery for the background. You could drop the pyramid and flare, but keep the pillars and the square-building(?).
Another idea would be to drop the logo just above the characters on the bottom, and have more slime coming down from the top to cover the empty space.
-
I did end up making Zuul larger. I think you were all right, it looks better to fill more space. I left the checkerboard backgrounds though, since not as much background is being shown now.
I fixed up my colors to get them mostly in gamut. I also got rid of the avatars and did what I said earlier, with name patches under each control instead of "Player 1" etc. It's looking much cleaner now.
I talked to Brad (Lucian045) last night for a while and just sent him my art to check everything out before he starts printing it. He was going to try to do what he can to get some of the greens brighter, as I can't seem to get a good bright green in gamut. If not, I settled on a darker hue of greens that will work that I think I'm happy with. Hopefully all will be good!
-
I'm kind of at a stand still. Since my last post, I have mounted the speakers and fixed the holes in the plexi to match the holes better in the CP, and I have brought the CP int he house to mount it to the cabinet.
It feels sooooo good to be done in the garage with the building phase complete! Now I need to clean/organize the garage!
This arcade looks way bigger with the CP mounted :laugh2: but it's looking pretty awesome! Pictures to follow after Art is applied.
I'm anxiously awaiting my art to be delivered Monday from Lucian045. Once that is done, I'll start installing the electronics on my CP and start configuring hyperspin! Slowly getting closer to that finish line. Maybe this weekend I'll fire up Hyperspin and start playing with that, and set up Hyper Marquee. I'll also start 3d printing the proton packs and guns which I'll mount. Those are probably going to take a week each to finish, but it's one of those things where I set it to print and walk away for 12 hours and hope the print didn't fail when I return, then repeat for the next part. Oh I also need to print a larger Slimer to sit on top. I printed a test one, and it's too small and doesn't look good.
-
That's funny, reorganizing (my section) of the garage was the first thing I did when I got past the woodworking part too!
I'm still working on the art, been slow going as I've been stuck with a horrible cold. It sounds like it only took a little over a week for Lucian to get the print sent out to you? I've been holding off, because we might be moving and I didn't want to get stuck between addresses. I was figuring it might be a couple months. But if that's not the case, maybe I'll send him something earlier!
Looking forward to some more pics!
-
Yeah that was about right. Including shipping. I highly recommend going to Lucian. Great experience from the initial email and phone calls for clarifications. He did a great job! I was a bit nervous to see it when I unrolled it tonight but I’m really happy with how it turned out! Now to find time to apply it! :applaud:
-
You have done a fantastic job on this, and other people have pointed out the design flaws, so I will not do the obvious.
However, I would have done this totally differently.
The ghostbusters would have been the left image on the side art, they would have been firing their proton packs, the light beams would have gone across the kick plate and then on the right side, I would have had slimer or one of the other baddies caught in the beam and heading towards the trap.
The kickplate might have had the catchphrase I ain't afraid of no ghost or who are you going to call.
However, please please please do me a favour.
You have gone to all this hard work I am not sure what front end you are going to use for your cabinet, if you are going to use Hyperspin, it is very easy to create a skin for the main menu, and system themes.
I want to see a Ghostbusters front end, I want to hear ghostbusters sounds and not just the stock front end graphics that everyone uses.
People go to all that work, with their artwork and building the cabinet, and then it is just stock Hyperspin and to me it looks awful.
You obviously love ghostbusters, so go the whole hog and create a custom menu system for yourself.
Here is my attempt of doing just that for Space Invaders, but I might go for a Bubble Bobble artwork now, I am in two minds, Space Invaders was literally the first game that I played as an arcade game, bubble bobble has some great fun artwork.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xReotgYZSA&list=PLtOwHQKlpBMqFgmjY4wubwmqAEU-5F5S6&index=2&t=0s
I am not a graphics expert, but Hyperspin is so easy to make your own themes with a little bit of learning.
Regards
Mark
-
I was a bit nervous to see it when I unrolled it tonight but I’m really happy with how it turned out! Now to find time to apply it! :applaud:
PICS! PICS! PICS!
And an unrolling video!
PICS!
-
You have done a fantastic job on this, and other people have pointed out the design flaws, so I will not do the obvious.
However, I would have done this totally differently.
The ghostbusters would have been the left image on the side art, they would have been firing their proton packs, the light beams would have gone across the kick plate and then on the right side, I would have had slimer or one of the other baddies caught in the beam and heading towards the trap.
