New Bartop - 'BlackBox' - Completed! New Photos!

[DigDreams]

Your button spacing worries me. The 6 buttons you use to play look to far apart to me.

How right you are!  I didn't even notice that - I guess I have been looking at it too long.  Thank you BIG TIME for pointing that out. 

I had them 2" apart and backed them back to 1.5" apart, which is what it looks like most people use.  Here is the re-worked CP.



High-Res Here: http://www.digitaldreamsinc.net/mame/cp-art-large-v2.jpg




High-Res Here: http://www.digitaldreamsinc.net/mame/cp-diag-v2-large.jpg


And here is my update for today, the side panels are done...



I still have to cut the speaker holes, but I want to be sure where I want to mount them first.  I'm going to partially assemble it and see where they work best.  I am thinking they will somewhere around the center of the panel, maybe a little more towards the top.

I also finally found something for the trackball buttons.  I was originally going to use a clear acrylic "blind tilt bar" that I had lying around - but I can't find it now.  The plan was to drill a hole in the side for the LED.  Neither Home Depot or Lowes carries them so I started looking around the various "junk drawers" in my house...

I managed to find two "Light Sabre" pens.  I am going to use those.  They have a nice smooth, rounded top for the button, and I have a red and a blue one.  I can place an LED inside the tube, then trim it to fit in between the CP and the microswitch on the trackball.  I am going to make a "guide cylinder" by mounting a piece of 1x1 with a hole drilled in it under the CP to keep it in place.  This will make two small (1/2" round) illuminated buttons for the mouse left & right clicks.  I'm not hooking up button 3 as I see no use for it and it is very low on the trackball PCB (see the CP diagram).

This was the only way I cound figure out to use the trackball buttons.  Sure, I could solder leads to the PCB - but a Happ button will not fit inbetween the trackball pcb and the top of the CP.  I think it will look cool as they will be smaller buttons, but still lit.  I mainly wanted use of these for windows so I don't have to hook up a mouse.

I'll post more pictures as I progress.

- DigDreams

[Crafty]

The marquee rocks....

much better than previous versions...

Cant wait to see photos as it all comes together..

[leapinlew]

Looking good.

I loved warcraft III. I'm not a big fan of offset buttons - I prefer the more traditional Street Fighter layout.

Keep up the good work

[DigDreams]

Ok, I finished the marquee retainer.  I did this first since it was the most difficult cut to do.  I used a jigsaw with a fine tooth blade.  I was concerned if it would rip apart while cutting, so I clamped it down to a base board first and it cut pretty well.  It is 18" wide with .75" border to the left & right, and a .25" border on the top and bottom.



On each side will be two mirror clips (top and bottom of left & right sides).  In the middle is a small wooden block.  The marquee will clip in and the whole retainer will slide in to the front.  I will then screw it down through the left and right side panels into the wooden block.

That's it for today.  More updates and pictures to come.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

Ok,  how do I start...  I started putting it all together and realized I didn't like the angle of the monitor.  I also realized I had mis-calculated the monitor size.  I had not taken in to account the outward curve of the tube itself.  As a result I wound up having to re-cut just about everything.

I went back to Home Depot and purchased some new 2x6 MDF 1/4" panels,  I had previously cut 24" panels, but including the 2" curve of the monitor I realized I needed a 24" x 26" panel.

This time I clamped two panels together and cut it all at once.  Good Move.  This time I also clamped down a guide rail instead of going freehand.  I wound up cutting two "PERFECT" sides.  Cool so far...

Now I measured the speakers, cut a card-board test panel, then cut both panels (still clamped together).  I came out with mirror image perfect cuts.




It was no small trick to size the speaker cuts correctly.  There was a 1/32nd seam I needed to match.  After a cut, some trims, and a little sanding it matched up perfectly.  I sanded down an extra 1/16th to allow for paint and moved on.

I cut a "revised"  base board, then moved on to cutting the monitor supports.  The plan was to use a 1" wooden dowell to rest the monitor on, and a 1x4 support for each beam.


At this point I must emphasize the invaluable resource of phone books.  I used them as saw horses and to position the monitor as measuring.  Save these things, they work as saw horses, braces, clamps, etc. 

After measuring three times, I made the load-bearing supports out of 1x4.  I cut supports and spaced them out on the base board...



You can see the ever-useful phone book in use...

After double checking everything and trimming the mounts, no more phone books - the monitor mount is done.



