First time upright build - The Time Machine

[turnergw]

Hi everyone,

Having been reading these forums for several months and gradually assimilating as much information as possible, I've finally embarked upon building my own arcade cabinet.  This is something that's been at the back of my mind for years, but only really become a reality in the last few months.

I've decided to build a cab loosely based on Saint's excellent book, although I've tried to incorporate a number of other excellent ideas shamelessly lifted from some of the superb work already documented by builders on this site.  I'm absolutely in awe of the talent on display here, I only hope mine can come close to what I intend, and the high standards set by others!

I should note here that, like many others, I have absolutely no experience in woodworking, and only very basic electronics knowledge, although I'm fairly happy mucking about with bits of PCs!

Anyway, since this machine will be for both MAME and old console games, and contains a large number of memories of my youth, I've decided to call it 'The Time Machine'.  I've been through a number of iterations of attempts at artwork (also not my strong point).  Originally I wanted an image of an old circuit board to form the backing for the control panel and marquee, but this didn't turn out too well.  I've subsequently decided to try with a collage of screens from a few old favourite games, and this seems to turn out quite well. 

The control panel has also gone through a number of changes - It started out as a bit of a frankenpanel, but I really don't like the aesthetics of large, busy panels.  I shrunk it a little and made a cardboard mockup, but still didn't like the size and shape, so I've pared it down to what I consider a reasonable minimum.  I think it covers all my bases, and doesn't get too crowded.  2 Joysticks (Happ Competitions), 6 buttons per player (seems to be the standard, although I don't play fighting games!), trackball, spinner, and a few admin buttons.

My first attempt at knocking up a control panel came out looking alright for a first try, so I went ahead and completed one side to test it out.  I was pretty happy with the layout, but it seemed too big to my eyes, so the final version will be somewhat shrunk from this.

I've got a few days off now as well, so if the weather holds out, I'll be taking a first stab at getting the cabinet together. 

Any constructive criticism on the control panel / artwork gratefully appreciated - and I'll try and document the build as it goes.  Although given how long it's taken me to get this far, it could be rather a long process!

[turnergw]

So I've got some wood, and had my first real play with a circular saw and router.  Wow, these things are fun!

Managed to cut the first side out fairly cleanly after a few tentative steps and hiccups (including slicing a big chunk off the side of one of my sawhorses!)

The second side was cut with a flush trim router bit - which broke half way through, when I suddenly realised the bearing had sheared off, and left a bit of a gouge in the wood - fortunately I think it can be hidden, and I managed to finish the rest of the cutting with a smaller bit, even though it meant making several passes as the cutting depth wasn't enough.

I'm pretty pleased with the result - a little sanding around the edges, and the two sides are looking good.  The T-molding slot is cut all around.  Next I need to cut and attach the back, front, bottom and top panels, which is another venture into the unknown for me!

Also attached what I hope to use for the control panel art - a copy of this is off at the printers to see how it comes out full size.  If it looks decent enough, I'll use it as the template to mark up and cut the control panel.   The cabinet itself will be in a fairly standard black with light blue T-molding, so I'm hoping the blue colour scheme will look OK.  Not sure about lighting / other fancy effects yet, I'd prefer to keep it fairly basic if possible.

[splunkett]

You have made a great start and I really like the cp and marque artwork. Looking forward to seeing more pics of this one as it develops.

[Franco B]

Looking good! I was a bit apprehensive when you said that you had done a collage marquee. They normally look a bit ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- but yours looks really nice!

The one thing I'm thinking is that your CP need to pop a little more. I think its the silver text etc in your marquee that makes it pop. Maybe you could apply something similar to the CP? Possibly you could change the rings/halos around the controls so that they have a similar look to your marquee text in regards to the lighting/shadow/colour etc.

Glad to see you are having some fun with your router, great things aren't they?!

