My Tale of Woe - An Ongoing Saga

[gcbrowni]

Hear now my tale of woe. Perhaps you will learn somethig from it, or maybe you'll just point & laugh. Probabally point and laugh. On second thought, make that definatly point & laugh.

[I will mention some well-known people/companies in this thread. Please do not take me to be critical of them. They've all been very polite and kind. I just have the worst luck of any person on Earth.]

I've been working on a cabinet/controls since December of last year. I read all of the websites, scoured the forums, and thought I was ready. I began by ordering an autographed copy of a certain book. A month passed ... no book. Then two, still no book. Now, the authos has a pecular shipping scheule and it was the holidays, so I didn't get angry, I was just anxious to start. I had actually thought several times, while in bookstores, of picking up a copy, but I always held off because I knew a copy was on the way.  It wasn't. Oh, and the bookstores never had any. But if they had then I would have aganonized over it and then not purchased the book. I finally broke down and bought a copy at a bookstore. The author refunded my payment and I was well on my way, two months behind.

It's now late Febuary. The weather is turning nice and I have the book, having totally consumed it. I order some buttons, joys, and an encoder online, from several sources. They all arrive, strangly enough, in perfect condition. I take a week off work with the plan to get the cabinet finished that week.  Early one morning I head off to the hardware store to get supplies and wood/MDF.

Now, I have to interject here regarding my shopping method. I generally head out with plenty of time and a list, and then rsh through the store while ignoring my list. Generally, I try to pick up a small basket, and when I don't find any I ---smurfette--- & moan to myself and end up with a shopping cart. I then spend the rest of the time in the store wheeling the cart around in a mad rush with only a small packet of screws in it. Ok, time to grab the items on the list. Typically the store does not have what I want, and if they do then they want a fortune for it. This means I end up with a cart full of expensive things that are not what I origionally wanted, but rather a quick fix. I refuse to ask an employee for help in finding something; that NEVER works. I end up trying to describe a panal clamp to them, and they end up blankily staring at me and then trudging off, me in tow, to a bin where they don't have a panal clamp. After the two of us stare at the bin for 10 minutes, I give up. There is one exception to this. That's when I refuse to ask for help, don't find what I want, drive 45 minutes out of my way to a small speciality store, don't find what I want, settle for something else, and then later find out they have what I wanted and I could have had it because every employee in the store knows exactly what it is, why I want it, and where it is. In fact, they are having a sale. Topo bad I already overpaid online.  Finally I will get to the check out and stand in line behind one person for 15 minutes while the checker fumbles around trying to find the price of a $.30 washer the person in front of me has. Finally, I give up and shove away my shopping cart full of expensive things that weren't my first choice, and I stalk out of the store to my car. I then swear, for the umpteenth time, to always shop online. I never end up shopping online.

[gcbrowni]

On to the way to the hardware store on my week off. I've gotten a bright & early start on Saturday morning. I need to pick up three sheets of 2/4" MDF and some small 1x1's. I hop in my S10 (1983, completely rusted out) and drive the 53 blocks to Lowes in Gendale (This is in Indianapolis. I live downtown, the only thing close to me is about 100 bars, 1 small overpriced local hardware store, and the state womens prison. More on my location later.) Amazingly, my truck makes it. I hunt around forever for a limbar dolly/cart. I eventually head back out in the lot to get one. Hmmm, it's a lot colder now. What's that? A Snowflake?!?! Eeeek! I rush inside and someone manage to fumble through loading three full sized sheets of MDF on the dolly and head to the door. I pay my $75 and dump the dolly under the lumar awning. I rush off to get my truck to bring it around. The snow is really coming down now. Looks like a blizzard. I know I checked the weather before I took off work; it was supposed to be nice.  I fumble getting one full sheet of MDF in to the back of my truck. A lowes employee just stands there watching me. I call out for help and he helps me load the other two. It takes at least three times longer than it should. This guy is obvioudly from the Island of Misfit toys. Oh, there's nothing wrong with him, he's just a lazy idiot. I finally get the three sheets in the truckand pull out some heavy plastic from behind the seat. I cover the MDF with it and head off through the snow storm (!!!) back to my house.About halfway home one corner of the plastic comes up and the MDF starts to get snow on it. Eeeek! That's a no-no! It'll be ruined! But I can't stop the truck; the last time I did that I ended up not getting it started again and having it towed, bed full of yard waste (I was on the way to the dump) back to the mechanic. No way am I stopping with MDF in the back. I make it home. My wife is waiting for me, me having called her, frantic, asking her to be out back to help me get the MDF in the carriage house.

