Slim Cab 32"

[CSL]

Hello All,
             long time lurker first time poster. I first started to look into a raspberry pie for a small veiwlix style cab, but things kind of got out of hand. The more i looked around the forums, the more i liked everything i could see, this is what i ended up with.

I have never built a cab before, however i have always wanted one, yet didn't want to fork out for a pre built one.

I must say a big big thank you to a1pharm, as his slim cab was the inspiration for this cab, except i had to make it bigger (I'm 6'4") and change everything to metric as i am Australia.
Also Thank you to everyone else, every time i had a problem, a quick look on these forums and it was solved.

This was built last year and is around 90% complete

[CSL]

Here is the cad drawing just so i could get measurements on the angled pieces and to work out the width of all the cross pieces


Instead of cutting out by hand all the cross pieces i got in contact with a Wood shop with a cnc router. as all the pieces were 780mm wide, it made assembly much easier.



Side Template was measures and cut by hand.

[CSL]

All wood is 19mm (3/4) MDF.
I chose to go with a carbon fibre vinyl wrap from ebay as it was cheap, and i didn't need to mess around with paint.

Both side cut and the insides vinyl wrapped so i could put the battens on top.



Battens going on



One Side finished.

[CSL]

Starting to assemble, again having every piece at the exact same length made things a whole lot easier.




Had to wack the circular saw on the angle to mate the pieces up correctly but got there in the end


Speaker board


Monitor Mounting board

[CSL]

Progress


I wanted to add a door so i could access the computer easily if need so be



Also wanted a keyboard tray and with the help of piano hinges and some stupid angles with the circular say, got there in the end.
I Used push to open draw slides which works well because the tray locks in until pushed.






Added some little black knobs for doors. I used these as they are small, and wont really be seen once the wrap is on. also saves messing around with push to open spring open magnetic catches. Doors are kept closed with regular magnetic catches

[CSL]

Mounting the TV


Test fitting the height


Cut the speaker holes in top plate


Now time to take it all apart. I had to cut the slots for all the molding. Hole saw some holes for vents in the top and bottom back panels, as well as vinyl wrap everything.



T-Molding going on

[CSL]

I started working on the control panel before and during all this.
I ended up with the following.

2 x Servo Sticks
6 x Buttons per player + 1 coin and 1 start per player
3 x Admin Button (settings, pause and exit)
Buttons are Ultimarc Ultralux RGB
I-Pac Ultimate
U-Track Trackball with RGB kit
2 x Aimtrak guns with Recoil solenoid kits

Mocking up control panel and testing everything



I ended up using my mockup panel in the end, and using the cnc cut one as a template for the exact shape


Wiring


and again (please note, i am messy as hell, but if it works, it works)


While testing i found of the RGB leds were missing a color. Andy form ultimarc was brilliant to deal with a replaced them strait away.

[CSL]

Bought everything inside, now time to start assembling. I have it set up so if i need to move i can dissemble it (I dread that day)





Testing...


I got in contact with a perspex guy. For $50 he cut me a piece of 1/4" 30% tinted perspex, worked really well.




The wife convinced me to get some nice stools to match


I decided to add some little square floating shelves either side of the arcade for Drinks and the aimtrack guns



And that's about where i am at.
I still haven't decided on a Marquee yet, and i still need grills to cover the speaker holes, however i have been playing it all the time and love it.
All visible screw heads have those little black plastic hammer in covers over them.

I am running Hyperspin with LEDBlinky for the effects.
Running MAME, Snes, Nes, Genisis and a pc game folder for the original commander keens.

Windows 7 on a i3.
Hisense 32" LCD TV
Logitech 2.1 Speakers

I have since added two black volume buttons on the front panel under the control panel so i don't always have to bring out the keyboard to change the volume.

Also have an on/off button mounted on the upper left side of machine to boot computer.

If i was to do it again i would work out how to mount the trackball much lower on the panel as with games like golf/bowling the perspex can be easily hit if not careful.

Also the Servo Sticks are great, i cannot recommend them enough. To be able to go from donkey kong to street fighter, and have both play well it is worth every cent.

Thank you for looking, if i ever get around to putting up a marquee and i will post it up.

[stigzler]

Looking tidy. Love me a slim cab...

Nice work on that keyboard drawer - very neat + nicely implemented.

[mebronx2000]

very nice ! can you post a link to that ebay carbon fibre vinyl wrap ? thanks     

[CSL]

Looking tidy. Love me a slim cab...

Nice work on that keyboard drawer - very neat + nicely implemented.

Thank you, although the whole idea I got from a1pharm's slim cab so it was just a matter of execution.

very nice ! can you post a link to that ebay carbon fibre vinyl wrap ? thanks     

Cheers. Check out eBay Item Number321969035030
I'm pretty sure that's the bloke I bought it from, however I did end up getting like 10m I think.

[mebronx2000]

thanks   

[CSL]

time to get stuck into the marquee,

i will cut the slots into the cross piece's and use chrome t molding again, and add another piece of 35% perspex.

behind the perspex i plan to build and mount a 368 (46 x rgb led matrix display run off an arduino mini. this is all new territory, but ill give it a shot, worst case scenario i end up with a nice LED matrix clock on the wall.