After it all matched up, I counter-synced the screws, added wood filler, and sanded it down...









I added some industrial adhesive and called it a night (not by accident).   This is where my wife said, "You've had too much to drink to be using power tools!".  So I stopped for the night and wrote this.



Tomorrow I will cut a new (slightly larger) marquee, and start bolting it all together.  It's getting there!

I think it will be done by next weekend.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

I got several more panels cut this weekend - I'll add some more pictures shortly...

As I was looking at the art I felt the control panel art was a little "redundant" using the Night Elf eyes in the background.  I re-did the CP a little bit.  I was looking for some opinions of what looks better.



High-res here: http://www.digitaldreamsinc.net/mame/cp-choices-large.jpg

What do you think?

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

New bezel art...



High-Res Here: http://www.digitaldreamsinc.net/mame/bezel-large.jpg

- DigDreams

[Crafty]

I prefer the second CP option with the character (Excuse my ignorance as to which character)

It ties in nicely with the Marquee and gives the CP a bit of a high lift..

Can I ask if the lettering on the bottom means anything (probably another dumb question)

As for the bezel I think that it looks right to me adding anything else might draw the eyes away from where they should be looking...

Overall topnotch effort on the art

Can I enquire as to what programs you used for this artwork and where your images came??

[DigDreams]

Overall topnotch effort on the art

Thanks Crafty!

Can I enquire as to what programs you used for this artwork and where your images came??

The joystick arrows, trackball art, and other design elements are all original and were all done with PhotoShop. 

The background artwork (the characters) came from World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment (PC Fantasy RPG).

The "Planet" on the right of the marquee is actually a heavily filtered photo of a plasma ball (the kind you buy in Spencer gifts that send out the little lightning bolts when you touch it - bet none of ya guessed that!).

The sword is "Twinkle" scanned from a photo in the Museum Replicas catalog then heavily filtered and adjusted.

Can I ask if the lettering on the bottom means anything (probably another dumb question)

The text on the bottom means absolutley nothing.  It is in elvish script from Lord of the Rings, but it's just put together based on "what characters look cool together".

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

One more new picture...  I have some of this taped together since several of the pieces still need prep work.  The lighting is installed and it's all fitting together nicely.



Tomorrow I'm recutting the marquee retainer (almost done with it, made it slightly larger), and cutting out the "window" of the monitor bezel.  Then I finish up the back panels and move on to finishing work.

I'm making the CP out of cardboard before I cut any holes in the actual panel/acrylic.  I just want to be sure I like the feel before I start cutting.

- DigDreams...

[theCoder]

My vote is for CP art #2.  I don't particularly like the character, but it does go with your dark theme.  The main reason I like #2 is because it provides something prominent to look at and it is not centered.  Along those lines, I'd recommend moving the "Mame" on your bezel to the right or left, not centered.  Just my 2 cents.  In the end it is your artwork, and good looking at that.

[DigDreams]

Today I cut the new front marquee bezel (I made it a 1/2" taller when I re-did the side panels) and the rear angle piece with the power switch.

I was looking for a small power switch that I could hide under the angle in the rear of the cabinet.  I wound up finding a push button lamp switch at Home Depot that did the trick:



Here are the new pieces from the front:



And from the back showing the extra support on the switch piece, and the side bars on the marquee (to screw through the sides of the cabinet and secure the marquee since the retainer is only 3/8" thick). 



I have to cut the two last pieces on the back, and then I can paint.

That's all for now!

- DigDreams

[Cameronj]

It is really coming together nicely from what I see! I love all of the artwork!

[DigDreams]

Today I cut the top of the enclosure and added all of the guide rails. 

First I cut and installed guide rails on the sides of the cabinet.  I used Loc-Tight Industrial Adhesive to do this (available at Home Depot).  Had I known this stuff worked so well, I probably would have used less screws (less countersinking, filling, and sanding).  When this stuff bonds, it's like one piece of wood it's so strong.  The other nice thing about it is that it is immediately sticky, but not too much to adjust.  It makes lining things up super-easy.  I HIGHLY recommend it!



Then I cut the top piece and installed the guide rail that will hold it in place.  It lips over the light board to hold things in place.



Once it all dried, I had a perfect fit.







I was originally going to use two hinges to let the top and rear panels swing out for access, but after seeing how nicely it fits together and how well the guide rails are working, I think I am just going to use velcro to hold the rear panel on.

This way there will be no visible hinges and it will all seam up tightly (instead of having to leave room for the hinges to work).