As I pull up to the carriage house my truck dies. Overheated. Damn! I coast up to my carriage house doors. My wife and I then get the MDF in to the carriage house, totally destroying the  corners. No, not the bottom corners, ALL of the corners. Don't ask how, I'm not sure, but they all got crushed. Ok. Close the door (it doesn't come off it's tracks this time, thank God) I then push my truck back to my drive and in.

Hurray! I have my MDF! And it doesn't look ruined by the snow.

[gcbrowni]

Our intrepid hero/victim has his MDf and is beginning his build. Meanwhile the weather is turning frightful ...

Strangly enought, the build goes ok. It's awkward working on the MDF with my tablesaw and circular saw inside, but otherwise things are going pretty good.

Now, I should say a little something here about my background and the carriage house. Once upon a time I had money, as well as time. I worked, my wife worked, and we didn't have any kids. During that brief period I managed to aquire a good Sears cast iron table saw, a great compound miter saw, an old home-built router table, a Dewalt cordless my drill (hereafter referred to as 'My Precious') a compenant router, a suck-ass jigsaw, a great palm sander, and one of the greatest tools ever made, a Skil Worm Drive circular saw. And not one of those sucky little top-worm saws they sell these days, oh no, this is a a great honking rear unit worm saw. You see, my dad was an industrial carpenter and he had one. It was the greatest thing EVER. Cuts through a 4x4 like it was a 1x1. It alkso weights 30 pounds, did I mention that? My choices for cutting are: Old table saw that trips the breakers in the house if it gets bogged down or I have anything other than a single overhead light plugged in, a 30# circular saw, or a sucky jigsaw. I end up using both the circular saw and the table saw (with a ##$%%^'ing short 3' fence) inside the carriage house. I can't use my sawhorses outside becaus ethe snow is REALLY coming now. Putting things off isn't an option; I've taken a week off work and I've started. Victory or Death!

The basic build goes ok. It's cramped, but things work out. Things start to go haywire about Monday. I'm ready to cut my slots for my T-Molding. I grab the 1/16" slot cuttoer and the router. Hmmm, it looks like I bought the slot cutter but not the arbor it fits in to. Damn! And that thing was expensive too! Like $16 worth of expensive! Ok, plan B. I've a carriage house full of tools, there must be something I can use. I try the router with a straight bit ... oops! That wasn't a good idea. Now my marquee section has too large a slot AND it's off center. Hmmm, dremel can't cut it (get it?!?! 'Cut it'! Get it?!?! hahahah, I slay myself sometimes. Oh dear God please let me slay myself so this will all end  ...) I end up balancing the cabinet on it's back and cutting the slots with my 30# Skil Worm Drive circular saw. My arm now hurts ... a lot.

Time to Glue & Screw baby! My Precious and I are ready for action! My precious holds my second-most prized tool: my square-headed bit. Precious, the square-headed driver, and a square-head screw: We are Invincible! Mr. Gorilla Glue comes along for the ride but he has a problem. he's been out in the carriage house this entire time and it's COLD. [<--- Capitol 'C']  The glue ain't a flowing very well. Still, I manage tio get the sides attached to the base with square-head screws, 'L' brackets, and liberal helping of cold gorilla glue. I gently tilt the unit up to stand upright and dry. RIIIIIIIPPPPPP! The entire base rips out of the sides. Hmmm, maybe the book was right when it said you should have two people ....

A great deal of bitching, moaning, cussing, and other words ensure. I finally manage to get the thing screwed, glued, and upright. It's fully upright and complete! The CP box is built! Yeah! Time to paint!

Man ... it sure is cold outside ....

[I'm killing time while I, uh, copy blank DVD's to my MAME machine. BLANK DVD's. 63 of them, all BLANK. Nope, no sir-e, no license issues here. I started this thread on my first blank Daphne disk and am now on disk 7 or 63, so you're in for one LOOOONNNGG thread.]

[gcbrowni]

Ok, cabs built and it's time to paint it. Only ... it'
s very cold out ...