If you wanted to neaten your recesses up you could make a couple of templates and use a pattern bit. Basically you just need to neatly cut out the shape of the TB and joystick base out of some MDF and then stick or screw them to your CP (just make sure there is plenty of material left around the profile to support the router base). The bearing of the pattern bit will then follow the profile of the template and you will be left with a beautiful clean profiled recess. Of course you don't have to bother but its the type of thing that would bother me when I got to the end of the build.

Keep it up!

[turnergw]

Thanks for the encouraging comments!  Franco B, I think you're right - the control panel doesn't really match the marquee style.  I've had a go at 'silvering' the halos, and I think it does make it come more alive. 

I originally designed the overlay in Inkscape, an open source vector graphic editor, which has been really good for getting the scale and dimensions right, but it falls down a bit on processing options.  Having fixed the size and exported to Photoshop, I've had a play with a few options and come up with the below. 

I definitely need some more practice with the router, the pics above were on a practice panel, hopefully the real thing will come out a bit neater!

[GAtekwriter]

Just be sure to have a b&w of your CPO printed as a drill template... some companies offer it as an add-on or you might have to ask for it... but it sure made the difference when I drilled my CP... every button, joy, spinner, and trackball all fit perfectly.

Jim

[SNAAKE]

I am digging the artwork. simple and awesome idea

[turnergw]

I've managed to make a fair bit of progress on the build over the last few days and evenings - the combination of a day off work today, the rest of my family being away, and decent weather meant I could get a fair bit done.

The cabinet is coming together - I added the bracers all around each side, and started to work on the panels to be attached.  First I cut the base, with four casters so that I can actually move this thing once it's completed.  Gave the base a quick test by 'surfing' it around my driveway to ensure it could take the weight - I figure if it can hold me, it should be strong enough to withstand the cabinet weight!

Next was the front panel, including the coin door recess.  I broke another router bit whilst trying to even out the sides on the coin door hole - Not sure whether it's me doing something wrong with the router, or just the cheap bits I bought from ebay - probably a bit of both!

I then attached these pieces to one side to make sure everything matched up OK.  Looks good so far ...

[turnergw]

Having got the base and front attached, I decided it was time to make sure the TV I'm planning on using as a monitor actually fits the cabinet.  Much as I'd like to de-case it, I'm reluctant to risk it so it will be mounted still in its case.  I know it will need a little work, as the overall width is 25.25 inches at the widest point, and my cabinet is sized to 25 inches.  However the widest point is at the back of the speaker enclosures - I'll be using seperate speakers, so I'm happy to remodel the casing a little (ie chop it off at the edges) where needed.

To get the sizing, I've built a life-size model of the TV out of cardboard, and am using that to determine the correct placement.  It's much easier than lugging a 25" screen around! 

With the screen placement checked, I attached the TV shelf, and measured up and placed bracers for it on both sides.  I also added the top and rear angled panels.

[turnergw]

Over the last few evenings I've also been working on the control panel, as this is a much easier sized beast to deal with!  As mentioned above, I shrunk my original design down considerably, so the final panel is now 27x14 inches.  This doesn't leave a lot of room for the controls, but according to my original measurements, they should all have fitted ...

Anyway I sent my artwork off to an online photo printer, and it arrived looking good.  I was going to use this as a test print and get the finals done on vinyl, but the quality of the printed artwork was so good, I was happy to use it as was.  The panel is in 5/8" MDF with a 1/8" perspex overlay, so sandwiching the printed artwork between the wood and perspex works nicely, and the controls should hold it rigidly in place. 

I cut the control panel overlay from the print, and used it as the template for cutting the MDF.  This way I can guarantee that the holes will line up with the artwork correctly.  I simply drilled a small pilot hole through the controls marked on the artwork, then drilled the 1 1/8" holes as necessary, and routed out the trackball hole. 

Having cut the wood, I used it as the pattern to cut the perspex overlay using a router, and ended up with two nicely cut parts to the panel.  I then cut out the same holes in the artwork, and put them together to get my first view of the panel as it will be!

