"Proving Grounds" Cabinet ....v2

[iamnaeth]

Hey all!

I have a lot of information to convey and questions to ask so I'll break it up over a few posts. 

I've got the typical itch to rebuild my arcade cabinet, but this time I have a pseudo-legitimate reason!  I've recently begun thinking about moving across the country, from VA to CA.  Unfortunately, my current cabinet is probably too big and bulky to move easily.  I know this from personal experience moving it from my parents house to my new condo when I moved.  The current cabinet is modeled after the UAII design however, I never bought the plans and my dad and I worked out the details on our own.  Attached should be an autocad picture showing the dimensions of the current cab.  As you can see, the top was made to be detatchable from the base for ease of moving but unfortunately, its too wide and a pain to rebuild.  It currently has a 27" TV hooked up through an Svideo cable to a PC and RCA cables to a dreamcast.  The buttons are hooked up to a DB25 switch so that the controls can be used for the PC and the Dreamcast.  I really like the setup alot and want to keep it on the new version.  Okay, on to the next post for the new schematics!

[iamnaeth]

I don't know what the usual dimensions of a cabinet are but my current one seems a little large.  My goal is to reduce the size of the next one.  I've decided the first place to start is with the monitor and to build around that.  My current cabinet runs emulators other than just MAME so clarity for a PC desktop is a must for me.  For this reason, I've decided to go with a multi-sync monitor.  As I understand it, this should allow me to display the arcade games at their native resolution while maintaining a good looking front end and PC desktop.  Until recently, this left me with pretty much one choice, the 27" Imperial Betson multisync however, recently Nieman monitors introduced a 24.8" multisync which i've been considering.  Also, this time I wanted to build a more conventional cabinet look.  Attached should be two more autocad drawings with dimenions for the a 27" monitor and a 25" monitor.  The monitor will be tilted at your usual 10 degree angle.  Also, I went and head and overlayed the designs to more readily see the differences in the dimensions.  While I'd really like to get the 27" monitor, it seems that the extra 9" of depth really make the cabinet a good bit larger than the 25" monitor.  As you can see, this doesn't really save me a whole of room and defeats the purpose of the rebuild.  That is, unless I've done something glarily stupid.  I don't know a lot about the internal structure of the cabinet and there may be something I've missed.  Let me know!

[iamnaeth]

As we all know, they're more to figure out than just the monitor.  After seeing the awesome work done by Kneivel and Jontox with arcadeus, I've decided to devote a little more time this go round on the CP.  Attached is a 3D model i've been working on trying to figure out the dimensions and spacing to fit all the equipment I want in there.  The CP is currently about 33" wide and 16" deep.  A lot smaller than my current airplane design.  It should be pretty obvious what everything is, but if you have any questions or comments please let me hear em!  Oh yeah, what does everyone think the minimum comfortable distance between 1P and 2P joysticks are....for fighting games, i that makes any difference.

Finally, the theme and artwork.  This should be no suprise to anyone but Pixelhugger is good at arcade art    I mean really good.  He's patiently waited and worked with me for a few years now on the side art and this time I'm going get his help with the CP as well.  The sides and the CP will be cut from templates that he sends me.  This will make the CP, Side panels, and artwork line up perfectly.  The Artwork Pixel vectorized for me is simply amazing!  It should be shown below.  As you can see, I'm a big Street fighter fan and this thing is going to look beautiful.  I've opted to go the lit button and trackball route and have it powered by a key-wiz.

I hope that's enough to whet your appetite for now!  I'll keep you posted!

[Pixelhugger]

 

Looking good!

This project is really gonna shine.

BTW I love the "Bring out yer dead" thread title! That would make an awesome cabinet name. *wonders how to incorporate Street Fighter images with Monty Python*

[iamnaeth]

Okay guys, I'm working narrowing down this monitor selection!  The problem it, its hard to exact dimensions for these things.  On top of that, I have a question about the placement of the monitor in the cabinet.

Like I said above, my monitor choices for multisync are basically the 27" Betson or the 25" Neiman.  Here are the urls to the dimensions I have:

27" Imperial Betson
http://www.betson.com/products/IMP-44-4070-RT

25" Nieman
http://www.niemandisplays.com/monitor%20mechanical%20dims.pdf

Unfortunately, these lack all the dimensions I want.  Wells Gardner offers a multisync (which apparently gets poor reviews) but they do provide all the dimensions with their monitors, like so!

http://www.wellsgardner.com/downloads/pdf_352007104214am.pdf

It seems like the angle of the chasis (i hope I used the right term) for the WG and the Betson are about the same.  That angle seems like it could save a good bit of depth from a cabinet which leads me to my next question!  How come the WG 27" monitor is ~19" deep, the Nieman 25" is ~19" deep, but the Betson length is 25"?  I'm assuming the Beston height = top to bottom distance, width = left to right distance, and length = front to back distance, right?

In the attached picture there are two circles, typically, how far from the front and back of the side is the monitor?  Put another way, from the back of the monitor, how many inches are there to the back of the cabinet? And vice versa from the front.

Thanks!

Nathan

[iamnaeth]

I did some more autocad work this weekend, working on the layout of the CP.  What do you guys think? Any possible problems I'm not thinking of?  The two lines surrounding the CP represent the edge of the top of the CP and the inner edge of the box underneath.  Basically, all the equipment has to fit within the inner line.  If you can't read it, the top 3 buttons are 1P, 2P and Pause.

[Pixelhugger]

I really hope somebody can answer the dimension question on the Betson 27" length since I am dealing with the same thing right now. It doesn't make sense that it is a full half a FOOT longer (deeper?) than the WG. Does anyone have this monitor who could measure the depth??

[iamnaeth]

Oh, I guess I never posted the answer here.  It is posted in the Monitor forum though.   I called Betson and the depth for the 27" is also 19."

[Pixelhugger]

Thats good news. So I guess I don't have to use the WG either  Phew!

[iamnaeth]

Okay guys, I think I've finalized the control panel, here are some pictures with dimensions.  Any final input?

[Pixelhugger]

Hey Nate

What kind of file format is that template in? Can you save it as a DXF? EPS?

[Pixelhugger]

You still around Nate? We never finalized the artwork I still owe you!