My first cab- The OND Metropolis Plans in Action

[brihyn]

As I mentioned in the excellent OND Metropolis cab, I'm a newb here (at least as far as signing up...been reading threads for a few years)
I originally received an old Gateway Destination 32" monitor around 5-6 years ago and decided to build a cab around it. Of course, I needed to remodel a basement to make room for it, ended up buying a new house before I completed the basement (spent the next several months running between houses trying to get that finished before it sold), then had to wait a few years to get the basement finished here before starting, followed by another major house project that put the cab on hold last fall....
Essentially, all of those delays ended up being beneficial, as I've learned a LOT in the last year, and now I'm ready to build.  I'm getting rid of the 32" CRT and watching woot for a 23" flat screen now, which is making the build MUCH easier (that crt was a boat anchor!)

So far, the sides are cut, the base is built, the old beat up coin door has been repainted, leavng the chrome a bit beat up and authentic looking. I've also ran the slot cutter over the sides to get ready for the t-molding. Tonight didnt' give any progress worth taking pictures of, but I got quite a few pieces prepped to make the first night of assembly much easier.

I'm sure I'll have a TON of questions for everyone here, as I still have a lot of questions I haven't been able to find the answers for.

[Ond]

You're off to a great start brihyn! Good to see this design getting built.  I'll be updating the Metropolis cab thread with final build details and some initial artwork next week.

If you opt for the Metropolis artwork I'm creating, it will be available as high res CMYK files from me, matched to that design FREE  .

 

Ond

[brihyn]

Thanks.
As excited and anxious as I am to see the next remaining steps, I actually know that I'll be at a standstill long before I get to that point until I find the speakers that I want to use, as well as picking up the monitor.
I can at least get far enough this week to show off what I'm building to family when they come down this weekend!
As for artwork, the current wife-approved designs would be either a few simple stripes on the side, or possibly a mario pipe coming up from the ground to about a foot or so high. Something very simple.
As for the Marquee, i'm anxious to see what your plans layout for that, as I'm still working a few designs out in my head.

[brihyn]

Made some huge progress tonight...which is good. I figured after tomorrow, I won't have a whole lot of visible progress to show for a while.
I added a shelf for the pc. probably put it an inch or two too high, but oh well. The board on the back is just a temporary support progress, and the pic with me is just to show family the size of it (I'm 6'6, so a good comparison).

[brihyn]

Question-
What's the norm for adding a master power switch? I was thinking about a regular light switch added to the top-back, but not sure how I feel about the look of it. My plan is to have a second pc power supply to run the led's and the speaker amp (assuming I still go with an auto amp and speakers), so I'd like one switch that would turn on the main power, and i'm also thinking about a momentary to boot the pc.
Thoughts? suggestions?

[MTPPC]

Smart strip using the PC as master: http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Energy-Saving-Autoswitching-Technology/dp/B000P1QJXQ/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_img_b

[PL1]

Question-
What's the norm for adding a master power switch? I was thinking about a regular light switch added to the top-back, but not sure how I feel about the look of it. My plan is to have a second pc power supply to run the led's and the speaker amp (assuming I still go with an auto amp and speakers), so I'd like one switch that would turn on the main power, and i'm also thinking about a momentary to boot the pc.
Thoughts? suggestions?

The first question to ask is this:  Does your monitor automatically power on when plugged in?  On some monitors you can wedge the power button closed, change a setting in firmware, etc. to get this to work.

If yes, use a Smart Strip w. computer plugged into the master outlet and a momentary SPST switch to power up the computer.  Monitor plugged into a slave outlet on the strip.

If no, a momentary DPST or DPDT wired like this for the computer and monitor.  You provide the red wire and the green switch.  Monitor plugged into an "always on" outlet



You may also want to consider using an illuminated power switch and fuse module like one of these

 


Scott

[edekoning]

Looking at the picture with you next to the cab, the cab seems to need some additional height. Now it just looks like you will have the marque right in front of your face, and have a steep viewing angle towards the monitor.

I would suggest you put the monitor on the PC shelf, and try to position it properly (height and angle). Turn the monitor on, and hold a wood panel approximately where the marque is going. Now see if that will work for you. If not you could always add an additional base to the bottom to gain some additional height.

Keep the progress comming

[brihyn]

Thanks for the help on the power strip. My coworker was suggesting it, but I didn't think that was what I wanted. After actually visiting the amazon link, that's definitely the route I'm taking, and as of tonight, the wife was sold on it. I'm a total cheapskate and trying to keep the cost down to an absolute minimum (and if I didn't, I probably wouldn't have started building this in the first place...I hate spending a penny more than I can get away with!), but that looks like 20$ that would keep the cab much cleaner looking.
And Ede- Huge thanks. It's something I hadn't considered. I struggled with that a bit after reading your height comment...while I know i'm the primary player of this, I still want it to be comfortable for everyone else, from the wife to all of the nieces and nephews. In the end, I'm really looked at where the Slickstick sits, how comfortable that was, as well as whether your thoughts were going to be much of an issue, and I think I'm going to be fine, but I really appreciate you bringing that issue up!

Ok, had a bunch of family down for the weekend, so progress was a bit slow, but I got on both the front, as well as the fake front, including my led light bars (ripped from an old pc front). I also installed the coin door (including a few hidden led's behind the coin returns). Looks pretty good.

[brihyn]

Progress was slow the last two weeks...2 years ago I decided to head back to college, and this semester's been kicking my butt. Spent the last two weeks trying to get ahead and finish the semester so that I could play in the garage without guilt.
While the progress has been slow, it hasn't been non-existant.
Got the back panel routered to inset the door, got the door cut and sized tonight, added a couple small pieces of wood, and did the first round of hole-patching tonight.