Yeah yeah, I know, I know. It's the middle of Febuary and it's Indiana. But, it was warm! And I checked the weather before I took a week of work! Honest, I did! Screw this; I'm painting. I have 1 electric space heater and I spend 4 hours one morning finding another one. The old woman at the local hardware store was very nice. It keeps her warm in her nice comfy home. gee, then it should work in my undheated detached 105 year olf carriage house that's full of holes, right?

Twoi coats of primer and 2 coats of black. About 1 day between each to 'dry'. Dry is in quotes because paint doesn't really act right, especially the 'cheapest-you-can-find' latex paint I was using. Oh, I forget to mention the putty. I had to putty the screw holes. I HATE putty. I LOATHE it. In fact, I hate all prep work. Anyway, I make an attempt at putty'ing the scre holes in the extior of the cab, but putty doesn't dry right at -10F, space heaters or no. So, I've done as crappy job with the putty, sanding it doesn't help since it's still wet and gobs up the sandpaper, the cheap-ass latex isn't drying right and is 'tacky', and there isn't a thing in the world that's going to stop me. I took a week off work dammit! Oh, and the space heaters? I think they mnaged to raise the temp in the carriage house about 1 degree above the absolutly freezing outside temp. On the plus sie, I did manage to get white primer AND black painton my favorite pair of jeans.

So, I never did manage to find panal clamps locally, and something kept me from buying them online. I ended up with some lateches. They don't work worth ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---; the CP box is always coming loose. Oh, and I did manage to buy the wrong hinges for the front door. After cutting out the holes in the door and hounting the hinges I figured out I had the wrong one. I then managed to get some Euro hinges. They are now badly mounted and the front door of the cab has HUGE gaps, both from the hinges and from my 'can;t cut a straight line' woodwork skills.

[gcbrowni]

Cabs finsihed, screwed & glued, and 'painted'. Time for the house!

Time for my last purchase: the Tv. I'd already cheked around and had found a good deal on a 27" set at Wal-Mart. Now, normally I wouldn't be cought dead in Wal-Mart, but, a cheap Tv is a cheap Tv! I head off in the Grand-Am to get it. Man! It sure is swamped in here! There's having some kind of special sale and the store is packed! Normally I would have turned right around: the only thing worse than a Wal-Mart is a BUSY Wal-Mart. But I'm on a mission, I plunge in and make it back to electronics. It's cleaned out. They have NOTHING. The place is a shamples. Oh, I can have all the white 8" Tv's I want. Anything in the 20" or 27" range? No. And no one around to help me either. I'm about to give up when I pass a HUGE pile of 27" Flat  Symphonic tube sets, in boxes, on a pallett, in the middle of the floor. Ok, quick! Steal an unused cart from womens lingere and load the oversized Tv box in to hit. The cart is now heavy on one side and keeps wanting to tip over. I catch it several times. I make to the front and buy the set. Quick! Past the 99 year old door warden and I'm home free in the parking lot!

Or am I .... The Tv won't fit in the car. I end up taking it out of the box. Meanwhile I have some guy offerring 'helpful' commentary and asking questions. 'Does it have a remote?' 'I wonder if my cable will work with it?' Jesus H. Christ, I'm breaking my back and he wants to know what I think of the set? Should I tell the son of a ---smurfette--- that I'm currently slumming and that I spent the previous 9 months of my life doing obsessive research on AVSForum and then blew $6k on a home theater system and I couldn't give a ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- less about his 19" color Tv made in china, his remote control problems or his suck-ass coax questions?  I smile politly and give some answer his questions. I finally take the Tv out of the box and load it in the front seat, the only place it will fit. I put the ##$%$$ box in the cart and put it int the cart-parking thingy. Back in the car I drive the three miles home with the 27" Tv leaving up againt my right shoulder and rubbing on the gear shift in the center console.

I'm home! Yeah! More cussing as I get the heavy ass Tv (almost as heavy as the circular saw ...) in to the house. I load the cab in to the back of my truck, drive it around front, and get it in to the house. I grab my old Dell Dimension 2100 Pc w/Radeaon 7000 AIM (WITH breakout cable, thank you very much. Oh course, the breakout cable cost me $20, with $30 for next day shipping since I ordered it the day before, but hey, I had it.)

