Finally! building a cabinet from scratch

[theCoder]

If you haven't done so already.. DO NOT leave the joystick mounting bolts/plates above the CP!  ...Won't be that much more work to make a plexiclass CP cover

What he said!!!  Do a search on this site for Plexiglas and CP.  A lot of people have written it up.  I wrote up my experience on the PartyBox project (see reference below).  Go the extra mile and add some cool artwork and hide those screw heads.

Look'n good.

[MaMeNnO]

If you haven't done so already.. DO NOT leave the joystick mounting bolts/plates above the CP!

I would just go for the bolts, not the plates, noway! That way I could also easily remove the sticks without to break up the complete CP.

The CP is 18 mm (7/10") thick, so I have enough room to work with.

[theCoder]

How often do you think you will need to replace your sticks?  In my case, once installed, they've never come out.  But that's just my experience.  You're milage may vary.

[MaMeNnO]

If you haven't done so already.. DO NOT leave the joystick mounting bolts/plates above the CP!  ...Won't be that much more work to make a plexiclass CP cover

What he said!!!  Do a search on this site for Plexiglas and CP.  A lot of people have written it up.  I wrote up my experience on the PartyBox project (see reference below).  Go the extra mile and add some cool artwork and hide those screw heads.

Look'n good.

I just took a peek at your PartyBox. Man, that's a more than excellent write up!
I was planning on using plexiglas. Would that be sufficient? I mean, just plexiglas with artwork on it to hide everything (bolts/stick plate)?

How often do you think you will need to replace your sticks?  In my case, once installed, they've never come out.  But that's just my experience.  You're milage may vary.

You're right! I'm looking for excuses to do it some other way. Thanks for waking me up! 

[MaMeNnO]

Today I did some minor things. I couldn't do much, coz I haven't yet the stuff I ordered. The order is shipped. Early next week it should be delivered.
OK, what I did today. Fixed some strips to support the front glass plate. I don't know whats regular, but I did it myyyyyyy way... sorry bout that.
Also I bought a lamp for the marquee. I tested it with a advertising paper. It lit it enough. Not to much, coz I don't like wearing sunglasses during Elevator Action.
I also took the cabinet apart for the painting job. That way it can be done much easier.
The pictures...

The little support thingies. At the bottom the plate rests on a strip. The glass looks more clear on the photo then it really is. It has a bit of a tint. Not really dark, but I liked it this way. They called it 'bronzeglass'.


The lamp came without a wire, but my father in law had a spare wire that was connected.


The marquee lamp. It's a 13Watt TL.


Well, there it is. Ready to be painted.

[MaMeNnO]

Finally! The last parts for my cabinet arrived. 
Not much to update, but it is always fun to really touch the parts you ordered. The coinselector is fully mechanical. A small contact (top right, the little black thing with the wire) has to be screwed to it. When a coin is dropped in the selector it will fall through the wire. The switch will make contact and sends a signal to the KeyWiz which translate it accordingly.
The rest is much more straight forward, locks trumpet nets and CP clamps.

[MaMeNnO]

I don't know exactly how others are constructing the CP, but I'm planning on doing it like this:



The coverplate and plexiglass will be 3mm (3/10"). The sticks will be between the cp and the coverplate. The buttons will go through all layers. That way they will also clamp the plexiglass a bit, but not on the sides...

Questions:

1. Is this very common? Or am I completely going the wrong direction?

2. How should I attach the plexiglass? Can't use glue because you can see that through the
    plexiglass and makes things pretty ugly.

I like to hear what YOU have to say about this.

I should have checked the post of Timoe first! That gives a pretty good idea! 

[theCoder]

I'm no expert, with only one overlay CP build.  In my case, the top side was held down by the buttons.  The front edge is held down by friction with the t-molding.  Its working fine for me.

[MaMeNnO]

@theCoder: I'm thinking of putting a small bolt on each corner. There will be no t-molding on the CP, so no friction there.

Ok, time for a little update.

I've been busy with wiring the cardboard CP to look if it's all working. Well, it is working! I planned on wiring the whole CP, but I decided otherwise. So, one side of the CP was wired. The joystick was connected to the J1 inputs. I connected 3 buttons, instead of 6 and only the one player button was set to active.