[turnergw]

So my panel was looking good, and I went ahead and started attaching the controls, only to come across my first disaster ... My measurements had obviously gone wrong somewhere, as I discovered that the player 2 joystick mount needed to overlap the trackball mount by about a quarter of an inch.  Not good. 

I really didn't fancy the idea of redoing all the artwork, cutting and work done so far, so decided to make the best of the situation, and embarked on a little remodelling of the joystick base ... fortunately the overlap meant that by removing part of the side of the joystick mount, I could still get the trackball housing in unaffected.  So, a quick hack with a dremel later, and I've got one slightly remodelled joystick, and a panel that still fits together!

[turnergw]

After all that I've managed to get all the controls in place, and added the t-molding to the control panel.  I'm really pleased with how it came out, now I can't wait to get it wired up and playing!  I'm determined to get the cabinet build (at least nearly) finished before I do that though ...

I also tried the control panel in place as one final check to make sure I'm happy with the height and angle.  It's starting to look like a real cabinet at last (well, apart from the flower pots and cardboard screen, obviously    )

[javeryh]

Wow - real sharp looking.  Super nice job on the control panel.  Very clean and the art looks great.   

[Yvan256]

Really clean design and artwork, can't wait to see the progress on that one! 

[Franco B]

Wow, the CP looks awesome now. Great job on the silver halos. They make it pop much nicer and they almost look 3D 

[Ond]

Very nice indeed!  Inspiring too, I really like these uniform colour themed CP, controls and buttons.  It reminds me of Pixelhugger's cp art.  You seeing this Pixel?  pretty good eh?   In fact I'll go so far as to say this is one of the best CP's I have seen full stop.

Impressed 

[turnergw]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments!  I'm really happy with how it's all come out so far. 

Haven't made a lot more progress, but I've been working on some of the more fiddly woodwork parts, which has been a bit of a challenge.  I never really worked out how I was going to fit a monitor bezel, or mount the speakers, so I've been building the parts to hold these, fitting them in the partially built cabinet.  I'm using a Logitech Z4 2.1 speaker system - which sounds amazingly good for £40 - so the sub will be mounted in the bottom of the cabinet, and the two satellite speakers above the screen.  Decided to use some 3/8" MDF for both the speaker mounts and the bezel, as there doesn't need to be a great deal of strength in either, and the cabinet is getting seriously heavy with all the 3/4" wood in there.

I've routed out the speaker mounts to that they're slightly recessed into the wood (otherwise they will show up as shadows on the marquee lighting), and aim to use a covering of speaker grille cloth to cover the holes before mounting the speakers.  A quick test shows that the grille cloth hides the actual speaker cones well. 

I've also had a bit of a change of plan on the bezel - I will be mounting pinball buttons in the side of the cabinet itself, just below the control panel overhang, and originally I was also going to have a power button on one side, and a credit button on the other,  together with two effectively 'spare' admin buttons.  However I'm not sure that this would look too good, and I'm worried about hitting the power button by mistake.  When I checked the measurements for the TV mounting, there's quite a bit of spare space below it, so now I'm thinking that the power / credit / admin buttons should go in the panel at the base of the bezel. 

Further to that, two of the buttons on my control panel were originally going to be the pause and exit buttons.  I think these will shift to the bezel panel, and the two on the control panel will be either spares or duplicates.  Not sure on this one, but it works in my mind at the moment.

Anyway, I've measured and made the bezel - Now I just need to get the real TV in place to make sure my measurements are correct!

[turnergw]

Last update for a while as I'm off on holiday - I think stage 1 is complete!

[turnergw]

Time for a progress update.  I've added the admin and pinball buttons to the main cabinet body.  Having the admin buttons in the bezel under the screen would have meant moving the monitor shelf, or mounting them too low, so I've decided to move them to the front, under the overhang of the panel.  This means they're pretty much hidden from sight in normal operation, and seems to work nicely.  Currently the green button is for a coin insert, the red for power, and the two whites for pause and exit.  I will probably change these for black buttons to further hide them. 