The kickplate might have had the catchphrase I ain't afraid of no ghost or who are you going to call.
However, please please please do me a favour.
You have gone to all this hard work I am not sure what front end you are going to use for your cabinet, if you are going to use Hyperspin, it is very easy to create a skin for the main menu, and system themes.
I want to see a Ghostbusters front end, I want to hear ghostbusters sounds and not just the stock front end graphics that everyone uses.
People go to all that work, with their artwork and building the cabinet, and then it is just stock Hyperspin and to me it looks awful.
You obviously love ghostbusters, so go the whole hog and create a custom menu system for yourself.
Here is my attempt of doing just that for Space Invaders, but I might go for a Bubble Bobble artwork now, I am in two minds, Space Invaders was literally the first game that I played as an arcade game, bubble bobble has some great fun artwork.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xReotgYZSA&list=PLtOwHQKlpBMqFgmjY4wubwmqAEU-5F5S6&index=2&t=0s
I am not a graphics expert, but Hyperspin is so easy to make your own themes with a little bit of learning.
Regards
Mark
Thanks, for the input! I had originally wanted to do something like that for the art, but I would have hired someone to draw it from scratch and I didn't really want to do that. I'm pretty happy though with the simplistic artwork.. Though I do like your idea of having the catchphrase on the kickplate. But since I have the dynamic marquee, I've been thinking up ideas for animations I can play on it Ghostbuster related, and that would be a good one to throw on there.
As for Hyperspin, I already changed the intro movie to the "teaser" for the new movie coming out, but edited out the release date at the end. I don't even know why it hadn't occurred to me to change the sound effects and other aspects of the front end! I'll definitely have to play with that! But that will probably be the last thing I do to it.
Last night I 3d modeled a fan shroud for the two back fans. Because of their placement above the internal shelf, they don't create a flow really to the bottom section so these will help. Also since the fans have green LEDs, the shrouds will hide the light from shining into the cabinet. That was the first real thing I've modeled myself so far since I got the 3d printer, it was kind of fun. Each will take 24 hours to print though... yuck.
-
God now you have scared me, I heard ages ago that they was talking about the originals coming back, but thought that was just talk. A July 2020 release date, that is the second movie today that I found out is coming out, the other was sonic the hedgehog, I only found that out by accident due to a looper video.
So two game related movies in one year, going to be the year of cheese me thinks.
Please do not use this as your video intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueqK3xLh46Y it is making me want to shoot myself with a proton pack
-
LOL that video is horrible. :laugh2:
Yeah Sonic looks horrible. The studio delayed the release based on complaints on how he looked, so they are redoing the CGI for Sonic.
Ghostbusters gives me a little more hope with the originals and the original director's son directing. I also like Paul Rudd who will be in it, but I'm not happy that the story will focus primarily on children (rumors say Egon's grand kids).
-
Rest assured. It will suck. Hard.
-
LOL that video is horrible. :laugh2:
Yeah Sonic looks horrible. The studio delayed the release based on complaints on how he looked, so they are redoing the CGI for Sonic.
Ghostbusters gives me a little more hope with the originals and the original director's son directing. I also like Paul Rudd who will be in it, but I'm not happy that the story will focus primarily on children (rumors say Egon's grand kids).
All what they are doing is closing one chapter, and then opening another. A classic hollywood way of making money in the future, without people saying well the originals were better.
Which is what disney are doing now with Skywalker, but they murdered our child hoods not having all the original three together in one final movie. Yes they could not have known about Carrie, but they would have known that Harrison wanted to quit.
Sadly all our child hood and early adult hood characters are dying along with us, so a lot of people are going out in one final swan song, with us along for the ride, which is kind of how I want to remember them by, one last time as Rocky, or Rambo or Die hard.
Once all our idols are gone, we are left with Miley Cyrus and other such junk.
-
OK the art has been applied! It was easier than I thought it was going to be. Though when flipping the cabinet when it was on it's back, I made a mistake by lifting on a panel I should not have been pulling on. I grabbed the bottom of the kick plate panel and lifted and heard a crack... luckily it was only the glue letting loose about 4 inches worth. I don't think I lost any stability out of it as it isn't a load bearing panel. I'd still like to try to glue that back up somehow from the inside, though it might be difficult to squeeze the glue into the seam.
