Leather covered Cab

[Rick]

Whenever I think about your cabinet, I imagine the leather covered marquee being blank, with the letters suddenly 'appearing' as though they were branded into the leather...  I know it's impossible, sadly.  It would be severely cool, however.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Whenever I think about your cabinet, I imagine the leather covered marquee being blank, with the letters suddenly 'appearing' as though they were branded into the leather...  I know it's impossible, sadly.  It would be severely cool, however.

Well you could cut out your logo in a bit of mdf or whatever in the negative, then use some material that looked like leather but was more stretchy and semi translucent, then when the machine turned on have a vacuum pump reduce the pressure behind the stretchy translucent leather stand-in so that it forms down into the cut away logo beneath, then perhaps if you had a layer that it pressed up against which was dark enough it would show through the stand-in material to give a 'burned effect'. If it's stretchy enough you could texturize that sublayer to give it a different appearance.

Nothing's impossible if you consider the impractical

[Rick]

Well you could cut out your logo in a bit of mdf or whatever in the negative, then use some material that looked like leather but was more stretchy and semi translucent, then when the machine turned on have a vacuum pump reduce the pressure behind the stretchy translucent leather stand-in so that it forms down into the cut away logo beneath, then perhaps if you had a layer that it pressed up against which was dark enough it would show through the stand-in material to give a 'burned effect'. If it's stretchy enough you could texturize that sublayer to give it a different appearance.

Is that you, Adam Savage?

 

Holy hell, man.  How did you even come up with this idea?  That's amazing!  (I was thinking 'LCD marquee', but that idea - while not original - is so far beneath yours!)  I love that idea.

 

[Stingray]

(stingray pelts)

Hmm.

-S

[Rick]

Hmm.

Don't worry.  I'm here to fix it.

(stingray pelts skinz with fruit)

Fix'd!

 

(oh, and in all seriousness, they're pelts from the stingray that killed The Crocodile Hunter.  So it's all good.)

[skinz]

I can actually do that with leather by getting a high plate made and blind emboss it so it looks like negative space.  I'd have to get the plate made - it's like $50 and would do just that.  I kinda don't like that idea though because I see it so often... ...For me, burning by hand is much more hand made and much harder to do.  I'm actually doing the negative space thing for 3 podiums for a company at work.  Its Meh, to me - alot of people like it, but it is an arcade for me.  I mentioned it to my wife and she said "You don't want to do anything that cheesey, do you?" - so that settled that - Whatever it is at least I'm on board with all of you to make it out of leather.  So, Rick that is not impossible - very doable, just not my thing. 

[Rick]

Your Wife called my idea cheesy.

 

(I'm just kidding with you.  It's your cab, and you do what you like!  I'm sure - seeing your past work - that it will be amazing.  And certainly not cheesy.)

 

[skinz]

ROFL!!!!!!!!

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Well you could cut out your logo in a bit of mdf or whatever in the negative, then use some material that looked like leather but was more stretchy and semi translucent, then when the machine turned on have a vacuum pump reduce the pressure behind the stretchy translucent leather stand-in so that it forms down into the cut away logo beneath, then perhaps if you had a layer that it pressed up against which was dark enough it would show through the stand-in material to give a 'burned effect'. If it's stretchy enough you could texturize that sublayer to give it a different appearance.

Is that you, Adam Savage?

 

Holy hell, man.  How did you even come up with this idea?  That's amazing!  (I was thinking 'LCD marquee', but that idea - while not original - is so far beneath yours!)  I love that idea.

 

It was just the first thing that popped in my head. (:

[danny_galaga]

Has Stingray seen this thread yet? 

Excellent job so far, and quite unique too. Looking forward to the finished product. As to the marquee, I was thinking of LCD too when I read Ricks post...

[skinz]

So one of the video cars TOK sent me works - Soft 15K instals right away - Best I can do is install 15K an 31k and the screen finally fits into the monitor but its split screen.  Wasted like 4 hours but at least got something to show on the screen.  I tried a bunch of resolutions and none I tried so far work.  When I install 15K only and put it on 640x480 it works but only about 1/4 of the screen is visible.  So it might work???!!!  Anyone have any tips on what to try?  Grrrrrr....

[Stingray]

Has Stingray seen this thread yet? 

Nope.

-S

[skinz]

Ok - Got the control panel cut and leathered.



Got the Shagreen mounted on the coin doors.



Got the controls and micro switches in the control control panel and mounted.



And got leather on one of the sides.  Took forever and got too dark to do the other side.



Tired - Gonna order Chinese...  More to come.

[njay]

Nice work there skinz, but would it not look even better with the trackball mounting plate, mounted below the cp? 

