Gran Trak 2010

[rockyrocket]

So I am happy to say the cabinet shell is finally painted, its taken longer than expected but the finishing line is in sight .
Here are a some shots...







The wheel has had some vinyl dye applied, hopefully its durable enough.



Could not resist a nitrous sticker sorry!.



Originally the plan was going to be to have this cab as a slave to my pincab and share the pc to save some cash, this however was not to be .
Somehow I ended up upgrading the pin puter and rolling the old pc into this one, it should have more than enough beans to run most stuff - so much for money saving!.
Anyway the tray for the pc is fitted so really now its just a case of installing the software and deciding on a front end then some theme building.
One thing I forgot to do was to leave a window clear in the glass bezel for the head tracking cam, though I am sure that it will not be too hard to score an outline then scratch the paint away from the inside to the edges - will shall see.

[drventure]

Wow. Fantastic Job!

I love the asymmetry and the clean lines

Well done! 

[Superfrog]

  Helll what a great original cabinet 

  great paintjob 

Thumbs up 

[a1pharm]

This is a great, original cab.  Job well done!   

[swaffar]

Great job!     I really like the paint.  Once I finally finish my pinball cabinet, I'll be building a sit-down racing cab.  I already have a Fanatec CSR Elite setup... wheel, pedals, and shifter.  It was really expensive, but it'll be worth it.

[emphatic]

That's really something to behold. Great work! 

[rockyrocket]

Thanks everyone!.
So in true UK style after the bright sun those shots were taken in it started raining.
Anyway I quickly threw together a gameex install and a early draft of a theme just to get up and running and managed to get some PC titles installed along-side a mame install.
Thanks to romlister I have a skimmed set of about 130 driving roms, no CHDs as yet as I have not checked what ones are drivers - anyone?.
Tommorrow I get a second pair of hands to help move it, then its time for a final rebuild and its done!.

[BadMouth]

Amazing level of original and custom details. 

[ppv]

Simply stunning! :applauds:

[drventure]

I believe Badmouth put together a pretty dang good racing skin for mala. Might take a look there for some ideas too.

[rockyrocket]

Thanks again guys,
So the FE and theme are not set yet and the chioce is between gameex, mala and hyperspin (in that order), as for themes I like  badmouths crazy taxi like one and have also seen this one and this one.

Lessons learnt are that a white paint job is very delicate and easy to dink (look at the grey next to the yellow weyland logo).
Originally I was thinking about ageing this a bit but to be honest its ageing itself quick enough from just being moved about my different work spaces.
The best lesson has been that airbrushes are AWSOME and its now up there with a hot glue gun in my favourite tools list.
To illustrate this the attached pic is from me filling in the "A" and "O" text and quickly it became clear the larger tape was redundant and I could easily keep within the smaller 5mm tape.
One other lessson is hydro dipping is hard!.
One idea that was dropped was to have a red and blue LED behind the pedals one for brake the other for the accelerator that gained brightness as it was depressed, but I think just a subtle blue on will be better.

[BadMouth]

Thanks to romlister I have a skimmed set of about 130 driving roms, no CHDs as yet as I have not checked what ones are drivers - anyone?.

California Speed & San Francisco Rush are the only ones I can think of that are fully working.
You'll probably find that the 360 degree wheel games don't play very well.
Here is a list of what is on my cab:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130810.msg1339739.html#msg1339739

I'll add to that Cannonball for Outrun.  It adds force feedback, higher framerate, fixes glitches in the original, etc, etc, etc.
https://github.com/djyt/cannonball/wiki

The biggest thing is to fix the joystick deadzone in mame.ini
The default setting is .3 which means you have a 30% dead zone! 
More setup tips are in the driving cab info thread stickied in the driving cab forum.

Since so many different emulators are used on a driving cab, it's nice to have all the games in one list if it can be done with your front-end.
A tutorial for Mala is on my to-do list, but I don't know when I'll get around to it.  It's all covered in SGT's workaround thread in the Mala subforum, but a few key bits of info are buried in the middle.

[rockyrocket]

Thanks to romlister I have a skimmed set of about 130 driving roms, no CHDs as yet as I have not checked what ones are drivers - anyone?.

California Speed & San Francisco Rush are the only ones I can think of that are fully working.
You'll probably find that the 360 degree wheel games don't play very well.
Here is a list of what is on my cab:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130810.msg1339739.html#msg1339739

I'll add to that Cannonball for Outrun.  It adds force feedback, higher framerate, fixes glitches in the original, etc, etc, etc.
https://github.com/djyt/cannonball/wiki

The biggest thing is to fix the joystick deadzone in mame.ini
The default setting is .3 which means you have a 30% dead zone! 
More setup tips are in the driving cab info thread stickied in the driving cab forum.

