Lightweight MAME has begun!

[subcriminal]

Here's a pic of my lightweight MAME cab. The side panels are 18mm Spruce ply and the rest is 5mm Spruce. As it stands it's light enough for me to pick up and move. The monitor and electronics will be fitted tommorow so I'll do another picture and post on how the monitor is mounted.
Just to show how light this is, the original cab it was copied from weighed 220lb (empty) and this should be around 75lb.

[Ed ONeill]

Lightweight sounds good ! This sounds like it might be a good otion for a friend of mine.

I have a few questions that I hope you don't mind answering

Have you or are you going to put anymore skelton pieces in it?

What type of wood are you going to use for the control panel top?

Signed
ED

[subcriminal]

The control panel will be 18mm ply. The only pieces of framework left are a cross brace where the bottom of the marquee will be, a couple more pieces of batton mounted horizontally on the side panels to mount the monitor and some diagonal pieces mounted again to the side panels to hold the mirror that projects the monitor picture up.
As the cab stands now there is no flex in it at all. If you push on the top side it'll just tip, it is suprisingly solid, I thought i'd be putting a lot of angled cross bracing in to stop it flexing but it doesnt need it.
I'll post a better pic with the front panel removed and the mirrored monitor setup.

[maraxle]

Are you going to use an LCD monitor and a mini-itx board to keep everything lightweight?  Make sure not to use those stainless steel joystick handles or it'll tip forward.

[subcriminal]

Funny dude.. The idea is that the monitor will slide out so the cab's not so much of a chore to move when you need to decorate, move house, etc.

I'm using a 20" Hantarex MTC9000 with a nice new cap kit and an Ultimarc video amp. The two T-Stick+'s don't seem to make the cab tip forward but then if you've got fat hands there could be problems

I had a measure up of the monitor and found out it'll be able to rotate within the 62cm space between the side panels. This has set me back a bit as I wanted to post pics of the monitor in the cab but now it's a bit cooler!

So heres a pic of the monitor on the rotating mount. I've got an electric window motor, switch and relay from a late model VW Polo to drive the mounting round 90 degs. (First electrically rotated monitor??) That'd be cool but it's probably been done!

Anyway. The monitor will be in the box tomorrow and the mirror will be lined up and mounted.

[Lance]

So heres a pic of the monitor on the rotating mount. I've got an electric window motor, switch and relay from a late model VW Polo to drive the mounting round 90 degs. (First electrically rotated monitor??) That'd be cool but it's probably been done!

Yup, the motorized rotating monitor has been done before, see http://www.retrospieler.de/e-monitormount.html you might be able to use some ideas from there for your rotating.  He had it a bit easier since it was a pre-fab rotating mount he got off ebay.

[subcriminal]

That's really cool!... I didn't think of using a bike wheel rim. I'm a better welder than a carpenter so I might as well have made it from steel as it took me bloody ages to cut the 62cm circle! I had kind of come up with the same method to rotate it though, 4 skateboard wheels and the motor driving one of them.
It seems to be easier to rotate a horizontaly mounted monitor as once you've got the circular mount with the monitor in the cab it's just a matter of attaching some wheels to the outer edge and a slow, powerful motor to push it round!
I hadn't thought of microswitches to cut the motor out at 90 degrees, I was going to just mount some rubber stops as the motor cuts out when it's overloaded as it does when an electric window reaches the top of a door.

[brained]

I own a 99 VW Polo , maybe i'll rip it off, to make a rotating monitor

[subcriminal]

Definately! Take the nearside one off! they're usually siezed on '99 polo's anyway!

[paigeoliver]

This isn't my project, but you would not want to use an LCD on a superlightweight cabinet. I have watched my friends move fullsize cabs around simply playing the games, get someone like that on a $100 cab and they will tip the darn thing over first time blinky gets near them.

[subcriminal]

Here's the latest pic of the cabinet. I think the discussion about an LCD screen was mostly sarcasm. I've mounted a rotating Hatarex MTC9000 below the control panel so it can be slid out. This keeps the centre of gravity low so it doesn't tip.

