Little Ms. Pac-Man, A Portable Cocktail Cab

[griffindodd]

Toofers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mcseforsale]

Very.  Very cool.

AJ

[griffindodd]

A little update for the morning.

Fixed the blocking in place, leaving it until closer to the end of the build was the right thing to do, it allowed me to do a little tweaking and trimming here and there to make sure it fits perfectly supporting the control panels and monitor properly.


Yet another fit test with the monitor on the blocks, so far so good.

[griffindodd]

Art arrived today from GoG, also I went to Staples and got the bezel printed out on the banner material. The blue on the bezel came out a bit lighter, always a risk you run printing colors on different printers, but it's not too bad, who knows maybe the acrylic over the top will make it a little darker.

[griffindodd]

Mounted the bezel on some thin backing card this morning and then trimmed it to go over the monitor. It sits on the monitor surface itself so it gives a really nice flat plane


Popped the acrylic in place to make sure everything was playing well together

[Woodshop Flunky]

I'm totally digging this build.  Excellent job so far.  The style of the "cabinet" is very nice.  Keep it up! 

[griffindodd]

I'm totally digging this build.  Excellent job so far.  The style of the "cabinet" is very nice.  Keep it up! 

Hey thanks man, actually the reason I wanted to build something for the kids to play on was the inspiration I got from your American Ace mini cab.

[griffindodd]

Slapped on the side art tonight along with the T-Molding that just arrived.

[emphatic]

Awesome!

[Woodshop Flunky]

I'm totally digging this build.  Excellent job so far.  The style of the "cabinet" is very nice.  Keep it up! 

...I wanted to build something for the kids to play on...

I know they'll enjoy it... and be the envy of all their friends!

[griffindodd]

Ahhh the busy pre-christmas weeks always taking away from your cab building time  combine that with just opening escrow on a house and man oh man where does the time go. Even so I got the artwork and t-molding all finished.

Clamped the t-mold in place on the end of those fiddly fingers, used titebond in the slot to keep the end in place.


The laminated 'bulletproof' artwork from GoG has a nice finish to it, colors are beautiful as always.


Starting to look like the concept art now, I'm loving the color combination. I'll probably get the bezel reprinted over at GoG so the blues match properly.

[rablack97]

 

That's all you get now....

I'm kinda catching up....

What guts are you putting in this thing.....a mini pc?  I assume it plays like a cocktail, so the screenplay will flip as the players change?

Yep i'm building one.....damn you....

[griffindodd]

Hey man where have you been, I've missed your witty banter in this thread.

60-in-1 for the guts on this to keep it simple, only playing 4-way games, so it's more like 45-in-1 in cocktail mode. This thing has to be as simple as possible as I want to be able to take it to people houses, throw it on the floor/table, flick the switch and walk away to let people just play what they want without a learning curve or the othe rrandom events associated with a Mame setup.

[rablack97]

Yeah, I've been working on my ICE board for the KADE project....Learning how IC's work....you have any expertise in that area?

Too cool....you're becoming a natural at this.....

[griffindodd]

Yeah, I've been working on my ICE board for the KADE project....Learning how IC's work....you have any expertise in that area?

Too cool....you're becoming a natural at this.....

No I have no idea, I'm kinda crap at that stuff

[Jigenjuke]

In a word,  AWESOME! 

Jigenjuke

[rablack97]

hmmm, i'm seeing the CP flipped to the side, 2plyr side by side.....counter top model.......

[griffindodd]

hmmm, i'm seeing the CP flipped to the side, 2plyr side by side.....counter top model.......

That would be interesting to see a mock up of

[rablack97]

i said seeing.....i cant draw for crap.....

Would be interesting though.....

[macattack]

Loving this build, on my radar now to do one also.

[shrunkenmaster]

Excellent work so far, my good man! Loving the artwork, shape and attention to detail.

[griffindodd]

Thanks guys, I can't wait to see someone else build one of these, perhaps even with a different theme, that would be awesome to see.

Grabbed a few hours while the babby had her afternoon nap...

The artwork and my joystick holes didn't quite align properly so I wanted to tweak that as they will be illuminated under a semi translucent dust washer. I wanted the holes to be over sized so I made a template and positioned it to correct the hole position with a little bushing assisted routing.


Much better


Next I added the fans to the two end panels, one pushing, one pulling. Also I masked over Ms. Pac-Man's bow a little with duct tape so the red light didn't bleed into the yellow light behind the panel. You can see the tape coming out from under the speaker, shouldn't effect the sound any as the bow area is quite small.


Final bit for today, wired up the power socket to a multi-plug strip. Tried to photograph the wiring as a reference for anyone else using one of these sockets (don't forget they don't come with the 10A fuse installed, you have to put one in yourself.)


That's it for me for today, now I'm off to take my honey to L.A. to see Stevie Wonder and friends in concert, should be a great night.

[kuchta]

I love this project! I have twin 4-year-old daughters, so I could definitely see them playing with something like this. It's definitely a project I will keep on my radar as a possibilty for the future. Great job!

Final bit for today, wired up the power socket to a multi-plug strip. Tried to photograph the wiring as a reference for anyone else using one of these sockets (don't forget they don't come with the 10A fuse installed, you have to put one in yourself.)


That's it for me for today, now I'm off to take my honey to L.A. to see Stevie Wonder and friends in concert, should be a great night.

