SwitchCade: Slim Upright/Auto Rotating/Modular CP - VIDEO 25Feb12

[TopJimmyCooks]

Video of Completed Cab:



Original Build Thread:
Alright, here we go with my first cab!  I'm calling it Switchblade or SwitchCade, due to the switching aspects of the monitor and the control panel.  I may work switchblades into the art somehow if I can do it without it being too menacing/too ghetto.  Maybe switchblade combs?

Design:
It's based heavily on Knievel's Evo, via EvilNuff's great sketchup drawing bashed into my final shape:  25 5/8" wide to match my CP's width in it's closed position, and it ended up being 19" deep at the base to house the rotating LCD, tilted, and everything else I wanted.  I ended up with a 15 degree tilt back on the display just going by feel after playing with the monitor mock up.  This is not shown in the sketches below, and I won't have a fixed mdf bezel.  The PC will be behind the display and accessed from a door in the back.  The lower space will be accessible from the front and used to store swap panels and for some other cool stuff to be revealed . . .

CP swap panel in                                         CP closed



Construction:
Basically all MDF except some plywood in the CP and the 2x4's in the base.  It's going to be painted, in whatever color my kids want, as long as it's black.  To keep the internal blocking to a minimum and preserve space, I'm using pocket hole screws, biscuits and glue to join it all together.  This is an upgrade for me because I am famous for shooting things together with brads and staples.  Keyboard/mouse drawer.  Piano hinge for the back door, euro's for the front.  Castors on the back for tilt and roll.

Components:

• My expanding modular CP
• My auto rotating lcd rig and 19" LCD
• Beater Dell PC in small form factor case.  I'm keeping it in the case because I have room to do so.  
• GGG LED marquee lights
• 2nd power supply for USB hub, marquee lights, and the motor to rotate the monitor, maybe a case fan depending on how the debate plays out.
• Smart strip
• Recessed power entry portal pulled from a defunct lcd tv.  
• No coin door is planned at this point, but I made the front door stout enough just in case.

Woodworking:

Sides cut to profile with circular saw, jigsaw and sanding, then the second side was pattern routed.  


Subassemblies for the base and mid shelf/admin panel glued in advance to save time during the overall glue up. the base has recessed castors to aid movement, cause lemme tellya, MDF ain't light.  



Ready for glue up - topped up glue bottle, biscuits laid out, fit testing of all the parts in a dry run completed, clamps at the ready, wet rags to catch the glue squeeze out:


The glued up case


The assembled case with doors and keyboard drawer installed, ready for the next step.  Culmination of 6 months of planning and scheming.  


Case with door open.  I really love 5 way adjustable hinges.  


The engine room.  I originally thought of mounting the PC on the door, hence the piano hinge, but I thought better of it - there's plenty of room by design  on the mid shelf behind and below the monitor, and it makes the cable routing much simpler and more reliable.  



Next installment:  installing the monitor structure, drilling holes for various cords and a few buttons, paint prep and painting.  

[vanrose72]

The idea of using an auto-rotating LCD monitor is great. I'm sure your cab is going to turn out amazingly!

I'm curious: How long does it take for the monitor to rotate 90 degrees?

[TopJimmyCooks]

Vanrose72:

The speed is adjustable via software. The motor is internally geared 131 to 1 and then geared down again via a large driving wheel.  The end result is that it takes about 1.5 to 2 seconds to switch, setting the motor at 50% speed.  I am going to experiment with going faster then slowing at the end of the rotation travel as well. 

Here's a couple of links:  the first one has video in reply #16 and it's the setup I'm based on.

DNA Dan's rotating monitor cab

Switchcade rotating monitor setup

[nakeworks]

I ready for an update.  Show me some more photos or videos of this rotating monitor. 

[TopJimmyCooks]

I'm ready for an update too!  Unfortunately the wife is ready for the living room to be done being painted.  hopefully this weekend. 

Also, I've been sidetracked sneaking around buying a certain pinball machine - hee hee 

[Nephasth]

Also, I've been sidetracked sneaking around buying a certain pinball machine - hee hee 

Tease!

[TopJimmyCooks]

here's a real teaser . . .

[Nephasth]

That's no tease, that's the reveal! Harlem Globetrotters.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Correct, my man.

One 1979? Bally Harlem Globetrotters on tour.
It plays fine, keeps score, sound all works, needs a little TLC:

New rubbers all around, 2 coin mechs not working, left side lights all out (fuse?), only has one ball, playfield is very dirty.

But, the backglass is nearly perfect, all the saucers and bumpers I could hit worked, some plastics are warped but no fading/yellowing/no loss of art, playfield has wear only on the uphill sides of some of the lights.  very minor ball tracks (not through the paint)  cabinet has a few dings and scratches but overall is very nice.  I might do a little thread since the pinball section here is pretty slow.