I place the cab between my Smash TV and STTNG piball, pick up the Tv and place it in .... only to find it doesn't fit. The $$%$# thing doesn't fit! The cab is not wide enough! Oh, the models I looked at online would have fit. You know, the ones Wal-Mart wwas out of? Those? They would have fit. According to the box this one should have fit also, but it doesn't. I drag the cabinet out the front door to the front porch. I hook up my extension cord and get my 30# worm-drive circular saw. I hack off the side of the cabinet right next to the Tv. That section of 3/4" MDF is now GONE. I drag the cab back in the house when I see it: A huge black mark on my 105 year old parque floors. It looks like one of the wheels (1" too small) came off and the cab rubbed the floor the entire way out. Ok, getthe cab back in to place put the Tv in and ...

It STILL doesn't fit! $%%$^$! Drag the cab outside again, hack away again with saw (Damn it's cold out here!) haul it back in house tilted on the erar two wheels to protect the floor. It fits! Yeah! There just a huge hole in the side of the cab ...

I grab my blue T-Molding from Happs (I was gonna theme on that cool blue Nebula theme I've seen) and start to cut it to size. Turns out I REALLY messed up bad when I was cutting those slots. Half of the T-Molding won't fit the cahnnel, the channel is too big. Hot glue doesn't seem to be helping. My cab now only has half it's T-Molding.

I then spend about 4 hours trying to get the video card to boot in to the Tv and getting resolutions and paths correct in XP and MameWAH. Finally, I'm done!

Oh wait, I need to wire the CP ....

[gcbrowni]

I grab my panel top, a box of buttons and joys, my electrical tool box, and some AWG14 I had laying around from some central office installs. In retrospect, the AWG14 was not a good idea. Neither was NOT thinkign too much about the grounds. I manage to wire up 4 joys and 20 buttons, all with AWG14, to my I-PAC4. BTW: AWG14 fits the I-PAC4 really well!. I end up crimping my female disconnects to the AWG 14 and using wire nuts to connects the grounds in groups of 5. Amazingly enough, it works! Of course, I've mounted the fourth joy too close to the edge and it doesn't fit in the CP box. A quick bend with the small vice grips solves THAT problem. Hmmm, testing reveals I've wired up HALF the joys backwards. And the fourth one is off center. I fix the backward joys (at the I-PAC4) and leave the off-center stick. My fingers ACHE and are blistered. That's a lot of cutting, stripping, crimping, twisting, and wire-nutting.

For the next 3 months I have a cab. It looks like crap, half T-Molded, one side cut out, door lopsided, tacky paint, and off-center 4th joy, but it worked. Sometimes the CP box lifts up; I've given up fixing it by now. Sometimes I worry about the extension cord and power strip and using. The strip was old and one of the sockets is burnt out (as in 'Fire' burnt, not 'not-working burnt, although it doesn't work either), and the extension looks like AWG22 (is that even leagl? Do they even make that anymore?!?!) But, I have a cab. The kids like ... uh ... they like the 3 LEGAL roms. I'm sure they'd like Frogger and Rampage also. Dad would like Joust, if it were legal. (Level 35 in the arcades Suckas! I can't get anywhere near that now ...

Things are like this for about 3 months ... until ... I catch the bug again ...

[gcbrowni]

3 Months pass ...

[Again, you'll know who I'm talking about. They were very great and kind to me. Do not imagine you will have ANY trouble them. I mean that. My life just sucks.]

My cab consist of 4 joys with 7 buttons for P1 and P2. I bought some 8-way/4-way top-switchable joys to go with my 2 X-Arcade joys. The X-Arcades are light with a long throw. The others are heavy with a short throw. I never can get them to switch to 4-way. I don't _think_ it was an install problem, they didn't seem to switch straight out of the box when the arrived either. I tried, valiently, to contact the company for instructions/information. I never heard back. Well, that's not true, one day I was checking my junk-mail folder and found a strange message. It was from them, from a 'different' e-mail address than usual. It seems they have been trying to contact me, but my employers spam filter was eating all of their messages before they ever reached me. They sent me another message from a differnt e-mail account, whcih my e-mail clients spam filter ate. Ug. I tried registering for their message board, but the #$#%# university spam filters ate the confirm/'click this link to confirm' e-mail also. Ug. I ended up fighting the MAN and getting myself taken off the university spam system. I'm doing this by running a pirate mail server at work, in direct violation of several rules. It takes me so long to set up that I forget why I'm doing it, to contact the company to figure out how the joys switch. To this day, I don't know if I'm an idiot and am doing something stoopid, or if they sent me one of their similiar joys that don't switch. My apathy level has not yet been overcome to contact them again though.