Thanks for the detailed pictures on this part. When I've seen other people do this, it always involved soldering (not my forte!). I can't tell, but it seems like you didn't solder the connections and just used quick disconnects. If this is the case, could you point me to the size and style that you used? Thanks!

[byrneaar]

First time poster I saw this project and fell in love!  I want to build this for my wife.  Just wondering when you got the line art for the wood panels printed did you just get it printed at a 1:1 scale as I dont see any measurements on it.

Thanks!

byrneaar

[Eldritch1969]

Very cool project to occupy kids ! 

[griffindodd]

First time poster I saw this project and fell in love!  I want to build this for my wife.  Just wondering when you got the line art for the wood panels printed did you just get it printed at a 1:1 scale as I dont see any measurements on it.
Thanks!
byrneaar

Hi & Welcome!! Yes the line art is to scale in the zip files, so all you have to do is paste it onto your wood and cut the lines.

Small update this morning, plumbing in all the electronicalsiz and fitting brackets for assembly

[griffindodd]

If this is the case, could you point me to the size and style that you used? Thanks!

You know I have no idea what the actual size is, they are....erm....the blue ones 

[mcseforsale]

Red ones are usually .187" where the blues are usually 1/4" or .250.  Red ones are used on most traditional arcade switches, blues are pretty universal. 

AJ

[rablack97]

Yeah go to your local home depot......they will have red ones and blue ones...

The reds are used for switches, the blues are for thicker gauge wire(electrical)....I vouch for those terminals he's using, they are great....

If you live near a fry's, they sometimes sell them in bulk....

[mcseforsale]

GGG sells them in packs of 50 for 4 bux.  You won't touch that at HD.  I only buy there if I'm in a pinch.

AJ

[kuchta]

If this is the case, could you point me to the size and style that you used? Thanks!

You know I have no idea what the actual size is, they are....erm....the blue ones 

Red ones are usually .187" where the blues are usually 1/4" or .250.  Red ones are used on most traditional arcade switches, blues are pretty universal. 

AJ

Yeah go to your local home depot......they will have red ones and blue ones...

The reds are used for switches, the blues are for thicker gauge wire(electrical)....I vouch for those terminals he's using, they are great....

If you live near a fry's, they sometimes sell them in bulk....

GGG sells them in packs of 50 for 4 bux.  You won't touch that at HD.  I only buy there if I'm in a pinch.

AJ

Excellent. Thanks a lot guys!

[BadMouth]

Just to clarify for the sake of anyone reading the last few posts,
the color of the terminals tells you what size wire the connector will work with.

It has nothing to do with the size of the connector.

Yellow 10-12 gauge
Blue 14-16 gauge
Red 18-22 gauge

Sometimes I use the next size up for daisy chained grounds since the wires going into them are doubled up.

[mcseforsale]

Yes.  Absolutely right.  I confused the sizes of the female connectors with the gauges of the wire.  Stupid.

AJ

[byrneaar]

First time poster I saw this project and fell in love!  I want to build this for my wife.  Just wondering when you got the line art for the wood panels printed did you just get it printed at a 1:1 scale as I dont see any measurements on it.
Thanks!
byrneaar

Hi & Welcome!! Yes the line art is to scale in the zip files, so all you have to do is paste it onto your wood and cut the lines.

Small update this morning, plumbing in all the electronicalsiz and fitting brackets for assembly

Thanks for the quick reply!

[griffindodd]

More small updates,

Assembled the ends and sides to make the main frame


Screen floating above all the other hardware

[griffindodd]

Today it was time to start trying out a theory I had for making super simple illuminated dustwashers. I touched on it a little with the Revolution cab, but these ones are UBER SIMPLE and should be easy for anyone to do with bottom mounted sticks.

First of all get my insert screws in place


Using the same SMD LEDs I used on the speaker/fan panels, these are pink. Just stick them on the inside of the joystick holes, I drilled mine out to 1"3/8. The ribbon cables are so flat you don't have to worry about them getting pinched by the joystick plate when you screw it in place.


View from the top, the LEDs are so low profile there is no way they will come into contact with the joystick shaft


Dustwashers in place, these are custom semi-translucent ones with flecks in from TEFightstands.


Flick the switch for power and it looks like this


Little close up


With the lights off in the room - super cool!!!


Using two of these LEDs may be a little overkill, you may prefer to use just one. I kind of like how bright they are as the light also sort of illuminates the pink bubble balltop too, and once you put your hand on the stick the light glows around your hand and back onto the control panel, it's all just personall taste in the end.

[Nephasth]

Question: Does the edge of the joystick hole become exposed when actuating the joystick? It looks awfully close to the edge of the dust washer.

[mcseforsale]

That's cool.  I was wondering about the balltops...I have GGG Ei2s on my cab and I don't want to spend the $ on LED joys.  I was wondering if my buttons, along with my accidental edge lighting would illuminate a GGG hand candy ball...




AJ

[griffindodd]

Question: Does the edge of the joystick hole become exposed when actuating the joystick? It looks awfully close to the edge of the dust washer.

No I made sure it was measured just right

[griffindodd]

I was wondering if my buttons, along with my accidental edge lighting would illuminate a GGG hand candy ball...

I like bubble tops as they catch all kinds of light around them, cheap enough to give them a try and see