My Project: "Black Mame"

[generis]

I decided to join the madness of BYOAC and after approval of the misses    i started to make my plan. I will keep you guys  informed about the progress, offcourse all ya'll feedback is welcome.

First i had to think of a name... i came up with "Black Mame". Why??? because he will be all black. Black cabinet, black controlbuttons, black joysticks, black coindoor etc... The only thing that won't be black will be the T-Molding. My supplier in Germany didn't had the black T-Molding in stock so i had to place my order because i couldn't wait to get started with the project. So be it, it will have a golden T-molding finish.

The stuff i already collected...

21 inch Dell flatscreen, ready for demolision


Pioneer receiver  (As a former DJ i had to install the best of the best sound.. )


4 x 3-way JBL carspeakers, 2x 2-way pioneer carspeakers and last but not least... a 300 Watt Magnat subwoofer. im not sure if i gonna use all speakers... 


Look at that size of the subwoofer hopefully it will not create to much "bad" vibes...



You see those huge airholes? OMG!! 

[Chapel]

Sounds cool with the Gold T-Molding, maybe you can add more gold to it somehow.


Chapel

[TOK]

I did a similar cab, totally black including the t-molding. The only thing not black on it at this point are the buttons, and I put Sky Soldiers art on it. I love the blacked out look. 

[generis]

i like to see some pics? or are they 

[TOK]

Here ya go... I didn't want to impose on your thread. I fixed the light leak at the speakers, but still need to get a marquee. That old thing about not making it playable until the rest is 100% done gets me every single time. 

[generis]

It looks like im building a simalar cabinet, hopefully my cabinet also looks so nice at the end. How did you patched the light leak? Im curius... furthermore im interested in some specs of your cabinet. Did you document it in anyway so i can take the old peek over the shoulder?

[generis]

I placed my order of arcade stuff by: http://www.arcadeshop.de/ i think it is a good supplier in europe of many arcade parts. I will let you know how they did the delivery and if its any good. So far i placed the order in there online webshop and made a bank transfer in advance (2% discount... hey, im a dutchie i get it... ) After they received my payment it should be delivered in 2-3 working days, hopefully this week...

some parts needed for a complete and working coindoor:

a lock



a coindoor it self (no lock and coin mechanisme included)


Coin mechanisme



Coin electronic switch



Black buttons, i orderd 20 pieces (6 per joystick = 12 pieces, 4 general, 4 sidebuttons for pinball games, 2 spare or for something custom in the future, ring a bell or something  )


Offcourse 1 and 2 player buttons. Yep! Black ones.




2 Joysticks type magic-s, there magic... it works with a magnet for centering the joystick back in the middle. Important to know is that this is a 4- and 8-way joystick, you can flip a switch on the bottom of th stick. The difference is that games with only 4-ways like pacman only need up,down,left,right. Games like streetfighter or mortal combat need more ways, 8-ways; up,down,left,right,left-up,right-up,left-down,right-down.  So a detachable solution is needed for the Control Panel to operate the 4-/8-way switch. I let you know if this stick is really magic!


Golden T-molding finish, about 15 meters, just to make sure i had enough.


Some airvent grills...don't know if i need them, i orderd them just in case it's getting hot in there...


220V connecter for the powersupply inside


The iPac2, suitable for 2 joysticks, 6 buttons each joystick and 4 general buttons. more info: http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

[TOK]

It looks like im building a simalar cabinet, hopefully my cabinet also looks so nice at the end. How did you patched the light leak? Im curius... furthermore im interested in some specs of your cabinet. Did you document it in anyway so i can take the old peek over the shoulder?

I used black poster board around the speaker enclosures to prevent the light from coming through. The reason I had that in the first place is that the cab originally only had one center speaker. The cab itself is a Dynamo that original came with a 25" monitor.

Here is my original build thread, though the updates kind of fizzled out when it was 95% done. 
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52344.0

[rackoon]

I need that metal airvent grill sheet. Where did you get it? And where did you buy your power intake modual?

