Pluto's Doghouse cocktail cabinet - Planning

[Zathras]

Still early planning stages here...

I've been hankering for another project and have a couple of old machines up and running well enough to get put in a cabinet.  I decided I wanted to build another theme cabinet to match the theme of the Mickey Juke -


So I've decided to make a cocktail table modeled after Mickey's best pal Pluto -
something like this (rough shape wise):


With the controls on the sides and the roof point only being on the front  and back with the rest flat for the screen etc (does that make sense?).

Now I get to choose a few things...  I think I want to make it as narrow depthwise as possible based on the space I'm going to be putting it in.  So I'm leaning twords the PC i've got up and running with Vantage and a small monitor. 

Hmmmm or I could put another pc/monitor in there and make it like a Nintendo VS table....

So any ideas/thoughts from the peanut gallery?

[Chris]

If the doghouse is big, I'd say put everything inside and make it a cockpit cab.

[Zathras]

Interesting idea but  -  I bet the wife wouldn't appreciate a cab that big

I will probably want to keep it somewhat to scale of the Mickey cab.   So roughly guessing about 4ft to the point.   I'm liking the thought of the dual side Nintendo VS style cab - even if I just put a Jakks hack on one side.

[Dire Radiant]

Another marvellously original project idea! Good luck!

[Zathras]

I think I've talked myself into  the dual screen thing.  I was actually considering/pricing LCDs but the viewing angle would vary too much depending on the player and old CRTs are just soo cheap.  So I will go the cheap route.

On the LCD route - there are some good deals on ebay at the moment on some used LCDs that would be perfect for projects  and they are less than $100 -

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZaceincmon


Now to start planning the actual design/build.  I think for this one an internal framework with the outside just "paneling" (for lack of a better term) would work best.

[danny_galaga]

yes, go for dual LCD screens. that'd be awsome! if it's roughly the size of a cocktail cab, it'll be ultra- comfortable to play

[DrewKaree]

Maybe I'm reading your dual-monitor setup differently, but when I saw the doghouse pic, I imagined a dual output video card and two LCD's creating the peaks.  Does that make sense, and is that what you were considering doing?

[Zathras]

I always like starting projects from initial inception so that people can chime in with ideas and

[Crazy Cooter]

Which direction do you want to minimize?  "X"?  One CRT & one LCD would probably work so you wouldn't have to offset them.

I think I'd put the controls on the roof because of the way the cabinet is shaped.

[Zathras]

Which direction do you want to minimize?

[Zathras]

Alright well I went off the deep end and tracked down a good deal on some LCD monitors with pretty wide Viewing angles (170 H 120 v). So I went with them.

[danny_galaga]

it makes sense, but wont you have an ugly 90 degree radius slot on the front? how about electrically rotating?

[danny_galaga]

[Zathras]

it makes sense, but wont you have an ugly 90 degree radius slot on the front? how about electrically rotating?

That is very true and that would be a hard cut to do.

 I'm researching the electronic possibility at the moment, but the logic portion is making my brain hurt.

I think one would wire it to a DPDT switch this way correct?:


So switch it one way it will rotate clockwise till it hits a switch and shuts off - switch the other way and it does the opposite

[Zathras]

I think I might be over thinking it thinking of elaborate motor systems.  It is only a few pound LCD.  So another option I'm going to consider is similar to the above "knob" idea but just making the turntable/lcd assembly include a circular portion of the roof.  That way if you want to turn it - just rotate it. 

Maybe have some internal locking mechanism ( actually do magnets affect LCDs?) for vertical orientation.

[allroy1975]

I just wanted to say that I love your creativity.  I'm getting married in DisneyWorld in September....you should build me something as a gift. 

I posted that Disney DDR machine when I got back last year and you said you were a disney freak...and you continue to prove it. 

I LOVE IT!

See ya!
Allroy

[Zathras]

I just wanted to say that I love your creativity.  I'm getting married in DisneyWorld in September....you should build me something as a gift. 