I also picked up a set of 4 5.5" car speakers from Goodwill for a grand total of 3.50. They're all in great shape and sound great.
For the amplifier, I decided to bastardize a pair of computer speakers, ripped out the amp board, and mounted into a low-voltage electrical box. It feels pretty sturdy, and the speakers sounded great when attached to it.
After posting this, I'm heading to Amazon to order the speaker grills and power strip suggested. I'm thinking I'll end up getting the monitor on black friday unless some stellar deal occurs before then, so I'm almost at a dead-stop for now.

[Ond]

Your progress is good, sounds like you got the speakers sorted.
From me, it's very nice seeing this come together, I'd build it too if it weren't for all the 1001 things I have going on.  If I draw awesome artwork for this d'ya think you can convince your missus to let you use it?  I'll make it 'female empowering' tell her that.

Cheers

Ond

[brihyn]

I can't thank you enough for your detailed procedures. I feel like I have a few skills with power tools and design (pretty proud of our basement...was unfinished a few years ago), but there were so many questions in my head before I decided to build this, and your great instructions really provided a ton (metric ton?) of ideas and procedures I would have never considered. You definitely have offered a great service to this site!
As far as the artwork...I'm of 2 minds on this. On the one hand, i REALLY want to see the art you designed...see what that initial vision became. And there's certainly a chance that it will be perfect for my cabinet. On the other hand, I don't want you to design something just for me, as I can't promise I'll use it. I haven't actually seen Metropolis, so, while there were some great designs being talked about on the first page of the original thread, they were a bit lost on me.
So if you want to get some artwork out there, I can't wait to see it and it very well may work for me, but don't create the art JUST for me, as we have a pseudo minimalist idea for the sides, but just haven't figured out how to make it work.
Now...anyone wanting to take my idea for the marquee and run with it/expand it, i'm open....I'm a bit fearful of the photoshop work (while at the same time, looking at other threads here, I know this community is going to offer great suggestions once I start down that path)
Again, OND, I can't thank you enough for the plans you provided...I've sat in the garage with the laptop on numerous days going back to make sure I was doing the steps correctly.

[brihyn]

A bit more progress this week. Speakers mounted and wired, amp/volume in place, and everything is sanded and wiped, ready to paint this weekend (still need to run a sticky-cloth over it for final prep). Also, figured I'd show off my sweet bezel...I've already got Donkey Kong up and running!
Monitor is on order...actually 2 of them. Picked up a great deal from DailySteals.com, and somehow added a second monitor to my cart. so unless I can find someone to sell it to, the wife's getting a third monitor.

[brihyn]

Getting closer. I still need to print the marquee and mount it, add the t-molding (on order) and do something for side art, but the thing is playable now. Unfortunately the final home for it is where the Christmas tree goes, so it's back in kind of a corner for now (along with several other of my toys.)
My niece decided to try it out with a game of PacMan. I think she's sold.

[CoryBee]

is that like...an active screen bezel i see?

[brihyn]

Wish that I could say that I ccreated something cool like that, but no...i'm not sure if that was something Hyperspin threw on there, but it's the only game I've seen with a bezel like that.
Wait...take that back...wife was just playing another with a bezel...can't remember what.

[CoryBee]

Wish that I could say that I ccreated something cool like that, but no...i'm not sure if that was something Hyperspin threw on there, but it's the only game I've seen with a bezel like that.
Wait...take that back...wife was just playing another with a bezel...can't remember what.

looks like it makes the game area all tiny....not sure how i would feel about that

[jammin0]

Mame, at least the newer versions can display those bezels.  I have a 28" widescreen in my cabinet so I use those on some of the vertical games.  The vertical screen is plenty big but this way it doesn't look as blank while playing them.  I wouldn't use them on a 4:3 game though, just cramps up the play area.  That picture makes it look like there is stuff on the sides and on top.  I got a whole bunch of bezels from this website http://mrdo.mameworld.info/ but it looks like it is gone or has moved.

[BadMouth]

You can access options as to whether to display that bezel or not in MAME's in-game menu (TAB).
It's under video options.  It can also crop the artwork so the game is the full height of your monitor, but parts of the bezel will still be shown to the sides.

You can do this globally in mame.ini or if you are using some other flavor of MAME with a user interface (like MAMEUI or MAMEPlus), you can do it there.

[brihyn]

Friday night I got the T-Molding on. Surprised at how easy it was. Unfortunately the rubber mallet scratched the side, so I have some painting to do.
Last night I took my best 3 marquees to Walgreens for printing, and got one mounted tonight.
Thanks again to everyone here...just a few things that this place has helped me get through when I had questions
*The speaker hookups
*The Marquee printing (walgreens)
*The marquee retainers-Used the plastic corner protectors with the inside spray painted. My corners are actually about 120 degree angles, so last night i warmed up the plastic with the heat gun and reshaped it to fit nicely
*The smart power strip
*Getting the power connected to the Dell sub-board on my pc
*Huge thanks to OND for the plans and simple walkthrough guide
*So so many other things that this place has helped with

[brihyn]

Finished!
Right now I'm going with no side art. I may change my mind on that later, but I'm digging the simple look. I had to make a last minute addition of some venting/cooling fan, as the pc was running really hot. Added the directions and plexiglass, fixed up some painting, and we're done.
The pictures aren't as clear as I'd like and the cp has some dust and dog hair on it now, but otherwise, it's finished and I'm quite happy with my first build. 
And beyond that, I now feel some confidence to do other woodworking that I've never really had before.