The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls

Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: MovingTarget on January 21, 2006, 02:15:45 pm

Title: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on January 21, 2006, 02:15:45 pm
I've been working on this for a few months now and wanted to post my project just because I can.

This project started out because I had a 21" NEC monitor I couldn't seem to get ride of.  After a couple garage sales and posting online I decided to keep it and build an arcade cab.

Like many others I modified Luisds design and used the Neon MAME for a lot of inspiration.

I'm going to put fiber optics on the sides.  I already have the fiber and have built the light engine.  I'll post pictures of how that's going to work shortly. 

I also bought HAPP blue translucent buttons and some blue LEDS.  I've already experimented with different ways to run the lights and I arrived at putting two LEDS in the bottom facing each other.  Same type of approach used on the NEON MAME.  I found that using a 9volt battery allowed me to light up the buttons and worked well for testing.  I have several extra LEDs so in case I messed something I could start over.

Anyway, here is how the marquee and CP are going to look.  Finally got some designs that both my wife and I like.  I also had to fight my way learning Photoshop to do this.  I started out using Fireworks but found it couldn't do the high resolution I wanted.

I'm pretty sure my side are will just consist of a picture of Saturn (same one used on the Marquee that I got off the Hubble site) surrounded by fiber optic stars that change colors.  Also, on the top of the cabinet will be a purpleish fiber optic UFO...pictures to come.

I can't believe how much I've spent in dollars on new tools, different parts, and in my time.  This was a lot of fun.  I probably won't play that much because I've got a 2 year old and one on the way, but it's sure fun building this.

Enough on the intro and on to the meat!

Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 21, 2006, 02:17:49 pm
Here is the CP, this was the hardest part as far as time spent.  I started off using the Visio templates to get the basic layout, printed a few versions to get the control placement right, then exported to a JPG and imported into PS.

NOTE, the picture of the track ball will be removed before sending off to be printed, but the white + will stay so I know where to drill.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 21, 2006, 02:25:06 pm
Few other notes on the controls.  I went with the IPAC, I also bought a blue transucent HAPP 3" track ball.  I had so much fun hooking this up to my PC playing Centipede, I was REALLY glad I spent the money and bought this ball.

Also, all buttons will be blue translucent for the player controls.  The p1 and p2 start are Atari Volcano buttons (just won off Ebay finally and haven't arrived yet).  The remaining buttons are blue normal HAPP.  I may light them up if the mood strikes me.  I love the shiny lights!

I'm mostly into games from the 80's the classics.  Don't care too much about the newer stuff.  I'm a big PC FPS fan but I think playing those games on this cab wouldn't be much fun.

I was going to use an old AMD 400 computer I had to power this but a neighbor just gave me his Celeron 700 that "didn't work".  I put on a copy of XP Pro I bought and never used thinking I was going to build a new primary computer (never did).

I also hacked a power cord jack from an old PC along with a female power lead.  going to install the jack on the outside of the cab so the power cable will be removable just like on a PC and I can use the power lead to wire into the PC's power without cutting any wires actually coming off the power supply.

I also bought one of those power strips that powers on based on activity of the computer.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: JONTHEBOMB on January 21, 2006, 10:44:56 pm
The marque and control panel both look excellent.  Then you have fiber optic stars on the sides and to top it off a UFO.  I can't wait to see your cabinet finished.

I'm curious what is a light engine? ???
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 23, 2006, 09:33:55 pm
Okay, on with the story.  I started off building a frame out of 2x4s because I wanted a 2x4 skeleton to build off of. 

I also attached some wheels to the bottom.  The front 2 don't lock and the back two do.

I made some sawboards for my circular saw due to a great tip on this forum.  I made 8', 4', and 2' sawboards.  They really work great and really speed up my work.

I should also mention I'm not too good at woodworking but enjoy making a mess, so this project has been a lot of fun so far...and messing with MDF dust all over everything.

Here are some pictures of the 2x4 frame, the side panels next to the frame, and the sawboard in action.

Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 23, 2006, 09:47:03 pm
As of this minute, about 1/2 of the cabinet is primed. 

I bought a spray gun to hook to my compressor because I thought it would be fun to spray the cabinet and I had grand thoughts of how good it would look.  Turns out my compressor couldn't cut it, had to borrow a neighbors, the primer doesn't go on well when applied this way.  Possibly because it's too thick.  I'm using Kilz latex primer. 

The good news is that it puts a super thin layer of primer on but takes a few coats.  I'm going to continue and finish the rest of the cabinet, sand it smooth, maybe apply another layer of primer, sand, then start to paint with the real paint which is black.  I'm thinking about trying out the black in the spray gun first to see if it will go on any better than the primer.  If not then I may just buy some rollers and be done with it.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention that I bought some counter sink drill bits and counter sunk all the screws.  This was another great idea lifted from this forum.  I highly recommend doing this as the MDF does not bubble up at all and the holes are super easy to fill in with wood filler.

