Kman-Sweden - First arcade cab build. Updated Oct 25th with CP and Bezel pics.

[retrofuture]

I physically can't fit either of our cars in our garage. Thank you UK planning/builders 

[Kman-Sweden]

Oh man, too bad... Learning the hard way

Well I don't know about that. I still haven't got a clue about why the monitors failed.

[Kman-Sweden]

Got a fair amount of work done today.
I put air wents in and built a small shelf for the coin bucket and installed the speakers.

The coin bucket shelf was done in 10 minutes. No problems at all.

The air wents was also done without any major problems.

The speakers gave me TONS of problems. Me being an idiot had glued and screwed the speaker shelf to the cabinet BEFORE I cut the holes for the speakers.
I'll never do that mistake again. I've desided to go with the Logitech Z4's. Next time I'll do round speakers not square ones.
I'm not so sure there'll be a next time at this point.
I didn't whant to rip uot the shelf to cut the holes and after tiping the cab on it's face I could get access to the shelf in an ok way.
First I made a templet and then proceded in routing out holes.
I had placed the holes to close to the sides and the router couldn't finnish the outer sides of the holes.
This ment I hade to saw and sand like hell, by hand, to get the holes done. Then I realized that the holes became to big!!!
So now I had to rip out the shelf and make a new one. Well this way the speaker holes where a lot easier to do.

I forgot the camera in the garage so no pics tonight. The garage looks like ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- by the way. Brown dust EVERYWHERE... The floor looks like a sandy beach.
And I've probably inhaled a pound or so of the MDF board today.  Let's see if MDF is up there with asbestos ten years from now.
 

[Epyx]

And I've probably inhaled a pound or so of the MDF board today.   Let's see if MDF is up there with asbestos ten years from now.

Lol no kidding...ive had nights where I was sneezing the stuff out and could feel it in my lungs for days and that is "with" wearing a great mask...its the taking it off with even a bit floating around that can still get you.

Not to mention like you said my garage still has a fine layer of dust months later...

[Kman-Sweden]

So here's the latest pics.. Enjoy.

A quick tip for removing glued buttons.


The templet I made... Notice how close to the side i had to router.
It clearly didn't work and I had to remove the speaker shelf and make a new one.


New speaker shelf in place.


A pic of the coin bucket shelf.


Dusty, dusty, dusty.


Lower air vents in place.


Top air vents. These will also be painted black.


Keyboard drawer installed. This was a bit tricky to do alone. I would have liked a extra pair of hands helping out..


T-molding groove done. An extra pair of wheels makes the cab more portable. Now it can be rolled like a wheelbarrow when height might be an issue..

[Ond]

Despite some of the challenges you've had this is coming along very nicely. Good idea on the extra wheels as well.

[Epyx]

Ya, I really like the extra wheels, I also think those vents will look good once they are painted black...so used to seeing pc fan covers, I like these.

Love the dust...too bad you couldn't bring that dust back and have it reformed for extra MDF lol.

[Kman-Sweden]

Okey, so today I spackled over all the screws so hopefully I'll be painting soon.
Also made some improvements to the extra wheels... I'll post some pics of that later.

After testing some different layouts for the PC I finally decided to go with this one.
I installed and old Sound Blaster Live! sound card to run ambiance sounds on.
In-game sounds will be played with the on-board sound card.



Here's all the components. I might need to hook up the extra PSU to power some lights etc..

[Kman-Sweden]

Started painting today.

[vebbomania]

Really hope u get this baby rollin' before it gets to cold and dark outside Kman... Keep going!

[Kman-Sweden]

Really hope u get this baby rollin' before it gets to cold and dark outside Kman... Keep going!

So do I... It's still above freezing outside at night so I feel confident. 
You're from Norway, right?

[saleem]

your dad might not want to part with it,seeing as he does most of the work.
 

what colors,any artwork?
 

[vebbomania]

Really hope u get this baby rollin' before it gets to cold and dark outside Kman... Keep going!

So do I... It's still above freezing outside at night so I feel confident. 
You're from Norway, right?

Yessir, live just outside Oslo, 10 min drive. Just dont hope we get so much snow as last year... puh....

[Epyx]

your dad might not want to part with it,seeing as he does most of the work.

Lol, agreed.

But in all seriousness Kman...your Dad rocks.

[Kman-Sweden]

your dad might not want to part with it,seeing as he does most of the work.
 

Trust me, he just wants to be able to park the car in the garage before the snow comes. 
I just don't have arms long enough to get myself in all the pictures when I'm holding the camera. But you can see the top of my head in the latest pic.
I'm painting with a brush and he was going over the paint with the roller to smooth it out.

what colors,any artwork?
 