Tomorrow I will cut the rear panel, and the woodworking portion of the cabinet will be complete (except for cutting holes in the CP and Bezel).

So far so good.  I'll post more pictures as I progress.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

I finished the construction of the cabinet this weekend.  I also dropped off all of the artwork at Kinkos to be printed.  It should be done tomorrow or Monday.

I wound up using the hinges.  By limiting the amount they open, it almost makes a "clamp", so no fastening is necessary.



With it on:



I also cut the monitor window into the bezel, which completes all of the sawing.  Now it's just the CP, painting, and artwork.

Here it is as it stands right now.  I have to do some filling and sanding, then paint.





That's it for now.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

I picked up my printing from Kinkos yesterday, it all turned out really good.  Here is the control panel:



And another view...



It was really hard to get a good picture of the marquee lit up, this was the best I could do.



I installed the bezel, and the acrylic.



I wasn't happy about how the vinyl wrapped around the corners, so I made some corner pieces in Photoshop.  I printed then on glossy paper, and carefully cut them out with an exacto knife.  Here is a closup of the corner pieces:



With that done, I took it all apart and put two coats of Killz Oil-Based Primer on it.



Then I put on 3 coats of Painter's Touch Black Semi-Gloos Latex Enamel paint.  I think I am going to add one more coat once this is good and dry.



That's where I am at now.  1 more coat, clean up the "aftermath" of the painting, and put it all back together.  Pretty much all that is left is assembling and wiring up the control panel, and installing the speakers.

- DigDreams

[Crafty]

Overall topnotch effort on the art

Ive said it before and Ill say it again..
Amazing artwork..
Looks even better on you're machine..

You must be super impressed

Well done

[theCoder]

Looks great.  Love the pinball buttons.  In addition to pinMame, you should check into the ProPinball series.  It is the most accurate simulation of pinball out there.  You can find it in the discount rack for around $10.  You can also find no-cd versions of the main executables on the web.

[DigDreams]

Looks great.  Love the pinball buttons.  In addition to pinMame, you should check into the ProPinball series.  It is the most accurate simulation of pinball out there.  You can find it in the discount rack for around $10.  You can also find no-cd versions of the main executables on the web.

That looks awesome.  I just picked up the three pack (TimeShock plus 3 others) on Amazon.com for $6.29 delivered.

Thanks for the tip!

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

BIG UPDATE!  Now that the 4th coat is dry, I was able to put together the guts of the system.  Here is what the inside look (pre-monitor installation so you can see):







Here is a closeup of the rear switches.  The chrome one is the push-button power switch, the black one is the PC's power button, and the red one is the reset button.



And here it is all put together:









I JUST got done doing this about 15 minutes ago, and I seem to have a small problem.  After it is on for about 10-15 minutes it just turns off.  I think it may be a heat problem, I will have to look in to it.  If so, I can add a few cooling fans, but I hate the thought of drilling or cutting it now that it is painted.  Argh!

We'll see - I'll let you know what the deal is once I figure it out for sure.  I'm going to install a CPU Temp. program and see if that is it.  The MOBO is set to power down if it starts to overheat.

What a pain.

- DigDreams

[Cameronj]

Looking awesome! You have really been progressing rapidly!

As for the shutting off, I had this happen a while ago. The problem was there was too much power being consumed by all of the devices in the Power Supply for the PC and the voltage to the MB would dip and the MB would shut off as a protection measure. Just a thought.

[vrf]

I'd say it's definitely a heat problem, as you have no airflow through the box at all. Your PSU isn't even moving hot air out of the box since you have the vent fan trapped inside. You need to get hot air out of the box. The cool air will come in through cracks and such (or smaller holes), but you really need a fan or two up top to bleed that hot air out. Run a duct from the PSU fan to the outside, too.

[DigDreams]

Yeah, it's heat.  I added some vents on the back, two fans connected to the exhaust vents, and one in front of the CPU and it is now stable.  I have the control panel "cracked" about a 1/2 incjh right now and it's holding steady at about 145 degrees.

I just ordered two Antec 72cfm fans from NewEgg.  I think that will solve it for good.  I'll post pix of the new vents tomorrow.

- DigDreams

[arcadefever]

  that CP look great  well done , the art on that cab is out of this world 

[DigDreams]

It turns out that my CPU temp isn't that far off.  The Athalon XP 2400+ is one of the hottest running CPU's out there.  It's max temp is 85c or 185f.  I am used to Intel CPU's which run much cooler (my 2.8 P4 is running at 104f right now).  I want to be on the safe side though, so the extra fans should keep it well under 150f.

