Pinky McJuke - Believe it or not, work continues =)

[Franco B]

I did think about removing the center top and bottom LEDs or two at the diagonals of the screen but I have some nice LEDBlinky sequences planned and removing the LEDs would have messed with the planned effects. I've already sunk a fair bit of money into this project so I figured a little more wouldnt hurt. I wouldn't want to look back at the project and wished I had spent the extra time and effort.

[javeryh]

Franco - are you done with this thing or what???   

 

[Franco B]

I wish 

I've been busy with about 1,000,000 things as usual and I'm trying to get my workshop set up so I can continue with it properly. I've been painting the workshop floor but I ran out of paint but I'm having some more delivered tomorrow so I can get that done this week and then crack on and get it finished.

Updates soon I promise (if not she'll have my balls for breakfast!) 

[Jimbo]

Updates soon I promise (if not she'll have my balls for breakfast!) 

That doesn't sound so bad.... 

[Franco B]

The longer it takes, the more the jaw clenches 

I need to get my dual router table finished first so I can template route the new sides to match the artwork. I'm using some 12mm polycarb inserts I made to fit the routers. I've made quite a lot of progress over the last week or so, I hope to have it semi functional over next week or os (will still need to add the rear fence and front mitre fence at a later date)

Little progress pic:



I have both router mounted flush now, I just need to finish the rest of the table.

[Hewskie]

Hmm? Over 3 months now and no updates? did you fall off the face of the planet? Is this now a gift for Christmas '09?

Gotta say Franco that this is the coolest project I've seen in a while. I browse byoac a ton, however, as you can see I don't post very often. I'm breaking my pattern to congratulate you on an amazing Juke! Your level of detail is almost unmatched.

Please tell me that you're finished and merely forgot to inform us all....

Thanks

[Franco B]

Thanks for the kind words

Heh, it wil most likely be an Xmas gift 09 now, I've bought my first three cabs recently and they are getting the attention at the moment. My GF is cool with that though as long as she gets it this Xmas. She knows I'm making something but doesnt know what but she is happy for me to work on the cabs as she wants some gaming action too.

I haven't had any kind of mame setup for about three years  and I'm dying to get something up and running.

I've been working on my [Naomaming] the last few days and will update that later.

Thanks for the interest

[Kaytrim]

Time for a necro bump.  Come on buddy let's see this get finished.

Michael

[Franco B]

Damn you and your encouragement 

I've just come back to work today after two weeks on the sick with some severe dental pain but all is good now

Okies, update for this one. NOTHING lol.

My GF actually said I could have it finished for Xmas 10 if I wanted as we are not meant to be spending much this year but I'm determined to get it done.

I'm just finishing a control panel for a forum member and then I have to make someone else some acrylic parts for there candy cab and then I'm going to concentrate on this as its my only real project with a deadline.

There will be some more progress in the next couple of weeks I PROMISE!

[Kaytrim]

Damn you and your encouragement 
Damn you and your encouragement (x2)
Damn you and your encouragement (x3)

I've just come back to work today after two weeks on the sick with some severe dental pain but all is good now

Okies, update for this one. NOTHING lol.

My GF actually said I could have it finished for Xmas 10 if I wanted as we are not meant to be spending much this year but I'm determined to get it done.

I'm just finishing a control panel for a forum member and then I have to make someone else some acrylic parts for there candy cab and then I'm going to concentrate on this as its my only real project with a deadline.

There will be some more progress in the next couple of weeks I PROMISE!

OUCH!!!, sorry to hear about the dental problems.    You are more than welcome to try and find one or two of my threads to necro if you want revenge.  It doesn't mean that I'll get anything done on them but you can try. 

Michael 

[Franco B]

It has probably been the worse two weeks of my life 

Basically I needed to have a tooth urgently out but my dentist couldn't fit me in for six weeks!