The first time not all the buttons and the one player button were wired correctly. When that was corrected, I was in for a test round. Because I didn't wire a coin button and some admin buttons, I had to connect my keyboard now and then to be able to select a game and put in some credits. It was just a test, so it didn't bother.

The test brought to light that playing ms. pacman with an 8-way stick is... well, ---smurfy--- as hell! I really have to think about this, because I want to be able to play SFII also, but ms. pacman too! Also, I want to be able to play SFII in 2 player mode, so one 8-way and one 4-way isn't an option.

I'm actually thinking in maybe building a joystick myself. I think it shouldn't be that hard, but maybe there are here some people with an opinion about that.

2 weeks ago I bought a big monitor for the cabinet too! It's a 22" IIyama. I'm planning on making a frame and decasing it, so it can be connected to the cabinet.

Ok, some pictures...

Before the wiring...


It's a test, so i didn't bother myself with any soldering...


All ground wires put together...


I did bother myself with crimping some wires to the quickdisconnects...


The wires were put in a euro style terminalblock...


The keywiz with the self made connector was connected to the other end of the terminalblock...


Even when it wasn't hooked up to the computer, my daughter found it great to play with!


The monitor...


PIV 2,53 Ghz, 1G RAM, 80G HD, ASUS Ti4200 128Mb


Well, that's it for now. All the parts are primed and made ready for the real painting job. My father in law does a great job here I checked it out today and found that the nice furniture/stained like brownish finish is completely gone! When all painting is done, it will be white and black with red T-molding. I can't wait!

There will be also a coindoor on the front. No prefab kinda thing, a self made door, but... that's for the next update.

[theCoder]

 I wouldnt try to make a joystick.  You can pick up a switchable 4-way/8-way joystick.  Ultimarc.com has a great one that your switch by pulling up and rotating.  They get around $25 for them.  Good stuff.

[rolls rolex]

I'm confused, those Suzo's are switchable right? I know you had trouble finding out how to switch them but.... well like i said i'm confused  It's impossible to switch them?

[MaMeNnO]

@theCoder: What does BYOAC stands for?   besides, building your own joystick would be fun too!

@monkeyman: Yep, it's switchable, but not without opening the CP and that's unacceptable for me.

[rolls rolex]

Oh i see, so it's bad planning 
Just be sure that you like the look of 2 different joysticks on your cab. You might wanna think about getting 2 new ones. I don't think it will be a problem selling these Suzo's without a loss, add a couple of pushbuttons to make it an attractive package for Marktplaats (Dutch Ebay).

[AlanS17]

Finally! The last parts for my cabinet arrived. 
Not much to update, but it is always fun to really touch the parts you ordered. The coinselector is fully mechanical. A small contact (top right, the little black thing with the wire) has to be screwed to it. When a coin is dropped in the selector it will fall through the wire. The switch will make contact and sends a signal to the KeyWiz which translate it accordingly.
The rest is much more straight forward, locks trumpet nets and CP clamps.

Where did you find those speakers grills? How wide are they? I need to cover the speaker holes in cocktail cabinet, and those look almost perfect!

[rolls rolex]

Here Alan.

http://www.arcadeshop.de/product_info.php?products_id=435

[MaMeNnO]

monkeyman, that are the small ones. Look for these
http://www.arcadeshop.de/product_info.php?cPath=83_90&products_id=418
They are 11.2 mm (4 2/5") wide.

[rolls rolex]

Nothing new yet?  I've been waiting for updates for 2 weekends now  

[MaMeNnO]

Thanks for the interest!

Well, there are some things going on behind the scenes. The cabinet is going through a paint job right now. I haven't made any pictures yet... 

This week the final finish goes on and then I'll have to ship it from my father in law's place to mine. Then I have to carry it up two stairs where it's going to be assembled. The computer and monitor have to be build in. O wait, I'll put the T-molding on before that.

My control panel isn't ready yet. I have decided on the layout, but haven't printed it out and drilled any holes. The artwork is also still in progress. The CP and then the marquee artwork has priority now. I have tried some little things, but this takes longer because of the lack of experience with Adobe Illustrator. When I want to do something, sometimes I first have to find out how that can be achieved. Don't worry, I'm getting there.