Another note about this section of the build.  I bought a really nice jig saw, Bosch, and cut my MDF and some 2x4s in half to attach the different sections of the cabinet to.  Any place I attached the MDF to real wood I glued it with Elmers wood glue.

The jig saw made very quick work out of cutting the 2x4s in half.  I think the jigsaw was probably the best tool purchase I've ever made.  I went with an expensive model with nice features and while it hurt the wallet a little at first, I never regretted buying it once I used it for the first time.

I also should say that I didn't want a coin door but I did want a door on the front so I could get to the PC.  With a 2 year old and another one the way I decided it was better to have some locking mechanism to keep little hands and toys out, so there won't be a knob, you'll have to use a key for that.

On the back panel I cut out a spot for a air intake metal grid.  I bought a HVAC intake grid from HD, I also used the RotoZip to cut out the opening for the electric jack.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 23, 2006, 09:55:52 pm
Other misc. things about the cabinet.

Speakers

I bought some $20 speakers from Buy.com.  The Altec Lansing.  They sound pretty good.  I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to mount the sub yet but the satelites are all figured out.  I basically took off the grill, took out the speakers (3") and unsoldered the wires.  I but the grils on a piece of MDF, traced with a pencil and routed it out about 1/4".  I then cut some 3" holes in the middle.  The metal grill plates actually snap right into the space I made and the speakers will mount in there no problem.

Bezel

I bought a custom cut piece of smoked glass, had a bit of a head scratcher trying to figure out how to mount that in.  Problem was, due to the slant on the top of the cab and the placement of the monitor shelf, I was not going to be able to remove the monitor from the back of the cabinet like I had once hoped, so I had to have a design for the glass that would look good but allow me to remove it to get to the monitor incase I need to move this thing up and down steps at some point.  Again I turned to this board, found some threads and had a good working solution.

I also found a thread on the cardboard bezel which I plan on making.  Although I don't like the way black posterboard looks and I'm planning on spray painting it once completed to better match the cabinet and not be so grey looking...why is black posterboard grey anyway?

Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 23, 2006, 10:17:32 pm
Fiber Optic Lights

Okay, this is the part I've been excited to talk about.  I haven't seen this done yet and this is probably going to be the thing that makes this cabinet different from others.

As a kid I remember going to the mall and I always had to go into Spencers.  If you don't have one of these, basically it's a store that has different kinds of lights, various adult themed games and novelties that are tame enough to be housed in a mall.  The place always smelled of incense, at Halloween they have tons of masks and full sized monsters.  Lots of beer themed stuff...you get the idea.

Anyway, they always had these cool fiber optic looking plant things that slowly spun around and changed colors.  As a kid this was about the coolest thing I ever saw.  Since this arcade cabinet is to play 80s games that I loved, and what guy doesn't like lights and buttons, I decided to see if I could work fiber optics into the cabinet somehow.

While on Ebay I ran across a fiber optic UFO.  I thought this would be really cool if I could put this UFO on top of my cabinet.  That's how I got the Alien theme.  Then I thought, wouldn't it be cool to have fiber optic stars on the sides of the cabinet.  Well the answer is yes so I went about figuring out how to do that.

Well let me just say it isn't easy finding fiber optic fibers.  Searches mostly turn up cables for computers or super expensive star field kits.  I finally found a place that sold fiber of different diameters by the foot.  I bought 100' of 1mm, I probably need about 200' more but that's just a guess for right now.

Fiber doesn't do anything unless there is a light at the other end.  I needed what I will call a light engine.  These things are pretty expensive, like $50+.  I thought about just getting a bunch of Christmas lights or trying to do something with LEDs.  Then I thought, hey dummy, you bought a Fiber Optic UFO that is plenty bright and has a color wheel so the fibers change colors, and you only spent $10. 

So I went back on Ebay and found some other fiber optic UFOs.  I found an auction for 2, they were a little different than the one I bought earlier.  My criteria was it must have color wheel and it must plug into the wall (some run on batteries only).  I won the auction for the 2, I think I paid about $12, figured the 2nd one would be a good backup if I totally destroyed the first one.  When the package came one of the UFOs didn't work.  I emailed the seller and he quickly sent me another one for no charge.  I opened up one of the good ones and the bad one, found a broken wire due to the power convertor breaking off the plastic UFO base.  These things also had Christmas lights in them and a mechanism to spin the fibers, neither of which I wanted in my light engine.

I ripped out the Christmas lights, reattached the broken wire, crossed my fingers and plugged it in.  the light came on, the color wheel started to spin, and I was a happy guy.  I busted out the Rotozip, cut the base out of the UFO, built a little wooden box out of MDF and mounted everything inside, mounted the heavy power convertor to the wood directly.  Plugged it in again and everything still worked!

