My Arcade Coffee Table

[purplearms]

Hey whats up everyone. This is my second crack at an arcade box. Check it out!






UPDATE: Video of my dual PCB upgrade in action!

[opt2not]

Is that an Autobot, or Decepticon? 

Nice work! But damn that is one loud motor!

[XeviouS]

That is excellent, what does it eat?

[SnApRoLl]

That is excellent, what does it eat?

If I had to take a guess it would probably eat paychecks LOL 

It is very cool though!!

[Sardu]

Isn't that a little dramatic for opening a CP?   

[pinballwizard79]

LMAO!

I need that for my arcade!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please send link for the part(s)

seriously, my machine is already chromed out so now it just needs some "switches"

[purplearms]

Thanks guys! Its a decepticon! Mostly it will be eating electronic clutter (cables, parts, unused remotes) and keeping it out of site. It also hides a power bar and wireless usb transmitter, 7 port usb hub that will allow me to only have one power chord to the wall (which runs under the table, and I will run that under the carpet) and none to the computer. The actuator is a little over the top, but i figured why the hell not?  And it is loud, but it adds to the overall effect 

pinballwizard79, your setup is pretty slick!
I got the actuator here: http://www.firgelliauto.com/product_info.php?cPath=92&products_id=44
The switch and power supply they sell are a rip, so just grab them from your local electronics store. You can probably get cheaper actuators on ebay too.

Its rated to lift 70 lbs to be safe since my table is made of solid oak (which certainly ate some $$). There are lighter duty ones that extend faster. I'll post some pics later tonight of the build process when I find my memory card.

[thatitalian]

DUDE! 2 posts and you make this!!!

I feel embarrassed! 

That is an awesome party trick. I can imagine it now:

"WOW nice arcade"
"Thanks!"
"How does it work"
"Well, if you look under here......."

BTW, you said your second, where is your first!

[purplearms]

haha.. yeah i've gotten a few "WTF?!" reactions from friends

I'm going nuts cause i lost my digital camera memory card which had all my pictures of the build process of the new setup.. But I do have these pics handy of my first attempt at an arcade box... it was an all in one solution for my projector setup... talk about messy wiring..  not bad for a first try though..

BTW, those are car speakers on the lid, a full computer and subwoofer speaker in the body..

[Joey Butafuko]

Incase a friend i starting to beat your high score you just flip that switch by accident 

[purplearms]

Ok I cant find the memory card, but here are some pics from the build that i yanked from my facebook..

[purplearms]

cont...

[purplearms]

cont..

[DaOld Man]

Good work..
I was expecting  a Terminator to pop out, or at least Dracula.
 

[SNAAKE]

 where did you get those speaker grills? looks good

[purplearms]

Thanks
The speakers were a set of sony xplod's on clearance for $50 from bestbuy, and they came with the grills..

[Visitor Q]

LOL! CRAZY!

Just when you thought you saw it all, nice.

Don't get your figure stuck in there or anything else for that matter! 

[mccoy178]

That's cool man.  Dig the innovation.

[dkssprs]

I need to sit down for a sec.....

AWOSOME cp my friend. You and all the other guys here are pure ispiration for all !!!!

MANY MANY GRATZ

[danny_galaga]

at first, i thought 'why?' but the answer is the same for all of us- because it was there (",)

very nice work regardless. there's a mamey in it for sure...

[purplearms]

Thanks guys!
Just added a youtube vid of my 6 year old cousin totally mesmerised playing ninja turtles on the 120" projection screen.. haha..  My GF thinks i'm nuts, but i think most people here understand that you do it because you can!

I made this for my 1.5 bedroom condo so it wont not eat up space like a regular cab. I plan to build a TV stand with one of those false fireplaces in the middle, a custom water cooled PC to the left of that, rack space on the right for PS3 and tuner, then put a 60" plasma on top, and a motorized projection screen above that all when 60" aint enough.. Most of my friends thought it was a pipe dream until they saw the table


The thing i'm missing now is maybe a black vinyl player 1 and player 2 graphic that i can put on the top middle button so that people can see its a start button.. anyone know where i can get something like that?

[orion]

Oh now that's slick!  :cheers:Wireless USB transmitter? Where do you find something like that. I have been entertaining the notion of doing something similar only it has to be invisible as the wife doesn't want to see it. I would also have to run it off of some sort of makeshift battery pack, and have the controls would have to be wireless. The wireless USB transmitter would get me half way there in terms of figuring out how to do something like that.