I have to do a little touch-up painting now that I drilled a grid of 70 holes in the back.  Once I get it done I'll upload another pic.  I have a ton of things to do this weekend, so I'm not sure when I will get to it.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

I made up a "test trackball mount" to determine all of the exact positions of everything before I cut the main control panel.  Here is how I mounted it:



Pretty simple, just some nuts & bolts.  Here are top and rear views.



If you are wondering, the arrows where my notes after making adjustments to the mounting holes.  They had to be right on to get the ball to line up, so once I took it apart, I didn't want to forget which side of my "enlarged mounting holes" to use.  It took a little tweaking to get everything right - glad aI did a test panel first.



I used pvc washers to insulate the board, and you can also see here the "lightsaber pens" I am cutting up to make the buttons.  These will be lit from inside with LED's.



After a little dremeling of the back to slope the inside of the track ball hole, it really works well.



As you can see below, the ball sits nice and high.  I hate trackballs that barely come up over the CP.



I have the main CP all marked now and ready to cut.  More updates soon!

- DigDreams

[miles2912]

I don't think bartops come much nicer than yours.  Great work.  When I was looking at the design I thought there might be a heat issue.  Good to see you have resolved it.

D-

[Zeosstud]

I think for an original Bartop that is amazing.  I am currently working on my bartop and even when its done it wont looks nearly as cool as this one.  Hell I might not even post a pic now, I mean why be shamed :-)

I do have an idea / suggestion / thought  The speakers out the sides just dont work for me, how about backing them up about .5 inchs and putting some kind of super cool grill in front of em??

Great Work, cant wait to see it all drilled out and finished.

Zeosstud

[DigDreams]

I think for an original Bartop that is amazing.  I am currently working on my bartop and even when its done it wont looks nearly as cool as this one.  Hell I might not even post a pic now, I mean why be shamed :-)

I do have an idea / suggestion / thought  The speakers out the sides just don't work for me, how about backing them up about .5 inches and putting some kind of super cool grill in front of em??

Great Work, cant wait to see it all drilled out and finished.

Zeosstud

Thanks!

I actually went to alot of trouble to find speakers with exposed controls that I could recess.  These LabTec's were the best I could find.  The main reason is that I have the front bezel protruding with the volume, mute, and  tone controls as well as a headphone jack.  About 95% of the actual speaker is hidden, a little less than

[DigDreams]

UPS delivered my fans from NewEgg today.  WOW - These things are HUGE.  No wonder they move 72cfm of air.  They measure 4

[DigDreams]

The testing results for round #1 are in...

With the 4.5" fan in the back acting as an exhaust fan, all of my buttons plugged in the CP, and three smaller fans running across the motherboard (blowing from the front of the MB towards the exhaust fan) I am sitting at a steady 135f.  If I pop out the pinball buuttons it will drop down to 130f. 

It's making a hell of alot of suction, so I may drill a row of vent holes arosss the front at the very top.  These would be under the

[versapak]

Add the top fan, and make it blow air out. Change the bottom fan to suck air in.

[DigDreams]

Ok,  I installed the top exhaust fan, and for now I am not changing anything else.  With all the buttons in I am sitting at a nice cool 126f after running for a little over an hour.  Looks good.

Next I am going to try removing the three small fans I have blowing across the mobo.  I can leave them if I have to, but it really makes the CP tight.  If I can remove them I will.

I am also going to try Versa's suggestion and reverse the rear fan (making it an intake instead of an exhaust) and see what that yields.

If I can't get the temp I want without the small fans, I may add the vents uner the CP.  If all else fails I can leave them in, but it makes the top row of buttons kind of tight inside - I will have to be careful which way they all face (in different directions to deal with the tight space).

I'll post more test results soon.  It takes about an hour and a half to really see if the temp is stable.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

Add the top fan, and make it blow air out. Change the bottom fan to suck air in.

I tried it like that, but it heated up fast.  Much better results with both fans as exhaust.  It Idles at around 131f now.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

Lots of progress today.  I got the CP done, except for the small trackball buttons, the pinball buttons, and the LED's.  Everything else is done.


Here is the back of the CP.  I had just enough room to squeeze everything in, it was a tight fit.



Here is the front of the CP with the artwork and controls installed.  It works great.  Programming the iPac was a breeze and everything worked first try.