Back to the near-present. I'm in the middle of of a HUGE network rollout. 140 optical amplifier sites spanning the entire US, 16 terminals/regens, an 18-node nationwide layer-2 network (yes, just like the ethernet switch in your house, but it spans the nation) and 8 Cisco CRS-1 routers. I'm in charge of making sure it all goes in and worlks. It is by far he biggest, most stressfull project I've ever done. So, it makes perfect sense that I've ought the bug again and am battling the cab/cp beast once again.

First up, I get some 'blank' DVD's online. 63 of them. It's great, everythign but some blank ISO's. Now, in my 'old' machine I only have a 20 gig HD. I got .90 on by leaving out all the newer 'large' systems. Ain't no way My new DVD collection is fitting on THAT thing. I pop up to Fry's (which has just opened in town. Yeah!) and get a 300 gig HD, with a rebate. It sits on my bookshelf for 4 weeks, then I get around to installing it in my Dell 2100 so I can load my DVD's. There's just two problem: it won't mount and the BIOS doesn't recognize it as a 300GB drive. The BIOS is too old. A little digging online tells me there IS no new bios, not that it would matter since I haven't owned a 3.5" floppy drive in about 5 years ... [Now, the next time a n00b asks if his new PC will run MAME, you can answer 'Any old PC will run MAME, but you need a decent bios to support modern HD's.']

Did I mention my DVD-ROM drive? It's a 1X Fuss. I yanked it out of my Bravo D1 DVI Home Theater DVD player. The Fuss was refusing to handle some porn disks (uh ... I HEARthat the Fuss won't handle them ... I have no first-hand knowledge of this ....) or some nice disks like 'Kaiju Big Battle' or whatever the 'idiots in costumes wresting' disk is called. Anyway, I've got my new 300GB HD laying in my old Dell Dimension 2100 PC, I've got a pair of plyers prying off the mounting tabs of the 1X Fuss DVD drive so it will fit in, and now my 300GB HD won't work. Wonderful.

In the meantime, I've taken a week off work and the most important work project in my life in order to build my new cab. And my in-laws are in town. Joy.

[armax]

Well, all these problems were brought upon you by your own actions...not bad luck.

[gcbrowni]

Ok, to recap, I've got a crappy cab, I'm stressed out from a big project at work, I've taken a week off that I shouldn't have, I have a 300GB drive collecting dust, a BIOS that won't support big drives, and my in-laws are in town.

The 300GB drive came with a rebate, but while I saved the receipts I managed to throw the box away in a moment of BIOS disgust. No rebate for me.

It's warm out now and I'm out int the carriage house building my new CP. I've seen Doc's modular system and have decided to build one also; the (2) kids want 3-player Rampage and the current layout just ain't cutting it. I've built one CP already in the last week and didn't didn't turn out good. Too deep, the slope's all wrong, the dowel system just did NOT work out, and I didn't leave enough room to mount the I-PAC4 on the back of the box.

Funny story here: I used a real 5/16" dowel rod, cut up with my miter saw. Cutting 1" segments of 5/16" dowel with a power miter saw doesn't work real great. Plus, the front of the box (the 3 1/2" side) split when putting in the dowels. And they were off center. Ug.

CP Box #3.I end up finally finding real dowel pins, 1/4". I buy a drill stop and a brad point 1/4" bit. I use some trig to find out what the 'real' angle of the CP box cuts should be. I cut the slope oin the sides freehand on the table saw. It doesn't come out right, but it's nothing the belt sander can't fix. I have to readjust the back and front box panels after using the sander on the sides, but that's not too hard.

This time I decided on no screws. None. 0. I HATE putty. No screws, no putty. Instead I'm using my plate joiner and gluing and clamping. No old Gorilla Glue either; brand new plain jane wood glue. Instead of puttying screw holes I'm now putty's biscuit slots that I've cut in to the wrong places. Ug.