At this point I need to finish painting the cabinet so I can drill the holes to mount the fibers.  Once I have all the fibers I'll know how big of a hole I need in the top of my light engine and I'll drill a hole.

I took a scrap piece of MDF and drilled 10 holes in random spots, stuck a piece of fiber in each and ran the mess into the light box.  It worked great.  You basically just drill a hole, put the fiber in and glue it down.  I used electric tap to hold the fiber in place while the glue dried and wrapped electric tape around the bundle to keep it organized.  Seemed to work out very well.  I'm planning to use the same technique when I'm to that stage with the cabinet.

I still need to find a way to mount the light box in the cabinet.  I'm thinking between the two speakers behind the marquee.  I will need to ge able to get to it if the bulb burns out and I need to mounted at a central location to minimize how much fiber I need.

Here are pictures of the UFOs, the purplish one on the left is going on top of the cabinet, the grey one is one of the working cheaper models.  There is a picture of the light box/light engine with the top off and a pic of my test piece of mdf.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 23, 2006, 10:28:49 pm
The marque and control panel both look excellent.  Then you have fiber optic stars on the sides and to top it off a UFO.  I can't wait to see your cabinet finished.

I'm curious what is a light engine? ???

Thank you so much for the kind words.  I can't tell you how much I beat myself up over how these were to look and it's nice to hear someone thinks it's cool.

I'm pretty excited about the fiber optic stars and the actually finishing the cabinet too.  My biggest problem is finding blocks of time to work on this.  I'm hoping to be done this or next month.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: c64rulez on January 24, 2006, 12:44:13 am
Great marquee, and the distorted grid look on the cp is awesome. I bet that with all the fibers youre talking about this is going to turn out a very unique looking cab.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 25, 2006, 09:24:01 pm
Great marquee, and the distorted grid look on the cp is awesome. I bet that with all the fibers youre talking about this is going to turn out a very unique looking cab.

Thanks for the compliment on the CP.  I still find myself sort of second guessing or thinking of other things I could have tried.  But I have to say from what it looks like in PS I'm pretty happy with it.

I sent the graphics off to mamemarquees.com  Scott from that site has been exceptionally responsive so far.  From all the hype about the quality of their work that you can find on this site, I'm super excited to see the final results.

Now I'm looking for some feedback from anyone reading this.  Do you have any ideas for side art?  I really like the picture of Saturn that is on the marquee, I like the idea of reusing some of the graphics I've already got because I think that would help tie the whole thing together.  My wife thinks it would be a good idea to not only put the Saturn on the sides but to also include some other star and galaxy shots.

I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on the side art, especially since I'm hoping the fiber optic stars will be the coolest thing on there.  I was also considering doing a huge blue planet like the one on the bottom of the marquee, maybe Saturn above that with the fiber optic stars around it.

I also suggested using the alien head or maybe another alien body (lifted from the same site I snatched the head from) but my wife thinks that might be too creapy. :/

Maybe I should just go with the fiber optic stars and be done with it.  What do you all think?

If I go with the Saturn I've got a really nice photo printer that prints out a Saturn on photo paper that's about 10" wide and really does look nice but it would be somewhat of a challenge attaching that to the side of the cabinet and it's only 10" wide, but the price is right.  Hopefully this is my last big decision.


Oh, one other note on the construction.  I originally wanted to put in a keyboard drawer but due to the placement of the 2x4s on the monitor shelf I didn't leave myself enough room so I had to scrap that idea.  I'm also somewhat struggling how to attach the control panel but I've got a few ideas on that. 

Anyone know where to get a 12" piano hinge?  Can't seem to find one online.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: Harpal on January 27, 2006, 07:36:22 pm
its coming along lovely,
keep up the good work and keep  ;)posting pics
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on January 31, 2006, 09:54:53 pm
I left work at 3 yesterday to take advantage of the unusually warm weather to paint my cab in the garage, we were in the 50's which never happens in NE Ohio in January.

Anyway, I finished applying the primer and actually got 2 coats of the black paint on most of the surfaces.  Some only have one coat but nothing is primer white anymore!

The spray gun worked a lot better with the real paint but my neighbor's compressor had a hard time keeping up.  I've got another neighbor with an even bigger compressor but I don't feel like wheeling that thing down the road so I think what I've got will have to do.

Anyone have any tips for using a spray gun?  I could use them for my last coat, probably could have used tips before now but oh well.

