My Cabinet with fridge

[jabsder]

I am just building a arcade cabinet. The housing is inspired by "Artifact".

I'm trying to post my progress here.
The most Pictures comes from my site www.retro-emulation.com


Today I painted the cab.

[Unstupid]

Are you sure it's big enough?   

[BadMouth]

The shape looks cool.

"All in One" scared me.  I was expecting to see a giant control panel with steering wheels, flight sticks, and mounted guns.

[vwalbridge]

Sorta looks like the love-child of a Taito and Midway cab. 

[monkeybomb]

Are you sure it's big enough?   

Kind of a negative tone there.  My only cabinet is 36" deep.  It's an actual arcade cabinet with an arcade monitor.  This is an off beat design, but I think it's fun.

[jabsder]

in advance, sorry for my bad English  .

The control panel becomes 2 Joysticks, 3" Trackball, 6 Buttons each player, volume poti and some buttons for the options (save and load etc.)

The monitor is an 21,3" 4:3 PC screen.

[yamatetsu]

The control panel becomes 2 Joysticks, 3" Trackball, 6 Buttons each player, volume poti and some buttons for the options (save and load etc.)

You can use a wireless keyboard for the volume control and the options. Putting that many buttons on the CP will make it look cluttered. Also I guarantee you that somebody will randomly press those buttons and mess up your settings.

[jabsder]

Today with loudspeakers

[Ian]

So where does the fridge fit in this whole thing??? Nobody else is curious?

[jabsder]

here

[GSXRMovistar]

Yes it's on the large size however I like the shape/style, but....seeing the fridge in it I think it's great. What a fantastic addition to a games room/den.

[pbj]

$5 on this being both a terrible arcade cabinet and terrible refrigerator storage.

[vwalbridge]

$5 on this being both a terrible arcade cabinet and terrible refrigerator storage.

$5 cash?  ....or $5 Outback Steakhouse gift card?

[thomas_surles]

$5 on this being both a terrible arcade cabinet and terrible refrigerator storage.

I'll take that wager.

[stigzler]

Hmmm...



A<B ?

Mind you

"Fridge in a cab" > "Pi in anything vaguely box shaped"
Mad genius. Beer...games.
Is there gonna be a toaster for pop-tarts?

[stigzler]

.

[jabsder]

@ stigzler

Yesterday we carried the cabinet into the apartment and yes it was scarce  , in germany the garages also have a great gate.

@GSXRMovistar

We have no extra space and we need the fridge. With it we have a pokertable, this is also our dining table. So also functional as the cabinet.

@ pbj

[jabsder]

now with Marquee glas

[jabsder]

I think now which artwork I take. Actually I wanted to take the artifact.

But now I'm thinking about something own

[jabsder]

The most Buttons are on the top of the control panel. Upper left is on and off, the 6 in the middle are menu buttons, to the left and right is player 1 and 2,right is the volume, In the middle is the trackball.

Mario and donkey kong are on the front of the control panel,left and right are the coin buttons.

I have decided on the menu buttons, what do you think about the rest?

[pbj]

Too many menu buttons.  Put the power button and volume control elsewhere.

[Mike A]

Put them behind the milk or next to the eggs.

[burn_654]

If the fridge works for you, go for it! I like it. Should be good fun with friends over. Are you going to leave the fridge front as-is or paint it with your scheme?

That is a lot of menu buttons, have you considered shifted/function keys or maybe some hidden buttons? I think too many could be confusing for guests.

[yotsuya]

Put them behind the milk or next to the eggs.

[jabsder]

I forgot that I have your eggs in my refrigerator, do you want them again?

[jabsder]

@pbj @burn654

I leave the fridge front as-is.

Is the back from the cabinet a good position for the Power Button?

The menu buttons are: Pause,tap, reset, exit, save, load.

Ok save and load i can make with a shift funktion. Player1 + Joystick1 up for load and Player 1 + Joystick1 down for save ?

[stigzler]

Put them behind the milk or next to the eggs.

Classic.

[jabsder]

@stigzler

What do you think about the menu buttons?

Is your cabinet already finished? I see in your cabinet from your website over 15 extra buttons 

[pbj]

Whoever made that Mango Cade thing is bad and should feel bad.

[jabsder]

@pbj

With your contribution, the contribution always remains high. Thanks for that

[Nephasth]

@pbj

With your contribution, the contribution always remains high. Thanks for that

With your high, the high always remains contributions?

[pbj]

He made slightly more sense before he edited that.

Anyway, on topic, I think using any kind of Joystick 1 + one additional button as a shifted input is a bad idea.  I also think there are very few arcade games that actually need a Save/Load function.

[stigzler]

What do you think about the menu buttons?

Is your cabinet already finished? I see in your cabinet from your website over 15 extra buttons 

lol. Oh dear. Here we go again...

No problems with your layout at all fella. Your cab - you lay it out how you want to - I'm not gonna join some others and get all precious about things. One of the most fantastic/original/bonkers cab concepts I've seen - I was laughing at the cross over of concepts in that gag. It made me laugh, so thought I'd show my appreciation.

[wp34]

I'm not gonna join some others and get all precious about things.

This made me laugh out loud. 

[yotsuya]

Clearly wp34 hates us all. ;-)

[wp34]

No hater but that really did make me laugh.

[jabsder]

I forgot what I wanted to do with the menu buttons, It is long ago 

rotary-switch with a button inside for shift.

[jabsder]

  the original is in 300 dpi and more sharp

[pbj]

Your joystick is too close to your buttons.

[Nephasth]

Your joystick is too close to your buttons.

Stupid trackball...

[jabsder]

We have tried some distances.

Vewlix and some Astro City cabinets have similar distances. This distance was the best for us.

[jbl77]

Not sure if the fridge is closed off from the arcade components or if the backside is open or not....but considering refrigeration is the family business, I will say this:

The compressor on a fridge gets quite warm even with proper ventilation (it will burn your hand) and without a way to dissipate heat from the coils they too will get quite warm.  From what I am seeing there this is a bad idea because the coil won't be able to dissipate the heat thus preventing the phase change causing the fridge to run excessively if not continually (because it can't cool effectively) eventually burning out the compressor.  This can (and has) led to fires too....even when not enclosed in a wooden box.  I would be especially wary of a bar fridge as they are generally cheap and would not have any thermal protections.

Then of course there is the consideration of the heat to the PC.

If a fridge is a must, I would suggest leaving that back side completely open or allow for some pretty damn good ventilation.

Just my 2¢ but totally your call.

[jabsder]

Behind the fridge it is open and the fridge has its cool ribs also on the back.

The back side does not remain open. A hole grid is still installed - Safe to touch.

[pbj]

Dude, you better get liquid cooling and a sprinkler installed in that ---smurf--- stat or your house is gonna burn down.

[jabsder]

@pbj

To your projects I make myself more worried

This is yours right?

[Mike A]

You are pretty snide considering you are trying to stuff a refrigerator in a wooden box.

[acvieluf]

@pbj

To your projects I make myself more worried

This is yours right?

Don't mock modern art. 

[jabsder]

@Mike A

Its not a box , it is open on the backside. This is a built-in refrigerator, no problem.

@acvieluf

  yes, it can be customized with different colors of Insulating tape

[acvieluf]

@acvieluf

  yes, it can be customized with different colors of Insulating tape

Let's be clear: This is my favorite case for a raspberry pi i've seen yet.  No joke.  Sure beats paying for cases that do the exact same job, and look like every other generic device out there.

[jabsder]

Yes, with cardboard you can do a lot, absolut.

[sealcouch]

I love that rotary button idea. That's an awesome way of getting more functionality from the top of a control panel vs adding 5 extra buttons. Keep it up!

[Mike A]

A good number of admin buttons is 0.

[acvieluf]

I know i'm not a seasoned vet around here, like some others, but even though i tend to agree with you (and built my cab without any,) I am regretting some basics.  We have people over at least once a week, and it's a learning curve just to get people to play it.  Once a game is going, it's all good.  But if i'm not there "leading the charge," people don't tend to play more than one game.  That is, unless they've been over a lot, then they get the hang of things.

I'm just saying that there's certainly a case for both. 

[Mike A]

That is why 0 is a good number. Admin buttons cause problems.

[pbj]

Oh look, it's the rare German without a sense of humor.

[Mike A]

Glad you said it first.

[yotsuya]

Oh look, it's the rare German without a sense of humor.

Patton Oswalt does a great bit on his trip to Germany. Reminds me of this.

[pbj]

! No longer available

[yotsuya]

! No longer available

Yep. Exactly.

[jabsder]

Der Thread hat in den letzten 3 Tagen an über 600 Klicks zugelegt. Auf Grund dessen werde ich euch natürlich weiter auf dem laufenden halten. Ihr wollt doch auch lieber die neusten Bilder sehen. Die werdet Ihr weiterhin bekommen Freundliche Grüße

[pbj]

¡ Es ist Zeit für Rache !

[yotsuya]

Du hast!

[DaredevilDave]

Putting a fridge in a cabinet is not an unheard of task. 

My parents have a small fridge in their bar. I don't see any way for heat to escape other than around the fridge itself and back out the front. Could be wrong. It's been there for decades without issue.

What about full size refrigerators that are tucked into a tight pocket in a kitchen? Pretty simple matter.

[jbl77]

The reason for my questioning is this doesn't looked "tucked in"...this looks closed in. 

[jabsder]

That is an "Built-in refrigerator". Such refrigerators dissipate the heat on the back. And the cabinet is open on the back and there is a grid in front of it.

I just have no photo from the back. For example:

[pbj]

Your fridge will be fine.

[jbl77]

after he pointed out the cab is open in the back....I agree. 

For me it is about consideration...not criticism as I only called it into question because of certain unknowns (quite evident in my first post on the matter).