I managed to get in at another dentist but even they couldn't get me in for a week and a half. I had two courses of antibiotics and I was on ten Co-codamol and eight Ibuprofen but none of those seemed to ease the pain. The only thing that seemed to help was using mouth wash when the pain hit which was every twenty minutes or so. I was averaging about a bottle of mouthwash a day and I was using Corsodyl for a start which ended up essentially pickling my tongue which hurt like hell too.

Yes the NHS really is ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- 

I had two weeks of which I could have used to get loads of project work done but I couldn't bear to bring myself to do anything with the constant pain.

Anyway, /rant. All is well now and I'm looking forward to getting lots done.

[Franco B]

As of today I can officially say that this project is back on course again!

I have finished up my backlog of work for other people and I'm not taking anything else on so I can concentrate on some of my projects and actually get some work done for myself.

This project takes priority as its 10 months late as it it as I definitely want it done for this xmas. I have two and a half months so that should give me plenty of time. However Modern Warefare 2 is out in less than a month now so I would like to get as much done before then as I know that will be a huge drain of productiveness.  

I have just given my shop a damn good clean which was well overdue and I now have a nice clean space to work in. Its amazing what difference an organised, clean space makes to your enthusiasm and work.

I think one of the first things I am going to do is to make a new bezel for Pinky to sort out my issue with the array of holes and the one LED too many. It will be a fair amount of work to put it right but I still have my templates to work from so it shouldn't be too bad as long as I get as good finish as the first one I made. Looking back I'm amazed how well that one turned out (minus the hole count fubar) considering my limited plastic working experience at the time and the lack of any real working area and tooling.

I did actually go ahead and order a 2nd LED-Wiz device #2 to light the extra LED (and LEDs underneath) but space inside is a premium as it is so I thought I would remake the bezel as originally planned and use the one LED-Wiz. I will have to miss out on controlling the LEDs underneath but I think I may just wire them so that they turn on and stay on when the start/power button is pressed. I'm sure the spare LED-Wiz will get used somewhere along the line although I seemed to have amassed eight so far somehow

I may also swap out the MicroATX for something a little faster. I have been having lots of problems with the video etc and I thought I may put something in that will give it a little more 'life span'. Any recommendations would be great.

I have also ha a couple of ideas for neatening up a couple of other parts too and had some general ideas how to improve a few other things (well, I have had 10 months to think about it!  )

In regards to the artwork I was originally going to get Scott at Mame Marquess to print it but I emailed him a few times with no responce so I am going to look elsewhere. I have heard a lot of good things about arcadestickers.co.uk recently so I think I am going to give them a go. From what I have seen their artwork looks excellent and the prices seem pretty good too. Now that the £ is so crap compared to the $ it will probably work out cheaper anyway and It will be much faster and easier to get the items to me since I'm in the UK. I'm going to get some prices and them hopefully get some B&W prints to check profiles/sizes again before I get it printed.

Apologies for the rubbish Text:Pictures ratio but I'm just excited to get back to work on it and thought I would share it with your guys 
 

[Bender]

Damn has it really been a year?
can't wait to see this thing hummin'

[Franco B]

Yeah it's amazing how fast a year go's doesn't it!

I have plenty planned for the coming year and want to clear this one up before I get started 

[Franco B]

Well I got all of the juke components unpacked today and amazingly I found pretty much everything. I have moved house since last year and all of my things have been boxed up. The only major thing I cant find is the plastic tube that forms the radius at the top of the juke. I'm hoping I can find it but If not I do have some more pipe that I can make another from if needs be.

I hooked all of the PC components back up and I was even more amazed to find that everything still boots up ok. I'm still having some video issues but I'm hopefully going to get them sorted. I have been looking at other Micro ATX boards but they all seem quite big compared to the one I have and mine fits the back door nicely. I may see if I can pick up a faster processor for it. Its quite an old MB so I'm not sure what it will support. It has 512MB of RAM and IIRC that's the biggest it will take.

