Gaming / Arcade Cabinet with a difference

[Furious_G]

Decided to build my own MAME cabinet / games machine. Thought I would do a bit of a different take than the standard upright unit and make a sit down version from scratch. Plan to to do a modern take on it one that looks like it was made for 2014 and not the 1990's. I will use it mainly for fighting games (Street Fighter 4, Injustice, MK etc).

If there is any interest I will do a build log - let me know if anyone is interested.

I have drawn it in Solid Works 2013 and am planning on making it from MDF. I have designed it to slot together like a big jigsaw puzzle. Using both 16mm and 12mm MDF. The two side pieces and centre spine are all cut from one piece and needs a much bigger machine CNC machine than the normal 2.4m x 1.2m one. Luckily I found someone with a 2m x 4m one.

The machine will stand 1.75m tall and is 1.9m from front to back. Widest point is the 60" TV. The main part is 750mm wide (so it will just fit through a standard doorway). I have worked it out and the finished weight should be approx 240kg complete. There are a couple of removable panels so I can get to the wiring, computer, speakers. It has a slide out keyboard and mouse shelf that slides out from under the joystick control panel. The control panel itself is removable so I can make a different layout for different games. I might also make a plain one so I can put a standard keyboard and mouse set up on top.

I have bought a 60" Samsung 6300 for the display duties because it is noted for it's game performance (low lag, 120hz etc.)

Using a 2.1 sound system (some old creative labs speakers and sub woofer I have laying around). Haven't decided exactly on the specs for the computer yet, but it's be a upper middle range PC.

I have laid out the joysticks in standard Japanese Capcom style. Using Sanwa JLF joysticks and Sanwa OSBN30 buttons.

Here are some pics of the 3D model. Excuse the colour - it won't be pink.





Here is a picture showing a few of the panels transparent so you can see the inner structure. There are 2 fans mounted at the top which will suck air from bottom to top and take any heat with it (convection will help this too).



I plan to laminate it in gloss white laminate and apply black vinyl sticker around the edge to give it a pixel look. Something like this:



It will be riding on 4 castors (that has a brake) from Richmond castors.



I am going to have some inbuilt lighting such as LEDs or EL wire, but haven't decided exactly what to do with that yet.

[Furious_G]

Update:

Buttons and joysticks have arrived!


Bought 2 joysticks and 25 buttons. Joystick model is Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT.



Buttons are the screw type (Sanwa OBSN 30mm) so they can though a thick panel.


Underside of joystick.


This is the underside of the main control panel showing the rectangle recess for the joystick and the shaped recesses for the buttons.
The bottom of the joystick ball is meant to be 24mm from the table surface, so the recess is to allow for this.

The buttons only have a certain amount of thread, so the recess around them is a balance between getting enough thread on to the
orange nut and also keeping the wood thick enough to retain adequate stiffness.

[Furious_G]

Picked up all the non-laminated bits from the CNC cutters on Friday and was able to spend a few hours on Sunday starting to assemble it.

I was amazed that everything fitted together so well. It's my first time designing anything in CAD and through hours and hours of fiddling and a fair bit of arse it's so far so good. Long way to go though.

This is the type of join I am doing to join the 'ribs' into each side plate. You can see how it fits together. The weird over and undercuts are to avoid the tool bit radius in the corner.




Here it is with the 'spine' and most of the 'ribs' - side plates not on yet.




The skeleton of it is now assembled (laying on it's side)

[Furious_G]

Some pieces needed to be laminated before routing and these took a little longer, but I got them on Saturday.

Here is the control panel.



On the back I have recesses for the buttons and joysticks - doing a trial fit.


Yes, they JUST fit - thats the beauty of CNC!


But....CNC is useless when the designer makes a mistake! I forgot to include little cut-outs for the black plastic parts the stick out each side of the joystick. Will fix that up with the hand-held router though.

[Furious_G]

Another update:


Due to some poor workmanship by me, some edges fell 0.5 to 1mm short, so am making the difference up with filler, so the laminate goes on nice and flat.


Using a metal working guillotine to cut the laminate to a close shape.


Some laminate pieces sprayed with contact adhesive.


Spraying the cabinet with contact adhesive.


First lot of laminate stuck on!

[Furious_G]

Still sticking on the laminate...

I have been making the laminate pieces too big, then trimming them off later.



Here is the router I am using to do it:


Unfortunately you can't get right to the corner as the base of the router hits the edge - this is as close as I can get.


I then finish that last bit off with a sanding disc on an angle grinder using a square block of steel as a template to stop grinding too far.

[Furious_G]

Nearly all of the laminating done now!

[Furious_G]

Starting to wire the control panel:

[Furious_G]

Unfortunately life has been getting in the way, but have mostly finished wiring the buttons on the control panel.

Am crimping them all rather than soldering.



Just the joysticks and actually wiring into the iPAC board to go.

