[First Build] The Grid! | Update 4-08-2014: Woodworking almost done

[Scorpie]

So after two years of lurking this and other forums and developing ideas in my head I finally decided to create my own cabinet.  This was back in 2013 when a buddy of mine noticed my notes and drawings and asked me what I was up to.

I`m fairly inexperienced in woodworking and the like, i`m more of a electric/computer wizz but he`s great with construction stuff, he even helped me put in a new kitchen in my house in March 2014 ! So I told him what I was up to and he immediately got excited to help out if I promised him to help him on his own cabinet which we will build after the current one. So thats one obstacle out of the way!

I was fascinated by all the slim cabinets floating around here so it was quickly decided we should do a clone of one of them (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,112721.0.html). We didn't have any plans so we started  with cardboard based design, just to see what we were getting ourselves into:






As you can see we had a bit of a debate on some of the measurements. I tried to use as much knowledge I gathered from my time on the Internet but in the end it all comes down to your own perception. I just hope we don't bump into problems that will deem unfixable. We`ll see

So, this cardboard thingy was built in december 2013. As I mentioned before, we already started planning in 2013 but because of our busy schedules (I got married, he`s a busy worker in winter), the project was put on a temporary hold. But, since june of this year we started picking things up, as the pictures below will tell.

My buddy had the time to start cutting the 19mm MDF plates to size and put it all together for a test:










The plates....assembly below:








I bought a 27" LED monitor last year in a sale. Set me back 150$ but it was well worth it as its my intention to play normal computer games with the arcade also.
We put the 27" in the cabinet with 1cm to spare on each side. It fitted very well and with a proper bezel should make a great combo:







So thats where we are at now, and I`m using this thread as kind of a journal, to document as much as I can.

In the mean time, I`ve been busy gathering all components for the cabinet:

I7/Mobo/8G RAM/770GTX/SSD/4TB HDD as a base system for gaming (The setup was partly redundant, partly new)
LED Marquee lighting from GGG
Speaker set

The CP will be equipped with 2player setup with Servosticks, 6x RGB LED Buttons + 4 admin buttons and maybe side mounted buttons (for pinball but not sure yet) plus 2 Aimtrak guns
Of course I need to get an controller for the buttons & the led, I havent decided on that yet although I`m clinching toward ordering everything at ultimarc.com but to be determined

The looks of the cabinet will be Tron Legacy inspired. I love the color settings they used on that movie but I wanted to get a clean look, so black is not an option. I`ve found great help in gbeef on this forum (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,113707.msg1207526.html) who will do the artwork for me in due time, he`s been great on giving me advice!

Thats it for now, as soon as I can I will post updates or ask questions as I`m sure they will come up in the rest of the project

[EMDB]

Nice start and welcome to the forum.

Didn't you forget the wheels / leg levelers? The base is very small though. You might run into stability problems.

Based on the markings on the MDF you're Dutch: there are a lot of us here: Welkom en veel plezier bij het bouwen...

[Scorpie]

Nice start and welcome to the forum.

Didn't you forget the wheels / leg levelers? The base is very small though. You might run into stability problems.

Based on the markings on the MDF you're Dutch: there are a lot of us here: Welkom en veel plezier bij het bouwen...

Yeah the base seems rather small but its quite sturdy! We`ll be planning to put on some wheels on the back & some legs in the front as soon as possible but I reckon it shouldnt be too much of a problem

Bedankt

[BadMouth]

1.  If you're going to copy a design, Martijn's are a great choice!

2.  Hope you aren't planning to angle the joysticks like that:



It seems like a great idea at first, but people instinctively move the joysticks in relation to the character on the screen, not their own body.
If they want the character to left or right, they move the joystick parallel with the monitor regardless of the angle they're standing at.
People can overcome it, but it takes time to adjust.  (having the joysticks square with the monitor takes no time to adjust)

EDIT: You can square up the joystick and leave the buttons at an angle.  It works in real life better than it looks on paper.  Also, P1's hand looks uncomfortably close to the side of the machine.

[Scorpie]

1.  If you're going to copy a design, Martijn's are a great choice!

2.  Hope you aren't planning to angle the joysticks like that:



It seems like a great idea at first, but people instinctively move the joysticks in relation to the character on the screen, not their own body.
If they want the character to left or right, they move the joystick parallel with the monitor regardless of the angle they're standing at.
People can overcome it, but it takes time to adjust.  (having the joysticks square with the monitor takes no time to adjust)

EDIT: You can square up the joystick and leave the buttons at an angle.  It works in real life better than it looks on paper.  Also, P1's hand looks uncomfortably close to the side of the machine.