I inserted all the buttons to hold the plexi on the CP, and added the t-molding to it. I'm kind of worried that Player 3's joystick might not fit in the box I built to house the CP electronics. I tested the buttons, but not the joysticks... I'll mount those tonight then I can start wiring it all up. Assuming I don't need to rebuild the box larger :embarassed: :banghead:
Overall I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out, and that's what matters I guess!
Anyways, I said I'd post pics after the art was applied, so here they are. I'll hold off on any further pics until it's done, as construction is basically finished aside from accessories, and LED lighting.
-
It came out very nicely. Good job.
-
Wow
but then I have to ask
Two coin doors??????????????????
-
That turned out great. I love the artwork and color scheme. It all ties together very well. :cheers:
-
Wow
but then I have to ask
Two coin doors??????????????????
Yeah, it's a 4 player CP, so I'll wire each coin slot up to each specific player. I couldn't find a coin door with 4 coin slots back when I initially ordered them or they were on back order.
-
I am not sure if that is an american thing or not, but I don't think that I have ever seen an arcade machine with four coin slots or even double.
I just had a look at gaunlet and some of the images show two coin slots such as you have them.
Maybe because I am UK, it just looked a bit odd to me to have two coin slots, maybe we did have them, but at my time of life senile dementia kicks in and when I was a kid I was never looking at coin slots.
I am kind of annoyed with you, as you have not used any graphics for the kick plate, it kind of looks bare to me, especially when you have all that excellent artwork going on.
I am shocked again this must be an American thing, but I never knew that they released a ghostbusters arcade machine.
I certainly do not remember one being in the UK.
I do love the fact that you have an LCD as your marquee, hypermarquee can be hit and miss though or I found but some people have it working flawlessly.
The cabinet is just wow though especially the custom grills.
I am going to dread putting my cabinet together once I get that project back on the go, as I know it will end up looking like a pile of dog poo.
If you ever want a free holiday in England, it won't take you long to put paint and put my cabinet together for me ;)
-
Yeah here in the US we had multiple coin doors on them. Turtles in Time and the Simpsons are my "go to" example.
I've been tossing ideas around still if I want to do anything on the kick plate or not. I did like your idea of the catch phrase there. Initially I wanted to do something with the containment unit there, but I'm not sure if I like that or not. It's never too late to modify it. I feel like I could always be tweaking / adding things to this thing, but then it would never get done!
There was a crappy "The Real Ghostbusters" arcade, I'll throw it on there but that is not what this is based on. I just wanted to do Ghostbusters because I love them from my childhood and it's a great throw back to the 80's. I also wanted to do a theme that hasn't been overdone a thousand times already.
-
Firstly this is what it looks like to me with two coin doors on there and no artwork
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLxhdPNXC_k&t=36s
Secondly
I have a cunning idea, your machine, you can keep the dual coin slots (spits, it is for home use after all, why two? two?)
Ok so picture this you could have a trap at the bottom of the kick plate, some freaky laser trap field and then the catchphrase caught in the beam.
So instead of the ghost that you already have, the graphic could look as if it is capturing the catchphrase instead.
You could possibly maybe warp the text a little bit to show that it is being dragged into the trap.
Just an idea for you.
-
I bet you were wow'd when you got that artwork in the mail. All in all turned out pretty sweet, and it's a nice looking arcade machine! It looks like the side art is glossy but the control panel is more matte? Did you order it that way by chance or is it just a difference in materials?
Love that black paint with the green t-molding, great for the Ghost Busters theme as well.
-
I bet you were wow'd when you got that artwork in the mail. All in all turned out pretty sweet, and it's a nice looking arcade machine! It looks like the side art is glossy but the control panel is more matte? Did you order it that way by chance or is it just a difference in materials?
Love that black paint with the green t-molding, great for the Ghost Busters theme as well.
Thanks.. Yup you hit the nail on the head. Gloss on the sides and matte on the control panel. The only reason for that is the control panel is under plexiglass, and that's what Lucian recommended in that instance. I'm glad I went the extra mile and did plexi on top. It looks real nice in person. I feel like the pics don't do it justice.
-
Nice job overall. To be honest I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did considering how rough that wood was that you used. I can only imagine the hours of filling the gaps, priming, sanding, and painting, but I am sure you learned a ton in the process, which to me is one of the main points of tackling a project like this. I probably would have made some different decisions on the side art, but what I think you did really well is keeping the color scheme consistent and not overusing characters. The minimalist approach is always best. Love the speaker grills, and I'm interested to see what you come up with for your LCD marquee as you could have some fun with that. :cheers:
-
Love the speaker grills...