I will post up photos once i get started (need to acquire everything)

[RxBrad]

Man, I wish I used the ServoStik instead of the OMNI2 on my cab.  Don't get me wrong -- the OMNI2 is a nice piece of hardware... I'm just lazy. 


Question, though....  Are there even any games where there's a second 4-way joystick?  It was always my impression that any cab with 2 sticks was an 8-way cab.

[rablack97]

Speaker covers.  Would go great with you simple low profile look.  Awesome build man.

http://www.8linesupply.com/p/iron-speaker-cover.html

[CSL]

Man, I wish I used the ServoStik instead of the OMNI2 on my cab.  Don't get me wrong -- the OMNI2 is a nice piece of hardware... I'm just lazy. 


Question, though....  Are there even any games where there's a second 4-way joystick?  It was always my impression that any cab with 2 sticks was an 8-way cab.

the only game that comes to mind, in which i do play with 2 players, is bomberman. Its a pain with 8 way.

Speaker covers.  Would go great with you simple low profile look.  Awesome build man.

http://www.8linesupply.com/p/iron-speaker-cover.html

thank you for that, that's spot on with the look. I'll have to source some locally. Cheers

[Laythe]

time to get stuck into the marquee,
...
behind the perspex i plan to build and mount a 368 ( 46 x 8 ) rgb led matrix display run off an arduino mini. this is all new territory, but ill give it a shot, worst case scenario i end up with a nice LED matrix clock on the wall.

That' s an interesting idea.  I think 46 x 8  RGB LEDs might be enough to do some cool stuff. 

I tried my hand at some patterns, I hope you don't mind, just to see what it might look like...

I think that's got potential!

[smass]

Nice work.  Here's a non-build question - where did you get the stools? 

[a1pharm]

Nice execution!  Good job on not copying my 8 buttons per player (I regret that decision, and will be re-doing the CP at some point because of it).  The trackball may always be in the way of hitting the screen.  I've thought about making an "add-on" trackball that attaches to a novel rail that is hidden near the front of the CP - this might be the only way to guarantee hands don't smash into plexi.

You should be proud, this is shaping up nicely.  I'm interested to see how you finish up your marquee.

Cheers!
 

[CSL]

time to get stuck into the marquee,
...
behind the perspex i plan to build and mount a 368 ( 46 x 8 ) rgb led matrix display run off an arduino mini. this is all new territory, but ill give it a shot, worst case scenario i end up with a nice LED matrix clock on the wall.

That' s an interesting idea.  I think 46 x 8  RGB LEDs might be enough to do some cool stuff. 

I tried my hand at some patterns, I hope you don't mind, just to see what it might look like...

I think that's got potential!

Your a wiz laythe, thank you for that, it's nice to see I'll be able to spell something legible. I look forward to having a play around with it once built.

Nice work.  Here's a non-build question - where did you get the stools? 

Cheers. We got the stools for http://www.mancavemadness.com . Not the nicest bloke in the world, but he has a good selection.

Nice execution!  Good job on not copying my 8 buttons per player (I regret that decision, and will be re-doing the CP at some point because of it).  The trackball may always be in the way of hitting the screen.  I've thought about making an "add-on" trackball that attaches to a novel rail that is hidden near the front of the CP - this might be the only way to guarantee hands don't smash into plexi.

You should be proud, this is shaping up nicely.  I'm interested to see how you finish up your marquee.

Cheers!
 

Thank you for the kind words. Yeah generally once someone smashes the persepx once and tv goes a bit messed up, they don't do it again, but once is too much.

[stigzler]

behind the perspex i plan to build and mount a 368 (46 x rgb led matrix display run off an arduino mini. this is all new territory, but ill give it a shot, worst case scenario i end up with a nice LED matrix clock on the wall.

You've likely seen this, but just in case:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,135143.msg1516643.html#msg1516643

[CSL]

behind the perspex i plan to build and mount a 368 (46 x rgb led matrix display run off an arduino mini. this is all new territory, but ill give it a shot, worst case scenario i end up with a nice LED matrix clock on the wall.

You've likely seen this, but just in case:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,135143.msg1516643.html#msg1516643

Thank you so much, I haven't seen that. That's brilliant, same setup, and reinforces how much the programming is going to be a pain in the butt, I can't wait.
I tried to google led matrix displays explicitly for arcade machines and the best I could come up with was a YouTube video for a 512p high res small display which looks great.

Il get on to processedmeat to see how he got on, thank you again.

[CSL]

got stuck into the perspex/marquee

had to take it all apart to cut the t-slot and cut the slot for the perspex to sit in.
Was a PITA because the speaker panel had to be cut on an angle.




Test fitting T Molding


That  batten is going to be an arsehole. Its too close to the edge (was fine for normal marquee) but in order to fit the leds i am going to need to chisel it back


Perspex is here




This is how it will look when off






So now i just have to wait until the LED's come in so i can get started on that.