Since so many different emulators are used on a driving cab, it's nice to have all the games in one list if it can be done with your front-end.
A tutorial for Mala is on my to-do list, but I don't know when I'll get around to it.  It's all covered in SGT's workaround thread in the Mala subforum, but a few key bits of info are buried in the middle.

Sweet thanks for the info .
Luckily I have most of the other emu`s already set up on other cabs so a lot of work is already done, gameex makes it very easy to add games to a favourites list and I already have a cross emu hyperspin xml that someone else spent a lot of time on.
As for mala in the past i have just created a shortcut for each game and had one big list - think I will play around with both gameex and hyperspin in the cab and choose a fav.

So once It had been decided a driving cab was to be built one of the first things purchased was a larson scannerà la KITT, and I was damned if it was not going to be used! .

[Le Chuck]

This is such a sharp build and the amount of custom touches ties it together while really elevating the quality to the next level.  Would have liked to see some kind of dash detail around the wheel but overall it's super sharp.  Great build!

[rockyrocket]

This is such a sharp build and the amount of custom touches ties it together while really elevating the quality to the next level.  Would have liked to see some kind of dash detail around the wheel but overall it's super sharp.  Great build!

Wow thanks - praise indeed, although yourself, Ond and quizz-kid are far more deserving of that accolade I think .
I am not too worried about the dash area, I often fell less is more and would rather add more detail to a project later if it seems to need it - this however is just not possible with the dash being reverse painted on the inside.
I do though feel the screen bezel is a bit plain so am working on a graphic right now.
As it stands the button layout on the wheel is a bit ambiguous so the decal will illustrate the mapping for guests.
Must really stop playing the thing for a bit so that some more thought can go into themes.

[severdhed]

simply stunning.  Great job!

[mike boss]

This cabinet is F'n FANTASTIC.
Really really like this.
Looking @ this makes me wish I didn't sell my stand up Outrun.
All be it this cabinet is a Ferrari, the outrun a Honda Civic.

[rockyrocket]

Great job!     I really like the paint.  Once I finally finish my pinball cabinet, I'll be building a sit-down racing cab.  I already have a Fanatec CSR Elite setup... wheel, pedals, and shifter.  It was really expensive, but it'll be worth it.

Could not resist - just bought a G25!, so the cab will get pulled apart one more time.
Looks like the shifter and pedals decase well to fit the CP, still only room for two pedals though - need to do some thinking.
http://chilicoke.com/mods.htm Have some interesting mod vids.
This is partly your fault swaffar .

[mike boss]

I like this cabinet more and more every time I visit the thread.
Really cool project.
I'm excited to be working on a MaLa layout for you.

Great work !

[mike boss]

Cant wait to see the modifications you do !
Thanks for letting me create another layout for you.
This cabinet really is amazing !

Top shelf work !

[rockyrocket]

So I decided to step away from this for a bit and also to hand over the frontend skinning to the capable mike boss.
Mike has done some great work for me in the past so it was a no brainer to farm this out to him while I got on with other stuff.
Sure its nice to do everything yourself but sometimes if you know someone else`s vision of what you want maywell be better than your own then I think its ok.
I now have the front end up and running and all my games starting from shortcuts in one big list via mala - so mala won the FE dilemma.
Its now just a case of redoing the CP with a new (G25) wheel and we are back in business.
I have moved the wheel over a bit to make room for a gear stick but have not yet decided if I will use it as it will be a bit cramped - we will see.

[BadMouth]

Next week, I'll be starting a step by step tutorial for setting up each emulator for a driving cab and incorporating it all into one Mala list. 
Starting with a fresh Windows 7 install and downloading all the emulators from scratch so I don't miss covering anything.
Look for it to be stickied in the driving cab forum.  It may also be locked, so it doesn't get cluttered with questions.

[rockyrocket]

As most of the last odds and ends are now done on this its probably time for an update.
So the new wheel is in and has gained a vinyl dye treatment just like the old one.
After giving the old wheel`s coating some hard testing I am now fully confident in the dye and not a little surprised also.
The pedals were reverse mounted and for me at 6ft feel much better at that angle as before I was often hitting the speaker cover with my knee.
At the moment the cab has no shifter as I think it will maybe be a bit crowded with one fitted - this may change later though if it is missed.
A template is already made and I have test fitted the sticks mount so fitting this later would be a trivial matter and I could even keep the dial.
As this wheel has its buttons separate I needed to break out its encoder and extend the buttons onto my control panel - fiddly soldering but easy enough.



