First Cab: HydroCade [Button Layout and Lighting]

[paigeoliver]

I am pretty sure it takes a lot more power to turn fridges on and off all the time than it does just to leave them running.

[webgeek]

Can't keep the fridge running all the time because it won't last long. Apparently it's not meant to run full time without problems. When it does die, it will be the fan that goes. I'll replace that fan with a better one but I'd like to delay that as much as possible. Thanks!

Mike

P.S. No beer in the fridge, just Mt. Dew

[wj2k3]

Actually, it will probably be the power supply that goes first. 

I have had two of these and on both it was the external power supply that died.

These work with a peltier and a basic computer case fan, so leaving them on all the time shouldn't be a problem. 

I actually mounted one of these into the front of an old computer case that i had painted red and slapped a Coke emblem on the side.

[webgeek]

Power supply huh? Any idea of the voltage? I can run it off my "light" power supply...

Thanks!

Mike

[nullb0y]

those are 12 volts i belive i actually hacked one to an old cpu and overclocked it i forgot they created moisture lol bye bye pc

[Bones]

<bumpers>

Any further progress on this project?

[webgeek]

Not as much as I'd like. I've picked up all of my buttons (transparent) and my LED Wiz along with a good batch of RGB LEDs. I'm now working on making it so the buttons can change color based on the game you are playing at the time (among other things). The real hold-up is getting the water to flow under the control panel properly. I haven't quite figured that out yet. I'll get around to posting some pictures soon

Thanks for the interest!

Mike

[webgeek]

Believe it or not, this project is still alive! After changing jobs and schedules a bit, I'm now working 4 days a week and have a lot more time to work on the cabinet. To that end I've created all the button collars needed to light up the buttons. I posted how the buttons looked in another thread a long time ago:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=50726.0
But that was a prototype, I've now created collars for every button (and done a much better job this time around). I've also ordered all the RGB LEDS I need for the project (50 of em currently).

[Crafty]

Good to hear your still going..

I like your unique approach to cabinet building.
Keep up the good work...

[webgeek]

I like your unique approach to cabinet building.

Talentless?

And for some promised pictures. This is a button with the collar on it. The LEDs go in the holes, one on each side:


I had a hell of a time drilling the stupid collars at first, they are too flexible and would "squish" as I drove the bit so I created a jig to help out. I detail the jig here (same thread I referenced in my last post):
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=50726.0

Have fun!

[webgeek]

Ugh, two weekends of long and painful work to only come up with a medicore result

Basically, I needed to create a way to wire up my RGB LEDs and avoid making too much of a mess. I decided to copy Randy's ( of Groovy Game Gear fame) idea for little circuit boards. I'm too cheap to do it properly and so I just used some prototype perf board from Radio Shack and a mess of soldering. Here are some pictures...
Front


Side


Back


These little beauties (all 60 of them!) work perfectly. They just took forever to create. Then I mated them up with the collars I posted in my last update:

One view


And another


Again, works perfectly, the buttons light up nicely even in a bright room and all is right in the world. Until I actually put everything together in a prototype layout. Here is the button layout I wanted to use:


Seems to work well, feels comfortable to me too. Now the bad news:

All this work and when I try to put the collars on the buttons, they bump into eachother and prevent me from laying them down properly. This in turn causes an uneven lighting problem. I'm not sure where my original thoughts were wrong, but this doesn't work at all. The collars are a bit too big with the proper button spacing and with the lights on there it's even worse.

So much work for nothing. Pretty depressing. 

[MikeDeuce]

Ouch!

You've probably considered all alternatives by now, but what if you cut some flat pieces off the sides and arranged them like so: