Green Machine (Pics added 7 18 2006)

[Cameronj]

Announcing my Green Machine bartop Project.


That is the simple Marquee for it.
This will be my 4th big emulation project.
This post will serve as my simple construction log

Goals for Phase one:
- Needs to weigh less than 60 lbs for occasional transport.
- Construction with T-Stick Plus and minipac controller
- Addition of a small arcade Suzu Trackball (with electric Ice LED upgrade)
- Run by external Brain (Mac Mini Dual Core Windows)
- Clean as possible external wiring.
- Full LED Wiz integration
- LCD 17"1280x1024 horizontal display with custom bezel (yeah I tried it with a 15"monitor and liked the LCD better in all regards)
- Internal sound ported through front (external subwoofer.)
- External volume control (a must)
- Backlit marquee
- External rear push buttons for monitor control
- Single power plug for all internal cabinet parts
- Various lit buttons
- Green T-molding and theme (obvious)
- Internal USB switch
- All buttons except for rear monitor buttons backlit
- Side buttons for pinball
- green chase lights on the top of the cabinet
- Four main controller buttons and trackball use RGB LEDS
- All other LEDs green

Phase II Items
- Putting on cabinet feet
- Underlighting cabinet
- Modular 2nd Player external control panel
- Analog stick and spinner addition to external control panel
- Rear cabinet green glow effect
- Mac Mini Green lighting effects
- Networking setup for multiplayer on my other machine
- Write theme song for cabinet 


Phase III Items
- Integration with my programmable talking fish project (Smart Bass Project)
- Integration with my Robosapien V2
- Simple green laser scanning show on ceiling projected from cabinet

Undetermined stuff
- Front End (loved MameWah before)
- Other emulators than mame and visual pinball(daphne etc)
- Don't know what I am going to do with the back of the cabinet


Well let me know what you think. I will be posting more pics in a minute of current progress...

[Cameronj]

OK I started going full steam on this project about a week ago. Several things of note. I bought a bartop cabinet about 6 months ago from mr bubbles. I don't see him around much. It is a nice design and I like it. It was damaged in shipping, but I have fixed most issues by now.

I hope to have all Phase I items completed in the next 3-4 weeks. We will see how that goes.

Things I have done so far:
-Repaired the broken parts of the cabinet
-Painted the parts of the cabinet that need to be painted
- Cut 90 percent of the holes needed in the cabinet
- created the top plate with the chase light leds and have started the wiring for those
- purchased pretty much everything that I need for the cabinet
- tested the minipac and the ledwiz controllers
-designed the CP
-designed the artwork for the marquee, top, sides CP, and front under CP
-installed cable in LCD monitor for remote switching

Short term things that I plan on doing in the next week
-Finish cutting holes
-Mount controls
-Mount Artwork and Marquee
-Install all LEDs
-Purchase Mac Mini
-Install bezel on LCD
-Install LCD and Speakers in cabinet
-install micropac in cabinet
-install ledwiz in cabinet
-install usb hub in cabinet
-install powerstrip in cabinet
-install power supply for Leds in cabinet
-isntall t-molding

Here are some more pics:
Cabinet in current state:


Top plate with LEDs installed for chase lighting (need to buff out scrathes in laminate.


Top Plate backside initial wiring all resistors attached:

[DigDreams]

Wow - you have alot of wiring to do, but it should look great.  You are going to be the first person who needs to make a video to show his lighting! 

I have a question about your terminal blocks - I have not used this type before.  Do these come pre-jumpered or do you have to jumper them together with wire?  Also, are you daisy-chaining the grounds on the chase lights or running seperate ground wires to each?

- DigDreams

[Cameronj]

Yeah a ton of wiring to do. I do plan on doing a video when the lighting is up and operational. Those european style terminal blocks need to be jumpered together. For the chase lights on the top, I plan on only using 3 LED Wiz ports out of the 32 available. Therefore there will be a lot of bunching together. I will probably need to add one more terminal strip inside the cab to fit all of the wires. I am happy that I bought the preconfigured and wired RGB LEDs from GGG as they are an elegant solution to what would be a real mess with the buttons that are RGB.

With my current plans, I will be using the following amount of LED Wiz ports:
RBG Buttons: 12
RGG Trackball: 3
Backlit Buttons: 11
Chase Lights on top: 3

Total ports used: 29

I am glad that I have a couple left for other things.

