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I've checked another manual for the VP chassis and for all sizes and CRT brands (including 25" Philips like yours) the value of C38 and C76 is always 680nF. Only some of the bigger tubes require a different value. Now I don't know what's on your chassis but I bet they're 680 and since these caps lose (not gain) capacitance when they degrade which makes the picture more compressed towards the side, I don't think they're out of specs (i.e. they kept the nominal value). Then again nothing forbids you to try different values as per my previous suggestion.

Im back, i changed the crt board to a new fresh one, and both the arches are still there.

So the issue dont depend from the chassis but from the 25" tube, and i think the only solution is to change the tube.

 

Greetings and Salutations! I had so much fun with the briefcase arcade that I decided to do it again! This time this gift was for my nephew for his bar mitzvah. Alas, I only had the one briefcase from my father, so this time I had to buy a new shell. I ended up following adrktemplar's example and picking up a Seahorse case for slightly less than a Pelican price. And this time I decided that making the supports out of wood wasn't the way to go. So I 3d printed them:

This time I decided to go all out on the speaker grills. I found a speaker grill model on Thingiverse and added a couple of video game symbols to the grill. I just now realized that this time the speakers attach from the top rather than being supported from the bottom. Ah, I'm sure it'll be fine.

I learned a lot from the first go-round. Probably the most useful lesson: Always prototype in cheap cardboard:

This was by far the most frustrating part of the construction, as it took like 7 iterations to get the curve of the case modeled correctly. Once I was confident that I had the dimensions saved in the cutter, I cut the plate for the buttons & power plug out of a 3mm birch sheet. It's supported around the edges by 3d printed spacers, and there are two supports for the joystick that go front to back that supports the plate in the middle. There are some grooves in those supports for the joystick plate that keeps it 1mm below the wood. After the photo here, I took it all apart and painted the yellow support plastic black so it doesn't stick out.

This time I decided to wrap it up and go for a modern look:

Now I've wrapped it in a vinyl wrap for a more modern look that blends with the flat black case. I've ditched the tiny start/select buttons in favor of the buttons that came with the kit. The molly lock is still there (not shown), and I've added an ethernet port. If it starts to glitch out, all he has to do is plug it into an internet connection and it will beacon out to a server that I control. I'll be able to get into it remotely and troubleshoot. The compartment between the speakers houses the laptop screen driver board like the last one. But this time the shelf to hide the board is part of the support walls, rather than a spacer I jammed in there.

Under the hood, this one is powered by a 12v 6A power supply feeding a Rasbperry Pi 4 with an SSD hat. This is a significant upgrade from the first generation, which used a laptop power brick and an RPi 3. Again, I was able to procure a laptop from a coworker for the low price of "send me updates as you make progress, I want to see it". The 3d printed supports were printed at 10% infill, which cuts down on the weight of the first arcade. It's still a decent amount of weight for him to carry, but he'll grow into it (the dude just turned 13 after all).

I was happily done with this project with a couple weeks to spare. But I did have one tiny emergency:

We put the briefcase in our luggage and surrounded it with packing material, pillows and clothing. It wasn't enough. The spacers in the lid had been shaken off and the frame, screen and locking plates were loose. So after an emergency trip to the hardware store, here we have me trying to epoxy the spacers back into the lid. The coffee mug is to keep the lid flat and not have it tilt back.

And the final product, as delivered:


I have a friend with a Cricut and she helped me make the vinyl stickers detailing the warnings, the humorous saying under the screen, the labels for the volume, exit & shutdown buttons. The "Shane's Arcade" is actually paint that I put on there with a stencil I made on the laser cutter and never again. It did not come out terribly well. I may need to try some different techniques for this.

Anyhow, the arcade was a hit. He loved it and his jaw kind of dropped when I presented it for him. We were at a restaurant and I ended up answering a lot of questions about it for the waiter.

Thank you all for this great community! I couldn't have done this without you.

i'm not sure what it is you are looking for. when you say restore... do you mean restoring it back to working condition... or restoring it back to as it came out of the factory?

i mean, it's a crystal radio... theres not much to it as far as "electrical" goes. it's basically a coil of wire to adjust the volume, a tuning capacitor, and a crystal of galena used as the semiconductor diode to "power" the audio circuit.

me thinks it would be more of a "strip the finish off the wood and refinish it" kind of restoration. the information which, could be obtained from literally any woodworking website/blog/forum. reason i suggest a woodworking forum, is because it would probably have the most up to date accurate information regarding wood and how to prepare and finish it properly with today's finishes than a forum or site dedicated to antique radios.

The corners have exposed wood due to the the cuts. To cover these up I use metal corner strips. These will also provide protection against wear and they even look like like pinball legs.



Now onto hooking up the buttons.
To keep the wires in place I screwed in a few velcro strips.


For the wires I repurposed an old data cable I had laying around.


These crimping tools make make the connections very clean and serviceable.




Controller board is hold in place using some screws.




Creating a hole for the power switch and receptacle.




I'm using a 3 socket power strip to power the devices on the inside.




Making sure everything is insulated.



To keep the control panel from opening up I use a latch and an angle bracket for it to hook on to. When I have the machine open from the rear side, I can just manage to reach it.



I've mounted speaker grills, unfortunately the chrome does not match that of the corner strips, but I'm not making a fuss about it because I want to keep costs down.


And this is the final look.


On it's back with screen still up.


And with the screen down for better viewing angle.

I bought a piece from a 1920 Tecla model 30 crystal radio. Trying to restore it.
I know this site is not geared for that but I was wondering if there is a site like this one dedicated to that subject, that i could join.
I am a member of a facebook group, but I like this format much more.
Thanks, and sorry for not checking in for awhile.

Really thank you for the tip to make FFB working! I can confirm it works!
To help others, I will try to clarify the procedure:
In Mame, once the game is launched, use Tab to:
      -  go the machine configuration and choose Twin
       - go to the Service menu through the DIP switch menu and activate Wheel Steering Force (or something similar). You can also choose configure several things such as the color of the car.
You need of course to have FFB plugin properly configured for Mame. You also need to activate outputs for windows in mame.ini. At least this is what I have on my PCs.
Good luck!

Hi

I'm having a slight problem with one of my GM PC's.

I'm getting random stutters in games , PC should be powerful enough.

Q9550 overclocked
HD 7570
4gb Ram

I've tested games in FBNeo and I get no stutters so only seems to be mame.

Please help.

Thanks

I'm running it through a JPAC on a Sega Astro City.

How do you use it ?

Wow, that would be a loss. I could get the Arcade VGA, is it pci ex?