Bottom line, this thing is going to work great, with a little work, and is going to be used as-is cosmetically and enjoyed.  It's coming home this weekend hopefully.

[TopJimmyCooks]

The 'Trotters are benched while waiting on a new cpu board.    

Got Switchcade's carpentry work completed and primed up, so I guess it's time for a paint scheme.  Here's the current thinking:  Everything shown here will be painted, but I'm considering adding some vinyl, or maybe stenciled, additional art.  This design keeps it simple and leaves space for something else like a side art roundel or medallion without getting too busy. It also integrates around the checker plate.  The protection plate is functional, but I still want it to blend in and contribute rather than stick out.



Interested in thoughts, I'm not 100% on this yet.  The black widow colors with CF accents is pretty well set because I'm not planning on repainting my CP.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Update- STILL painting. 

Primed, interior painted gray, red stripes painted and masked off:


Front door ready for black


I used oil based paint on a small foam roller.  I'm about 70% happy with the paint.  Plenty of orange peel texture, which is OK, but also more roller marks than I expected.  I should have painted the whole surface with the red stripe paint, i could see the transitions slightly even though I feathered and sanded them.  Oil housepaint is not like car paint or spraypaint. 

Black paint done and masking peeled off:



In other news, I got a GGG leaf 4 way joystick to replace my Happ Ms. Pac/Galaga stick.  My U360 has ruined me for sticks that require a lot of actuation force.  They're not the same size, mount or stick length, so I'm doing a slightly recessed undermount with a steel plate on top to fill the Happ recess on top and give me something to screw through.  the leafpro already has a very short throw, and by undermounting, it has about the same length above the panel as the short Ms Pac. It's done, just need to put the plexi and t mold back on. Completed pix of this to follow.

A tale of two sticks.  Out with the stiff, in with the sweet.


I've got about 4 hours in fabricating the 4 way panel with spinner and trackball, so it was white knuckle carving, I dont' want to remake this thing.  No good surfaces for the router to ride on, so I drilled the corners with a forstner bit and carved the mdf out on the straights with a sharp utility knife. 


Next up - some quick faux carbon fibre and the painting is Finally done.  If I do another cab it's plastic laminate for sure.   

[Paul Olson]

I really like the paint scheme on this!

[nox771]

I used oil based paint on a small foam roller.  I'm about 70% happy with the paint.  Plenty of orange peel texture, which is OK, but also more roller marks than I expected.  I should have painted the whole surface with the red stripe paint, i could see the transitions slightly even though I feathered and sanded them.  Oil housepaint is not like car paint or spraypaint.

You know I've had very similar experience with oil paint and foam rollers.  On large surfaces I don't see much alternative (I don't have a sprayer setup, and I'm not really a fan of the dozen-rattle-can approach).  However I've wondered in the past if it would be possible to thin the paint somewhat and use multiple lighter coats.  Past experience tells me that rollers don't work great with thin paint - they tend to slide rather than roll - so I've never really tried it (that plus the paint I usually buy typically says "Do Not Thin" on the side).  I'm sure somewhere out there is a method to getting better results.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I'm ok with the paint and roller.  the roller texture is acceptable and the foam roller has rounded ends making it easier to avoid leaving roller marks.  What I really did wrong is not covering the whole surface with my stripe color.  Even with oil paint it can't hide the texture difference between the rolled stripe color and the sanded primer.  I won't make that mistake again.  I used flood penetrol in the paint to help it level out, which helped a little. 

[nox771]

I'm ok with the paint and roller.  the roller texture is acceptable and the foam roller has rounded ends making it easier to avoid leaving roller marks.  What I really did wrong is not covering the whole surface with my stripe color.  Even with oil paint it can't hide the texture difference between the rolled stripe color and the sanded primer.  I won't make that mistake again.  I used flood penetrol in the paint to help it level out, which helped a little. 

Ahh I see, just think of the texture change as a design feature   Looks good in any case.  I did a whole set of garage cabinets using rolled oil paint, and it did have an orange peel texture to it.  At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to smooth it out, but the paint being oil based dries nice and hard, and overall the hard texture gives it a kind of durable feeling which I rather like.  I've never used "penetrol" is that a thinning agent?

[korbitz]

Looking good so far, but everytime i look at the side profile picture, i'm expecting the A-Team to jump out



 

[TopJimmyCooks]

@Korbitz - yeah, I should have used hugger orange for the stripe instead of red for full the B. A. Barakus action.  Most people have said starsky and hutch comes to mind.  That will die down a little when the cp and the carbon fiber are done.