[theCoder]

Sounds like you'll get this done quickly.  It looks like you're well on your way.

I take it the RGB buttons can be configured to change colors?  Under what conditions will they change?

[Cameronj]

Dang I just wrote a whole bunch and there was an error when I posted. That totall sucks! 

Yeah the RGB LEDS can change color via the LED Wiz. I plan on using it to make things more interesting for attract mode. I think it will be pretty cool.

I got a lot done this morning and won't be really working on it too much until Monday. I did wreck some of my artwork and will have to print and laminate a new side panel again. A pain but not too big of a problem. It helps to have a giant printer and laminator.

[IG-88]

Dang I just wrote a whole bunch and there was an error when I posted. That totall sucks! 

That happens to me every now and then too. Probably a windows thing. Whenever I want to post a long one I copy first 

[Crafty]

Nice to see a man with a plan..

You have obviously put a lot of thought into this prior to beginning..

Lookin good do far, keep the pictures coming

[Cameronj]

Weekend and Monday Update with pictures

Well I got some decent work done today, but not nearly as much as I had wanted. (As usual). The wiring on the top plate takes forever for all of the soldering and such is a royal pain,  but coming along OK. I am about 70% complete with the top wiring and I wired it up with an external power supply to my LED Wiz and things tested out great! 

Other  than that, I reprinted, laminated, and trimmed a new side panel and was able to successfully attach it without disaster. For some reason that graphic was cursed because that is the 3rd time I have had to do it. What a waste.

So now all holes are cut, the joystick mechanism is mounted underneath and I just need to cut holes with a razor through the graphics and stick through the buttons and controls.

Here are some pics:

Left side with Graphics


Control Panel Graphics (Much will change when the trackball mounting plate goes on top, but I think this will still be a nice simple look



Right side with Graphics ( I think the T-Molding looks nice too!)


An updated pic of the wiring mess


The top panel test run being driven by the LED Wiz. (I forgot to look at it from the side. It won't be as bright as these are 30% LEDs, but should be good to keep you from going blind!)


Links to better versions of these images:
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green5.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green6.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green7.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green8.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green9.jpg

Things to do in the next day or two (Or Three):
- Finish wiring for the top plate
- Wire and test LED WIZ and top Plate
- Mount LED Wiz
- Mount Power Strip in Cab
- Install Top Plate
- Install Marquee
- Cut out holes in graphics for buttons
- Install LEDs in buttons
- Install Buttons
- Install Joystick

That should be about enough to kill me.

Let me know what ya think. Thanks for the comments.

[Crafty]

Looking fantastic....

A thing of beauty..

The artwork is a big hit with me 

[Cameronj]

Thanks! I owe a lot to the Arcade Vector art library.

[Cameronj]

Project update 6 27 06

Here is what I have done since last update:
- Mounted the T-Stick.
- Repaired a minor imperfection with the T-Stick
- Took apart the trackball and lubricated the bearings. Working much better now!
- Finished wiring for top panel LEDs and tested with the Wiz
- Finished and installed the Marquee
- Installed the top panel
- Cut out all of the button and control holes in the graphics
- Installed all LEDs for buttons
- Installed all buttons (no small project there)

I had a lot of minor and major setbacks for this weeks work. I was smart and figured out the location of all the buttons and controls on the control panel so they would be spaced far apart enough to not conflict with each other, but.....
I am stupid and forgot to take into account the pinball buttons. I ran into a real tight mess on one side which made me have to do all sorts of grinding and cutting of a couple buttons and their related switches. I did get it to work out thankfully. I had to widen the top hole and route out some space for the top panel so the wiring connectors could fit in there. I also needed to grind some plexi down for the marquee installation. For some reason, the plastic didn't fit anymore after I made some repairs to the cabinet. All of these things have set me back a couple days from where I want to be. I also had two critical computers die at work this week and that has taken up a lot of my extra time.

Things I want to finish by the end of this week:
- Install the Electric Ice mod for my Suzo Trackball and install the LED for that
- Install the Trackball in the cab
- Wire the Mini-PAC up to all the cotrols
- Mount the Mini-Pac
- Wire All button and trackball LEDs to the LED WIZ
- Mount the LED WIZ
- Figure out exactly where the monitor goes and if my bezel will work out OK


I have a family reunion to go to and that will put a hold on everything. Hopefully I can get a lot done before that.