Now I find myself in sideart hell.  I put the small picture of Saturn that is in the marquee and I printed on my super nice inkjet, on the side of the cab (see picture).  I could really use some ideas from anyone reading this as I'm no artist.  My wife still thinks I should put some other planets on there and then put the fiber optic stars around the planets.  I'm thinking maybe I should go ahead and pay MameMarquees to print me some large Saturns and put one on each side.  I'm not sure I like the idea of different planets because I don't know how well that will tie into the rest of the cab.  If I go the multiple planet route I would probably just print them on photo paper and apply to the cab.

The picture doesn't do the Saturn's colors justice.  Also notice the sample small piece of blue T molding on the corner.

Also, I was reading a thread that talked about building your own cab and people liked the effect of the Neon MAME with the side panels sort of floating above a lower panel.  I liked that look as well and emulated it but in the thread people were talking about putting two full layers of MDF on the sides.  That's just nuts because you won't ever see the bottom panel except for on the bottom of the cab and you're greatly increasing the weight. 

I took a picture and made a lame drawing in MS Paint to show how I created this effect with a 1/2 strip of MDF that I think is only 4" wide.  Basically you're leaving a 1/2" gap between the lower set of 2x4s and the 2x4s that the side panels attach to.

In the Paint picture, the black boxes are the bottom 2x4s the 1/2" mdf strip attaches to, the green circles are approx where the wheels attach to the cab, the blue boxes are the 2x4s that the side panels attach to, and the red boxes are the 2x4s that give the skeleton height and the side panels also attach to.  I hope this helps someone not double the weight of their cab!

Again, any ideas appreciated!  I reserve the right to ignore or modify advise though :D
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on February 01, 2006, 01:33:00 pm
One more thing to note on the 2x4 frame.  I used two sets of 2x4s at the bottom to give the wheels enough clearance to spin.  Instead of 2x4s, 2x6s or 2x8s would have worked but I didn't have any of those!

The wood on the front of the cab sits about 1" off the ground, as do the sides.  In the back the back panel (not shown in the pics) goes up to the height of the bottom 2x4, so it sits up higher.  This is to allow me to stick my hand in there and lock the back caster wheels.  The front ones don't lock.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: c64rulez on February 01, 2006, 01:50:17 pm
... Now I find myself in sideart hell... 

That actually makes us hellmates  ;)
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on February 07, 2006, 04:21:41 pm
... Now I find myself in sideart hell... 

That actually makes us hellmates  ;)

LOL

So after this last weekend I can state with confidence that unless you have prior experience and a big --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- compressor, don't buy a paint spray gun and paint your cabinet.  By the 3rd coat it looked okay but I broke down and bought a foam roller to finish this off and it worked a lot better and quicker.  However, it was more mess...the paint gun was actually pretty easy to clean up from.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on February 08, 2006, 10:31:38 pm
I got my artwork from mamemarquees.com and wow does it look nice.

I was messing around with some sideart ideas and this is what I've come up with.  It's 13" wide by 35" long.  Looking for opinions please!
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on February 09, 2006, 09:57:47 pm
So I couldn't wait and pulled the trigger.  I changed the grid slightly to have the same fx the CP grid had, less the warping.  I thought it was cool to associate the warping to the fact the alien head is behind the CP.

Anyway, once I get building the CP I'll probably post some more pictures.  This thing is starting to move again and I actually feel like I may be able to finish.  Maybe February will be the month!
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on February 16, 2006, 12:52:42 pm
Got all the artwork from Mamemarquees.com now.  I also finally found a piano hinge under 4 feet and this morning finally picked up a piece of "poly carbonate" which I guess is the same thing as Lexan that is very close the same size as my control panel, was under $20 which was a lot less that the smallest piece that would have done the job from HomeDepot that was about $60!

I just need to have some decent temperatures so I can put the finishing touches on my paint job since my cabinet is in the garage (man I can't wait to put my car back in there, getting a little tired of scrapping snow and ice off every morning.)

Question for anyone who has a mdf control panel with glass top and volcano buttons...how did you mount them?  I'm thinking about putting a hole in the mdf big enough for the entire button to go through and basically just mounting the button to the "poly carbonate" and the artwork, do you think that will work out okay?
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on February 24, 2006, 07:31:39 am
A few days ago I asked a neighbor to help me move the cab into my basement where it will live.  It's just been so cold out that I haven't been able to do any work in the garage and I really needed to get my car back in there.

I think this was the inspiration I needed.  That night (after the cab finally came to room temperature) I put the T molding on and side art.  Oh, and I take back what I said about using a sprayer, I guess when I was looking at it before the paint must not have cured enough because it looks really nice now.

Last night I cut the Lexan to match the CP using the router, that came out great!  I also cut the 3" hole in the Lexan because that was weighing on my mind so much, I didn't have enough faith that my 3" hole saw wouldn't ruin the Lexan.  Actually turned out pretty nice.  I also cut the CP artwork and began drilling holes to line up the CP wood, Lexan, and artwork.  Apparently that's a fair bit of work and I'm hoping to finish that process up this weekend.

