Off we go... there's a first time for everything. My Big Green machine

[Scumgriever]

Hi everyone.

This post is coming perhaps a little late as I got my cabinet a couple of months ago but have been at Uni so haven't really had much time to really work on the project.

I'll start at the beginning though. I've been obsessed with arcade games since I was in 4th grade and there was a Final Fight machine across the road from my school, then they got a Street Fighter 2 and my addiction was full blown. Back in those days I would plot with my friend about how we were going to get our own machine... of course we were 10 with parents who thought video game rotted the brain so nothing ever came of it.

I found mame a couple of years ago but made do with keyboard controls because the idea of building/converting a whole machine simple never occoured to me...

Then earlier this year my friend, while walking home drunk one night found, thats right found , a small sized SF2 champion edition machine sitting in a back lane with some trash. He carried it with another friend 2 and a half of the three kms home before he realised there were little wheels on the back. 
They got it home and pluggd it in. nothing on the monitor but all the sounds and controls work fine, we played a couple of blind games which got old prettly quickly.

Anyway, there's not two ways about it, I was jealous and my addiction was awoken.
He still hasn't fixed the monitor so I may end up with a machine before he does, even if it is MAME.

So, I jumped online and found this treasure trove of info and away I went.

I bought an old 26" LAI machine for $100 which I don't think was too bad. Its in great condition but the monitor was dead. (see pic, sorry I don't know how to embed the photos in posts)

It used to be a four player game that had been converted to a two player 4 button setup. The joysticks are MCA ones (my favourite) that work perfectly but the buttons will have to go.

I have no room at my place so had to take it to a friends workshop where it will stay untill it is finishd. This kinda sucks becuase I can only be there while he is, which isn't nearly as often as I'd like.

Anyway as I said that was during uni semester and I had to force myself away from it to have any chance of passing.

[Scumgriever]

So The first thing I did was have a wonder about the sentinel coin mech that came with it and the led controller which would be really cool to get working. I started to make some slow progress but it made my head hurt and in the grand scheme of things it is just a detail. coin operation can wait.

Next was figuring out what to do about the monitor, I know nothing about fixing them so ended up just getting rid of the one that was in there. deciding instead I would put a TV in.

That hasn't been nearly as easy as I had hoped. Mostly just because I had no money to buy a TV so I've been cruising the council cleanups of the richer areas and nabbing all the TVs that have been left on the curb by richies who are upgrading to flatscreens. While this method ended up getting me 6 fully working TVs for free, Only one of them was a reasonable size to fit in my cabinet. 4 were too big would you believe it.

Of the other 2 one was only about 17" of so and just looked rediculously small in the big ass cab. The other one had great hulking speakers on the side so wouldn't fit in.

I ended up having to decase the TV which I really didn't want to have to do seeing as I have VERY little experience with their insides. I took it to a TV guy near me and asked him to discharge it. Which he happily did for $10 but he couldn't understand what I was doing no matter how much I tried to explain it, there were some language difficulties.

So I took my TV home and pulled of the case feeling confident that I was nice and safe.

As it turned out it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. All the PCBs were neatly attached to an easily removable plate .

The TV was a smidge to small but once I attached a couple of metal brackets it was simply a matter of sitting it in the frame from the original monitor. (first pic)

The wires to the PCBs didn't allow alot of play but there was a convenient sheat of metal hanging in  just the right place so I screwed the plate they were attached to to that. (second pic)
Yay.

It looked good and I was happy but when I tested the bezel, it sat much too high, I figured it'd be a bit big but aparently the Arcade monitor that had been in it sat further forward on its brackets.

Easily fixed. I just cut a few chunks of wood angled at one side and sat the monitor on that. (third pic)

Mow for the bezel, it fits much better now but is still a little big.
Any ideas about how to fill in the gaps between the screen and the slightly wider edges of the bezel? sorry, I don't have a pic.

[Scumgriever]

Ok, I wen't is today with the original bezel that was in it, not very hopeful as it was from a monitor that was an inch or two bigger than the TV thats in there now.

But lo and behold it was a great fit... not perfect but great all the same.