The hanging wires in the cabinet are for headphones and line input, to be wired to the volume control for the speakers I'm using, which has these inputs on its base.  This should keep the front panel fairly clean, with just the volume and bass controls accessible.

[turnergw]

For the back of the cabinet, I've made a base piece and back door, each with fan covers to allow some air flow - the PC I'm using gets pretty warm, as does the TV, so some heat extraction is going to be needed.

I also sanded down and primed the whole cabinet.  I couldn't find anywhere that sold MDF primer in any colour other than white, but assume it will take at least two coats of paint on top anyway, so covering the white shouldn't be a problem.

The extra hole in the base piece is for the power cable.  The back door is made of 3/8" MDF as opposed to the 3/4" used elsewhere, so it will need to be mounted further out from the internal bracers.  I'm thinking of using simple magnetic catches for the door rather than hinging it, so that it can easily be completely removed. 

[turnergw]

This weekend I've managed to paint the cabinet in its final black - although it's not gone quite as smoothly as hoped.  I'm using Dulux satinwood paint, which is supposed to be fine for primed MDF, and a foam roller to apply it.  It goes on well, and gets good coverage, but in some areas it's horribly prone to bubbling.  It seems to be worst on the smaller panels - the sides and back all look fine, but on the front, it looked pretty awful (it looks even worse in the photos below!). 

Once the first coat had dried, I sanded down the bubbled areas, and smoothed the whole finish before applying a second coat.  This seems to have gone on better, but it's still not as smooth as I'd like. 

What's the general recommendation for getting the paint to go on smoothly?  It seems to go on better in extremely thin coats - I think the bubbling is worst where the paint went on too thickly, so would I better to sand this right back down and do another coat, or give it a light sanding and a very fine coat over the top, or simply leave it?  It actually looks pretty good overall, it's just that the rougher areas will bug me because I know they're there!

[turnergw]

Whilst painting the cabinet I've also made a cheap and easy marquee holder - It's simply a strip of edging plastic from B&Q.  It also only seems to come in white, but takes paint quite well - a coating of primer and a coat of the black satinwood have come out well on it.  It's a 20mm x 20mm strip, so I've cut one side back to about 10mm to hold the marquee, and the 20mm side will be screwed into the top and speaker panels. 

[turnergw]

The lighting for the marquee was originally going to come from a 12v flourescent light - unfortunately this plan was cut short when I left it on the floor next to a pile of equipment, which was knocked over by my son - end of light!

So instead of that, I'm trying a bunch of high power LEDs instead - I've wired up 10 high output white LEDs to cover the length of the marquee, to be powered from the 5v supply in the PC.  They put out an amazing amount of light in a darkened room, but it's hard to tell currently whether they will be bright enough to light up the printed marquee in normal light conditions.  I need to get it mounted to find out!

I've also knocked up a trackball light using 4 blue LEDs - these are also amazingly bright, and will light up a room quite well.  The trackball doesn't so much glow as flouresce using these, so I might have to cut back to 2 instead of 4 - I think it's too bright!

(Note the use of quality, high tech materials in these as well - good old recycled cardboard!)

[turnergw]

Now here's a shining example of how not to wire a control panel ...

I'm using Ultimarc's minipac encoder for the whole control panel, as it nicely covers everything I need.  It also comes with a wiring harness, with all cables nicely attached and terminated, and a daisychained ground cable.  Unfortunately however, the lengths of these cables leave a little to be desired - they're barely long enough to stretch across my shrunken control panel, so they'd have been no good on the original size. 

Still, they did eventually all hook up OK.  If I have the time and inclination, I'll come back to this later and tidy it all up, but at the moment, I'm just happy that it all works OK.  I limited my testing time to making sure that all the buttons, joysticks, spinner and trackball worked OK, otherwise I'd just fall into the trap of playing the games and not doing any more construction!

I've added in a hacked up 9-pin serial lead to attach the pinball and admin buttons, and the coin mechanism.  This should still allow the control panel to be detached easily from the cabinet without having to undo vast amounts of wiring.  This gives enough connections to connect all the other buttons to a single lead.