Thanks for the feedback but I wasnt planning on putting the joysticks that way, my buddy just smacked them on for the picture (he's not that into details lol)

[Martijn]

Nice start, stability when its finished is not a problem, its more of a problem when you are working on it, you can push it over more easily.

about the wheels, you could add them , if you don't intend to move it around a lot then you could just as well buy something like this from the diyourselfshop/praxis/gamma



I know that my marvel vs Capcom cabinet has some wheel system, but its just like the plate on wheels.

just lift it ontop and ad some sort of bolts through the bottom

[jaharr01]

Everything looks good except something is not right with the area around the marquee. I'm not talking about the scrap you used that says tron play you used for support. It looks like the very top board is bowing the sides out.It may be just the picture but it doesn't look like it.You should double check your top in relation to your cross braces. Also maybe hold something up to the side with a really straight edge like a 4 foot level to see if it bows out.If it is it then that would be an easy fix,especially since you haven't started filling holes and painting.

Jay

[Scorpie]

Everything looks good except something is not right with the area around the marquee. I'm not talking about the scrap you used that says tron play you used for support. It looks like the very top board is bowing the sides out.It may be just the picture but it doesn't look like it.You should double check your top in relation to your cross braces. Also maybe hold something up to the side with a really straight edge like a 4 foot level to see if it bows out.If it is it then that would be an easy fix,especially since you haven't started filling holes and painting.

Jay

Wow thanks for the feedback! I didn't noticed it but I looked at the pictures, I will do a check next time to see if you are right thanks for the tip!

[Scorpie]

So this week its all about getting the parts delivered or placing orders concerning the parts.

I wanted to have a LED light installed under the cabinet so I ordered 5 meters of RGB LED in China with aliexpress.com. This package came in yesterday and all in all, for 23 euro, I think its a pretty good deal:



Its a crappy picture but it shows the bright white color of the leds, one of around 7 colors you can pick while using static mode. Not too shabby. You can also change it to any color with the remote control thats included. Not bad. Have to see how it will fit under the cabinet since space is limited, but the best part of this led strips is that you can cut it to appropiate length.

Next up is the internals. I decided to go with a new PC because a) I want to play modern PC games and b) I cleaned up the house from PC parts 6 months ago (under heavy pressure of the wife...) so I really didnt have any other options besides second hand stuff which I come to hate since this guy ripped me of on a deal couple of years ago. The set itself was bought 2 weeks ago.



Anyways, here we see a brand new Intel i5 4400 with 8GB of DDR3 memory on an ASRock B85M micro atx board, topped of with an Crucial 500 SSD for the OS and 4TB of space seperated over 2 hdd's. The video card is an MSI N760 which is a small vid card capable of packing a lot of power. I reckon this to be enough to play the most games for now and the near future

In front of it is the RetroVGA 2 scanline generator which came in earlier this week, as I want to have a really good arcade experience I decided to splash the cash on this one. Have to see if I can mount it in a place where its easy to switch it on and off, any ideas?

Also, you can see the power supply is missing from my PC set. I noticed today the fan isnt turning on whenever the PC was, so it has to be returned to be fixed under warranty. Its a bummer since I wanted to spent the next few days configuring my PC setup but with no spare power supply I`m dead in the water.


I headed over to my buddy to pick up the monitor as he doesnt need it anymore for measurements:



I really like this monitor, its big, the colors are nice and its very thin which will certainly aid me at installing it. The only thing we evidently lost is the adapter, so I had to order a new one since the connector on this thing isnt standard. Sigh.

Today also marked the arrival of my speakers & grill which I ordered in the UK (I live in Holland). I decided to go for an all-in setup because I wanted to save me the trouble of getting parts that dont match (or are very hard to match) and this set had good reviews. So here it is:



Nicely packaged, good build quality, now all I need is a way to get it installed in an easy to reach spot, perhaps in combination with the scanline generator mentioned above...



Inspired by marcoboy in his building thread I remembered I had a leap motion lying around too, so I`m thinking about incorperating it inside my cabinet the same way he suggested it...but its an extra feature and nice to have, we focus on the main part first

Next up this weekend is the control panel layout design which I started working on yesterday. I`m not so good in designing stuff as I am in programming so I`m struggling a bit with the right measurements, checking and double checking stuff whenever I make a adjustment, afraid I`m screwing something up.

In the following weeks I`ll be putting some basic paint on the cabinet and try to get the control panel layout done, I still have to wait for my buttons&joysticks to come in which could take 2 weeks, maybe even more.

I`ll keep updating this topic as we progress, however I foresee in the next few weeks little work to be done as I`m also arranging the wedding for my best friend being master of ceremony and all.

[HairyDVD]

Nice build so far, will keep an eye on this one.....

I made a Tron themed bartop called "The Grid", but sadly had to sell it recently as my daughter learning to drive and we are saving for a car ( if / when she passes her test  )

Put it on ebay and due to amount of questions from buyers, had to create a website.  You can see here http://hairydvd.wix.com/thegrid it may give you some ideas ...

Apologies if I am not allowed to link ...

[Scorpie]

Nice build so far, will keep an eye on this one.....