I had quickly tested it before the monitor had been raised onto the blocks  (see the last post) and it looked as if there would be a hughe unsightly gap all the way around.

Now that the TV screen is sitting higher the bezel rests on it leaving no gap in some places and at max about 5mm in others which should easily be fixed with some sort of black putty...
On that note, any suggestions?

I also screwed a bit of wood in place to stop me from  accidently falling into the naked insides of the TV when i'm mucking around in the back.

I left my camera behind when I went in but will add pics tomorrow.

[javeryh]

Looks good so far - you did a nice job mounting the TV in there.  As for the bezel, Maybe you could get some double sided tape to siick it down to the monitor edge where there is the 5mm gap?  Putty seems kind of messy.

[Scumgriever]

Good idea, but the gap is horizontal. The right edge of the screen ends a few mm before the bezel starts. I'll get a pic tomorrow to show you.
I am worried about the putty lookig messy though. any other ideas?

[javeryh]

Oh, OK - I get it.  I'd put some black electrical tape on the edge of the monitor screen - it should be wide enough to cover a 5mm gap.  Then I'd place the bezel ON TOP OF the tape.  All you would have to do is get another piece of tape or something and secure the edge of the electrical tape that's hanging over the monitor edge (but now underneath the bezel) to the bezel somehow from behind.  See my crappy drawing for hopefully a better explanation.  You could get a really crisp edge with the electrical tape if you are careful.

[Scumgriever]

I'd put some black electrical tape on the edge of the monitor screen - it should be wide enough to cover a 5mm gap. 

PERFECT! 

Thats exactly the sort of idea I was looking for, I agree that the putty wouldn't look any good. I was thinking somthing similar with cardboard but tape I think would look better... as long as I get it right.

**EDIT**
I've got some photos with the bezel on plus a couple of others but need time to get them onto this computer.

[Scumgriever]

OK, got a little more work done today.

First off I apologise for the pic quality, my camera died so I'm having to resort to my phone.

First things first here are pics of the bezel I promised.

This is how the bezel it sits naturally, there is a very small but still unacceptable gap on each side (left & right) but like this the top and bottom sit far enough over the screen but don't quite touch.


I'm going to stick these down with a little double sided tape but doing this bends the bezel slightly pulling the left and right edges out even further.


Image(509)This is how it is sitting without any tape or anything.


Do you think the tape will look ok even though it has to go up a slight angle. I will probably support it with some cardboard but I'm still a little worried.

BTW I'm spraying the bezel black as we speak, don't worry about niggly things like finding simpsons sky blue elecrical tape. I'm actually a little fond of the blue but with a green cab and black and red controls it was all going to be a little much I think. The finish on the green outside of the machine is actually really nice and I don't want to hurt that so the bezel loses.


I also tidied up the TV insides a little. Im not ashamed to admit that the inside of the TV scares me a little. I (strangely enough) have an aversion to being electrocuted, though it still seems to happen anough. When I was little I was in England and i don't know if its still the case but the wall sockets there had no on/off switch, any way long story short I was trying to pllug a lamp in in the dark using my finger to line the socket and the plug. I got ZAPPED and flung clear across the room. The light turned on in time for my mum to see me sailing into the wall. I was ok luckily enough. Anyway the tv is still discharged and I have no idea yet if i've killed it in the process of sticking it in the machine but want to get everything organised completely before its 'loaded'.

Handilly enough, the controls used to tune the TV (scan, store & clear) were on a handy little PCB on wires that were way longer than they needed to be. The IR reciever was the same. I slipped them through between the tv and the frame and screwed them down.


I lined the IR reciever up with the credit hole already there that used to be the credit display (a feature I eventually want to have on my machine but has been put in the too hard bin for now.)



I really like the idea of having the IR reciever acessible, I'm now planning to wire new speakers up to the TV either instead of or to compliment the computer speakers that will probably be in there. So that will give volume. Also just to save me from fiddling around inside unnecessarily for tuning and such after the bezel and glass is on.

On that note. Can you get a fisheye type lens for IR recievers, as it is a little set back from the hole the angle that it will work at will be severly limited otherwise.