Oh, and by the way, I also have a car stero system going into my cab. Gotta love a cab with a thumping stero system backing it up.

[generis]

I placed my order of arcade stuff by: http://www.arcadeshop.de/

[generis]

Jippiiiii!! I received my stuff from the arcadeshop. Everything i ordered was there and it came in a nice cardboard box. So thumbs up for the arcadeshop. Except that the website suggest they deliver in 3-5 workingdays...it was more like 3 weeks!!  :angry:But better late than never we say in the Netherlands. Offcourse i inspected every product i ordered and i have to say all stuff looks nice except the grills i orderd. I think there to small and i don't know yet where i could use it for.

Immidiatly i started to make my own control panel, i used the cardboard box from the arcadeshop for my first test setup. I cut some holes in cardboard box and placed the buttons and joystick. Then i wired all the stuff making use of the 1 cabel connects  all ground pins technic. Connected the cables to the IPAC2 interface and hooked up the cable into the keyboard port on my PC. First it didn't do anything....   I thought it was plug and play? After a reboot the PC reconized the new interface and it was ready for action. I fired up my mame emulator and tested my first cardboard box CP..... it works like a charm.

The crappy cardboard box CP test setup 


Wiring the buttons and joystick


the 1 cabel connects  all ground pins technic.


To strip the cables like this i used the lighter from arcadeshop    to melt the insulation. I pulled it of with my fingers while it was still hot, i know... it was the quick and dirty way...






Connected to IPAC2 interface


Now i have to think about the measurements to actually build the mame cabinet. I am thinking of keeping it as clean and simple as possible. I think ill have a go for the modern look of the cabinet. It will be easier to cut out straight pieces instead of round edges.

Modern look




Retro look

[mchay]

You aren't worried about using car speakers on a home receiver? Don't they have different resistance requirements?

[Sain]

Cool, looking project. I'm also thinking about building an all black cabinet so i'm looking forward to seeing this developed.

[generis]

You aren't worried about using car speakers on a home receiver? Don't they have different resistance requirements?

Not really, home speakers are 8 ohm and carspeakers are useally 4 ohm. If it was the other way around your caramplifier will need more power to get the same result. If you use more power the distortion will be increasing. The setting i use will be needing less power of the amplifier and therefor there will be less distortion.

Testcase: I hooked up the speakers to the amplifier and the sound is really great to my opinion. Especially the subwoofer produces a super heavy bass, if i punch somebody in Mortal Combat it produces a heavy sound. You can almost feel it in your own fist.   For the record i will be placing some jackplugs (2 pieces) for headphones use in case my wife gets a little crazy of her vibrating eardrums from those Mortal Combat punches     Maybe i will try to place some 4 ohm resistors to the speakers so the resistance will be corrected to 8 ohm as it should be in the first place.

[generis]

I managed to mount the different pieces together for the coindoor. It looks great but i had some LED's with no use yet, so i had a creative idea to integrate them somehow in to the coinmechanism. The result looks great i think and you will be able to see where to put those coins in the dark 







The past few weeks i have been busy downloading emulators and roms. I installed all kinds of emulators and tested them out with my first test CP setup. When i got the stuff all figured out my old pc witch i wanted to use for the mame cabinet died on me... That will be some extra costs unfortunaly...

Today i bought some wood, i have chosen for 18 mm MDF. In the store the wood was pre-sawed according my measurements. This will garanty that the main pieces of wood are cut out straigt. Later i will cut out the details pieces.



Then i placed 1 side piece on the floor and i measured and drawed on to the wood until i was satified with the end result. You need to make sure alle measurement are ok, once you cut out the pieces there is no turning back. I also bought some fixation tools to make sure the 2 side pieces will not move during the sawing.

[phishpac]

led's look great.  i like your project.

[generis]

Today i started to cut out the detail pieces and putting it all together.



For the bottom i used some thicker and tuffer wooden beams for a solid and stable base. Maybe i will place some wheels in the future.