[skinz]

We tried it both ways and thought it looked better like this and would help protect the leather from everyones little greasy fingers.  I like it a lot. LOL 

[skinz]

Stayed up late last night and replaced all the original wiring - New Jamma harness, crimped a new daisy chain ground and bastardized the old CP to get the bits we needed.  Scored 100 packs of the quick disconnects for $2.99 per 100 on SleezeBay.  I got 2 packs (200) and used 2 quick disconnects  .  Props to my buddy Miggitymac for help wiring up the monitor,etc.  Some basic solders this morning an it should be all hooked up - Got the CP all wire an working - all buttons and joysticks working (already not sure I like the 8 ways - they feel weird).  Now we just need to find the damn zip ties and make it look pretty inside - We couln't find them last night so we used some masking tape to separate everything.  I bought a huge pile of ties - Can't find them>>>>>YET. LOL


Again, we got soft 15k working and still everything is way too big - Can't figure out what I'm supposed to do - Do I Install all the stuff on Soft 15K like 31 etc.  Hating this part - Still.



I'll try and take a video after work today of the monitor issue - I really need help on this.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Wow, that cab looks luxurious! Sorry, I don't have a clue about the monitor deal. I think you should post it up in Monitor/Video.

About the LED's, are you going to wire them up in series or parallel? I've never had to wire up more than one at a time.

[miggitymac]

So close yet so far away.  Could hardly believe we got the AGP Garphics card to work with soft15k.  Atleast to a degree.  Now projecting to Arcade monitor but in the wrong resolution.  The entire CP works perfectly after getting that all wired up.  I also did the soldering for the RGB, Sync and Ground to the old arcade monitor.  Works fine.  It was a great weekend of work.  Lots got done as you can see.  Thanks Skinz!  Always my pleasure to work on this project with you.  Its so darn cool....

[skinz]

Watched a million Youtube videos on wiring LED's.  Pretty interesting stuff out there.  I'm want use a breadboard setup like this and put the LED's in the back of the holes and see how it looks.  This kid is where i started.  A lot of info in a short video.  



I got a gift card for Radio Shack so....  ...I need approx 75 LED's (on a 12v)? 

Does this look right?

[miggitymac]

Sweet!  I think we can handle wireing up the LEDs like that no problem. 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Again, we got soft 15k working and still everything is way too big - Can't figure out what I'm supposed to do - Do I Install all the stuff on Soft 15K like 31 etc.  Hating this part - Still.

What exactly do you mean "Way too big"? You realize that things on a desktop will look larger as the resolution goes down, right? Did you adjust the various size pots after coming up in 640x480?

Also unless you have a tri-sync monitor, you should only be using the 15kHz button, not the 25 or the 31.

[miggitymac]

How would we know if our monitor is Tri-Sync?  Sorry, I'm a newbie and still learning as we go.  I work with Skinz on this project.  Also, can you explain in more details where to adjust the size pots.  I am unfamiliar with this.  Is it something in MAME to adjust or is it something onthe monitor itself?   

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

As an MK/Tekken 3 cab, it is almost certainly NOT a tri-sync. It'd be a standard resolution monitor which only does the 15kHz modes.

The H-Size, V-Size, H-position, and V-position pots should be on the monitor itself.

Did you ever look to see what model monitor it is? I don't recall seeing that in the thread.

[miggitymac]

Ya we allready messed with the pots then.  I didn't know they were called that.  But yes, we adjusted those many times allready.  Not sure what monitor it is, we will have to look again.  Probably will be like two weeks before we can get back to working on the machine.  Well let you how it goes.

[skinz]

I just looked and I have no pix of the monitor - I know im an idiot and it's gonna be 2 weeks til we get back there.  What happens is it projects on to the screen but only about 1/2 the screen is visible in 640 x 480.  We see the top half of the screen and adjusting pots doesnt do it - Should I just try every resolution bigger than 640 x 480 and see if i can fond one that works?  The monitor also obviously needs a cap kit which we will do after we figure this part out.  I remember trying higher resolutions and not being able to get a green light sync on the jpac.   Sigh.  Next time we are there get the monitor info - or take pix and post to identify it.  I'll also take some video of what we see on the screen so I don't confuse anyone that is trying to help me (much appreciated everyone by the way).  In the mean time I will work on marquee mockups etc. til i can get back working on it.  We can play games on it now but we have to look over to the right at a computer monitor.  Still fun as hell!!!!  I forgot how much i loved Crystal Castles.  LOL

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Lower resolutions,  not higher. Think 640x288

[skinz]

I tried those but couldn't get a sync - I just read a post that said I should try a new video card LOL Full circle 

[miggitymac]

Figures someone would say its the graphics card.     Maybe its because it only has like 36 meg of video ram...Anythoughts?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Probably not. In this instance you don't need any more ram on that videocard than you actually need for the framebuffer. All the rest of it is essentially going to go to waste until you start running things in real Direct3D/OpenGL like the new Street Fighter 4.