The spacer blocks on the underside hold the panel nicely in place, although I think I will be adding either magnetic catches or velcro strips to the cabinet insides to make sure it doesn't lift under heavy use.
 

[Honkyharris]

Turnergw,

    You're work looks great so far and is giving me some great ideas! I have a question about your speaker choice. The Z-4 looks like a very good cost/performance option for an arcade project. I can't find any information regarding the lengths of the cables for the system though. Are the cables provided long enough to route cleanly through your cab? Are the cables to the speakers standard speaker wire or are they some proprietary wire? I'd like to get my speakers purchased soon so I can be ready to route the slot for them.

Thanks,

Honkyharris

   

[turnergw]

Are the cables provided long enough to route cleanly through your cab? Are the cables to the speakers standard speaker wire or are they some proprietary wire?    

The cables from the subwoofer to the satellite speakers are about 2 metres long, so I think they'll just about make it without being extended (I haven't mounted the speakers yet, that's my next job - hopefully in the next few days).  However they're only connected to the sub with simple phono plugs, so it's a simple matter to extend them if necessary.  The volume control connects with a 9-pin D plug, and again there's about 2m of cable, so plenty of room to play with. 

The speakers sound great to me as a desktop set, I suspect they'll be even better when built in to the cab ... at least I hope so!

[Honkyharris]

Are the cables provided long enough to route cleanly through your cab? Are the cables to the speakers standard speaker wire or are they some proprietary wire?    

The cables from the subwoofer to the satellite speakers are about 2 metres long, so I think they'll just about make it without being extended (I haven't mounted the speakers yet, that's my next job - hopefully in the next few days).  However they're only connected to the sub with simple phono plugs, so it's a simple matter to extend them if necessary.  The volume control connects with a 9-pin D plug, and again there's about 2m of cable, so plenty of room to play with. 

The speakers sound great to me as a desktop set, I suspect they'll be even better when built in to the cab ... at least I hope so!

Turnergw,

    Sounds great! They seem to be one of the more reasonably prices sets with a nice looking control. Thanks a lot!

Honkyharris

[turnergw]

Time for another progress update.  I've mounted the two satellite speakers in the top panel, and the subwoofer in the base.  The satellite speakers were a pretty tight fit, but mount nicely with a bit of spare speaker grille cloth to finish the mounting off nicely.  Unfortunately in mounting these I've scratched the paintwork up a little, so will need to do some final touching up, but I'll cover up any blemishes once all the rest of the installation is complete.

I've also tested the marquee mounting - the home made marquee holder seems to work well.  Obviously at this stage the plastic covering is still on the perspex, so the artwork is pretty obscured, but I didn't want to scratch up the perspex whilst getting the mounting right!

[turnergw]

Mounting the TV was always going to be a bit of a problem.  I built the cabinet at 25" wide, originally to house a Sony 21" TV.  However when I found a 25" screen on ebay, I decided to try and squeeze that in instead.  The overall width of the set wasn't too bad, but it was a tad over 25".  I really don't fancy decasing the set, so instead I've decided to trim the edges of the casing somewhat. 

I had a nose around inside the case, and the speakers are the only part protruding past the edges of the screen, and since I won't be using these anyway, I figured it's safe to simply hack off the plastic casing at the very edges of the screen, which are the only parts that protrude past 25".  Hence the trusty dremel came out again to perform the cut ...

Unfortunately the plastic is quite thick, and the cutting discs I have for the dremel are very lightweight, so several got broken during the course of the 'modification'.  I'm also very glad of wearing goggles, since one of them came flying straight at my face ... fortunately no damage done, but that was a bit of a wake up call. 

Anyway after trimming down the sides, the set now JUST fits into the 25" width of the cabinet.  I'll be using a SCART input - the set supports S-Video via SCART, and with a 12v line on one of the pins, auto-selects the right input on power up, so I've made sure that the SCARTS are easily accessible from the back.  My bezel is also easily removable for access to the front controls if needed, and so that the remote can still be used with the set in place.