I also built one of the automatic powersrtips a la Spystyles instructions and bought a bikini light, (dont blame me thats what it says on the box), its just a 13W flouro designed to go under receptionists desks and such. I installed a regular power cord into the light going through a hole I drilled in the screwed it into in the panel for the marquee plugged everything in and YAY!   The light turns on when I power up the computer. I love it when things go right.  To be fair, I already knew the power strip worked but still.



Final achievement for the day was finding out that my control panel is removeable. Everything else on this cab is screwed nailed and glued anywhere they could find a surface to glue, so when I unscrewed two bolts and lifted the CP off in one simple motion you could have blown me down with a feather.



 Thats sure going to make working on it a heck of a lot easier.

[Scumgriever]

I also screwed a panel in place to keep me from accidently falling into the back of the TV.

This sits behind the removable back panel which still fits on a-ok.

[Scumgriever]

I mentioned that I was spraying the bezel black. thats all done and looks good. I was worried that Id lose some of the texture that was there but it mad no difference whatsoever, it's just black now.



I used 'flat black' paint from a can. It's not too shiny not to dull.

[Scumgriever]

Ok so i've decided to make a keyboard tray to sit under the CP i had abandoned the idea, not wanting to destroy my cab but not that I know its removable I'm back on it. Severely limited by space (if I lift it up too much it looks silly and the CP covers the coin slot)but wanting to keep everything neat; im going to put a touchpad in.



I get kind of engrossed in working so keep forgetting to take progress pics. I mostly end up with before and after shots, but i'm getting better.

I've made the tray part for the keyboard, I actually have very minimal metalworking skills and found the nice little tray sitting in the scrap metal bin at mascot steel for $1/Kg

I bought a L-shape piece of metal from bunnings, used my friends grinder to cut it to size and drilled holes for the rivets in both.

The holes didn't 100% match up despite my best efforts and were only just big enough for the rivets so I had to hold the L-shape in place and open up the holes with the drill to make them even.

After that it was a couple of pops with the rivet gun and we're on our way.


I've also bought, cut and started spraying the wood for the externally visible parts.

I did 3 coats of both undercoat and 'Satin Black' spray from a can sanding in between each with 360 and 1200 grain paper. which look like they're coming up nicely, although I sprayed the last layer on a little thick and got a couple of lumps so am probably going to do it again.
The satin black looks very similar dry and wet so it gets hard to tell.

[Scumgriever]

With a little time to work on my machine over the new year I managed to get the majority of construction done on my control panel.

It wasn't easy though. The panel that came with my machine had a metal top so I decided to keep it as authentic as possible and keep the metal. I wouldn't call that a mistake but it didn't make life easy.

I'm not used to working with metal and ended up going through 3 drill bits before getting the job done.

I got the metal plates cut to size at the metalwroks that I picked them up from but for specific shape and holes they only had an expensive to use plasma cutter so I decided to do it myself.

First things first though I threw my plans up here and got some advice which set me on having a 4-way instead of a trackball purely on design issues.

I then printed up a full sized template of my cp which I stuck to some cardboard and mounted my controlls to to road test them.

I found that the joysticks wre a little far from the buttons on P1 & P2 so fixed that up and grabbed my trusty jigsaw. I used the original panel to get the shape of the panel and cut the corners to shape.

Next up I got a fullsized print of my template on 1 sheet of paper done at Kinkos for accuracy and stuck it to the metal cutout.

Drilling the holes wasn't fun but I think that is because: a) I used the wrong type of bit at first and;
b) I tried to do it too fast. (the metal gets hot and the drill bit dies even faster.)

the pic of the three drill bits are the ones I used at first upon reccomendations from the guy at bunnings.

the first two I used to start the holes and get them exactly centred and the cone shaped one was to open the holes up to size. after diong three holes though the cone shaped piece was having a hard time cutting anything and I swapped it over for a hole saw type piece which I didn't get a photo of.  That worked much better until the last hole where it gave up the ghost, this was from it getting to hot I think, I was getting a bit excited.
I picked up another bit and finished the hole.