Obviously the masking tape wont stay - I will come up with a more permanent and neater solution.

[Furious_G]

In order to get the height of the joystick ball the correct distance from the top surface of the control panel (to match japanese arcade spec.) I had to recess where the joystick mounting plate goes on the underside of the control panel by 4mm. This only leaves 8mm of material to screw it in which isn't enough.

The joystick needs to be mounted rock solid to ensure accuracy of input (especially in complex fighting games) and it can also come under a fair bit of load in the heat of battle.

Here is the recessed underside of the control panel:


Here is it is with the joystick sitting in:


And here is my proposed plate (laser cut from 3mm aluminum) which will have 24 countersunk screws holding it to the control panel and the joystick will then bolt to this plate with six high tensile cap screw bolts with nylock nuts.

[Furious_G]

Ok, am getting my finger out now. Have moved it from my work to my home where I can work on it at night, so hopefully things should start progressing faster.

It's in my lounge room (I have no garage), so hopefully there will not be too much more sawdust to contend with.

Have pretty much finished wiring the control panel now.



Got a 'bolt in' power board and have chopped the plug and wired connectors to it so I can plug in a standard 3 prong computer cable.









Also got 2 x 240V fans and wired them up to a plug:

[Furious_G]

Dummy fit of screen. It's a Samsung 6300 60".



Seems it is thicker at the bottom than the top, so it's slightly angled facing up.
I will machine up some 16mm thick round spacers in either nylon or aluminum (whatever I have laying around, but nylon preferably) to space it off the cabinet face. This will make it level and also give me a space to run the power and HDMI cable.

[Furious_G]

Had the joystick mount laser cut from 3mm stainless, and I counter sunk the holes.



Pulled the joystick apart:



Then assembled it back together with the plate sandwiched between the joystick top plate and base.

[Furious_G]

In order to space the joystick top plate from the mounting plate, I need to make some spacers that are exactly 2.38mm thick. That way it would be supported everywhere and provide the most rigid mounting.

I made the spacers from some 25mm wide, 3mm thick mild steel bar. I milled them to shape, and then ground them on a surface grinder down to the eaxct thickness.

On the surface grinder:


Finished spacers:


Spacers bolted in place:


And finally, the whole thing screwed into the underside of the control panel.

[Slippyblade]

I guess I need to ask, isn't 24 screws a little overkill?  I mean, I mount my sticks with 4 bolts and T-nuts.

[Furious_G]

I guess I need to ask, isn't 24 screws a little overkill?  I mean, I mount my sticks with 4 bolts and T-nuts.

Hahah...Thanks for the kind words! lol

For me, allot of the enjoyment comes from making something that's as good as it can be regardless of the effort required.

My background is in motorsport engineering, so working with wood is an entirely new experience. I don't have any prior experience, so I'd prefer to over-engineer it rather than try and get away with the bare minimum.

[Slippyblade]

Don't get me wrong, the level of engineering in this project is staggering.  I'm highly impressed.  This cab looks like it'll survive a nuke!

[harveybirdman]

Not a big fan of your design, but that is some very slick wiring dude! 

[DeLuSioNal29]

At first I wasn't a fan of the design.  I was like, "Meh" it's OK.  But the way you explained it with the 8-bit finger hook made it more interesting for me.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  Subscribed!

DeLuSioNaL29

[yotsuya]

Decided to build my own MAME cabinet / games machine. Thought I would do a bit of a different take than the standard upright unit and make a sit down version from scratch. Plan to to do a modern take on it one that looks like it was made for 2014 and not the 1990's. I will use it mainly for fighting games (Street Fighter 4, Injustice, MK etc).

You want to make something modern looking, yet it's influenced by an 8-bit pointer? 

[Furious_G]

Decided to build my own MAME cabinet / games machine. Thought I would do a bit of a different take than the standard upright unit and make a sit down version from scratch. Plan to to do a modern take on it one that looks like it was made for 2014 and not the 1990's. I will use it mainly for fighting games (Street Fighter 4, Injustice, MK etc).

You want to make something modern looking, yet it's influenced by an 8-bit pointer? 

I still consider it a modern design. From an artistic perspective, I feel that all computer games are made up of pixels, so I wanted the cabinet to reflect that.

[Vigo]

That is really a conversation starter you are building there.    It takes a bit of real estate, but the build looks pretty darn clean. Looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. I enjoy the 24 screws as well. That made my evening. 

Are you gonna do anything more with the speakers than shown in your 3D render? The loose computer speakers just sitting there seems a bit underwhelming.

[jaharr01]

It looks minecraft influenced. Nice engineering though

[EMDB]

And finally, the whole thing screwed into the underside of the control panel.

Nice work so far 

I got ---my bottom--- kicked for using 10 screws to mount the plate

I also got ---my bottom--- kicked for using screws instead of inserts: you can not remove the plate and screw it back again using screws.