+1
Those are great and fit in really well with your design.
-
I like it, I like it a lot. So glad you made the doggy that little bit bigger :)
-
Thanks for the input on the art! Yeah I like the speaker grills too and glad I made the doggy bigger too haha..
I think I screwed up by not test mounting the joysticks before mounting the art... feeling a bit discouraged mounting the joysticks. I feel like I’m always taking one step forward and two back with this project. But it’s a learning experience...
I tried drilling holes in the mdf for the blind hole mounts but the ultimarc site doesn’t list the hole size for the 5mm kit. I emailed Andy to get recommended size.
My assumption is the screw size is 5mm and the anchor piece is larger. I slowly worked to 5/16” bit and started screwing the anchor in the mdf and it started pushing the mdf up and looked like it was blowing the hole out as the threads dug in... so I drilled another hole and went up to 3/8” but that was too big. So now I have two holes for player 3 that I need to figure out how to repair. I found one post that said to glue a dowel into it. I’ll be buying a scrap piece of mdf to test before I go any further. At least I didn’t drill through the art... yet... lol
I’d love to hear suggestions on mounting servosticks from the bottom if anyone has done it before or repairing blown out holes in mdf.
-
Hmm, I haven't mounted Servostiks before but I did undermount the trackball and both joys. I bought my own pack of inserts and bolts to use.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DL31BKW/ (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DL31BKW/)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DN5WTLK/ (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DN5WTLK/)
I basically just use tape on the drill bit to mark off the depth I want for my insert. I take the insert, align it with the drill bit, so that the top of the insert rests against the tip of the drill bit, then attach tape. Hope that helps!
-
I think last night was a post out of frustration and panic after blowing out those holes. After taking the night to calm down and think about it, I don't think that's a big issue because the mounting plate has additional hole locations I can use. If I screw those up, I guess I can drill new holes into the mounting plate too.
However, I still need to figure out how to get those anchors in the wood without damaging it. I thought about just gluing them in with wood glue, but I have a feeling that won't hold up long.
I have the U-Trak too, but haven't tried installing it yet. Those look like you just drill the hole and tap them in though. The instructions for that, at least say drill a 1/4" hole. The ones for the joysticks, have big threads like the ones you posted from Amazon. As they dig into the wood, they pull the wood up and damage it. This is what I got: http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html#mountingkits
I think I just need the right size drill bit, slightly larger than what I used, but not too big that it doesn't catch any wood. I'm guessing it's a metric size and all I currently have are imperial sized bits. Or I just need to practice and I panicked when I saw the wood bubbling up and I should have kept going.
Time to search the forums more thoroughly for answers.
Hitting up the hardware store after work tonight to get practice wood.
-
Yea, definitely practice. My control panel is mdf, so might be a little different too. I didn't tap the inserts in, I used a hex wrench to screw them in. I went slowly. Only one of them started to lift the mdf a little bit. I kept going slowly, applying pressure and it immediately leveled out.
I don't think wood glue would work well for holding the anchors in, as it won't bond with the metal of the insert. I thought about using Bondo to redo one of my insert holes, but I have a feeling that might not work so well with the material. A dowel with wood glue would probably be the best bet.
-
got any calipers? My bet is 7mm screwhole needed :) Checked against the following site and it would be 7mm.
https://www.ezlok.com/assets/documents/EZLOKBrochure_2014.pdf
Odd, you have gone up to closer to 8mm already, are you sure you don't have the M6 which needs a 9mm hole? (Easy to check just see which size hex key fits). I assume you are winding them in gently with a hex key and not an attachment to a drill, I had horrible time inserting my ones using drill, hand screwing was the winner for them. (Although mine are very slightly different in that they were the flanged and not the flush fit).
-
got any calipers? My bet is 7mm screwhole needed :) Checked against the following site and it would be 7mm.
https://www.ezlok.com/assets/documents/EZLOKBrochure_2014.pdf
Odd, you have gone up to closer to 8mm already, are you sure you don't have the M6 which needs a 9mm hole? (Easy to check just see which size hex key fits). I assume you are winding them in gently with a hex key and not an attachment to a drill, I had horrible time inserting my ones using drill, hand screwing was the winner for them. (Although mine are very slightly different in that they were the flanged and not the flush fit).
I don't but I think it's time I buy some! It's not the first time they would have been handy.