With the size of the sideart I went with I don't think I'll need all that fiber I originally thought for the stars.  I'm going to start installing the stars next week I hope and if I run out of fiber I'll just order some more.

So far so good!  I can't wait to finish now and finally start playing some games.

Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: golddbz2000 on February 24, 2006, 01:12:52 pm
awesome cab! I can't wait to see the stars shine. I am really curious to see them glowing in the dark.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on February 24, 2006, 01:44:30 pm
Thanks for the compliment!  It's so nice to get some feedback.

I can't wait to see the stars shine either.  Although I'm not sure how I'm going to get a picture of it.  The fiber optic UFO is actually on in the picture but it looks like it's not.  Maybe I'll have to make a little movie and turn out the lights when I record it  :-\

I'll figure something out though.  Thanks again!
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: Knievel on March 04, 2006, 07:09:56 pm
Nice looking cabinet, bringing back some good memories for me. :)
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on March 05, 2006, 09:02:39 pm
Thanks man, you're an inspiration!

So I've been working here and there making some progress.  I wired all the controls on my CP to the IPAC and mounted all of the LEDs with their resistors to the Happ blue Translucent buttons, 2 per button.

I also read on this forum how the light that comes with the HAPP trackballs isn't very good and how this guy bought a "bulb" with 3 high intensity LEDs and mounted that with a custom bracket under his trackball and he was much happier with the results.  So, I decided to take 3 of my extra LEDs and do the same thing.

I found a very simple solution for creating the lamp holder.  I just cut a small rectangle from some extra Lexan, drilled one hole in the middle of the one end for the original screw that goes into trackball that once held the original lamp in place.  Then I drilled 3 holes to push the LEDs in (same size bit I used for the holes I made in the buttons.

I spent a ton of time soldering all the little wires for the LEDs together, actually all of the free time I had during a weekend day.  I spent two nights after work wiring the controls in place, one night for player 1 and one night for player 2.

Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on March 05, 2006, 09:16:56 pm
I guess I'll fess up to the sin I committed while making my CP...

...Okay so remember when I asked how everyone mounted their volcano buttons?  Well I cut the hole all the way through the MDF, snug enough to help hold the body of the button in place.  I carefully cut the hole in the MDF and artwork so the stem of the button came through.  when I went to screw the volcano part onto the button, I could barely get my finger down in the mouth of that volcano to press the button. 

I realized there were some plastic spacers on the bottom of the button so I carefully cut those off...still not enough room.  Well, I spent so friggin much time finding these buttons and so much on them that I was going to be damned if I didn't get to use them like I had envisioned.  I thought if I destoyed them then at least I gave it my best shot (okay, and I bought a second set just in case anyway).

I almost put the Lexan under the drill press and let my spade bit remove some of the excess and make the Lexan thinner.  I actually had the piece under the bit with the drill press on (wasn't thinking clearly obviously) then I realized (thank you GOD!!) that the spade but has little barbs that are on either side, so I would have cut a hole in the CP long before I removed the material I was hoping too.  Then I thought about a forester bit but decided I was going to ruin the Lexan (which by the way took forever to get all those holes in).

So I took the sanding cylinder on my drill press to them.  I did try to sand them on some nice new files I had but that was getting me no where fast.  It was sort of difficult to keep the bottom of them even.  First couple of times when I thought I was done I realized the center hole wasn't in the center when they were put on a flat surface meaning I sanded one side down lower than the other.  I finally got it 95%+ right, then screwed it on the button and it fit perfectly!  The red button top was poking perfectly above the rim of the volcano exactly like I remembered them being on the arcade games from my youth.

I was a little nervous about getting the second one right but I had apparently developed some skills while doing battle with the first one because it came out better and I was done quicker. 

Before I put them on the CP I filed down the bottoms to make them even.

Whew, glad i got that off my chest.  So here's the mystery unveiled, you can't take volcano buttons and mount them on 1/8" plexi glass and have the look or work like you probably want.  I'm confident I'm not the only offender of filing these things down but maybe I'm the first to admit it?  I hadn't read about this step anywhere else.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on March 17, 2006, 02:30:50 pm
Okay here's an update. 

I soldered the wires that run the button and trackball LEDs into the male computer power supply harness I stole from a dead machine.  I hooked it up to the computer and now everything lights when the computer powers on!

I had to redo the box that sits under my control panel because some of the buttons and the joystick for player 1 wouldn't fit under it.  It's probably a good thing this happened because the box I had made sucked, there were nails poking out of it and I later decided it would be nice to add a power button to the back right so I could turn the game on and off.  When I redid the box I just used glue (wood and gorilla) so now everything is very tight and there are no nail holes.  I also was able to easily add the hole for the power button and on the other side I added a volume pot.  I followed the instructions for using a stereo volume pot and headphone extension cord from Radio Shack, that worked out great.  Nice thing is you don't really see the power button or volume control when you're in front of the machine but it's super easy to get to it.

