Recent Posts

Thanks for sharing your build. I've been lurking for a little while now here and on reddit r/cade and other forums to try to make up my mind if I should build or purchase a custom Lightgun cabinet. I've seen the commercial 40 & 50 inch models you referenced and my issue has been deciding if I wanted to take that on. Your post has tipped me in the direction of doing it myself. Will be following your progress here with great interest. Total noob question: Do you mind sharing the name of the software you used to create your mock up and cutting templates? 

I do have one more question. Can this be used with the WiFi/BT version of the Pico so I don't need to use the USB?

As promised, I am reporting back with my findings.

The solution was simple, I just broke the wire for the trigger and wired it to the Xbox controller board and the Pico at the same time.
The program I'm using to map the rest of the Keys is called "Controller Companion" on Steam, I highly recommend it, it's only three bucks and allows mapping either overall or on a per program basis.

I'm so happy to see other builders here building big and ambitious projects. For me, this the heart of BYOAC. In times past 'experts' would have weighed in and maybe told you rotating a CRT is too tricky/don't bother/ blah blah blah.  Your ring bearing solution is really good! All that weight nicely supported and balanced allowing for quality rotation control.  The main issue with lovely old CRTs other than weight, is image issues being affected by tube orientation changes. If you can solve magnetic coloration issues this will be epic indeed! When building your own arcade cabinet CRTs are still king for the real arcade experience.

I've been working with MDF for a long time. I love it for cabinet building but it has its own best practice rules. Grain free, shapes well, great for gluing panels and takes surface finishes (the right ones) like a dream.  It also has terrible dust issues, is heavy, splits when nailed or screwed in the wrong way, dulls tool blades, absorbs moisture and yes, bends in the sun  .  I often combine it with Marine Ply to solve some of those problems.

Watching your progress 

Thank you so much for the Archive link got it working perfectly with Coin-ops Front End within minutes.

My other grandfather was from Beeville.  Not much out there.  We had a ranch. Oddly, the sculptor that finished Mount Rushmore was from there and a beloved friend I was told.

Has anyone been successful in getting FFBPlugin to work with Flycast? I finally got Initial D Export to run, and I have the FFBPlugin files in the same folder as the Flycast.exe file but no FFB what so ever. Emulator recognizes my wheel and I can map left stick to steer left and right, but no ffb. Am I doing something wrong?

Hi Justin is there anyway you could reupload this program download links are no longer working and this is exactly what I'm looking for.
Thanks Rob

If not, there's a backup on archive.org.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240322192454/http://vesperworks.com/mame4to8/mame4to8.zip


Scott

I was stationed in Kingsville and Beeville TX

virtuo is okay.

early models have issues with black spots appearing on the LCD panels due to a manufacturing defect. later models have no panel issues... but some issues with bad caps on the  backlight inverters. newer ones have LED backlit panels and have issues with the caps going bad on the LVDS board. the later 2 being fixable... the spots, not at all other than panel replacement. good luck finding a panel to replace it....it's a weird size and wasn't available for long.

the computer is decent. it's output audio via regular headphone jacks so no messing around there. you will need a "red" DI box to convert the audio from the computer to the amp (amp accepts balanced audio over ethernet...the IO board does this so you'll have to sub the red DI box to do this.)

the card reader is worthless as it's been disabled due to new PCI credit card processing rules rules... making it non-compliant.

the stand should have woofers built into it... it should also have some satellite speakers attached to either side as well.

Sorry to bother you again, I'm still considering to exchange the Angelina for the virtuo, but I'm thinking on keeping the Angelina amps. By any chance, do you think its easy to modify the blue amp to make it work with reguralr sound, I mean without the red box? Or since it comes with a stand speaker, it should have the red box already?  Thanks for your time.

i don't know how the stand is configured exactly... they are made by a 3rd party.

the amps are the exact same amps... they just stuck 2 of the modules in the same box.

with using a red DI box, you don't need to change the amps at all... it's literally how they interconnect.

the "red" DI box has RCA input and and Ethernet cable balanced output. then, the other end of the cat 5 plugs right into the amp. you have to supply 12v to the DI box to power it. you can buy a pre-made power adapter that plugs right in, or just wire on a 12v power brick or other supply to the appropriate places on the board.

the "BLUE" DI boxes convert the balanced audio ethernet back into standard RCA (for instance, connecting from the IO board zones to an external house system)

since you won't be using the IO board, you won't need any blue DI boxes unless you want to convert your computer audio to balanced with a red box...send it long distance over an ethernet cable, then convert it back to RCA to hook up to a house system.

one red DI box can feed audio out to 2 amps when externally powered, which is enough for the amp in the virtuo. (since it's 2 amps in one case) if you need feed a DA415 blue amp as well, you'll need another red DI box for that amp.

the DA415 amp will likely need the caps in the amp serviced. they all do.