I only end up with 2 small problems with the dowels. First, I start marking from the left and I'm off quite a bit by the time I reach the side/top. Just the top, the bottom is fine. I'm not measuring, I've got a 2" wood block and am using it to make my marks. I have no idea what's wrong. I've also got a long T-Square (no, not a hugly long drwall square, a smaller but sltill long artists/draftman T-Square). The wood block and the square are giving me differetn results. I end up cutting off the right ride dowels on the top and redrilling/mounting them. There's a delay because My Precious has stopped working. My favorite tool ist kaput, no power all all all of a sudden. I look inside. The batter contact are a little close so I spread them with a screwdriver. Still not working. I contemplate going to get a new drill, but my wifes got the car. That means I have to take the truck. The only store I know I can reach ... and return from, it the local hardware place which will want $5000 for a small corded drill. I despair for an hour so and drink a beer (it's 9:00am) Finally I take the drill apart. Eventually I decide it HAS to be the battery contacts. I squeeze them togethere and put the drill back together. It works! But only in reverse ... and I can't push the button to forward anymore. Take it apart again, fix the button. Put it back together. Forward/Reverse button now works, but it still gets no power in forward mode. Take it apart again. it has to be some contact issue. Put it back together. Now when I want 'forward' I have to really push the button hard. It works, but I should really fix it correctly.

Back to the CP! My 1/4" drill stop doesn't fit my 1'4" brad-point bit, even thought I bought both at Rockler and they were both RIGHT next to each other on the shelf. A masking tape shim seems to help. Except it ends up slipping, causing the stop to slip. I don't pick up on this until 3/4's of my dowel holes are drilled. Meanwhile, I'm in full-on 'Hide from the in-laws in the carriage house' mode. I cut up my panels. I'm using 5/8" particle board that's 1' long. I choose the particle board because it was the only thing Lowes had that was < 3/4" thick and exactly 1' long. No ripping to length this time! (You see, I had bought some pine previously. I had to rip it on the table saw to get it to 12"'s. Then the #$#%# stuff split on me when I was drilling the button holes! Grrrr....!) Did I mention the 1-1/8" hole saw I bought at Harbor Freight that didn't work? I guess not. Hmmm. I ended up using my 1-1/8" wood bit that I used on my last CP.

Time to paint the CP!

[gcbrowni]

Yeah! New modular CPO almost done ... or is it?

I sand the PB good. All I've got is a brush so I use it to put a coat of primer on the box and the panels. Sanding between, but, again, the $%^$%$ latex doesn't really dry. I end up very unhappy and sand off all the paint on the panels and the 'visible' surfaces of the box. This time I put on 2 coats of primer and switch over to a black oil semi-gloss. I'm still not happy with the finish, but I'm going to put some art on them and poly over it, so it's probabally good enough for that. Shouldn have realized I was going to have problems when I used PB. I burn a good 4 days painting and then sanding off the paint again. That's where I am right now; the second coat of black oil drying on the panels and box.

However, I feel I've neglected the recent software/computer side of the story ...

When we last checked in on that part of the project, our intrepid Network Engineer had a bios that wouldn't support his new 300GB HD. I burn a week waiting for the next Fry's sale and head up. I get an ANMD 2600 on a MB with fan for $70, as well as a 16x DVD drive for $17 to replace the #$^%$ 1x Fuss. A 350watt power supply for $22 and 512 RAM for $30 round things out. I get home and my in-laws are gone. I get the kids to bed and get a floor lamp moved in to my living room (105 year old home=no lights in the living room)  I yank the components out the Dell Dimension 2100 and mount the MB. Except it won't fit. I'm sure we're all familiar with the Dell custom cases. I end up sitting the MB on the bottom of the cab on some vinyl grommets (since I couldn't find proper stand-offs at Frys.) Oh, did I fail to mention my actual trip to Fry's? At the checkout the total came out to more than it should have. I discovered this while the girl was going tover to the cage with my quote to get  my CPU & RAM.  I checked the receipt and found a $40 charge for "Memroy Installation." Ought-oh! It then took the checkout girl and he supervisor about 30 minutes to get the stuff returned, a new quote generated, my card credited, and re-rang up again. They they had to take my CPU & RAM back to the cage because the voided checkout receipt also canceled the serial number entry in their DB, so the cage people need to get he SN's again.