I made a Tron themed bartop called "The Grid", but sadly had to sell it recently as my daughter learning to drive and we are saving for a car ( if / when she passes her test  )

Put it on ebay and due to amount of questions from buyers, had to create a website.  You can see here http://hairydvd.wix.com/thegrid it may give you some ideas ...

Apologies if I am not allowed to link ...

I don`t mind, it looks amazing ! Nice artwork!

[HairyDVD]

The text was done on "TRON TEXT FX LITE"on the ipad and sent to my desktop.  The thing about a Tron theme is that there is a tonne of resources on the net got grafix 

If you are using a pc let me know if you need an intro video - a guy over the pimame forums for the raspberry pi used the beginning of a daft punk music video when they go into Flynn's arcade and put a coin into a machine ( looks very good, but lasts about 30 secs )....

I must say, you are making good headway for a first build.  Lots of decisions to make...... I found the hardest decisions where are the end to get a good finish and sourcing parts, but ebay is a gold mine in the uk for items ( even if you have to wait weeks to get them from china ! ). 

[Scorpie]

The text was done on "TRON TEXT FX LITE"on the ipad and sent to my desktop.  The thing about a Tron theme is that there is a tonne of resources on the net got grafix 

If you are using a pc let me know if you need an intro video - a guy over the pimame forums for the raspberry pi used the beginning of a daft punk music video when they go into Flynn's arcade and put a coin into a machine ( looks very good, but lasts about 30 secs )....

I must say, you are making good headway for a first build.  Lots of decisions to make...... I found the hardest decisions where are the end to get a good finish and sourcing parts, but ebay is a gold mine in the uk for items ( even if you have to wait weeks to get them from china ! ).

I just downloaded that app and it looks nice gonna play a bit more with it Can you send me the intro video? I`m very curious

[Scorpie]

So this week has been all about opening presents   

The buttons & joystick from Ultimarc came in today, however something went wrong with my order so i`m missing some wires (I messed up) and some buttons, but I do managed to do alot:

1) Finished the measurements of the wooden cabinet and updated my plans for the new measurements
2) Above measurements went to arcadepix.com for the design
3) I tested out some of the button with the wiring I did have to see some nice colors 

Still puzzling on the CP layout though....

A picture says more then a thousand words so here we go:



Ultimarc.com send me a nicely packaged DHL box. Props to them for sending out stuff with good protection.



Its so fluffy!!! Transparent buttons...although I didnt order them (I ordered chrome) they still look quite good. Perhaps I`m gonna wire them up at the side of the CP for pinball purposes.





Aimtrak. Whats more to say? Badass. Ordered two of them since all my buddies cant wait to play arcade shooters with these guns



Mah buttons, all mah buttons! Nicely packaged in a plastic bag, each button wrapped in a sleeve. Quality packaging.



The Ultimarc I-pac Ultimate I/O. It looks kinda small for that name dont you think? Ah as long as it gets the job done



The Servo sticks I ordered. Cant wait to try them out



The Ultralux buttons, Chrome on the left, transparent on the right. Also some switches and the led's with harness on the right.



Buttons in arms.



Everything laid out 



Let there be LED ! Awesome color which cannot be captured with my crappy camera. Nice and bright!



Color changing works! Woohoo



Three in a row. Holy moly thats bright.



The DHL box was perfect for me to cut up and use as a temporary placeholder for the buttons

So this week I`ll try to finish the design for the cabinet, hopefully get some extra parts in and we`ll be getting ready to prep the cabinet.

[Scorpie]

We used the last two weeks to get the CP built and the rest of the cabinet finished. We're nearly there; we need some ventilation holes made and some small extra's added. After that we can start sanding & priming the beaty!

The artwork is nearly done, some small and very exact measurements need to be taken & adjusted but all in all I love the preview gbeef sent me so thats another one of the list

I`ve been busy myself setting up Hyperspin with all the settings & the options. Even for an experienced computerguy like me it was a lot to handle and a lot to figure out, but we're getting there!

I`ll have some more pictures tonight to show so stay tuned!

[pbj]

I vote on making that cardboard cabinet functional, too.

[HairyDVD]

The intro video can be grabbed here :- https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BydiicfrVAoYcmczZFhkX3RtcTQ&usp=sharing ( Click on video file to start preview, then download icon at top of video is revealed.

Previously posted over at the Pimame forums by Lazzarusbr as per below video :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQp-SPPwSIo&feature=youtu.be

Enjoy
 

[Scorpie]

The intro video can be grabbed here :- https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BydiicfrVAoYcmczZFhkX3RtcTQ&usp=sharing ( Click on video file to start preview, then download icon at top of video is revealed.

Previously posted over at the Pimame forums by Lazzarusbr as per below video :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQp-SPPwSIo&feature=youtu.be

Enjoy

Wow thats an amazing intro