@Nox - flood penetrol is a flow modifier, it's supposed to make brush and roller strokes flow out and be more level, without undue thinning of the oil paint. And make the paint workable longer in hot conditions  In my experience it's a pretty dang subtle difference. 

I plan to mask and spray the base coat for the CF tonight. 

[clockworkcity]

I really like the overall shape of this cab and the idea for rotating monitor is simply amazing! What are the viewing angles of your monitor? I've got an old Flatron L1953S 19" but I'm not sure if its viewing angles (170/170) are good enough for almost 26 wide cab with rotating mechanism.

Keep it up!  

[TopJimmyCooks]

@clockworkcity - Thanks.  that switchcade monitor is an old Viewsonic and the viewing angles aren't that impressive, but it works fine.  the main problem is not the sides and 170 is fine.  More importantly, many LCD's have a bad viewing angle to the bottom, so you have to be careful when you rotate your monitor.  i have the bottom on the player 2 side (counterclockwise rotation) since the colors are off when viewed at a wide angle. 

The cab is basically done except the driving controls cp module - I'm cutting down an old sidewinder wheel to mount on a swap panel and setting up flip down pedals.  Updates are coming, but life is intervening - the wife broke her arm on tuesday, so my priorities have to change for a while.   

[torridpsu]

Hey all.  I've decided to go this route for my rotating monitor.  I just ordered the parts yesterday, so I don't have anything in front of me yet.  I'm trying to get a jump start and I have a few questions.


1. What type of microswitches did you use for this project?  If you actually have the model you used, that would be great.

2. How are the microswitches wired?  Are they each wired to a seperate input on the motor controller?  Parallel?

Thanks for the help!

[TopJimmyCooks]

@torridpsu:
Welcome future rotator.
1.  the limit switches I used were the ones that came with some buttons I got with groovy game gear.  no particular model - any pushbutton microswitch would work well.  just not the ones with the levers that are used with some joysticks.

2.  In this case, the pololu board has inputs for limit switches.  they are wired to kill the motor when closed.  I never labeled them, just reversed them where they plugged into the board if needed to change.



in the pic, a2 and it's minus sign are one switch, a1 and it's minus sign are the other.  you've got plenty of options with the motor controller to change direction of rotation and behavior of switches, any normally open capable switch will work. 

[torridpsu]

Top Jimmy, thanks so much for the info.  I'm looking forward to getting my parts and making some progress!

[torridpsu]

edit: Moved to original topic so not to clutter your cabinet progress 

[wp34]

Somehow I missed this.  Looking good.  I like that you used biscuit and pocket hole joints.  I bet that baby is solid. 

[TopJimmyCooks]

Thanks, wp.  As often happens on this board, I got stalled at 98% done.  Between my wife breaking her arm, changing jobs, and those pesky pinball machines, Switchcade has been lonely these last few weeks. my racing wheel is in 200 parts on my bench untouched for a month!  First free weekend I get I will wrap up the last few details and post up the results, and probably a plea for some artwork help. 

I like that you used biscuit and pocket hole joints.  I bet that baby is solid. 

Yeah, I'm a woodworker, and while these tools are not really needed for a one time builder, they were nice to have for the joinery and made it more fun and very stout.  esp. with it being all mdf. 

[stefano]

Very nice cabinet!
Any update on its status ?

Regards!

[TopJimmyCooks]

Thanks stefano.  The machine is complete.  I've got a few small things to do and one major thing to fix:  serious lack of any artwork!  I've got to figure out a marquee and get it printed at the minimum.  I will definitely post more to finish the documentation of the build in the next couple of months I'll say. 

[TopJimmyCooks]

This is the last build update for SwitchCade before the wrap up and final pics.  It's been quiet but work has ramped up here, I've got parts coming for the new pinball at the beginning of march and need to clear the bench, so to speak. 

Volume control:


I tried some software only volume controls and didn't really get to where I needed to be.  the 2.1 speaker set would have required a drastic decasing and speaker rebuilding effort, so I got the Rat Shack dual audio taper pot.  Soldered on a plug and jack and put it between the pc and speakers.  It works well for me-I adjust the volume during games sometimes.  it's in the middle of the speaker panel which is a little weird but I like it.

Control Panel - Cat 5 interface


SwitchCade had a single cat 5 jack in a baseboard box to interface the digital sticks and buttons on swap panels with the Ipac.  I realized I also wanted to be able to connect to the Sidewinder wheel's pedals at the CP box.  So I went modular.  This is a 2 place keystone jack plate designed to be used with a decora style cover plate.  I trimmed it down, drilled and countersunk for the four screws, and cut clearance out of the back wall of the cp for the plugs to project into.  The cat 5 jack comes right back in the hole and goes to the ipac, the phone jack continues through the cab down to the bottom.  I bought a combo cat5/phone crimper and I love it.  Been terminating patch cables and rewiring the home network like a madman - everybody should have one of these.