Back to the PC that night. The MB won't fit in the Dell case and I can't screw the MB to the inside side of the cab because all I have are short MB bolts, no screws. It's sitting on vinyl grommets on the base of the cab, with the power supply, 300GB HD and DVD-ROM sitting next to it. I try to avoid the L-brackets, vinyl grommets or no, on the bottom of the cab so it won't all short out. I pop in my university bookstore purchased copy of XP (Ha! No registration/Authentication for me!) and load up XP. Except, XP won't recognize the HD as 300 GB. You need an XP with SP1 to have a disk larger than 187GB. Ug. I briefly contemplate using one of my other XP copies, the ones that DO require authentication (over the phone since I don't have a new connection on the MAME pc) I even yank one out of the dust sleeve. Except it doesn't have SP1 either. Slipsteam SP1 on to  a new XP disk? I rule that out also. It's late and I go to bed. I dream of the SP1 download I left running on my main home PC, knowing that it will be all ready in the morning ...

The next morning I find the download has stalled. Resume doesn't work. I try to get SP1 and SP2 from my university website in both Firefox and IE. All stall. I try to use both Firefox and IE to get SP1 and SP2 from the MS website. Both stall (all at different points, of course.) I end up doing an XP install on a 10GB partition. My intent is now to use my USB wireless fob to connect to my home WAP from the MAME machine and use WIndows Update to getthe SP2 i need to get at the rest of my website.

Except ... My home AP is WPA. XP doesn't know about WPA right out of the box. You need a patch. I download the patch. Ooops, patch doesn't work since you have to have SP1  to use the patch! Arg! Ok, I'll turn WEP on, then the mame PC can attach and download. Ought oh! The magic paper I keep in my WAP that has it's IP, password, and WPA key is gone! I'll have to connect locally. That means dragging a PC upstairs to the WAP or dragging it down. WEP/WAP/SP1/SP2 madness goes on like this for a couple of hours (4?) until I remember something: I have a degree in Computer Science, I'm a Senior Network Engineer for MULTIPLE Tier-1 R&E nets, I have a closet full of assault rifles and a brand on my arm in Akadian of a 7000 year old dead Sumerian king. There is no problem in world that can stop me! Oh, I also have a spool of Cat5 in the carriage house that I'm using to wire the Krone's for the CP. I haul it in and create a 50' patch cable to run through the house. Takes me about 60 seconds. I pop on ZoneAlarm from my USB thumb drive, and start download patches from Windows Update. 90 minutes later I have all of my patches and am loading DVD's on my new 270GB partition, posting my epic keep myself busy. During the XP patch process I played Strawberry Shortcake Go Fish with my kids and managed to jam my middle finger in my CPU fan, ripping off a chunk of flesh. No problem, I patch it right up with a Dora the Explorer band-aid and continue top get ---my bottom--- kicked in Go Fish by my son

Tomorrow my panels and CP box should be dry. That will allow me to mount my controls and try my luck at soldering. This will be the first time I've soldered. I'm sure I will have to post after I'm done.

[AmericanDemon]

All of that and not a single picture.  Come on man!  I'm in Indiana too! 

[teetu]

I can't beleive I read the whole thing.  It flowed very nicely, they should make a made for TV movie out of it.

American Demon is right, we need some pictures.  I want to see your cab with the side cut out.

[gcbrowni]

Ok, some pics. I don't think I'm violating any size/quantity rules by posting these. If I am then my punishment should be fixing this cab ...

Pic 1. Look Ma, no side!
The side of the cab cut out so the Tv will fit. Note also the lack of a speaker shelf. I had to knock it out with a small sledge for the Tv to fit. On the plus side, the 30# worm drive saw cuts right through screws. I've got the CP top off, and you can make out the side of my Smash Tv.

Pic 2. The Door
Note the fit and finish of the door. That's my foot holding the door closed. I'm pretty sure the gaps in the upper right are and lower right are not supposed to be there.

[gcbrowni]

Pic 3: Right Side of the mess.
You can tell the Tv is sticking out where it should not be.

Pic 4: Left side.
Why yes, that is 4 Red Ball top Wico Leaf joys. I almost yanked them and replaced them with micro's, but I think I'm going to get four 49-ways instead.

[gcbrowni]

Just a few more. Oh, in the last set you can see one of my kids, my oldest. They like to offer helpful suggestions like "Don't get frustrated." "Don't use bad words daddy." and "Stay on target. Stay on target." I'm not kidding.

Pic 5: Back of the CP.
That's AWG14 and wire nuts for the grounds. I made a half ass attempt to lace the wiring.