I also came up with a name for the cab... Arcade Action!

[MaMeNnO]

Today I took a few pictures of the painted side, coindoor and the plate where the speakers go. The painted parts look really good, allthough when you look really close, you can see it is painted. The parts that were painted white, was done with a paint roller. First everything was primed and after that two layers were paint rolled. The paint has a gloss finish.

The black parts where done with spray paint, because only a relatively small part had to be done. The coindoor is made out of a piece of wood and a thin metal plate. Everything is glued together. A coinmech and lock (both silver metal look) will be fitted in the holes. The coinmech goes in the big hole...

The holes in the speaker plate will be covered with the trumpet nets (see pictures above somewhere).

Painted side...


Speaker plate...


Coindoor...


This weekend I think I can start to assemble everything (again), but then permanent.
As always, I'll keep you guys posted.

[MaMeNnO]

The coindoor is assembled! This week it was spray painted for the last time. Today I put in the coin selector and the lock. I really like the way it turned out.
Tomorrow I'll get the other pieces and then start to put it together again.

For now, some picture of the coindoor.

Front and side...
   

Other side and seen from above...
   

Wait! I also did some designing on the CP. Here is what I have so far, but I need some inspiration... quick!  Ignore the white border and tiny lines. They where just used as reference.



Wha'd ya think?

[leapinlew]

@theCoder: What does BYOAC stands for?   besides, building your own joystick would be fun too!

Then why bother buying a keywiz when you could build one?  I think what theCoder was saying is there are plenty of alternatives instead and that you may want to consider all your alternatives before you spend lots of money and waste lots of time. The Ultimarc 360 is looking to be an ultimate switch on the fly stick and worth checking out.

Sure it's Build Your Own Controls - but at some point, you decide to buy pre-fab stuff. Building your own buttons would be tough. 

[leapinlew]

2. How should I attach the plexiglass? Can't use glue because you can see that through the
    plexiglass and makes things pretty ugly.

See how your plexi fits. On my Control Panels - one of them needed some carriage bolts to hold down the plexi - my other one the plexi fits nice and flat and I can just use the buttons to hold them down. You drill out plexi before?

[leapinlew]

Wha'd ya think?

It's a great start. I like the blue and the red, I think you need something else to give it some visual interest. A grid or some additional artwork to provide some depth.

What about admin buttons like Pause, Credit buttons (could be useful since you only have 1 coin slot), and a dedicated quit button?

[MaMeNnO]

@theCoder: What does BYOAC stands for?   besides, building your own joystick would be fun too!

Then why bother buying a keywiz when you could build one?  I think what theCoder was saying is there are plenty of alternatives instead and that you may want to consider all your alternatives before you spend lots of money and waste lots of time. The Ultimarc 360 is looking to be an ultimate switch on the fly stick and worth checking out.

Sure it's Build Your Own Controls - but at some point, you decide to buy pre-fab stuff. Building your own buttons would be tough. 

Actually I planned to hack a keyboard, but after some research I wasn't sure I it would work fine. So, you're right at that point I desided to bye the KeyWiz Eco2. I also took the advise of theCoder and ordered two mag stick plus joysticks from Ultimarc.

2. How should I attach the plexiglass? Can't use glue because you can see that through the
    plexiglass and makes things pretty ugly.

See how your plexi fits. On my Control Panels - one of them needed some carriage bolts to hold down the plexi - my other one the plexi fits nice and flat and I can just use the buttons to hold them down. You drill out plexi before?

I didn't drill out plexi before. I think I should clamp the plexi between some wood and then use a drillstand to drill it out.

It's a great start. I like the blue and the red, I think you need something else to give it some visual interest. A grid or some additional artwork to provide some depth.

What about admin buttons like Pause, Credit buttons (could be useful since you only have 1 coin slot), and a dedicated quit button?

The one in the middle at the top will be used for the Shazaaam! function of the keywiz in combination with the other buttons. There will be a dedicated credit button, but that will not be part of the CP.

[leapinlew]

Cool... Let me know what you think of the magstiks. I didn't like mine that much - I do like the looks of the u360, but I don't want to spend the money right now to check it out.

Good luck on your build.

[theCoder]

Dont get me wrong, there are plenty of opportunities to create your own controls on these projects.  You just have to pick your battles. 

