Truecade's custom designed XM29 cabinet

[Truecade]

I've been looking for a reasonably priced NEC XM29 presentation monitor for the past year, and I finally found one!  For those who don't know, this is a 29" monitor that supports up to 1280x1024 SVGA resolution and also supports 15Hz authentic arcade resolutions. They cost a ton of money back in the late 90s, but now (if you can find one) people are practically giving them away due to their size and weight. 

So... that means it's time to build a new cabinet around this beast.  First, I designed the cabinet in AutoCAD.  I went with a pretty standard MAME design, with a removable back panel and keyboard drawer in front. 

The cabinet interior width will be 26", just slightly wider than the XM29 monitor.  The height will be just over 6" without casters. 


I also designed a control panel.  It will be a sloped 4 player panel (about 5 degrees from back to front) and include a 3" highball trackball.  The rectangle on the back is the interior width of the cabinet.  I started putting the CP together, and when it is sitting on the cabinet the side overhang looks just right for the cabinet's size. 



I already have the cabinet shell mostly built, but don't have build the pictures with me at the moment.  Lots more to come later tonight!


FYI, the monitor was $130 + $150 freight shipping. 

[BASS!]

I know you probably mulled it over, but I would recommend scooting the controls over just a little bit to bring your trackball further to the front of the panel. Reaching over player 2 joystick to play a rousing game of golden tee is going to get old. Also, I have witnessed what a trackball too close to either a flat surface can do to tender fingers .

[NickG]

Seconded on the trackball placement; you should probably do a few mock-ups or something - to make sure you like it as is- before finalization.  I am using an XM-2950, also.  They are great.  I bought two on ebay for about $200 each and picked them up locally.  I wanted a second after dedicating my cabinet's design to it and broke the first.  If I don't fix my first one soon, I might buy a third, working spare.

[Truecade]

Good advice on the trackball placement.  I'll see if I can move player 2 more to the right, but unless I make the CP even wider I'll need to leave the trackball near the middle.  It will be about 11" from the bezel and 9" from the front which should be good for most games.  (I'm not a Golden Tee fan  ) 

Here are some more pictures from last weekend when I started building the cabinet.  I'm using 3/4" plywood for the front/back panels and 5/8" particle for the sides. Why 5/8' for the sides?  Because I already have two sheets of black Wilsonart laminate and the 11/16" t-molding that fits perfectly.  I need to use up some of the stuff I have laying around in my garage.   

Here's the wood and my trusty table saw....



Here are the panels cut.....



I also have a few random pieces of parts express vinyl laminate from previous projects, so I'll be using this for the front panels.


The vinyl laminate sure is easy to apply and looks great....




Here is one of the side panels cut out.  I used my router and a trace bit to cut the second side.  The only thing more amazing than the versatility of a router is its ability to make a mess.
 

A few hours later and the cabinet is beginning to take shape!





That is all for tonight..... next up, mounting the speakers, front drawer, and cutting the control panel.  I did some preliminary artwork last night, and I think I will go with a space invaders theme.  Yeah, I know space invaders is over done, but I really like how it is coming out so far.  Here is a conceptual picture of the CPO without any modifications to the trackball placement. 

[Truecade]

It has been a long time since I updated this thread, but my cabinet has been done for several months.  I just thought I'd give a few final pics and some thoughts after playing this cabinet for the past 6 months. 

Final thoughts:

Design:
1) This is the largest cabinet design I have done due to the size of the monitor.  If I had to do it again, I would probably angle the monitor slightly less and reduce the depth of the cabinet.  The control panel sits out far enough that proximity to the large monitor would not be an issue. 
2) The shelf that the control panel rests on could be a little longer.  The CP is sturdy using 4 clips, but I think it could be a little better. 
3) The bottom panel could be a little lower.  I put red cathodes under the cabinet to give a glow effect, but there is only about 1/2" of clearance on the bottom and when the cabinet is on carpet you can't really see the glow. 

Components:
1) The 29" XM29 is the best monitor I have ever purchased and is perfect for MAME.  It does low res games 15Hz perfectly using Advmame, and can run 1024x768 or 1280x1024 interlaced.  I cannot get it to do 25Hz games, but I just play those at a higher res.  The fan on the back is loud, but when it is inside the cabinet it is not noticeable.  There are a couple low res games I can't seem to get work with Advmame.... but it's probably just my lack of knowledge.
2) The 3" high-ball trackball is nice, but mounting it was a pain in the arse. It has started to get rough when rolling, so it probably needs to be cleaned.  I didn't have any issues using the trackball in DOS.  (see next bullet)
3) I used a 933Mhz DOS PC to power this beast for a while, and while it worked great I miss some of the newer games. It was also a giant pain to configure certain games to work correctly with Advmame.  I used a 4GB compact flash card as the 'hard drive'.  This works well, but the load times are a little slower than I would like even when using a disk caching program and loading the MAME executable from a RAM drive.  I have since switched out to a C2D machine running windows XP. 

Other Thoughts:
1) Flushing mounting the trackball was a PITA, but well worth it.  The only issue is that the mounting plate has a rough surface and this slightly shows through on the artwork if you look closely.  Next time, I'll sand down the trackball mounting plate to get a smooth surface. 
2) Most of the panels are covered in laminate, and although this is expensive, in my opinion the durability is well worth the extra cost. 
3) I wish I had enough $$$ for side art!  I made some pretty cool space invaders themed side art in photoshop, but just can't bring myself to pay that much... yet.
4) I am pretty happy with the control panel.  I had a hard time getting the CP sides cut correctly since the CP is slightly angled, but in the end I am happy with the it.