Crackington Cocktail Cabinet (Made in Cornwall, UK)

[rchadd]

Well I think my custom cocktail cabinet is ready to be revealed to the public.

A particularly interesting feature of this cabinet is the hot swappable control panels which allow the joystick or trackball CP

[rchadd]

internals

[rchadd]

side  view

[rchadd]

more internals

[rchadd]

D25 connection

[rchadd]

Joystick CP

[rchadd]

TB CP

[rchadd]

LED lighting - to be fitted

[rchadd]

friends play testing at cab "launch" party

notice the BYOAC coins!

[rchadd]

friends play testing galaxian at cab "launch" party

what concentration!

conclusion was that it was a really cool toy

[rchadd]

here is a pdf of the plans that i used

[rchadd]

anyone for track and field?

(ignore the refections in the glass)

[rchadd]

a nest of wires inside

[NIVO]

Excellent work, cocktail looks well built. Nice job.  

[Craig]

The inside looks a bit like mine. Good work.

[boyowilkins]

That is one nice looking cab m8. Congratulations!!!  

[bdsjake]

nice work!

[boyowilkins]

Hey m8,

Where did u get your wood from?

Also, how good is the Happs vinyl covering. Just checked their web page and its like nearly $5 for 1 foot!!!

Cheers,  Chris

[brihoo2k]

nice job looks great

[Apollo]

That's top notch son, one of the best cocktails I've seen. I want one, how much to build and ship it to New Zealand?

[rchadd]

Hey m8,

Where did u get your wood from?

Also, how good is the Happs vinyl covering. Just checked their web page and its like nearly $5 for 1 foot!!!

Cheers,  Chris

The wood i got from a local kitchen fitting company - they were fitting one for my parents at the time of building. It is Oak veneered MDF (18mm thick) - it is veneered on both sides but there is primary side which is thicker (the side that is on outside of the cab). my cab has medium oak coloured  varnish - which i think gives nice honey colour.

i got 2 8' by 4' sheets - luckilly at cost price 40 quid + Vat i think - not surprising considering how much the kitchen cost!!!

there seems to be a choice of wood species veneers that you can get...for example another supplier:

http://www.avonplywood.co.uk/noframes/veneered%20boards.htm

i assume price depends on veneer you choose.

yep, the vinyl wasn't cheap - i ended up getting about 4 feet in the end (The vinyl roll is 40" wide)  it was surprising how much was required to cover the CP's. it wrapps right around front to back but doesnt cover bottom of CP as removable for access to innards.

i didn't really worry about the cost so much - wanted the cab to be "just right".

the vinyl is ok - but not as thick as i expected. it was easy to apply and seems to be pretty resilient. i expect you could get similar vinyl from a local fabric/upholstery supplier. It is definitely better than fablon stickyback plastic which is available in most DIY stores.

the most time consuming part of the build was making the CP's "boxes" out of MDF and getting then to fit together correctly. next time though i will go for metal powder coated CPs (if i can find some one to fabricate them cheaply enough).

also i have 2 other CPs not pictured - that i have arkanoid spinners in. haven't got those working yet. will post pictures when they are!

after playing tempest with my trackball - i am beginning to think arkanoid spinners will not be very good for that game. maybe will look at making my own homemade tempest spinner.

[rchadd]

That's top notch son, one of the best cocktails I've seen. I want one, how much to build and ship it to New Zealand?

hey thanks

given the weight of it - it would be v expensive!  

i have had a few enquiries from some UK based friends though and i have a spare sheet of MDF...

[Minwah]

Great job rchadd - looks really nicely finished

[rchadd]

just finished fitting the ultra bright white LED lighting for the CP's and i am very pleased with the result  

unfortunately in the photo you cannot see the real zig zag "hot spots" across the length of the plexi. i think it looks very cool.

i might try to take another photo tomorrow after playing around with the settings on my canon a70 - this photo was taken in auto mode with flash disabled.

photo of the PCB's is above. i sort of wish now i used wider strip board and had 3 rows of leds. everything is powered from 12v output line (yellow/black) of the PC's PSU.

[rchadd]

i am wondering if it is possible to modify the standard white Happ P1 and P2 buttons to be lit by LED (i got some spare). any ideas?

[rchadd]

you can sort of get the idea from this photo through the tinted glass

[Grasshopper]

i am wondering if it is possible to modify the standard white Happ P1 and P2 buttons to be lit by LED (i got some spare). any ideas?

http://www.arcadeparadise.org/arcade/ap3/lighting.html

[Gillisdc]

Can i ask you how did you do the wiring if they are hotswapable ?
(they = Control panel)
I liked the idea so please tell me
Thx
G.

[BobA]

From the interior view it looks like he has wires to the CP area that are fixed so he probably uses a connector to swap to different control panels.  Maybe a male and female DB 25. The encoder will not know if the cp is swapped out so hat swapping is easy as long as nothing is shorted when connectors are exchanged.

Just my best guess

[jimmy2x2x]

Great looking cocktail, well done!

To change the control panels, you remove the glass top and uncouple the db25 then replace?

Also are those metal hooks from the control panels the only things holding them in place, how solid are the panels when in use - is there any movement?

Thanks

[BobA]

Hey sorry I cannot answer those questions.  I am not the builder just trying to help you out on an old thread.

[jimmy2x2x]

ahh, didn't realise its vintage!

[rchadd]

From the interior view it looks like he has wires to the CP area that are fixed so he probably uses a connector to swap to different control panels.  Maybe a male and female DB 25. The encoder will not know if the cp is swapped out so hat swapping is easy as long as nothing is shorted when connectors are exchanged.

Just my best guess

yes that is correct

i used DB25 femail sockets on the cab for player 1 and player 2 on both the sides and on the front

the control panels have DB25 plugs

the pins of the player1 and player2 sockets go to the same ipac inputs.

this works fine as only one control panel for each user.

for the trackball the X and Y wires use different pins on the connector and they go to the optipac, but the fire buttons go to the ipac

[rchadd]

Great looking cocktail, well done!

To change the control panels, you remove the glass top and uncouple the db25 then replace?

Also are those metal hooks from the control panels the only things holding them in place, how solid are the panels when in use - is there any movement?

Thanks

yes thats it - i just lift the lid, unplug the panels and move them and plug back int.

the aluminium brackets are the only way they are mounted. i made some notches in the top and the fit it pretty tight so no side to side movement. the control panels are pretty heavy (made out of MDF) so they stay pretty stable

[jimmy2x2x]

Thanks for that, Hows the cab holding up - It was almost 6 years ago from the first post in this thread!

do you still own it?

Do you still play it?

Made any modifications?

Cheers

[rchadd]

yes still have it, but don't really play it much these days as now have PS3 with HDTV

but its always great to play it now and again

happy with my design decisions as gave me good flexibility on which games can play with correct controls and monitor orientation

not sure if i was building one these days i would bother with a CGA only arcade monitor

since making this cocktail i have undertaken a number of restoration projects and now currently in process of restoring a Namco Galaxian upright cab to play both original pcb and also 60 in 1 jamma card for additional fun...

after that maybe a digital pinball machine..

[rchadd]

also if i just wanted just a few of the classics for my table i would now use the 60 in 1 jamma card instead on cost and time of setting up pc with mame and using an ipac/optipac and  arcade vga gfx card

i would say trackball for centipede/millipede is pretty much mandatory - just not the same with a joystick!