I used a drill attachment that i found in the garage which seemed to be meant for smoothing metal and worked a treat.

after a quick clean of the metal I stuck the overlay on and slit it over the holes.

I pulled the overlay around the sides and through the holes to keep it from peeling up in the future.

Yay, what do you think?

I've left if black on advice that this overlay stuff doesn't take paint well, but fans of artwork never fear. I'm making a second top piece up which will be painted at my friends car airbrushing shop, when he gets around to it... for now I'm happy.

I've got most of the wires on the controlls too. I kind of lucked out of that one. the panel I got with the machine was 2 players with 4 buttons each, i ended up just using the wiring from those controlls for P3 & P4 and I bought a wiring kit from OzStick when I got my butons. In total wiring the buttons relatively neatly, not screwed to the IPAC yet, took about 20 mins. I used to do quite alot of wiring in an old job and wasn't looking frward to tis phase but it was almost a case of blink and you've missed it.

[Scumgriever]

A couple more pics for the last post.

[Scumgriever]

Ok, I've been knee deep in wiring and solder over the last couple of days wiring up my controll panel and the box to house my IPAC to make the swapable controll panel doable.

I'm putting the IPAC4 in a box wired up to a couple of 25 pin connectors and a 9 pin connector. The controll panel that I build for the cab will then have 25 pin printer cable outputs that can easily be plugged in. I just sit the panel on the shelf slide the cables in through the holes and plug them in. Of course its still all unfinished and untested but I'm well on the way and what I've done so far seems to be working.

The extra 9 pin connector is for the credit buttons which are mounted to the cabinet and wont be swapped with the control panel. I got all the parts ther than the IPAC from Jaycar.

1 project box
2 25 pin connectors (not the proper name) printer cable type.
1 9 pin connector
1 male to male 25 pin cable
1 male to male 9 pin cable
 and a bunch of wire.

Ok so first up I cut the holes for the connectors in the box. I drilled a hole to start and then used a jigsaw, which turned out really nice and snug. I sat the connectors in their holes and drilled the side holes for the screws that hold them in place. I also drilled two 11mm holes for the PS2 cables.

Next I soldered a wire to each of the pins of the conectors, and glued four feet for the IPAC to stand on to the box.

after all that it was time to organise which wires went where and remember the configuration. remembering isn't a strong suit of mine so I relied on layout.

the pins go

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12  13
 14 15 16 17 18 19 20  21 22  23  24  25


and I dividead then left to right to be P1 on the left and P3 on the right, and P2 and 4 on the other connector. Leaving the pinouts as follows.
P1 & P3  Pin   P2 & P4
1 RIGHT  1    2 RIGHT
1 LEFT   14   2 LEFT
1 UP     2    2 UP
1 DOWN   15   2 DOWN
1 SW 1   3    2 SW 1
1 SW 2   16   2 SW 2
1 SW 3   4    2 SW 3
1 SW 4   17   2 SW 4
1 SW 5   5    2 SW 5
1 SW 6   18   2 SW 6
1 SW 7   6    2 SW 7
1 SW 8   19   2 SW 8
START 1  7    START 2
3 RIGHT  20   4 RIGHT
3 LEFT   8    4 LEFT
3 UP     21   4 UP
3 DOWN   9    4 DOWN
3 SW 1   22   4 SW 1
3 SW 2   10   4 SW 2
3 SW 3   23   4 SW 3
3 SW 4   11   4 SW 4
START 3  24   START 4
GND      12   GND
GND      25   GND
GND      13   GND

Except I accidently wired 12 and 13 around the wrong way on the second connector. no problem though seeing as I picked it up in testing.

I havent wired up the cables to the controls yet but the rest of the control wiring is done as is the box.

[Kaytrim]

Nice setup on your encoder box.  That should make swapping out your control panels a snap.  Get yourself a Drill Doctor to sharpen your drill bits as you go.  You throw away a lot of money when you throw out a dull bit.  I have one and I have saved enough money by resharpening my bits to pay for the Drill Doctor several times over by now.  You can pick up one at most large home improvement stores. 

These don't sharpen the spade bits or hole saws but it is still well worth the money.