Speaker mount and glass handles:

This pic shows one of the problems with working with MDF- I chewed it up bigtime with my old speaker mounting system.  I'll have to glue and clamp this
back into shape and touch up.  You can see the remnants of the old drilled speaker grill.  Those turned out great but I got some nice metal speaker grilles so I used those instead. 

Also seen here is one of two wood handles glued to the back of the display glass.  These allow me to reach into the back of the cab and raise the glass out of it's bottom slot, then I can grab it from the front and remove it without any tools.

previously I was using a suction cup from the workshop. 


Here's the second glass handle, and the quick-n-dirty speaker mount. 


I glued the wood blocks to the painted glass using liquid nails home projects adhesive in a small tube.  I was a little worried about this connection but the stuff worked great.  It is basically a high grade contact cement. 

Strapping Everything Down


Since the cab has wheels, I wanted everything inside to be well secured.  To keep the PC accessible and able to be opened while still in the cab, I mounted some wood blocks that cradle it.  you can see two in this picture, the top and bottom front of the case. 

the other half of the support system is on the door, so the capture is complete when the door is closed. 


This way minor moves can be done with everything in place and nothing bangs around.  If I was going to move the machine far I would take everything I could out, because it's freaking HEAVY.

[Just had a little 1 second brownout- I love my APC ups, it's been a trooper for years.  Unbelievable]

Kickplate

Switchcade has a swappable steering panel with pedals.  Since the pedals will be right against the cab, I incorporated this kickplate into the front lower door.

The plan is to get everything buttoned up, cleaned up, shot and have a wrap up build post/final product done this weekend.  Thanks for all the support here. 

[TopJimmyCooks]

Heres a look at the horizontal MaLa layout background I cobbled together for this project.  Thanks to John (darkkniyt) for the assist on the button graphic for the instruction card area. 



No points for originality, but hey, its a classic for classic games, right!

[Le Chuck]

I like it man, been watching it closely, but I feel like I'm watching the PG13 version.  Where's the gratuitous full-monty CP shots?  Show me some rotation, let the ol' girl take her shirt off for a minute... she may like it.  (unless your build is a dude and in that case... well, I still wanna see that stuff)

   

[TopJimmyCooks]

Video - Final pics are on the way.  Not sure if the music will be a UMG problem.  If the link breaks I'll switch it to Vimeo.  Enjoy. 

[Le Chuck]

 

Where the hell do I start man? 

Video - Totally awesome.  Ridiculously well made.  Usually I skip through the release videos pausing when I see something that catches my fancy, I watched this through twice.  Also I'm pretty sure that with the key automation grip credit I can get my SAG card so the next time I'm in lock-up with Christian Slater we can spitball ideas.    I totally feel like a shitbag about my video now   

Panels - love the smooth expansion and the two port hotswap - quick and easy.  Best panel swap I've seen thus far.  Replace that flight stick with an Atari Yoke and I'll have to change my shorts... again.

Rotation is nice an slick, theme is wicked nice, and that back is very painted.  I can't wait to do my next full size build after watching that video man.  You've got me all motivated.  Elite work. 

[Turambar]

This is beautiful, and the execution is flawless.

[firedance]

  awesome job, excellent video 

[BobA]

Great build ! Your video is excellent and shows off your cabinet very well.  Very innovative swapping of controls and I love how smoothly your monitor rotates.  Top Notch all the way. 

[TopJimmyCooks]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I really appreciate it. 

Video -  . . .  Ridiculously well made. 

Don't know about all that, I'm no cinematographer but thanks.  Anything's better than my soporific voice droning away so i skipped the narrative and tarted it up with the video editor that came with the PC.

  Replace that flight stick with an Atari Yoke and I'll have to change my shorts... again.

Heard you might have some parts for one-send 'em over!

. . .I love how smoothly your monitor rotates.  Top Notch all the way. 

I've got DNA Dan and DaOld Man to thank for their trailblazing easy to implement rotation. 

[DaOld Man]

Wow, your cab turned out great! Love the video too. Thanks for the credits!
Your project will be an inspiration for many more to come..

 

[Nephasth]

 

Great to see this one finished! Even better to see it all in action. This is an extremely clean example of modular design. Terrific execution and attention to detail!


..."Beast Wrangler"

[SammyWI]

Very nice.  Everything is just smooth and polished.  Great job on the rotate setup and the swapable CP.

[05SRT4]

Thanks for the Video!! Amazing build!