Maybe I was sent the wrong ones... That's a good point. I just grabbed a hex that fit when I did it. I didn't even look at the size. I was not using a drill to do it. I'll double check that tonight as well!
-
Drnick thank you! I bought a bit that was 7.1mm or 9/32” and a practice piece of mdf. I am successful!
I think I narrowed down my issue to 2 problems.
1 - I freaked out when the mdf popped up a little. In reality it wasn’t that bad and didn’t totally blow out.
2 - I was using bits that had points for pilot holes so even though I masked the bit with tape to not go through, the hole was too shallow. The new bit has a blunt tip and when masked with tape represents the hole depth a lot better. I drilled both holes I thought were bad, deeper with the new bit and successfully screwed the anchors in without much damage to the board.
1 joystick down, 3 more and the u-trak to go! Lol hopefully get these done tonight.
-
1 step forward 2 back...
I got all the insets in... yay! Also a hint to anyone else reading for future help, I found more pressure helps with less MDF damage, I got better as I went along.
But now I'm trying to upgrade my servostiks with the longer, LED sticks. I'm watching Maverick's video on how to do it. But mine appears slightly different than what he has. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZGcIP7sbEI
1) My new led stick has like a clear heat shrink tube at the end to protect the connector unlike his.
2) I removed it to try to slide on the bowl shaped metal piece.
3) The stick seems to be a different diameter than the original stick, and the bowl shaped piece does not slide on like Maverick's... at the 2:10 timestamp of the video.
I guess time to email Andy again!
-
Wow - just popping in to say that your cab is looking great. I was a little skeptical of the theme/art but after seeing it all come together I like it. Very colorful and unique. :cheers:
As for your ServoStik issues, email Andy at Ultimarc - he will definitely respond and try to help. He has an account here too but I haven't seen him post in a while but maybe he's only in the Buy/Sell forum
-
Wow - just popping in to say that your cab is looking great. I was a little skeptical of the theme/art but after seeing it all come together I like it. Very colorful and unique. :cheers:
As for your ServoStik issues, email Andy at Ultimarc - he will definitely respond and try to help. He has an account here too but I haven't seen him post in a while but maybe he's only in the Buy/Sell forum
Thanks for the input!
I emailed Andy last night. He said due to inserting the electronics into the end of the stick for the leds, they were finding some of them expanded but thought it should still go on. I'm going to get some silicon grease and see if that helps at all.
-
Joysticks are installed! Time to wire this thing up!
Only had issues with that first stick upgrade. I used a hammer to lightly tap the bowl piece on and with patience it finally made it past the expanded part.
-
New problem for the day... The RGB stick upgrades have what I believe to be a 2.5 mm 4 pole jack at the end... the cable that plugs into it goes straight down an additional 1.5 inches or so which I didn't plan for... which is about 1/4" - 1/2" too much for my control box... It would be nice if they were L shaped instead of straight connectors.
I'm looking for L connectors for 2.5, 4 pole jacks but not finding anything... I'm thinking I may need to buy parts and try to make my own adapters to fit in the box, or drill / route notches in the box directly under the joysticks to allow for the extra length... I really don't want to drill holes all the way through. I'm thinking that routing 1/2" out of the wood may be enough space... ugh... For now I think I'm going to carry on and worry about the LED's for the joysticks later.
Update: I just ordered these, I think hopefully I can make them work and make extension cables - they don't have a size, but I'm risking the $ that they are short enough to fit in my box. If anything, maybe I'd have to route less wood out with these than with the original cables.
female connectors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MDG48Z7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
male connectors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MKN2M33/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
-
Well it took longer than I thought it would, but my control panel is all wired up with exception to the leds in the sticks. I'm still waiting for the adapters to be delivered so I can plug them in and still fit in my CP box. I need to get a usb hub or longer usb cables to start configuring it. I'd rather have a hub, just so that it is less cables coming out of the CP, but I'm worried that may introduce other problems I'm unaware of... device id's changing and such. But I think there may be tutorials to prevent that from happening.
This weekend I 3d printed the fan shrouds I designed last week. It took 18 hours each, but they fit perfectly! :applaud: See the images.
I also went to Home Depot and purchased some trays that go in the kitchen sink panels in cabinets. I mounted these inside under the coin panels to catch the coins and they work great. I probably could have printed these as well, but they would have taken a long time too and I want to get started on the other accessories.
Tonight I would like to get the power strip wired up to the power outlet on the back of the cabinet. I also need to figure out how to wire up the vandal switch to the PC. Mine seems to have more pins than other vandal switches in tutorials I've seen.