I moved on with the build and started to create another solid and stable base for the placement of the 21 inch monitor. This monitor is pretty heavy and i want to make sure that i do this the right way. First i placed the support beams, then i placed some extra metal support brackets just to make sure. When the wooden shelf was placed it stil bended a little so i made some extra support in the middle, that did the trick and now i had i solid base.











I thought i would be nice to have a kind of draw with my keyboard and mouse in it. I will be using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, that saves lots of wires.





I have to say once you get busy the build progress is making quick results. I was surprised that i finished the main framework at the end of the day. I managed to place the coindoor, it looks great! Tomorrow i will cut out the final holes for the speakers and the last pieces of wood. Then it will be ready for painting.

[generis]

Some update pics. Installed the speakers, some wood and front piece for the monitor.

[csa3d]

I'm curious to see how the monitor reacts to the speaker magnets being so close to it.  I used to have a little subwoofer on my 2.1 computer, and if you put that anywhere near the monitor, the monitor would freak out.  I've also seen the computer being too close to the monitor have the same affect before.  NO solutions, just questions to think about.

Looking good
-csa

[generis]

The monitor does not react to the magnets  thank god... You do need to keep the right distance when you install the speakers nearby the monitor. Test this before you build in the speakers!!

I did some artwork for the cabinet, its not finished yet but 90% done. I did "borrow" some art from http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/    Also very handy for the drill overlay plans, so you don't need to do all that trial and error measurements. I downloaded an overlay what looked similar to what i wanted for my layout. In photoshop i deleted and cut out the stuff i needed. The cut outs i pasted in a new document with the right measurements of my cabinet. After 3 trial and errors, (print out, adjust, print out, adjust, print out, adjust, print out)  i finally had the right measurements. After that i pasted some artwork to the background and added some text in it and played with different styles and effect of the text. The results are very nice, as i say so myself. Next up are the bezel, sideart and maybe the kickplate and front CP.

The Control Panel



The marquee

[generis]

I did a test print of the control panel design, the measurements are not exact but i did print it on 3 A4 papers because i don't have such kind of big printer in the house. For the test i printed it on the highest dpi possible on my cheap-ass printer. I used thicker paper than normal and the results (after 30 minutes of printing... ) are quit nice.



I drilled the cover plate of the control panel. It was almost perfect... The last 2 holes i needed to drill, i was a little to careful and the drill did not have enough speed so he did cracked up the cover plate a little  Lucky it was the player 2 section so i don't see it all the time    Maybe i fix this later, for know i wanted to make some progress and carried on with the build.



I was so happy when all the stuff of the control panel was put together, it took sometime but when you take enough time to do it right the results are fantastic. I did bashed some buttons and pretended i was playing streetfighter, immediately i experienced some deja-vu's of the good old times in the arcade hall.  I can't wait to play it real time...



I have cut out all the plastic coverplates; control panel, bezel and the marquee. Furthermore i cut some metal strips for a nice finishing touch around the monitor, marquee and also the bezel.



Also mounted some wooden beams to the back of the monitor plate so the monitor will stay more aligned in the center and in place, the monitor can't move anymore and is better fixated



Because you never cut something 100% straight, because you don't have the good and expensive equipment, i screwed? some screws at the end of the wooden beam. You can level the bezel and control panel with this simpel adjustment trick.



And then there was light!!  Installed the TL-light and hooked it up to the power juice. This is a 13 watt tl-light and i have to say, it blinds your eyes, hopefully when the marquee is placed the light reduces to acceptable light-eye-penetration. Lucky i have chosen a dark design marquee.



On the back i placed the 220 V female connector for the power supply, i will later install a illuminated power switch to make it complete.

[Zeosstud]

Where in Germany are you?  I am going to be in the Mannheim / Ludwigshafen / Worms area for the first 2 weeks of June and will really need a place to hide from the in-laws at least once, dont suppose your anywhere close??  I will buy the first round ( or 2 )

Zeosstud