[purplearms]

Yeah the wireless usb thing has a long and sordid history. Bottom line is that most of the products that have come out over the years have sucked real bad. A host of range, speed, and consistent signal issues. The only real good one i know if is the Ircon WiRanger (http://www.icron.com/products/usb/wi_ranger.php) but its expensive. Like $400 expensive!

A company called Wisair developed a very promising wireless usb module (http://www.engadget.com/tag/Wisair/) and cables unlimited has a licensed product based on this module:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GV00ZM

I haven't had time to thoroughly test it yet, but I will post back here when I get a good feel for the product.

UPDATE: This wireless USB sucks --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules--. It works, but the refresh rate is slow and its not very energy efficient (gets very hot).

As for power, it depends on what you want to do with your setup. The actuator can draw up to 5amps at maximum load, the button and trackball LEDS can gobble up to 1.38 amps via USB (all usb devices draws power from my 4.5 amp usb hub), the red and blue LED table lighting eats about 2 amps.. And the wireless USB needs AC power too...  no way i could use a battery there...

[Ummon]

Damn, that isn't a control panel. It's a ---smurfing--- station. Pretty nifty. What's with the nine-button layout, though?

[MaineEvent]

Awesomely Outrageous!

Ouch.....my epilepsy!

 

[MortalManiak]

1st off...   

Good job on putting random guy crap into a project to confuse the GF 

As guys, it is our sole purpose in life 

But...

Why did you make it out of solid oak just to paint it black??? 

[Kman-Sweden]

SWEEEET! That's so awesome. 
I'm sooo gonna incorporate that into by build. 
Do you use the 10" actuator? They show it running on  a 9V battery... do you have a separate powersupply or do you run it from your PC's powersupply somehow?

[ChadTower]

That's pretty sweet.  It must weigh a ton made out of oak.

[drventure]

Very very nice, but I gotta second the comment about oak

Why go oak and then paint it black? Stain it a dark mahogany or something. I just hate hiding nice wood.

But, minor quibles aside. Very slick. And lots of usable space to store carts, controllers etc. Sweet!

[Bigwig416]

That is very nice. That looks like something I should attempt

[purplearms]

Damn, that isn't a control panel. It's a ---smurfing--- station. Pretty nifty. What's with the nine-button layout, though?

Thanks.. its meant for both console and PC, so aside from the regular 6 button street fighter setup, in the top row the center button is start.. i wish now that i put it somewhere else (especially when pressing start by accident during button mashing)... the other two buttons are for the other two triggers on the controller.. i placed them there with classic mortal kombat 1 and 2 in mind

Why did you make it out of solid oak just to paint it black??? 

Why go oak and then paint it black? Stain it a dark mahogany or something. I just hate hiding nice wood.

One thing that does not show well in the pics is the grain detail.. I ebonized (aka iron buff) it using vinegar and steel wool before adding a few coats of black stain.. looking back, maybe i should have made it espresso brown.. but in the end i went black to match the TV and furniture of my new place (which i'm currently moving into)

Do you use the 10" actuator? They show it running on  a 9V battery... do you have a separate powersupply or do you run it from your PC's powersupply somehow?

I used a 12" stroke actuator that you can get here:
http://www.firgelliauto.com/product_info.php?cPath=94&products_id=104

It uses a 12v power supply that I got from a surplus store. It can consume up to 4A on full load, so i dont think a battery would suffice.. don't forget to wire a fuse! The oak table top is a bit heavy, but 35 lbs does quite well. Other ones open too slowly.. actuator lifting power is inversely proportional to the lifting speed..
 

That's pretty sweet.  It must weigh a ton made out of oak.

Id say a good 60-70lbs at least.. It needed to be built like a tank the way we play street fighter

[purplearms]

Oh yes i'm upgrading all the electronics inside my table to a dual PS3 and 360 setup... you can follow the details here:

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=196109

[purplearms]

I've upgraded my arcade table with a custom dual PCB to work on 360 and PS3! Here is a new video to demonstrate this!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiJogLqu6ww[/youtube]

[mccoy178]

Very Cool!

[Pinball Wizard]

WOW!!! Excellent work. I am impressed at it. Very cool indeed.