Project: Arcade Machine

[arximidis]

Hello...
This is my arcade machine...







In the following video I am testing the controls, the shock sensors, Bluetooth control and the electronic coin acceptor



It looks like the are working pretty good 

How does it work?
The controls are... controlled by a custom made circuit board based on a microcontroller. It also controls the electronic coin acceptor (=it's not based on a button), and the shock sensors (=mercury switches)



Actually, the microcontroller is controling the whole machine.
It is responsible to startup the machine and properly set the television to the correct AV mode.
It simulates a PS/2 keyboard (not USB). It will not work with a computer without a PS/2 port.
It communicates with a custom made FrontEnd (named HTMLFrontEnd or HTML5 FrontEnd). It is written entirely in HTML/HTML5

The android application you see in the video is custom made too. It's written in java. It communicates with the FrontEnd using the standard serial over Bluetooth protocol. The frontEnd sends a message to the circuit board over the serial (or USB) port which is connected and the microcontroller sends the appropriate keystroke.


You can map the buttons to the keys you want, by editing the [CONTROLS] section in the settings.ini files of the emulators (and main interface) of HTML5 FE

[arximidis]

Schematic diagram of the circuit board



Edit Instructions link: http://users.ntua.gr/dpiperid/MyWebPage/Contructions/others/mame/schematics/controllerEN.htm

[lamprey]

Pretty smooth! 

[stigzler]

Left handed controls?

[arximidis]

Left handed controls?

Yes, this was the default layout for some of these type of cabs, which were designed here in Greece back in the 80s and 90s
For example in the following pictures you can see one of the original cabs, which I tried to copy as close as I could (Unfortunatelly I couldn't find design plans for these cabs). I created my own plans which I have already published

[arximidis]

new look   

[emphatic]

I like this a lot. It would be cool if you are able to lift the control panel and mount it the other way around for everyone outside of Greece. 

[Hoopz]

As a righty, I like it.  Older games had the joys on the right side so that's what I'm accustomed to. 

Good job.   

[arximidis]

From my experience I beleive in some games is better to handle the joystic with your right hand and in others with your left hand (depending if you are right handed or left handed)

I think for 1941 is better to use the left hand to control the motion and the right for firing (if you are a righty)
For tehkan world cup (one of my favorites as a kid) is better to use the right hand to handle the motion and the left for kicking

[arximidis]

The Firmware of the gamemachine contoller/interface has been uploaded

You can find instructions on how to upload the hex file to the AVR microcontoller in this link: http://users.ntua.gr/dpiperid/MyWebPage/Contructions/others/mame/schematics/controllerEN.htm


The controller is open hardware/ open source and the code has been released too (under GPL v3)
You can download the code from the above link.
Note: I don't include instructions on how to build/compile the code (yet).
However the code is written with avr-gcc and you can find intructions how to compile on the internet. You don't need to compile the code if you use the hex file (from the above link). Compiling has only a meaning if you want to modify the code
On windows you can use WinAVR: http://www.webring.org/l/rd?ring=avr;id=59;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwinavr.sourceforge.net%2F


Edit: Soon the program that communicates with the controller will be released (windows version)