Heat build up was a bit unexpected so the back gained a 200mm fan and temps now are fine.
The only other thing of note is that freetrack is now installed and working using a PS3 eyecam fitted behind the upper bezel mounted using that under rated all purpose engineering solution known as hot glue.
Speaking of the bezel I am not that happy with my artwork so will redo that and also maybe make a feature of the eyecams window to tidy it up a bit.
I also ended up simplifying mikes mala layout a bit (sorry mike).



So apart from some little jobs for all intents and purposes I am now calling this one done, time for some F1 2013!.

[jongunz]

This was very well done.  Kuddos!  Definitely hall of fame material.

[drventure]

 

Very nice indeed!

[BadMouth]

[RetroBorg]

Great project! 

[Martijn]

  One of the best standup racing cabs i ever seen, your painting skills are exceptional   

[rockyrocket]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.
So I was just watching a youtube vid of rFactor and noticed this car looks spookily similar from the back..

[rockyrocket]

Finished bezel mark 2, so now it is really done - honest .
Well maybe a bit of colour correction to get the print and screen orange to match but other than that its now done -again! .

[Locke141]

That looks amazing.

[thatpurplestuff]

That is a sexy looking machine!  Great work!

[BadMouth]

Is that a camera in the monitor bezel?

I saw the option in some PC games I set up, but never considered it for my cabs.

[Xiaou2]

Minus a couple of construction choices... this cabs pretty awesome.

 One question:   Those peddles are Really high up.  Honestly, isnt it a bit odd to try to reach them way up there?  Are you just keeping your foot off the floor at all times?   Usually cabs have a platform that at very least, you can rest your heel on, to act as the pivot point.

 The other qips are mere personal opinions:

 - I think the glass would look better following the angle of the monitor
 - The camera sticks out loudly... would have been better hidden under a black stripe.
 - I think the cab top should be bull-nosed.  And or make an actual slim marquee thats about the same size as the bezel top.
 - Finally, I prefer stick shifters for most games, especially classics.  Its an expensive route, but would be a great addition to have.
 - Hmm, one more... Without going back to see where the speakers are? ..   Id put them under that slim marquee I mentioned, facing downwards.  Stereo.  With a sub in the bottom... and bass shaker near the Control Panel.

[rockyrocket]

Hi guys and thanks for all the feedback especially Xiaou2 for the critique this is after all a forum.
So yep Badmouth the cam is the PS3 eyecam for free track - the jury is still out on how much use the headtracking will get.
I have used freetrack for a while on my desktop and with multi monitors its great - in a cab with this small form factor its nice to have but I think it will get used less and less.
One thing I have noticed is that some games that work flawlessly with a wiimote do not with the PS3 eye, but I have not had much time to troubleshoot lately and freetrack development seems dead.

Xiaou2 don't worry I am not at all offended by your opinions, but will address a couple of points,
Firstly the peddles are high because its a cabaret and I did not plan to stand at it, and honestly I could not get the peddles any lower as the caster is in the way as mentioned earlier plus if I brought the peddles forward to lower them then they would be behind the seated player.
The stick shift is still a possibility as I have already worked out its mounting but will only be used if I really miss it as CP space is an issue.
As for the cam being a tad conspicuous I agree and if it gets to the point where freetrack is hardly used then its just a quick spray of white paint and it will be like it never happened.

Anyway here is a picture to illustrate the ergonomics of the cab, with the face covered to protect the innocent (me) .

[TopJimmyCooks]

PS in a white driver's suit to go with that helmet and you're the Stig.

[rockyrocket]

Yep that was what I was aiming for, googled stig hemet for the image - I am such a child !(even at 42).

[TopJimmyCooks]

the stig helmet is a simpson bandit if you want to get authentic.  I see a business of getting a white driving suit and helmet to rent out to all the driving cab/TWIP guys so they can take a pic of the Stig playing their rig. 

[rockyrocket]

the stig helmet is a simpson bandit if you want to get authentic.  I see a business of getting a white driving suit and helmet to rent out to all the driving cab/TWIP guys so they can take a pic of the Stig playing their rig.

Yeah or just run a team of stig-a-likes to make guest appearances, just think it would be the easiest job around.
Does not matter what they look like and they would not even say one word, of course you would need the obligatory dwarf (little person?) stig - the Stiglet.

[Rick]

the stig helmet is a simpson bandit if you want to get authentic.  I see a business of getting a white driving suit and helmet to rent out to all the driving cab/TWIP guys so they can take a pic of the Stig playing their rig.

Is it bad that I had to go to Wikipedia to figure out what "The Stig" was supposed to reference?