[Crafty]

Pictures

[Cameronj]

I was stupid and lent my Digital Camera to a friend and haven't got it back yet. On the other hand, I wanted to take a pic when the trackball was finally in. I hope to have a new set of pics Friday before I go to Texas.

[Cameronj]

Trackball woes...

So I reassembled my Ultimarc 2.25"trackball and installed the GGG Electric Ice kit with it. Well the Mini-Pac has the x and y mixed up on the up and down so I will need to fix that and the GGG Electric Ice kit doesn't really work with the Suzo trackball without some work. I wish the GGG ball weighed a bit more as I think it will affect some performance. My cp is at an angle and I worry a bit that the weight and gravity won't work as well. I will try it out though if I don't like it, I will switch the old ball back in. So that is all I got done today. work keeps getting in the way.

I should have some pics up on Friday.

[arcadefever]

 

very nice, i really like that bubble bobble side art !!! great choice...
the led wirring is very impressive too...

keep the good work ...

[Cameronj]

Thanks! I love bubble bobble. Hey I love your gameroom!!!!! Very inspiring.

[theCoder]

I love the side art.  You mentioned 3 failed attempts.  What went wrong?

Have you weighed it recently?  How are you doing on your 60 pound goal?

[Cameronj]

Well attempt 1 I screwed it up in the laminator.
Attempt two I screwed it up trying to glue it to the cab.
Attempt 3 worked though. 

Haven't weighed it recently, but I haven't put in the monitor yet and that will add the most. I think I am still on track for the 60 lbs. It will be portable like my old CPM Kaypro portable. 

[Cameronj]

Status Update (for a while)

Well I am going out of town for almost a week starting tomorrow so I thought I would post a few pics and thoughts of current progress.

Things done since last update:
- Purchased a Dual core Mac Mini for the Brain
- Designed Green Machine Graphic overlays for the Mac
- Installed Windows XP on the Mac
- Tested the Mac with the Ultimarc Mini-Pac
- Fixed all Trackball issues
- Installed Trackball in CP
- Fixed wiring problem in Mini-pac harness
- Installed cold cathode green light behind marquee (goes with the flourescent)
- Made a 12V power supply for the cathode tubes

I am having a few problems with my T-Stick. It seems to get a little stuck when switching between 4 and 8 way modes. I wonder if I put it back together wrong??? I hope not. It isn't major, but a little bit of a bummer.

Things to get done in the next week
- Not much due to vacation.... (But I am taking the Mac with me)
- Install MameWah
- Install AtomicFE
- Decide which one to use.
- Install my MAME Roms
- Upgrade my Mac memory
- Install Mame

Here are the pics:

Isometric view with Marquee lit and control panel in: The white buttons and Trackballs are alll backlit:



The CP (Still need to work with the labels on the admin buttons:


The LED Wiz lighting all of the top panel lights before it was installed:


View from above with the top panel installed:


Here are the links to slightly better images:
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green10.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green11.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green12.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green13.jpg

Thanks for looking!!!!

[Crafty]

Are you going to flush mount the track ball???

It would look much cleaner...

Love the machine overall so far...

[Cameronj]

I'm back.

Yeah I looked at undermounting the trackball, but there wasn't room in the cabinet that wouldn't cause other problems. It actually looks a lot better in person the way it is, and I do like the mounting plate fit and finish quite a lot. I hope to get a lot done in the next week!

The only thing I got done last week was upgrade the Mac Mini/PC to 2 GB Ram. Not exactly a simple thing.

[MinerAl]

The top lights are cool!

The Invader's eyes need to be LEDs too though

Very nice clean looking project.

[Cameronj]

Awww man that is such a good suggestion for the glowing eyes! I might just have to make some changes in the future if something happens to the artwork on the top, I might just have to make a new overlay with some backlight properties!

Thanks.

[Cameronj]

Not too much new here, but I did mostly finish the intro Green Machine song that kicks off when you boot up the machine and when you go into the front end. So Here it is:
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/GreenMachineIntro.mp3

It is only about 20 seconds or so. Don't want to bore anyone. I thought it would be cool to have a theme song for the machine. 

Let me know what you think!

[Cameronj]

Oh yeah, I haven't finished the mastering on the song totally yet.  I still need to do some equalization and some loudness changes, but this will do for now.

[Cameronj]

OK it was bugging me that the Green Machine vocoder piece was sounding a bit dull so I remastered the sucker. Here it is:
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/GreenMachineIntro2.mp3

I am considering adding some arcade blips and bleeps to the mix too, but I am not sure if it will muddy it up or not. I will have to experiment.