I wired the stollen power jack (again from the dead PC) to the back of the cabinet so I can have a removable power cable.  That also turned out great!

One problem I'm having that I'm not sure how to solve is I noticed my speakers make a crackling sound.  At first I thought I must have a bad connection somewhere in the wiring but then I realized that the crackles coorespond with the blinking of the Christmas lights on the UFO I have on top of the cabinet.  I may just end up either snipping the wires on the lights or totally removing the UFO.  It was a nice idea but it does look like it's not part of the cab but just sitting on top...which I guess it is but the power cord feeds through the top of the cab.

Remaining problems:
-What to do about the crackling sounds
-Build a bezel
-Put in the star fiber optic lights (hopefully will do tomorrow)
-Still need to wire the lights on the volcano buttons to the IPAC (just bought the 330 ohm resistors today so hopefully will do this tomorrow)
-Paint the new CP box and finish painting the front cab door
-Install the cab door
-Install the CP to the CP box and attach to the cab
-Wire the start button to the computer's start button.
-Install the glass (I think this will be the very last step, but I have the glass already)
-Lastly, for some reason my marquee light quit working, have to get another or fix the one I have.

I think that's it!

I still can't believe how much work their is on this seemingly simple project.  Still, it's been a lot of fun!
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: JONTHEBOMB on March 17, 2006, 08:45:51 pm
-What to do about the crackling sounds
Are your speaker wires anywhere near the UFO or do they go across the power wire for the UFO? 
You may be getting interference from the UFO.  You could try running the speaker wires parallel to the power cord for the UFO.
Or just put the speaker wires as far away from the UFO and UFO power cord as you can.

Can't wait to see how the star fiber optic lights turn out in your cabinet.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on March 17, 2006, 11:41:19 pm
-What to do about the crackling sounds
Are your speaker wires anywhere near the UFO or do they go across the power wire for the UFO? 
You may be getting interference from the UFO.  You could try running the speaker wires parallel to the power cord for the UFO.
Or just put the speaker wires as far away from the UFO and UFO power cord as you can.

Can't wait to see how the star fiber optic lights turn out in your cabinet.

Actually yes the speaker wires run right along with the power for the UFO.  I'll move them and see if that makes a difference.  Thanks for the idea!

I just got finished wiring up the volcano buttons.  I had the wires crossed at first (the + and - weren't labled on the buttons) but now everything is working great. 

To attache the wires to the pins on the IPAC I used some of the standard connectors that I used to attach the wires to the buttons.  I took a pair of needle nose pliers and crimped one side so it was tight enough to go over the pin and make a nice snug fitting.  I then took some wire shrink wrap and covered over the exposed metal on the connector.  They make a big point on the Ultimark (think I spelled that wrong) not to let the 5 volt lead ground out or you could blow a fuse.  The heat shrink seemed to work out very well.

Also FYI, anyone wiring to volcano buttons.  The pin that is next to the button ground is the one that should get the 5 volt lead from the IPAC but with a 330 ohm resistor on it.  The other pin, next to the NO and ON pins, gets the wire from the Cap or Num Lock from the IPAC.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on March 18, 2006, 11:07:37 pm
Okay I spent the better part of the day routing the corners and painting the box that goes under the CP. 

I also spent a bunch of time finally puting in the stars.  Wouldn't you know it I ran out of fiber optic cable and the place I get it from is closed now through middle of next week and I leave for a vacation Wednesday.  So looks like I won't get done for a few more weeks but hey, what's a few more weeks at this point?

Anyway here are some pics of the stars.  Not the easiest thing to take a picture of.  There are 18 on the one side and it looks pretty cool.

Basically I found that if I put one hand inside the cab to one outside to sort of figure out where to drill the hole (making sure I didn't go into one of the internal supports or drill the hole outside the cab) that worked pretty good.  Once the hole was drilled I inserted the fiber the same way the drill bit went, from the outside of the cab in.  I then stuck my head inside the cab, used an electric staple gun to put in a stable to help hold the fiber in place, the staples didn't drive all the way into the wood so they kind of made a nice little arch that didn't crimp the fiber at all.  I bought some wire loop tie things and put one on each side of the light engine.  all the fiber from each side go through that before then enter the light engine.

I then put a healthly dab of craft glue on the fiber and over the hole.  After I was sure there was enough room for the fiber to comfortably make it to the light box I used some wire snips to cut the fiber but I didn't cut it flush, I left about 1/2" sticking out.  I'm going to use some small brushes (like the ones I used back in the day for water colors as a kid) and put some black paint around where the fiber is sticking out.  Once that dries then I'll snip the fiber flush with the cab side.