On the artwork, I would recommend a transition from blue to red at the center.  In Illustrator, I believe you have a lot of control over the transitions.  You could make it go from blue to red fairly tight and toward the center.  This would give you mostly blue on one side, then maybe about a 2 inch wide transition, then red on the other side.  You might also play with some 3-D features such as drop shadows and bezels.  There are tons of tutorials on the web for this stuff.

For admin buttons, on my last project I put in two large buttons for start and stop (enter and esc.) plus three small admin buttons (players 1 & 2 start and coin).  With the shift of player 1 start I had hidden buttons for 3 (player 3 start), 4, Y, N (yes & no for Windows dialog boxes), and P (pause).  Also, if you go with hidden button functions, make sure you document them somehow, either by labling the button or with a cheat sheet on the front glass.

Nice job on the coin door.

[MaMeNnO]

@theCoder: I took your advise (again ) aan did some tweaking a changing on the CP artwork. I experienced with dropshadows. It really gives the CP more depth. I'm also trying to make some graphics to give it a more visual interest, but that harder then I thought. I'll post some pictures this evening.

The cabinet is put together a the t-molding is in place on one side. I have to use some glue for a little part, because of the little incident with the router... I will never pull a spinning router out the t-molding groove again!

[MaMeNnO]

As planned everything was put together. The t-molding went really smooth... on one side. The other side with the little accident didn't come along to well  , but eventually that was solved. Not with glue, but with a piece of thin cardboard! I folded around the part that goes in the groove and I really had a hard time getting it in, but once it did, it didn't move.

A few more pictures

The marquee with the TL and speaker...


Painted and t-molded...






Speaker plate...


With the paint on and the t-molding in place, it starts to look like something...

[psychotech]

Well ....

"starts to look like something..."

Come on - That looks GRREEAAATTT!

[rolls rolex]

Very cool  I see there's enough room for a 2nd cab 

[MaMeNnO]

Thanks for the comments!

A second cab... I thought of that. Maybe a bartop. I think that's as much as my girlfriend will allow me to.
BTW the Suzo joysticks are on "marktplaats".

[MaMeNnO]

I've been playing around with Illustrator and came up with this...



I used Gaussian blur (around buttons and black graphic at the bottom), drop shadows (player I and II), 3D effect (stars), glowing (direction arrows) and some transition in colours (background and stars).

OK, your turn to give your opinion... or not  , but don't give critic without an alternative

[theCoder]

... don't give critic without an alternative

Oh, come on, I want to throw tomatoes with no strings attached.

[MaMeNnO]

Then you better do it when I don't look 

Now that I look at the artwork, it's not really Arcade like... but I do like the way it looks *sigh*

[javeryh]

I also ordered some more parts. Trumpet nets, CP clamps, coinslot-mech and locks. I expect them early next week...

Where id you get these?  How much?  And what's the diameter?  I need some round speaker hole covers for a pair of 2.5" diameter holes. 

Your cab is looking great so far - and very well documented!

[MaMeNnO]

Where id you get these?  How much?  And what's the diameter?  I need some round speaker hole covers for a pair of 2.5" diameter holes. 

Your cab is looking great so far - and very well documented!

Thanks, I do the best I can.
I've got them from...
http://www.arcadeshop.de/product_info.php?cPath=83_90&products_id=418

They are 11.2 mm (4 2/5") wide and $2.17 a piece

[theCoder]

I would have commented on this on my last post, but your image link was broke.  The stars are a bit distracting.  I would also play with trying to make the light blue borders around the buttons have a 3-d half round look.  This is done with inner & outer shadows and embossing features.  Much better than your original.

[MaMeNnO]

Today I tried a totally different style for my CPO. I love it more than the first one.

[quarterback]

Today I tried a totally different style for my CPO. I love it more than the first one.

Totally different look than your previous one!  I like it.  Looks kind of old-school arcade to me.  Reminds me somehow of the game "Carnival"

[rolls rolex]

This one looks way better no doubt about it, it looks more like a natural design. The other one looks more like a bunch of pictures put together. I really love the orange, yellow, blue that's a great combination and indeed more old school. But are you sure it will match the white/red cab and how about your black/yellow/red buttons?