iCade Raspberry Pi mod...

[bkool]

Just finished up this project.  It was fun and took a few months, most of which was spent waiting on parts to arrive from China via eBay.





I'll add some more photos as well as a mini build log if yall are interested. 

[keilmillerjr]

Doesn’t hurt to share.

[jdbailey1206]

If nothing else I say post.  It will lift Onds spirits.

[bkool]

Stock image of iCade cabinet. 


Standoffs to mount the panel that all the components are attached to.


Panel for the bottom of the unit.


Rear power panel


Testing components:


Underside of button control panel.  Industrias Lorenzo short stem concave buttons with Sanwa JLF stick with octaconal restrictor connected to a ZeroDelay usb encoder.  Buttons match the rainbow stripes on the side of the cab. FocusAttack ran out of orange buttons, so I bought red ones and swapped the red ball on the joystick with an orange one.



Speakers and Grill.  Speakers were ripped out of an old iHome alarm clock.   Grills were purchased on ebay for $1.00.  Powered by a $5 20w PCB amp from ebay. Used a ground loop isolator I had laying around to reduce the buzz from the Rpi 3.5mm jack.   If I were to do it again, I'd get an LCD controller that had an audio output built in.



Mounting of the LCD in the cabinet using 1/2" plastic washers super glued to the LCD and reinforced with hot glue.



Marquee and Speaker panel.  3/16" acrylic for the marquee.  1/4" MDF for speaker panel.


Used Smoked acrylic (13% opacity) to cover the LCD.  At peak brightness, the LCD is fully visible through the acrylic panel.  I had the acrylic custom cut via an ebay seller for about 8 bucks.  The smoked acrylic is 1/16" thick, so I put a 3/16" clear acrylic panel behind it for rigidity. 

LED strips for marquee backlight.  Foil to prevent light from shining down into LCD area.


Rear of cabinet.


Shots of it in action:

[_Iz-]

What did you use for a screen and lcd controller?

[DorkVonWaterfall]

What did you use for a screen and lcd controller?

it looks like an ipad  lcd....

[bkool]

Its an LCD from an iPad 2.  Bought it on ebay for about 18 bucks.  I bought the LCD controller board for about 20 bucks, but it look over a month to arrive.  I recommend if you do this yourself, to go for an LCD controller board with audio out so you don't have to use the 3.5mm jack from the Raspberry Pi (its the worst).

[ballboff]

wow, i've done that exact same build.  Although yours is a lot better!  Have you replaced the joystick ball and microswitches?  In the photos it looks like a burnt orange ball, and the buttons suck!  I replaced mine with some convex light touch buttons which make games like 1942 rapidfire like a boss!  Your screen will most likely be a lot clearer than my 720x480 screen I got from china, I found out later that it's the same screen they use in the allwinner A14 tablets I think.  top marks mate, it's a very tidy build, my wiring is all over the place.

[proplayer77]

Can you share plans for this and also wiring plan and part list?

[mike boss]

Amazing project.

[dannyalonso]

Hello, how did you attach the ipad screen?  Also is there a way to see the images that so they aren't blurry?

Thanks,

Danny

[nexusmtz]

Also is there a way to see the images that so they aren't blurry?

Right click and open the image in a new tab. That will go direct to photobucket.