Once all the fibers are run on one side I bundled them by wrapping electric tap around them.

I ordered another 100 feet (so that would be 200 total on the cab if I use it all, which at this point I'm thinking isn't going to happen.  The diameter of the fiber is so thick that the stars really look good and I don't feel like a need a ton of them to get that star effect I was going for.

Right now the hole in the light engine is big enough that I can stuff all the fibers from the one side into it.  Not a problem because I can only look at one side at a time anyway!  Once I have the new fibers and finish my runs I'll drill a hole in the light engine big enough to accomodate all the fibers.

Here are some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on March 30, 2006, 09:01:17 am
I got back from vacation on Tuesday and my order for more fiber optic fiber was sitting there waiting for me!  Last night I finished installing the fiber, installed the hinge and cabinet latches to the CP, got the monitor in it's final position, drilled the final hole in the light engine so now all the fiber optics work, and put the back panel on with the newly wired power cord harness that allows for a removable power cord just like on a computer.

Tonight I hope to touch up any nicks in the paint especially those around where the holes were drilled for the fiber optics (once dry I'll cut each fiber flush with the cabinet sides) and start working on the bezel.  This weekend hoping to try to spray paint the white poster board bezel black, clean the grey tinted glass and install.  Last thing to do will be to wire up the momentary button that will turn the computer on and off.

OMG I think I might actually finish!

I also wanted to say running the speaker wires on the opposite side of the cabinet away from the power cords from the UFO and light engine WORKED  :cheers:  No more crackling sound, I'm so happy about that!

Once I'm all done I'll post some final pictures.  Thanks for reading all my long posts and especially thank you to anyone who's commented or helped me out.  This forum rocks!
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME
Post by: MovingTarget on March 31, 2006, 11:00:27 pm
Okay, I've got a couple more smallish things to do but they don't affect how the cabinet will look so here is the final picture of my finished cabinet!!!! 

Probably turned out better than I had hoped.  The fiber optics are very cool, the blue Happ Translucent buttons and trackball glow a beautiful shade of blue, and I'm very happy with the graphics and sound of the speakers.  I've also got to say I'm VERY glad I put in the volume control, it's a nice touch and I can quickly rock out or quiet down the machine.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone that helped by providing ideas and info.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MYX on April 01, 2006, 12:37:55 pm
Looks great. Please post pix of your fiber stars. What size drill bit did you use for the fiber?
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on April 01, 2006, 05:27:10 pm
The smallest drill bit I have is 1/16" so that's what I used.  The fiber is 1 mm thick.  The hole was a little too big, not much though.  So that's why I glued the fibers down in the back.  By leaving about 1/4" to 1/2" sticking out while the glue dried, I was able to make sure the fiber didn't slip into the cabinet.  Once dry I used a small paint brush to paint around the fiber.  This was necessary because you could see the brown of the mdf around the fiber.  After doing this "touch up" there were no visible gaps between the fiber and the cabinet.

I tried everything I could think of to get a good picture of the fibers in action, short of a movie.  I tried the fireworks setting, with a flash, without, lights in the room on/off, etc.  Unfortunately none of the pictures does the beauty of the fibers any justice.  Each star is about the size of the tip of a mechanical pencil lead and the light coming off each is very bright and the colors change.  Because of the way I put the fibers together in the light engine the colors on each side don't all change at exactly the same time, which creates a pretty cool look.

Anyway, I blew up the last pic I posted but this time I put red circles around where each of the fibers are.  The pattern was random on each side, I just went with what I thought looked good.  There are 19 on each side.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on April 01, 2006, 05:38:14 pm
Couple other notes:

After I put the hinge on the CP there was light from the LEDs leaking out.  I went to Home Depot and bought some dark grey foam weather stripping and ran in around the inside edge of the CP box.  It still closes just fine but no light leaks through.

I also installed two cabinet clasps, the kind that have 2 parts, one looks like a metal arrow, the other is two small plastic rollers that push into one another with a spring.

I installed a HAPP momentary button the the back right of the CP (you can't see it from any of the pictures I've taken.  I attached wires to it and on the other end I soldered aligator clips.  I ran them inside the computer and stripped a small amount of the insulation from each of the wires running to the mobo power switch, just enough so I could attach the clips and they would touch the exposed wires.  I can now start/shutoff the computer with either the HAPP button or the power button on the front of the computer.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: JONTHEBOMB on April 03, 2006, 08:16:30 pm
You did a spectacular job.  The blue T-molding gives the cabinet an excellent flare.
Any plans for a second project?  You can't build just one ;D
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on April 17, 2006, 11:18:52 am
Thanks again for the compliment!

I don't see myself building another one of these for some time.  Maybe some day a cocktail cabinet or maybe will help a friend out.  I really learned a lot and I'm sure the next one would be much easier, faster, and cheaper.