The monitor and the speakers both have a power adapter for them. Here is a pic of the power info on the back of them:



As you can see the speaker bar needs 12v DC at 1A. Can I power this from one of the 12v molex leads?

The monitor transformer says it is an AC adapter. Does this also mean it is putting out AC? If not and it is putting out DC could I also power this from the PC PSU? It says it needs 12v at 5A but at 60w MAX. Is this possible?

If its not possible I am going to have to install a DC jack on the back of the juke and have the monitor transformer on the outside as there isn't really enough room inside. I would like to get rid of it altogether if possible as it it quite noisy and give of a high pitched whine.

Any ideas on the power issues guys?

[Kaytrim]

As you can see the speaker bar needs 12v DC at 1A. Can I power this from one of the 12v molex leads?

The monitor transformer says it is an AC adapter. Does this also mean it is putting out AC? If not and it is putting out DC could I also power this from the PC PSU? It says it needs 12v at 5A but at 60w MAX. Is this possible?

If its not possible I am going to have to install a DC jack on the back of the juke and have the monitor transformer on the outside as there isn't really enough room inside. I would like to get rid of it altogether if possible as it it quite noisy and give of a high pitched whine.

Any ideas on the power issues guys?

You should be able to power the speakers from your PSU.  Check the info on your PSU to be sure.  The monitor is another issue.  The adapter is AC in and DC out.  However you may not be able to draw enough 12V power from the PSU to drive it.  Five amps and sixty watts is a serious amount of power for a standard PSU.  If the transformer is noisy it should be replaced.  Contact Dell and see if you can get a new or refurbished replacement.

Michael

[Franco B]

Thanks for the help bud. 

I figured the speakers would be ok. I can't actually find the PSU for the speakers but the speaker bar says 12v DC at 1A. so I guess thats what the adapter would say too. I may just suck it and see.

I do only have a small PSU in the juke so powering the monitor may be out of the question then. I may have to go with the DC jack on the outside. It just means having two plugs and cables coming from it.

It's actually the monitor PSU that is noisy. I do have a spare as I bought two of the touchscreens at the same time so I may try the other to see what thats like.

[orion]

If your motherboard can only support 512MB of ram, I would say that that won't run much these days. Instead of looking at Micro ATX boards, have you considered looking at a Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo? The following is a list of components and links to what I have running in my jukebox, and I find them perfect for this kind of application in that they
#1) Are the smallest components you will find
#2) Are so quiet the notebook harddrive will be the loudest component you will have to deal with
#3) Are powerful enough to run just about any jukebox app and win XP, Win 7
#4) Are pretty darn cheap.

The motherboard does have one drawback in that the stock fan is pretty noisy, but I replaced it with a Mini Kaze 40mm fan and I can't hear it at all now. It still runs cool enough to not be an issue. I bought the recommended 2 gigs or ram for it and it runs great. The Pico powersupply is the worlds smallest, this thing is crazy small and has no fans in it period. Check out the links below, I hope you find this bit of info helpful.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121342

http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-90-60W-power-kit?sc=8&category=1097

[Franco B]

Thanks for the suggestion orion! 

That does seem to be pretty good value, I can get that for about £45 over here. I found out that my board will support 1GB of RAM and I was complating getting a 1GB stick for it but that would be £30.

I'm having some serious problems with the video on my current board. It was manufactured pre-XP and I cant get the display to fill the screen correctly. I have downloaded the XP drivers and updated the BIOS but it still isnt right. I may just bite the bullet and get a new board.

My current board is 1Ghz and that one you linked to is 1.6Ghz so it should be a little faster + it will support more RAM.

The only thing I am concerned about is if I will be able to connect the header from the I/O panel to a new motherboard. The connector is about 1"x1/4". Do all MBs have this type of connection for external USB ports?

[Franco B]

The only thing I am concerned about is if I will be able to connect the header from the I/O panel to a new motherboard. The connector is about 1"x1/4". Do all MBs have this type of connection for external USB ports?