Now some videocard drivers might give you a 'virtual' desktop of a higher resolution than your current 'viewing' resolution. Sometimes this is called 'auto-panning' and when the cursor gets near the edge of the viewing area, it pans around the larger virtual space. That might be what's happening here.

How are you setting the resolution? Are you using a tool like QuickRes?

[skinz]

We tried Quickres to get to 640 x 480 but the screen would flip - I'll wait until I can take a little short video clip of what happens to show you guys on screen and behind the monitor - Isn't fair to ask you to guess - til then...

[skinz]

OK so this is what happens if anyone can help.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

That bright line at the bottom the screen probably means you still need to adjust the vsize pot.

I would recommend also installing something like UltraVNC so you can operate the machine over the network remotely while its connected to the arcade monitor. The will also let you double check that it's outputting the resolution you expect. I get the feeling that isn't really 320x240 when it comes back up.

[BobA]

Wow  your leather finish really pops.  Clearly a work of art.

[miggitymac]

We tried all kinds of settings but what you see above is the best we could get it!     Its really the only thing holding us from finishing this project..Please help us.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

install UltraVNC or your VNC build of choice.
Connect to it while it's running on the arcade monitor, and try different resolutions. I really don't think it's coming back up in 320x240, and with the screen off the bottom like that you'd have a hard time getting to quickres.

It's possible you can't adjust the screen enough because of it needing a capkit. That's worth doing as well.

[skinz]

cotmm68030, thanks for the suggestions.  I have no idea what you are talking about but this has still given me hope.  I know the monitor needs a cap kit but the pot adjustment would have to off a crazy amount for that much to be missing on the screen.  I have a feeling you are right and it really isnt coming back up the resolution we think it is.  I don't know what VNC or UltraVNC is but I'll look it up and get it going... ...you are also 100% correct, we can't get to quickrez after the machine comes up so we have to uninstall 15K and reboot to even get it back on the regular monitor to try again - this makes each rez change take about 15 minutes each.  I'm also considering another video card (AGAIN) to see if that works but will try your suggestions first.  

If anyone else can watch the videos above and shed some light I'd appreciate that as well.  We are truly at a stand still now.  I want to also note that the Tekken 3 PCB shows up perfectly fine on this monitor - even though there are obvious cap issues.  

Thanks again everyone!!!! cotmm68030, thanks alot!!!!  Still trying!

I re-posted my vids showing the issues in the monitor thread - Maybe someone sees something we are missing.

[Rick]

cotmm68030, thanks for the suggestions.  I have no idea what you are talking about but this has still given me hope.

UltraVNC (great program) is a remote access software, so you can 'dial in' to your arcade cabinet remotely, and view it on a different pc/screen as if you were on it locally.  Another good program - which is what I use now, because UltraVNC is blocked by my work firewall - is LogMeIn.  You can get this at LogMeIn.com, and sign up for the 'free' version.  It's similar to UltraVNC, but doesn't have the ability to send/receive files back and forth between your pc and the cabinet.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

But keep in mind the firewall issue is non-existant if you're just going across your own network; that should only apply to accessing the machine from across the internet.

http://www.uvnc.com/install/installation.html

[miggitymac]

cotmm68030, I think you are right about the resolution.  I didn't even realize, but once we rebooted the PC, QuikRes got turned off, thus the setting is probably not set at 320x200.  I had an idea.  Perhaps we should add QuikRes to the StartUp items so that it automatically launches.  Also, we can set the default res on it to 320x200.  So everytime we start the PC, it will automatically start QuikRes in 320x200 mode.  Does this sound like a good idea?  Also, one thing we didn't try was simply setting QuickRes, then simply plug in the arcade monitor without rebooting the PC.  One more thing. We don't have another PC to use UltraVNC on.  We only have Mac's...  Is there a Mac version that we can use?  Perhaps something like Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection.  I know I can connect to my work from home on my Mac to my PC at work using RDC.  Is UltraVNC the same thing and is it available for Mac?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

VNC is based on open source software; it's available for everything from Amigas to Z80 based computers. Yes, there will be a Mac client you can use:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/

You would  NOT want to use RDP as it will 'log off' the current session and only draw the screen on the remote machine. VNC shares that screen so it's mirrored on the server as well as the client.


QuickRes is not responsible for changing the actual resolution, it just provides a quick way to access resolutions available to the machine (and probably displays some that are not available on teh regular properties menu, though I haven't checked that to be sure). Either way, yes it should be put in the startup just to go ahead and make it available.