[Yvan256]

Wow, if that's not a tight fit then I don't know what is! 

[Rusty Shackelford]

Good work!
I just want to ask about your bezal. What thickness MDF did you use and did you use a round over bit for the inside edge?

[turnergw]

The bezel is made from 3/8" MDF, which keeps it nice and lightweight, as I'd like it to be removable in case I need to get at the TV.  Yes, it's routed with a rounded edge bit - this gives a nice curved edge and covers the screen surround well.

[MaximRecoil]

Given that your TV has SCART, why not feed it RGB rather than S-video (assuming it is an RGB-capable SCART socket)? Then it would be like a real arcade monitor. It would take more effort initially (you'd need something like an Ultimarc AradeVGA card, or software like Soft-15KHz, and a VGA to SCART cable), but the picture quality would much better.

[turnergw]

Thanks MaximRecoil - I originally built a VGA to SCART cable and tried to get it working with soft-15kHz, but couldn't get a signal at all.  I've currently shelved that plan, as my graphics card has an S-Video out, and the TV produces a surprisingly good image with that.   This also means I can still leave a standard monitor connected in high resolution as well, which makes it easier to do all the software configuration.  Once everything's configured and working fully, I will probably come back to the RGB issue and see if I can get it to work. 

[MaximRecoil]

Thanks MaximRecoil - I originally built a VGA to SCART cable and tried to get it working with soft-15kHz, but couldn't get a signal at all.  I've currently shelved that plan, as my graphics card has an S-Video out, and the TV produces a surprisingly good image with that.   This also means I can still leave a standard monitor connected in high resolution as well, which makes it easier to do all the software configuration.  Once everything's configured and working fully, I will probably come back to the RGB issue and see if I can get it to work. 

Did you set up the SCART control signal which tells the TV which input you are using?

"The 'Blanking' control input signal tells the TV that you want to input video from either a composite or RGB source. You will most likely see a completely black screen if you try to use the RGB to SCART lead without using this pin to select RGB input." - http://www.idiots.org.uk/vga_rgb_scart/ ("SCART Control Signals" section of the page)

[turnergw]

Did you set up the SCART control signal which tells the TV which input you are using?

Yes, I'm used to the blanking signal (using it to auto select the s-video input currently).  I did at some stage get some sort of non-synced mess on the screen, but nothing approaching a usable picture! 

Since I also want to run some more modern 3d stuff on the cabinet as well, I'm happy with the s-video output as it stands, as it means I can use standard drivers for the video card. 

Thanks for the info though!

[turnergw]

This weekend I fitted the marquee, and put the bezel in place over the mounted TV.  I've also finished adding the T-molding, which really brightens up the whole cab nicely. 

I tested my homemade LED marquee light, and discovered that it wasn't anything like bright enough, which seemed strange with 10 hi-power LEDs.  Soon realised I'd wired them up wrongly, and effectively had wired them in series instead of parallel.  One quick bit of rewiring later, and the light is blinding ... should look good for lighting up the marquee properly!

Next stage is to get the PC mounted, and bring the beast indoors for some real play-testing!

[Mr Wilson]

Whilst painting the cabinet I've also made a cheap and easy marquee holder - It's simply a strip of edging plastic from B&Q.  It also only seems to come in white, but takes paint quite well - a coating of primer and a coat of the black satinwood have come out well on it.  It's a 20mm x 20mm strip, so I've cut one side back to about 10mm to hold the marquee, and the 20mm side will be screwed into the top and speaker panels. 

nice cab and its exactly the same stuff i used for my marquee holder 

[jmike]

  Great job. I really like the colors, and yeah the t-molding really was definitely a great choice.

Let the gaming begin!

 

[Epyx]

 

I love the font on the Marquee, really makes it pop out. I used the same material for my bartop retainer as well, works great!