Congrats!  My brother-in-law got married a few months ago at the Polynesian.  They do weddings up right there - I'm sure you will have a great time (and be waaay too busy to be bothered with arcade gifts  )


Anyway I'm racking my brain on wiring this thing control panel wise and I have come up with two different options:


Option 1:  Wire the second control panel to its own encoder as player 1 and to the other encoder as player 2

Option 2: Wire the second control panel to its own encoder as player 2.  Reconfigure its own computer to accept that as the primary controls and then hook the keyboard out of the KVM to the primary PC as a second keyboard hooked to it.

Option 1 seems like the best way to go but will I run into any grounding issues with two separate encoders? (keep in mind also that the second pc is powered via a power dongle from the first)

I'm planning on running the 2nd coin/start buttons to the primary one via the microphone jack on the KVM switch so they will be enabled/disabled that way.

[danny_galaga]

it makes sense, but wont you have an ugly 90 degree radius slot on the front? how about electrically rotating?

That is very true and that would be a hard cut to do.

 I'm researching the electronic possibility at the moment, but the logic portion is making my brain hurt.

I think one would wire it to a DPDT switch this way correct?:


So switch it one way it will rotate clockwise till it hits a switch and shuts off - switch the other way and it does the opposite

[Zathras]

Just a minor update - packages are arriving so I'll be moving onto final design stage soon. 

I'm tempted to make the backside of it Zero's dog house so then I can rotate it 180 degrees for halloween

[paigeoliver]

You say the room is "maxing out" what is in there? I am asking because the 10 AMP circuit in the spare bedroom in my apartment has handled 15 games at once (several being mame and two being freaking power hungry pins) without any problems. You just have to flip them on one at a time.

[Zathras]

You say the room is "maxing out" what is in there? I am asking because the 10 AMP circuit in the spare bedroom in my apartment has handled 15 games at once (several being mame and two being freaking power hungry pins) without any problems. You just have to flip them on one at a time.

In that room I currently have a mame cab, Space Invaders, Road Kings Pin, Mickey Juke, airhocky and I'm not 100% sure but a TV/HT stack might be on the same circuit.    Its an older house complete w/ aluminum wiring.   It will probably be fine if like you said I don't kick them all on at the same time, but I would really like to err on the side of caution (that and I needed another excuse to go for the LCDs ).

[danny_galaga]

aluminium wiring?  wow. i never knew they used that for anything but overhead powerlines. your house wasnt owned by a linesman by any chance? 

(hums witchita linesman)

[Zathras]

aluminium wiring?

[btoddkelley]

They do not use it anymore because of that very problem. it was known to start fires. And now i have that song stuck in my head!

Todd

[Zathras]

interesting couple of days - worked on the LCD turntable/lazy suan mount.  Took a while but it is coming together nicely. Fortunately it doesn't have too look pretty - its hard working on circles trying to get everything centered and such.

Today so far I decided to determine what angle I'm going to mount the monitors at and discovered something.  Apparently the viewing angle isn't from directly in front of it - it is shifted  for higher viwing angles.   I turned the monitor upside down and sure enough I was able to put it at a much steeper angle.  After a minor heart attack I thought that there would probably be a way to flip everything and sure enough I was able to flip arcadeos and mame quickly.

  But this means I am probably going to have the leave the exact angle of the roof portion till most everything is done and get the monitors where I like them.

[danny_galaga]

good to hear you're making progress quickly. good luck with finding the right angle (",)

[Zathras]

Just a bit of an update - I'll take pics eventually but I do have walls up.   Kreig pocketholes make life very easy.  Thumbs up and I highly recommend them.  I think they would work slightly better on 3/4" than 1/2" but you just have to be a little more careful.

Last night I finally hooked everything up the way its going to be in the cab - with the video splitter/kvm and so forth and it all works well - no apparent ghosting etc (well except when playing pacman - then I saw several ghosts).

[danny_galaga]

how now?