As for other stuff... I am almost finished with all of the LED wiring for the buttons and trackball. I can't wait to light this puppy up! The wiring is getting a bit messy. It would have been nice to have the control panel external while doing assembly. I don't have enough room to work in so wire organization kinda gets hosed.

[Cameronj]

Moving Slowly but progress being made...

I have finished all of the internal wiring for the LEDs and the controls. It was a total pain with the limited space. I will definitely approach this differently if I do another bartop again!!!

The LEDs turned out to be really cool!!!!! I need to start crafting some cool animations for attract mode.

All LEDs are green with the following exceptions (Which are RGB LEDs)
The Trackball
The 3 buttons next to the Trackball

Here are a couple of pics:






Here are links to some slightly better pics:
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green14.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green15.jpg
http://www.millarts.net/greenmachine/Green16.jpg


Let me know what ya think!

[BlinKY1337]

Look at that lil badass thing I want one actually I want a bar first 

[Cameronj]

Super productive two days!!!!!

OK I got the monitor in, the Minipac installed completely, the power strip in and the machine hooked up to the actual computer that will run it. I loaded Mame32 and let the kids fight over it this evening.

Have run into a several problems that I need to take care of, but it works.

I still need to work out the Front-End situation. I can't decide. I also am looking forward to playing some visual pinball on this puppy.

Once you get it to this point, it is hard to finish everything because you can play the games and it is easy to get distracted.

I will try to take and post some pictures tomorrow.

[SirPeale]

I'm going to add another vote in favor of hiding the TB *under* the overlay.  It's a nice one, you shouldn't hide it.

[javeryh]

I'm going to add another vote in favor of hiding the TB *under* the overlay.  It's a nice one, you shouldn't hide it.

I'll agree with this too - you said you don't have room but it's only an extra 1/16" at most to flush mount it - is it really that tight?  It looks FANTASTIC though - I love the color scheme... 

[Cameronj]

My T-Stick Plus isn't working as well as I had hoped and I may be swapping it out. If I do that, I might flush mount the TB. There really isn't much space though. I agree it would look better, but in real life, the CP looks much better than in the pics. It isn't so glaring, but I am 80% sure that I will be pulling the CP apart to fix some stuff.

[TOK]

Do you not like the feel of it, or don't notice its so great in 4 way mode?
I just asked becasue I did the same thing. I had two of them that I pulled to install Happ Competitions. I acclimated to the T-Sticks, but none of my friends liked them. Too stiff and the 4 way mode was basically useless.

[Cameronj]

The feel is too stiff and it seems to have some problems switching from 4 to 8 way not to mention in 4 way there are times where it doesn't work very well the switches don't activate when they should. I noticed on the Ultimarc site that they don't sell the t-stick anymore. I guess that there might have been too many problems with the suckers. It will be a huge pain to change the joystick at this point. I might just have to break down and do it.

My kids can barely use the thing too.

[Sinner]

I have 2 T-Sticks and 2 T-Stick Plus joys, and I think they're great...people that have used them have never complained...I see a big difference from now and when they were new...since being worked in, the are much better...I've never had a problem using either the 4 or 8 way positions...

If you want to get rid of any, PM me...I'd like to get some for other projects...

[Cameronj]

Probolems     

Well my T-Stick plus seems to have completely failed last night for some reason. I am not sure what the deal is but I am going to rip apart the CP and put in a different stick. I guess that I will attempt to figure out how to inset the trackball also, but no guarantee there. This will be a big big pain though because I can't fit a router in the space and I don't feel like chiseling out stuff. I may make some other changes. I did install the monitor and fire the sucker up and it was fun other than the T-Stick problems.

I am now considering a Competition 8 way with the glowing green slikstik balltop instead of the T-Stick. I did really like the look of my green balltop T-Stick Plus.

[theCoder]

For what it's worth...I used a mag-stik plus on my recent project and it seems to work fine.  The action is smooth and the spring tention (actually from magnets not a spring) is just right for me.

Sorry to hear about your failure.

[Cameronj]

Thanks! I might order a mag stik I am curious about those suckers. Can you put an iluminated or green ball stick on those?

[Justin]

Hot damn!  This is one sweet little cab, congrats on such meticulous job... i wouldn't have it any other way!