Black and blue. Still no CP art but I've done a marquee. If you'd like to see it follow my URL below and it's on top of the page. (Amazing Arcade, working title)

[Kman-Sweden]

your dad might not want to part with it,seeing as he does most of the work.

Lol, agreed.

But in all seriousness Kman...your Dad rocks.

Thanks but I don't think he adopting anyone at the moment. 

[Epyx]

Fair enough...just make sure you let him get in a round of Galaga or two when it's done

[Kman-Sweden]

Second layer of base completed. First layer of black will go on tomorrow.
Stay tuned for more.

[Kman-Sweden]

FRIDAY! Finally they let us go out from the salt mines. Just had to celebrate with a beer.   


First layer of black is done. Since I'm painting with semi-toxic paint I had to open the garage door
and every insect on this side of the arctic circle had to land on my wet paint!   
I have to sand the corpses out before applying layer two.

[saleem]

lights in the dark in summer with open doors is invitation to insects.
 

[Kman-Sweden]

The Arcade is home! Me and my sisters kid who's 18 years old carried the cab up to the third floor.
I'm still huffin' and puffin' and gasping for air. I might sell the arcade to the person who's moving in if we ever move out
just so I don't have to carry it down again.
I'll post some more pictures of my work tomorrow since I have Friday off from work.
As you can see the t-molding is on. It goes all the way around.
I've installed a on-off switch and a power strip that everyone seems to have in their cabbies.
The PC has been mounted to a piece of MDF so I'll post some better pics about that too.
Still need to get my hands on some glass and plexi.
Stay tuned for more!

Say 'ello to my little friend. The model on the right is my lovely fiancee.
Just testing with my X-Arcade on it to get the feel of the finished product. Next to be built is the control panel.
      

[emphatic]

The paint came out really nice, didn't it? How tall is your fiancée, the cab looks huge next to her. Also, is that a forced smile or is she really that excited about your cabinet?

[Kman-Sweden]

 
The cab is 1.85 meter tall... eeh that's aprox 6.07 feet i think.
About the smile.. I think it's because I said the pic's going on the internet. 

[Ond]

Lookin gorgeous, strong right hand grip oh,......oh you mean the cab?    heee  great work Kman!  T-molding has been fitted nice and tightly and sets off the black, you're up to the fun bit, the CP.  You and I both have Friday off -

[jmike]

Yeah Kman great job.
              since you an Ond have Friday off I'm guessing we'll see more progress on your cabs right  .
Hopefully she continues smiling when you tell her you have a great idea for the next cabinet.

 

[Kman-Sweden]

jmike--> I can't speak for Ond but I promised more pics before didn't I? 
Stay tuned.

[Kman-Sweden]

The paint came out really nice, didn't it?

Well here and there there are some small blobs that look like a bubble has risen to the surface and popped. It bugged me for about 5 minutes but then someone handed me a beer and now I can't be bothered by it anymore. 

[Kman-Sweden]

So here's the update pics I promised to post. I'll start off with some of the electrics.
Installed a PC type power socket. Nice and clean.


So that I don't have to fear the live wires on the inside i covered it with a box like this and then ran a cable up to a on/off button (lighted red).


The back of the on/off button is also covered with a box, and then from the button it goes to a standard 220V power outlet.


The smart strip is connected to the 220V outlet and fastened just under the keyboard shelf.


Moving on to the PC itself.. Here's my graphic card with getho-style cooling mod.
It's a ASUS v99999 (Nvidia). The fan stopped turning years ago and I replaced it with a arctic cooling fan.
The AC fan was even worse. It started making a horrible sound after aprox 9 months.
I scraped the whole PC and built a new one so the graphic card became obsolete. Then one day in the fall of 2008
I pulled out my Dremel and cut the fan out, slapped a 120mm fan on it, bent a peace of blue plastic to get a better air flow
over the card and taped it to the fan.


Right side view... Cards attached using the now standard BIC-pen solution.
Also fastened a pair of old kitchen handles to the board so that it becomes easier to lift in and out of the cab.
As you can see I have two sound cards on this bad boy. One intergrated for the ambiance sounds and one old Soundblaster Live!
for the in-game and FE sounds. This way I can adjust the sound levels separately.


Here's the back right side of the PC. Two extra USB plates.


Back left side. Hard drive is mounted using angle irons. I can use the top holes to fasten another hard drive
on top of this one if the game collection grows even more.


Okay, back to the cabbie. Mounted the bass using the same type of brackets I used on the PC.


I had these really ugly speakers laying around so I drilled two holes in the corners of them and will screw then into place so they don't fall over.
These will only play the ambiance (Arcade hall in 1981, 1983, 1986 and is it 1992?) You all know what I mean, right?


Then I finally lifted in the PC and attached everything including my ActLabs gun.
The PC is secured with a pair of screws on each side.