And here is an updated front-view with the finished CP.



I am also adding an extra LED to the trackball that will be attached to the HDD light.  This way the trackball will "pulse" when the HDD is accessing.

I'll be doing the LED's, pinball buttons, trackbackball buttons, and putting in the button icon discs next weekend.  More pix will follow once I get it all lit up.

- DigDreams

[DigDreams]

Question:

Now that I have the iPac installed I have noticed a strange problem.  If I plug the regular KB & Mouse in to the Mobo, once I boot up - if I use the keyboard, the iPac stops responding.  Until I use the keyboard, the iPac works great.

If I plug the Keyboard into the iPac this problem goes away, but I don't like it like this.  I purchased a wireless KB & Mouse to go with this, and having to have the remote connnected to the iPac makes it hard to place where the wireless KB gets a good signal.

I am using my iPac with a USB cable right now.  Does anyone know a way around this?  Will it work better if I just get a PS2 cable for the iPac instead of the USB???

Any suggestions would be helpful.  Thanks!

- DIgDreams

[theCoder]

I'm not sure if you've settled in on your venting issues, but if you've got to add more holes, I'd recommend putting them in the bottom.  You've got a beautiful cab going, more holes and plates will be distracting.  On my project, I put one 3" fan blowing in within 1" of the CPU and about 20 half inch holes in the bottom for exhaust.  No one will ever see the holes in the bottom, and you can barely hear the fan.

Regarding the speaker... I second the recommendation of Zeosstud.  The volume, mute, and headphone stuff are just mounted on one edge of a printed circuit board (PCB) inside one of the speakers.  If you take a screwdriver to it, you'll find it is pretty simple in there.  You could put a small slot in the back bottom and expose the edge of the PCB.  I did this on my current project (PartyBox) and it turned out well.  I've attached a few pictures.  In the first, you can see I've got two small boards (lower left and right) holding various I/O, one of which is the volume pot I hacked into the amplifier PCB.  The second picture shows the slots in the back of the cab.  If you're not comfortable with this idea, pick up a pair at a garage sale or Goodwill (I paid $2 for mine) and rip them apart.  The worst case is you'll blow a few hours and possibly learn something along the way.

I'm currently having a problem with my IPac-2.  After a few hours of debugging it, I wrote Andy at Ultimarc.  He had me run a few tests, I sent him the results, and he is now sending me a new unit.  I'm not sure if you got one from the same batch or something.  Your problem sounds different however.  In my case, I was having problems programming it.

Sounds like we're both on the finishing stages of our projects.  Keep up the good work.

[DigDreams]

I'm not sure if you've settled in on your venting issues, but if you've got to add more holes, I'd recommend putting them in the bottom.  You've got a beautiful cab going, more holes and plates will be distracting. 

Wow.  That is the single most valuable piece of advice I have gotten thus far.  I can't believe I didn't think of venting the bottom.  I feel like an idiot, but thank you big time. 

That's the second great piece of advice you have given me - you ROCK!  I got the four pack from Amazon for $6.29 delivered: Pro Pinball: The Web, TimeShock!, Fantastic Journey, and The Big Race.  I found No CD hacks for all of them.  You can actually get "The Web" off of freeloader.com for free, but I am not going to laod that one up.  It's the first in the series and does not allow remapping of the keys.  It also is nowhere as good as the other three.

It's running an idle of 126f - 130f, but loaded it goes up to 140f - 148f.  It's within the limits, but too high for my taste.  My cab sits flat on the ground, so I'll puck up some "feet" for it and lift it up a

[Cameronj]

Good Idea on the HDD LED on the trackball! It looks great! I hope mine comes at least a bit close when finished. Wiring the LEDs has been a real pain!

My next project will be full sized and I won't have space issues to deal with. Wiring will go much better then!!!

[DigDreams]

No kidding.  Space is tight in these bartops.  I just barely had enough room for the iPac and the barrier strips!  A full size would be much easier, but this is good practice.

When I initially cut my side panels I didn't like the angle of the monitor, so I wound up recutting them.  With it being a bartop, at least I didn't waste any expensive materials.

Soldering LED's & Resistors now...  Cut, Solder, Heat Shrink...  Cut, Solder, Heat Shrink...  Cut, Solder, Heat Shrink...  Cut, Solder, Heat Shrink...  Cut, Solder, Heat Shrink...  ARGH!

- DigDreams