Anyway, I'm now tweaking MAMEWah and the only problem I'm still dealing with on the cabinet is with the automatic powerstrip.  It just doesn't shut off when I power down the PC.  I have to keep reaching behind the cabinet and unplugging it, not exactly what I was hoping for. 

I'm probably going to put a faster computer in there at some point and maybe it will work better with the strip.

For now I'm have a blast playing games when I get time here and there.

I also added a SlikStik illuminated blue ball handle to my 4 way joystick.  I looks great and it's nice to have both the bat handles and a ball top.  It is brighter than the tb and buttons, was easy to install except for the fact that I had to add a washer to it so it didn't click (see my review under hardware review section if you're interested in the details).

Everytime I play on my machine I'm just so impressed with how well everything came out, especially the fiber optics and how good those $20 Altec speakers sound.

What a cool project.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on September 29, 2006, 10:01:56 am
UPDATE:

I added a Ms Pac Man/Galaga reunion JS and used the lighted ball top handle.  Took all of 10 minutes to swap out and I'm now much happier with my dedicated 4 way stick.

I'm going to upgrade the computer to a AMD 1.33 gig mobo I now have left over after an upgrade. 

I still need to spend some time working out some of the software issues so I can play all the games I've got loaded but I'm just so happy playing the ones that work that it hasn't been a priority.

The stars are still shining bright and this cabinet gets a lot of compliments and attention at parties!
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: leapinlew on September 29, 2006, 11:31:30 am
You can't bump it and not give us new pictures...

OH the shame... SHAME of it all
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on September 29, 2006, 11:53:27 am
My bad, I'll take some pics tonight and update...sorry about that.

But you're right, I mention that cool lighted balltop and never showed any pics, duh.  :dunno
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on January 29, 2020, 10:50:06 am
So it's been 13 years and I want to update my cabinet. 

I got the pi3 and have a friend that will help me but I have a few questions I would like to get some options on.

-I currently have the IPAC that's just PS2, I think I need to upgrade to something that will work well with USB, this is a 2 player cabinet.  What is my best option?
-I was powering my LEDs by using the 5v lead in the PC's power.  I snipped it and used an old 5v wall wart I had, which seems to work fine, but when I plug it into my power sensing power strip, the lights stay on.  Any better option 13 years later?
-My original volcano buttons had the LEDs go out in them.  Any options here like maybe someone makes them finally?

I think the audio will work as is since it's a 1/8 jack.  The monitor has DVI-D out so I bought a DVI to HDMI cable for that (my old 21" CRT died about 8 years ago and I replaced it with a LCD back then).  I found a thread on getting my power button (momentary switch) to work on the pi so think that will be okay.

Anything else I might want to consider?
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: javeryh on January 29, 2020, 11:39:11 am
You might want to reconsider using a pi.  The version of MAME that Retropie runs is ancient.  You will also have way more flexibility if you use a PC.  I would only ever use a pi if I had space constraints (I have one in a bartop and I kind of hate it).
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: Mike A on January 29, 2020, 11:44:39 am
Your cab called me and told me it wants an upgrade to a CRT while you are making a bunch of changes.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on January 29, 2020, 12:18:58 pm
You might want to reconsider using a pi.  The version of MAME that Retropie runs is ancient.  You will also have way more flexibility if you use a PC.  I would only ever use a pi if I had space constraints (I have one in a bartop and I kind of hate it).

Thanks, but I am going the PI route to check it out.  I think it will do plenty for what I do, which is mostly play 80s games and turn it on for parties.

I just need to figure out how to get the LEDs to turn on and off when the PI does and need a good upgrade for the keyboard encoder.

I did find a video on switching out the LEDs in the volcano switches, so I'll give that a go.

I'm really not interested in spending CRT upgrade money at this point.  The LCD works fine for me!
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: leapinlew on January 29, 2020, 10:07:20 pm
You can get a 21” crt for free, but I can understand why you don’t want to use one. Maybe consider using the filters to emulate scan lines which is built into retropie.

Just get another ipac. That’s the easiest route. I’m guessing the zero delay encoders would work fine for you. Check them out.
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: MovingTarget on January 30, 2020, 12:30:11 pm
Thanks, just ordered an IPAC2 that has USB and it already shipped!

It looked like it would be a pretty easy swap for the old one.

What are "zero delay encoders"?
Title: Re: My 1st Cab - Alien MAME - DONE!!!
Post by: javeryh on January 30, 2020, 04:03:59 pm
What are "zero delay encoders"?

They are $10 boards that support up to 12(?) buttons and connect to the PC via USB.  The PC sees it as a game pad.  They are really convenient (and cheap) and even come with a wiring harness so it's just plug and play.  Amazon sells them.