I don't dare to post pictures anymore so you can see my similar solution here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130690.msg1346353.html#msg1346353

[a1pharm]

24 screws?  Stop being lazy, you could fit at least 48, maybe even 96.  Step up your game, man!

 

[yotsuya]

Serious question - wouldn't that many screw holes actually weaken that area?

[pbj]

Do what thou wilt.... but....

You've locked yourself into a viewing angle and screen distance.

The angle on the control panel cannot be adjusted.

That's going to take up a LOT of damn floor space when you've lost interest in two months.

 

[Furious_G]

Do what thou wilt.... but....

You've locked yourself into a viewing angle and screen distance.

The angle on the control panel cannot be adjusted.

That's going to take up a LOT of damn floor space when you've lost interest in two months.

 

You are correct, but every arcade machine has a locked viewing angle / screen distance and control panel angle.

As far as a lot of floor space and losing interest. a) I have plenty of room. b) i've been thinking about building this for years and actually working on it for 6 months, I'm unlikely to lose interest.

[Furious_G]

Serious question - wouldn't that many screw holes actually weaken that area?

No. It's all about spreading a load over a small area.
Any weakness caused by the holes will be more than made up for by the steel plate that locks the whole area together.
In this case, many small bolts are better than a few larger ones.

Much like this Formula 1 clutch:


Or this pressure vessel.

[Furious_G]

Nice work so far 

I got ---my bottom--- kicked for using 10 screws to mount the plate

I also got ---my bottom--- kicked for using screws instead of inserts: you can not remove the plate and screw it back again using screws.

I don't dare to post pictures anymore so you can see my similar solution here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130690.msg1346353.html#msg1346353

Yep, looks like you and I both came up with a very similar solution to the exact same problem. 

I did think about using inserts, and I figure if I ever need to remove the joysticks, I can easily swap to inserts at a later stage. I do like the ones you used, very neat. I will look to get ones the same if I need to go that way.

[Generic Eric]

Serious question - wouldn't that many screw holes actually weaken that area?

No. It's all about spreading a load over a small area.
Any weakness caused by the holes will be more than made up for by the steel plate that locks the whole area together.

I wonder how well that applies to mdf.  I certainly wouldn't attempt that many holes in the laminate covered fiberboard (name escapes me)

[Vigo]

  I think you are thinking of chip board. I agree, MDF might be a problem too.

Furious, your science is sound with a spacing weight out, but MDF is a unique material. Because it is not very fibrous, MDF relies on the resin bond for strength. It is prone to deterioration in areas where the resin is disturbed, which is why many MDF cabinet bottoms can give out.A little too much kicking or rubbing around at the bottom, resin gets knocked loose and it all crumbles in time (Although, moisture is usually a bigger culprit).  The worry is putting too many holes in a tight spot and you are breaking up the resin bond and making a weak spot.

Edit: just thinking out loud. I bet dousing the holes with wood glue before screwing in might go a long way to preventing weak spots.

[a1pharm]

I think you are thinking of chip board. I agree, MDF might be a problem too.

Furious, your science is sound with a spacing weight out, but MDF is a unique material. Because it is not very fibrous, MDF relies on the resin bond for strength. It is prone to deterioration in areas where the resin is disturbed, which is why many MDF cabinet bottoms can give out.A little too much kicking or rubbing around at the bottom, resin gets knocked loose and it all crumbles in time (Although, moisture is usually a bigger culprit).  The worry is putting too many holes in a tight spot and you are breaking up the resin bond and making a weak spot.

Edit: just thinking out loud. I bet dousing the holes with wood glue before screwing in might go a long way to preventing weak spots.

In addition to weakening the resinous matrix, the surface area to volume ratio is also markedly increased (leading to increased adsorption and absorption of moisture into the MDF, further weakening the resin).

This is all still theoretical, you'll probably not notice any issues in practice.

Still, I would go with Vigo's advice: seal that area with some wood glue to make sure this thing lasts a while.

 

[leapinlew]

Yeah, that joystick is gonna just pull right out of the cabinet the first time the Hulk plays. 

I'm sure it'll be fine. It's like using a nuke to take care of an ant problem. My joysticks have held fine with a few screws, bubble gum and some choice words about the joysticks mother.

[pbj]

You are correct, but every arcade machine has a locked viewing angle / screen distance and control panel angle.

The advantage of a pedestal cabinet is that what you've just said isn't true.  Your design eliminates all advantages of a pedestal while essentially being a pedestal.

 

Anyway, looks interesting so far.

[Furious_G]

Haven't done much recently, but got the wiring the to the sub woofer all tidied up.

Data wires up the top, and power cables down the bottom to minimise interference.

[matsadona]

I love the fact that you are over doing every little detail in this build, in a way only a true engineer can do it

[Billabong]

I like it. I also appreciate the amount of detail you've given in the write up.