Pic 6: Front of the CP.
Upside down, no less! Two X-Gaming sticks, 20 X-Gaming buttons, and two other 4/8 ways ... (That should be top switchable ...) The CP has gone through hell in the last 2 days in the carriage house. It once looked better. Hard to believe, I know.

[gcbrowni]

Last 2.

The first shows joystick 4. It's very close to the edge of the CP where it meets the box (that would be the velcro on the left side.) I've bent the contact on the left 2 microswitches so it will fit. The velcro makes a rock solid seal, but the way. Absolutly no movement at all. You'd never know the top was seperate from the box.

Workshop pics always seem to be popular, so here's the back half of my carriagle house. My old CP s in the blue wheelbarrow, covered by a 'white' rag. You can see a Happs 27" Flat monitor bezel on the wall above it. In the back are three sheets of MDF for my new cab. The white CP box on the left is an old rejected CP box. I was unhappy with it for a variety of reasons. The blue garbage can has my new, black, CP box drying on it. Likewise the left side of the table saw has a board on it which has the CP panels. drying.

[AlanS17]

LOL Wow I feel bad for you. That's a massive hole. Have you thought about putting matching plates over both sides? Then nobody would know what's going on underneath.

BTW, your posts were too long for my impatience so I just skipped to the pictures.

[AmericanDemon]

Have you thought about putting matching plates over both sides? Then nobody would know what's going on underneath.

I agree.  You could just build a couple upper sides and once installed they would look kinda like the UAII cabinets.  It would save you a lot of time that way. 

[markrvp]

Oh jeez.  Take comfort from the knowledge that you have built the ugliest cab imaginable this side of Trashcade.

I can't wait to see the next one.

[Dire Radiant]

Dear God, kill it before it breeds! Slapdash working methods, slapdash results. You're not unlucky, you're impatient.

[Bones]

ummmm...... errrrr.... I like your Smash TV cab.

[gcbrowni]

Thanks! I like my Smash also.

I've been working on a modular CP for the last week or two. I built one frame, and then became unhappy with it, so I built another. I'm using generic "krone" plugs in low voltage boxes with cat5 twisted pair (solid & stranded) and RJ45's. The slop of the panels is about 10 degrees. I have pinball flipper/budge buttons on the outsides. You can see how things are VERY tight in those corners. My IPAC4 is mounted on the rear. My intent was/is to cover the panels with the "Blue Nova" art, printed on black paper, and then covred with a coat or two of poly. The panels are 5/8" thick particleboard while the box is 3/4" MDF. I tought myself to solder by soldering the cat5 wires to the switches under the panels.

If I was doing this again I would have used a RJ45 patch panel mounted in the cab and eliminated the krones. The panel would have mounted to be flush with the back of the CP box, which would have had a slot cut to give access. I would have also used true "straight-thru" patch cables instead of the standard "1236  " cables. Those two steps, together, would have kept pin 1 ALWAYS pin1, which sould have cut down on thinking required while wiring.

Mounting the patch panel in the cab would also let me mount my encoders on the cab. Right now my IPAC4 takes up all of my available space on the back of my cp box, with no room left for other encoders (rotary, optical, 49 way, etc.) Moving the patch  panel to the cab instead of mounting it in the box would allow me mount a near infinate amount. (a 1.75" high 19" wide patch panel can have up to 24 ports, so there would be plenty of plug space for other encoders to be wired up.)

I also need to line the bottom of my CP bx with black paper. I didn't like the way the black particle board side edges looked, so I put a half-round on them. This allows more light to creep in between the edges. The bottom of my box is open, so the effect is that you can see some white light escaping up through the panels. Lining he bottom with some black construction paper would help. (So would giving the box a real bottom and painting it black, but I wanted an open bottom for deeper controls. Hmm, the black paper idea would ruin that also.)

I have a few issues to work out with the controls, I think one of my krones is wired incorrectly and a couple of y panels have some dead buttons/directions. My intent is to get it fixed up tonight so me and the kids can play rampage world tour.

I also think I'm going to biuld a new box. This one has 30" of panel room. If it had 32" then I could have 8 4" panels, meaning 4p gauntlet. I'll probabally also follow through on my patch panel idea. I'll probabally keep the panels as is, except for mountnign the Blue Nova art on them.

[gcbrowni]

Two more.

[bishmasterb]

I was going to offer some advice: "Measure twice, cut once." But I'm not sure you measured even once.

Nonetheless, don't give up; what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.