Little Pacman

[Birdman042]

Well, I have been working on (abet very slowly) on my next build. Although I have had a helping hand with this build . I am basing it on griffindodd's awesome Little Ms Pacman build found here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=128666.0. I'm doing this with a Pacman theme for a friend of my son. I started working on it it after Thanksgiving and will probably finish it up mid to late January.

I am using 3/4 inch MDF so the plans provided by griffindod are just a jumping off point. I am doing a lot of fit cutting and tweaking of the pieces as I go. Trying to keep the build simple and very low maintenance so I am using a XX in 1. When I started looking for parts, I found a off brand 19in 4:3 monitor at Goodwill for $9.00. Visually, it looked pretty good. Definitely not the pop out at you like the Sammy 214t, but very inexpensive.  Got the Jamma harness wired up, and using my favorite Nerd Block Box as a test platform for the controls, configured the board and played a few rounds of Pacman.

I kept looking online for either the Sammy 214t or a comparable monitor and came across a NEC 2190uxp for $80 shipped. Jumped on that and began to cut some wood. I modified griffindod's artwork (thank you for including the .ai files!!) in inkscape and sent them to Lucian045 for cost estimate. He quickly responded and let me know that I needed to tweak the colors for his machine and gave me the correct RGB codes to do so. That took me a week to do (balancing work and family life). I needed to get the frame finished and in-place to make sure the artwork would work before I give Brad the go ahead to print.


So last weekend, my 30 degree router bit arrived and I was able to trim the control panel pieces. Well Monday evening, my assistant, Mr. Murphy, reared his ugly head . I needed to move the NEC 2190 and in the process, it slipped out of my hand and I dropped it on the top right corner. (I know it had a carry handle built in, but I picked it up from the bottom to set it back down...........

No damage to the LCD screen, cracked the case pretty good. With a feeling of dread, I hooked the monitor up and got the dreaded flashing amber light with no picture.  These monitors have a self diagnosis when powered on and will flash a code and will not operate if it finds a problem. Since I only spent $80.00 on the monitor, and knowing it will probably cost me 3x that to get it fixed, I was back to the 19in.

Yesterday I came across a NEC 2090uxi on ebay for $45.00 including shipping....... It's on its way. It is a 20inch vice the 21.3inch of the 2190uxp, but should be a pretty close fit. Once it arrives, I can finish up the Marque artwork. get the internal blocking panels trimmed and routed to fit the monitor, and route the top of the control panel for the plexi.

I'm not sure weather to use 1/4in or 1/8in plexi for the top. I'm going to order the plexi cut to size because I don't want to mess up a $40.00+ piece of plexi while trimming it to fit..........

I am putting the pictures from the build in a Google Photos Shared folder for the time being until I can get them resized and uploaded.


https://goo.gl/photos/dC81juz94MVJogMCA

[Slippyblade]

Get the 1/4".  The price difference isn't that much and the 1/8" will show warpage when room lighting rakes the surface.

[Birdman042]

Get the 1/4".  The price difference isn't that much and the 1/8" will show warpage when room lighting rakes the surface.

Thanks, I'll go with the 1/4 then.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Slippyblade]

I couldn't quite think of a way to explain it.  Looking straight on you won't see anything, but looking at an angle, like when you are sitting down and playing the machine and the light is at a sharp angle...  With 1/8" you will see wiggles in the light spots.  I find it extremely distracting.

[Birdman042]

Believe it or not, I understood what you were saying.

[nickipen]

That's great!
Can I just share my dad's 40th birthday? I remember he feels too old and doesn't want a party. Me and my brother thought of giving him a surprise. Something that will make him feel younger and livelier. We organised a party for him. I ordered this for him http://partyopedia.co/products/pac-man-the-ghostly-adventures-birthday he was stunned at first. He was very happy and very thankful we threw a party like that for him. Remember: Life start's at 40!

[Birdman042]

I managed to get a little work done yesterday. Plus resizing the pictures.

Parts layout and initial labeling of the JAMMA harness.


Initial wiring hookup

My go to box for control testing (used the same one for my son's DK bartop




Now for a little test....

Parts boxed up waiting on the replacement NEC monitor to arrive.


Monitor fits nicely in the frame



Trimming the player select and coin button panel.


Fit testing the initial artwork design for proper placement.


Marking the underside of the control panel to ensure everything will fit.


Routed out the mounting blocks and fit tested the monitor in place.

[Birdman042]

This thing is finally in the home stretch. I finally have the artwork and t-molding installed, monitor mounted, and sides and CP's bracketed together. Last night I finished up the component placement and preliminary wiring (no photos of that yet). I still need to finish the end panels with the speakers and fans. Once those are in place, I can put the bottom cover and feet on. I will be affixing the screen bezel with a few rare earth cabinet magnets. I am going to use the Loctite gel "super glue" to affix the magnets to the plexi. I threw together a test piece using scrap painted plexi. It bonded to the painted plexi fine with no affect to the paint. If you look at the non-painted side, you can't even tell there is a magnet there.

Tonight, I'll clean up the wiring and take a couple of photos while the paint is drying on the end pieces. (While watching WVU beat Miami tonight  )  If the creek don't rise, I should have it finished this weekend.

[cj138]

Looks great!

[Birdman042]

Couple more pictures of the insides and the P1 end with the speaker and fan grills in place with the volume knob between the two. Because the original bottom board was too short to work, i will probably use a couple of cuts off of it to mount the feet to and then cover the rest with left over plexi. The rest of the photos I took with my phone came out too blurry to use (they looked fine on the small screen but well........). The P1 joystick sticks sometimes when moving up or down. Probably just need to clean it out.

[Nephasth]

Kudos for using a test CP.

This needs a pedestal to sit on...

[yotsuya]

Kudos for using a test CP.

This needs a pedestal to sit on...

Like a docking pedestal?

[Birdman042]

Kudos for using a test CP.

This needs a pedestal to sit on...

This is the first time working with a JAMMA setup. Making sure everything worked before stuffing it in the box. I'd rather troubleshoot with lots of room than troubleshoot with no room.

[Birdman042]

Kudos for using a test CP.

This needs a pedestal to sit on...

Like a docking pedestal?

That would be great, but well beyond my skill set.

[vinegar]

looking good!  if i could make a suggestion, don't use plexiglass on a cocktail if you can possibly afford to get tempered glass cut.  no matter how careful you are, that surface is going to take abuse and any plastic will scuff and scratch all day long.  you're going to be staring directly at it, so buy your way out of a future headache.