Instead of Windows XP logo at start-up I have this one and a ton of others arcade and gaming type bootscreens.
It's a diffrent every time I start it up.


Background pic in Windows just before my Maximus Arcade starts. Someone posted the invader and I made it blue and added the text.
Maximus is shelled so Windows (explorer.exe) will not even load. I also hacked a dll file to get rid of the white standard cursor
that otherwise is visible for aprox a second at this point.


I still have a CP to build and I need to cover the monitor with glass so come back soon.
-Kman_Sweden.

[jmike]

Thanks Kman, that was a nice amount of pics.

Computer set up looks great, you've actually given me a couple of new ideas for my next build. Are you planning on putting gun holsters for your ActLabs gun?

 

[Epyx]

Nothing finer than pc on a platter

Have you decided on the layout of your CP yet?

[Kman-Sweden]

Thanks Kman, that was a nice amount of pics.

Computer set up looks great, you've actually given me a couple of new ideas for my next build. Are you planning on putting gun holsters for your ActLabs gun?

 

Thank You and You're Welcome. What ideas came to your mind?
I'm not sure about the holsters. If I'm doing holsters they will not be bulky metal holsters, that's for sure.
I'm thinking more in the lines of holsters made out of dark leather hide. We'll see what happens.

Nothing finer than pc on a platter

Have you decided on the layout of your CP yet?

Well yes and no. I haven't drawn any button layouts yet but I do know it's going to be a two player, 7 button setup with two pinball buttons on each side, a trackball and a spinner.

[Epyx]

Well yes and no. I haven't drawn any button layouts yet but I do know it's going to be a two player, 7 button setup with two pinball buttons on each side, a trackball and a spinner.

Ah cool. Well post your plans when you have an idea. I would be interested in seeing. I will have similar setup (trackball etc) for the new project and would really like to retain my spinner, so always interested in fresh takes.

[jmike]

I like the way to stack everything up, it's looks like you saved a lot of space ( perfect for the mini DK cab I want to build). 2 questions:

1) how are you planning on keeping everything cool in there?

2) where are you putting the USB ports for easy access?

I really don't want to have too much exposed but would like to have some accesible USB ports for a keyboard, mouse or even a flash drive (you know for adding more games and stuff).

 

[Kman-Sweden]

I like the way to stack everything up, it's looks like you saved a lot of space ( perfect for the mini DK cab I want to build). 2 questions:

1) how are you planning on keeping everything cool in there?

2) where are you putting the USB ports for easy access?

I really don't want to have too much exposed but would like to have some accesible USB ports for a keyboard, mouse or even a flash drive (you know for adding more games and stuff).

 

Hi jmike.
1.) Well I hope that the whole "cool air in at the bottom, warm air out on top" will do the trick for me. I've been running the Mame PC in a wooden box before and the monitor is placed above the PC so.... fingers crossed.  To be frank I know that the temp has to be quite high for any problems to occur. I'm not even worried about it. 

2.) I found this thing...

I was going to paint it black and drill a hole just under the keyboard drawer for it, but now I don't know if I actually need it. The cab can access my home network and the internet so I don't really need USB access for file transfers. I have enough USB port INSIDE the cab for the needs I have at the moment.
Maybe I'll install it in the bottom of the keyboard drawer, so I just need to open the drawer for USB access. We'll see. Do you have any placement ideas for it?

[jmike]

Dude where did you find that usb adapter, I need to get one of those bad boys. I'm not sure what would work best for you, but for the mini DK I want it to look as authentic as possible, so I'l try to hide everything.

 

[Kman-Sweden]

I got it from a swedish store called Kjell&Company http://www.kjell.com/?item=68049&path=97000000,119000000,149500000,151000000

[Kman-Sweden]

Small update today.
I installed the marquee light. It's an old bathroom light. I pulled it appart and removed excess bits and pieces.
I used a old PC power cable to power the light. Cut off the part that normally goes in the PC, a quick, simple solution..



Finally in place.



Put the cover back. It helps to spread the light and make it nice and soft..
I have to place and order to Mamemarquees soon.


That's it for now.
Kman-Sweden

[Kman-Sweden]

What do you guys think about these?
This was my first go at a marquee.
The logos are darker so that the name would really pop out when it was back lit.



Changed the font and went with "less is more"..


Feedback would be great.

[Epyx]

I prefer the 2nd one over the 1st because it isn't as busy with all the logos but not a huge fan of the font. The font makes it a bit difficult to read when giving it a quick glance. 

[vebbomania]

Hi Kman i wont criticize your work but i had 30 min left at work so i played a little in photoshop, not sure if u like it but at least u have an alternative since u are a fan of lightning i added a blueish lightning in the background.