I ordered a new PC case since my old one didn't fit in it great and you couldn't close the door with cables plugged into it, due to it being more of a open air desktop rig that mounts the motherboard horizontally. I also ordered a couple bar stools.
-
Those adapters were too tall to work. Instead I ended up cutting off the shrink tube at the end of the cable that the sticks came with, and bent and taped up the wires and that seems to be a perfect fit.
I started configuring the panel. Oh man, this is an exercise in patience. I feel I had to remove the panel countless times, had to resolder a few led wires on the buttons, and wires sometimes fall off the buttons when I put it back on the CP box. I think I have it mostly set.
Also now I know why everyone says Hyperspin is a pain to setup! wow... lots of issues, but I finally have it loading MAME after finding a hacked module for RocketLauncher, since it broke in 212. I'm kind of confused why MAME has duplicate mappings by default. Player 2 and 3 have overlap, so I remapped some of those keys on the iPac. I now have to go into MAME and remap them. BlinkyLED was highlighting the wrong buttons due to this I think when it displays the controls.
I got scan lines working with HLSL though I need to tweak them yet. I had issues with this as well. It turned out I had to install old Directx drivers from Microsoft. I also started trying to get Hyper Marquee working. I finally got it to launch HyperMarquee but it's not loading any images, so that's my next task. I assume I have a parameter or folder set wrong. I also need to figure out how to load the bezels.
Then I'll start adding other systems and hiding others.
Side note: I was worried that I got plexi that was too dark for the screen. I got it smoked to 13% light transmission. However it looks really good and hides everything nicely behind the monitor, especially now that I have the fan shrouds.
-
Are you using the fan shrouds to keep dust down? Wondering if they add quite a bit of noise or not. I added some 'screen mesh' tape in front of where I will place the fan to try and keep dust down a bit. I still haven't tested that yet.
I had the same worry about dark plexi. Choosing a darker color is pretty nice, it helps hide stuff in the back and makes it look pretty opaque when turned off.
-
No not so much for dust. It doesn't add noise. The two reasons for them are
1) Hide the fan LED's from the front of the cab
2) Try to direct the air flow better and push / pull the air to / from the bottom half of the cab where the PC is. The fans are higher up, above the shelf.
-
OK, I think I got it mostly working / configured now. I haven't played with custom themes or anything, but I got bezels, and the marquee's now working. I also have the servostiks auto detecting via LEDBlinky. One curiosity I have is that some games do not want to light up player one button 2. XMen vs Street Fighter, for example... but XMen works fine. I have tested that button out in LED Blinky and all colors do work. I even edited the colors.ini to change the color, but for some games, it refuses to light up. But other games it works great. Any ideas? I haven't really tried solving that issue too hard yet. Next I want to figure out the MAME CHD files, I'm not sure where to put those at the moment. Then add other emulators. I currently have MAME and Daphne working.
I do have to create my custom button animations yet too.
I really never want to open the control panel again. I feel like every time I do, a wire pulls off or one of the RGB lies breaks and I need to re-solder it on. Now I pulled the wires through it for the coin doors, and those are tight, so there isn't much clearance and it will really be a pain to lift it off. Though I fear I'm going to have to when I mount the power button on it. That's the last big thing I need to do with the hardware. Figure out how to wire that vandal switch.
-
Congrats man, sounds like you're near completion. We haven't wired or even attempted LEDBlinky yet, so I'm no help there. I thought the wiring stage was going to be fairly easy (I've done it in the past), but everytime I read a post it seems it takes people a long time and there are some struggles. Possibly the addition of LEDs, which is the one part we haven't really attempted yet. Are you going to shoot a video, once you got it all lit up and blinking like crazy?!
-
I'm just really really bad at wire management, I start out good, but it always ends up as a rat's nest. I also wish I made the CP box a little larger... What always seems to happen is that I put it on, and there are some buttons along the edge that are really close to the edge of the CP box, so if I don't align it properly, it might hit the side, and that's when wires pop off. The buttons I bought al had the RGB wires pre soldered on, I just had to connect them to the iPAC which was nice, but I found some of them break off easily as in my previous example, when I don't align it properly.
Yeah I'll do a video once I'm all done and mark this project as complete.. still doing tons of tweaks.
-
Figured out player 1 button 2 issue. I accidentally mapped that button’s led to the wrong key. Still odd that it lit correctly for some games. Oh well! Fixed now!