[subcriminal]

This is the effect the mirrored monitor gives. This picture is from the heavy version of this cab. Nice depth and the screen doesn't seem as small as it looks in the pic, it's a 20" tube.

[dmsuchy]

Cool, can't wait for more pics! Do you have other pics of the other heavier cab for us?

[subcriminal]

I've got a couple more. The original cab was a project near completion but as you can see from the backgrounds the decor of my home isn't too good so I needed a cab that could be moved about. Also I went off the paintwork on the cab once it was done! After seeing the springfield mame station I decided side art looked much nicer!

[Tilzs]

Doesn't all your display come out backwards working with that mirror or do you have 2? It looks like you just have one.

[subcriminal]

It just has the one mirror at 45 degrees.

The image is flipped on the mainboard of the monitor on this one but MAME can be configured to flip the display or the wiring can be swapped.
Pretty cool as you can alter the depth of the screen by mounting the monitor higher in the cab and you can set the angle by tilting the mirror. This one's set up so the monitor appears to be about 2' into the back of the cab with no angle.

when the tinted front screen is in and the inside is blacked out you will only see the screen. The old setup had a perspex filter mounted above the monitor horizontaly and a clear glass screen at the front so the screen lit up the woodwork inside looking a little untidy.

[Xiaou2]

currious about the mirror...is it just a standard store bought mirror?

  Ive heard that standard mirrors will tend to 'ghost'  an image.  (like you see a 2nd image thats partially transparent next to the original image)

  And that you had to get a very expensive mirror that has the coating on the front of the mirror instead - to aviod the ghosting.

  Ive actually seen this ghosting on an arcade machine... but since it was an older machine,  i wonder if someone replaced the glass with the wrong glass type.

[subcriminal]

The mirror just looks like a standard one. My missus worked for a glazing company for a while and told me to be careful with it as modern mirrors are nowhere near the quality they were twenty years ago. I dunno, it just does the job well. I didn't realize I was looking at a mirrored monitor until I took the cab to bits!

[paigeoliver]

I cut and sand mirrors all the time as part of my new job, and they seem to be using fairly low quality glass.

We are supposed to be expanding to be a full fledged glass shop soon, so I might be the new source for custom glass for games.

[danny_galaga]

oh, that was the other thing. i like the pin stripes and colour on your heavy mame. very GT! what did you use to finish it? is it laminex (formica) or paint?

[subcriminal]

It's covered with paint. The cheapest stuff I could get hold of! rollered on and a couple of stripes masked and painted down the sides. Unfortunately it wasn't waterproof so any grubby handprints couldn't be washed off!

I just went to take some more pictures but the camera's eaten every AA in the house!
All that's new is the inside has been blacked out along with the monitor mount and the marquee/speaker panels are in.
I'm getting some glass ordered tomorrow. I need a tinted screen as there was an 'Anti-Radiation filter' in the original cab according to the stickers which isn't fitted anymore. I'm reusing the old glass for the marquee. I decided to go with good old heavy glass over light plexi due to the amount of dust plexi atracts and the scratch marks that appear after you wave a duster over it!

The electricaly rotating monitor is on hold...I'm just going to leave a space under the control panel to rotate it by hand and hope I don't grab the anode!

[SirPeale]

dammit, ive got learn to type lengthy responses in word. Just typed one and clicked post and then- pfft. All gone.

I'm curious if you're the only one with this problem.  I know it happens to us all once in a while, but it seems to happen to you more often.

[subcriminal]

Here's the latest... blacked out and monitor rotated  

[subcriminal]

Got my 3 winged slot cutter today and a cheap router. If you're in the UK an after a T-Moulding bit try http://www.axminster.co.uk they delivered a 1.6mm (1/16) bit next day to Norwich. I just fired the router up with the bit in and I am now slightly worried about the procedure! The bit looks evil!!!
If I don't post anymore you'll know I screwed up the routing job bigtime...

[subcriminal]

The routing went well. Wouldn't recommend doing it indoors though...lots of dust everywhere.
I've run out of money to spend on the cab again so it's on hold at the moment. Although it's now stained blue and the t-moulding is on. More pics when it's looking a bit presentable.