Judging by this pic I found of the MB, yes it will (its the yellow parts)
 

[orion]

Thanks for the suggestion orion! 

That does seem to be pretty good value, I can get that for about £45 over here. I found out that my board will support 1GB of RAM and I was complating getting a 1GB stick for it but that would be £30.

I'm having some serious problems with the video on my current board. It was manufactured pre-XP and I cant get the display to fill the screen correctly. I have downloaded the XP drivers and updated the BIOS but it still isnt right. I may just bite the bullet and get a new board.

My current board is 1Ghz and that one you linked to is 1.6Ghz so it should be a little faster + it will support more RAM.

The only thing I am concerned about is if I will be able to connect the header from the I/O panel to a new motherboard. The connector is about 1"x1/4". Do all MBs have this type of connection for external USB ports?

It does have 2 onboard USB headers, and I can tell you it's the newer style that has all the cables connected to one connector as apposed to the really old (perhaps only usb 1.0 did this) USB connectors that had a separate connector for each individual wire... the kind that looks like the power, reset, speaker headers.  If you get this board make sure you get the correct ram for it. 1×240pin DDR2 667 2GB. It's not like the ram for a laptop and it's not the same as for a desktop. It should look like a little mini version of desktop ram, and make sure you get the 2gb stick as the motherboard only has one slot for ram. Total I spent for the motherboard/processor and memory was like $80.00. This board also only measures 6inx 6in, so keep that in mind when you are thinking about sticking power supplies outside the case.

[orion]

The only thing I am concerned about is if I will be able to connect the header from the I/O panel to a new motherboard. The connector is about 1"x1/4". Do all MBs have this type of connection for external USB ports?

Judging by this pic I found of the MB, yes it will (its the yellow parts)
 

Yep! You posted that right as I was posting my reply.....

[orion]

Actually that's the wrong pic of the motherboard, (at least not my version of it) but nonetheless it does have two USB headers.

[Franco B]

Thanks again!

Yeah I had a look for ram and I can get a 240pin DDR2 667 2GB stick for it for £24 so thats pretty good.

This board is actually the same form factor as my current one. I must have got my mini/micro mixed up earlier.

I think I may order it tomorrow for delivery on friday

[Franco B]

Oh, one other question.

My old board is 1Ghz and this one is 1.6Ghz. Does that this one will be 60% faster or will it be faster than that as its newer technology? (You can tell I know nothing about this type of thing!

[orion]

Oh, one other question.

My old board is 1Ghz and this one is 1.6Ghz. Does that this one will be 60% faster or will it be faster than that as its newer technology? (You can tell I know nothing about this type of thing!

Well there's more to it than just factoring in processor speed. You have to look at bus speed, ram speed ect... ect... and when you figure in these factors ( the ect... ect... being the important one) you get an increase in performance of say... "a crap load more%"  Yeh, this is modern technology here and it should smoke that old jalopy you were planning on putting in there! Mind you it's not dual core, but for running a jukebox it's more than sufficient.

[BobA]

Take a look at the Asus mini ITX.   I just picked one up and it has no problems with jukebox software and displays video very well.    It is a few dollars more but it was just released.  Uses the atom 330 dual core.   Intel has a very similar model as well.

Link

[Franco B]

Thanks for the input BobA. I had a look at that board but its about £75 + shipping over here. I can get the D945GCLF board orion suggested + 2GB RAM for £72 delivered.

I was going to order the board today but there seems to be three versions of it and I'm not sure what the differences are apart from that one of the boards has video out.

Any ideas what the other differences are?

[Intel BOXD945GCLF]

[Intel BOXD945GCLF2]

[Intel BOXD945GCLF2D]

Also, I presume [this] RAM will fit ok?

[mountain]

Franco, the "CLF" is a single core, the CLF2 is the dual core, and I think the CLF2D is the CLF2 with out a video plug on the board (S-video I think). Its been a while since I researched these boards, but i did buy the CLF2 the other day for an upcoming juke. They are kick ass boards.

[Franco B]

Thanks buddy. That's a great help. 

I may as well get the dual core version for an extra £10. I won't really use the video out but It may be worth buying that version for the extra £3 on top of that.

[orion]

As Mountain said, option #2  is dual core. http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Product.aspx?ProductID=912 you want to go with option #2!    It looks like the ram is what all three boards take. Oh and did you look at the power supply I linked to in my previous post... it's small and it uses no fan!

[Franco B]

Cheers orion. I'm glad I didn't place my order this morning now! 

Yeah I did take a look at that PSU. That really is small! Fanless would be a bonus too. I already have a small PSU for the juke though and I have already cut in the intake and exhaust vents. Everything should just about fit as it is.

Cheers guys 

I'm going to pick the replacement acrylic up for the front and inner bezel first thing tomorrow morning and I'm planning on making a start on the replacement.

[orion]

Cool! I'm looking forward to seeing you complete it! 

[Franco B]

  Your not the only one! 

[orion]

Your not the only one! 

In that spirit, I took the liberty, and began the process of making up a little something for your juke! I don't think you have said what software you will be using... if you have already decided on something cool... if not, should I keep going with this?







http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93382.0

[Franco B]

Wow!! Thats fantastic!!!     

I am actually using Xlobby  too

I was hoping to get some kind of pink skin made for it but I hadn't even started to look into how I would do it.

Thanks for all of your help. Can I interest you in a free pair or two of dustwashers?

[BobA]

Glad you went for a dual core.   It will probably last you a while longer before needing upgrade.

[orion]

Wow!! Thats fantastic!!!     

I am actually using Xlobby  too

I was hoping to get some kind of pink skin made for it but I hadn't even started to look into how I would do it.

Thanks for all of your help. Can I interest you in a free pair or two of dustwashers?

Wow, I wasn't expecting an offer for a pair of one of your famous custom dustwashers! I'm flattered!  I'm planning on eventually (meaning in the next couple of years when my one year old little boy is a bit older and less rambunctious, and I have a little more time for projects) making a stand up control panel to plug into my Home theater PC based loosely on an X arcade tankstick. However, I wouldn't want you to go though any trouble. Now as far as the skin goes, I'm glad you like what I've come up with so far! I am giving some contemplation on changing up most, if not all the buttons to a shade of red, however I'm kinda of digging the pink and blue combo.... it gives it some pop, that red on pink just wouldn't do. Do you have any preferences on that?

[Franco B]

Glad you went for a dual core.   It will probably last you a while longer before needing upgrade.

Yeah for the extra £10 its definitely worth it. I want to be able to play a few games on it too so the extra power should help there too.

Wow, I wasn't expecting an offer for a pair of one of your famous custom dustwashers! I'm flattered!  I'm planning on eventually (meaning in the next couple of years when my one year old little boy is a bit older and less rambunctious, and I have a little more time for projects) making a stand up control panel to plug into my Home theater PC based loosely on an X arcade tankstick. However, I wouldn't want you to go though any trouble. Now as far as the skin goes, I'm glad you like what I've come up with so far! I am giving some contemplation on changing up most, if not all the buttons to a shade of red, however I'm kinda of digging the pink and blue combo.... it gives it some pop, that red on pink just wouldn't do. Do you have any preferences on that?

Your more than welcome, it's not trouble at all. You have really helped me here and by PM. Just give me a shout when you want them or if you want any other help with your build. 

I do really like the pink/blue, it does pop nicely. Lets go with that

[orion]

Your more than welcome, it's not trouble at all. You have really helped me here and by PM. Just give me a shout when you want them or if you want any other help with your build. 

I do really like the pink/blue, it does pop nicely. Lets go with that

Thanks Franco B, look for me to ask for help in a year or two then! Pink/blue it is! When I'm done, I'll post a download link for you in this thread along with some screen shots of the final product.