Touchy Touch!

[Hewskie]

Or Touch n' Play, or Master of Touchettes, or Touch and Dance.... you get the idea.

You guessed it, it's a touchscreen Jukebox! I'm still looking for a name, but progress is rolling along quite well. I'd like to thank mountain for putting the bug in my ear, his build has given many people here the inspiration to try it themselves. I've included a few pictures of what I've done so far. I'm no wiz at sketchup or anything like that so my plans were all done on paper.

After taking these pictures I've since cut holes in the center portion on the front for speakers, cut the t-molding slot and cut a huge access door into the back panel. I'm stuck now waiting on my 12" Round Luminglas BLUE Plasma Glass Disk (https://www.2shopper.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MYI141) in the mail so I can cut a circle in the bottom portion of the front before i can finish assembly.

Specs:
AMD Athlon x2 2050e dual-core processor
2GB DDRII Ram
160 Gig HD (for now)
On board Video
Logitec Z2300 speakers
ELO 15'' Touchscreen Moniter

The Frontend for the Jukebox is xlobby 2.0 with a modified Colby2 skin
A compiled version of mame 130 is included to play the touchmaster games all set to freeplay
Also recently learned how to pull flash games out of a firefox browser so i've added a few so far that seem easy to play on a touchscreen.

Only plan on having 2 visible translucent pushbuttons on the front for Esc with  and possibly insert for fast forward in mame

Now I have a few questions
1) I'm looking for a few tips on mounting the MB. I've heard that if you don't ground it correctly it can cause a hum to blast out of your speakers. Is there any other potential problems that can arise? Is it really bad to just screw it to the side wall?

2) I plan on pointing the Sub woofer straight down with the Jukebox raised off the ground an inch or so due to the height of the caster wheels. Will this make it sound like crap? is it bad for the speaker? I hope it'll be ok, the sub is huge and I'd pretty much have to start all over as it won't fit any other way as it is.
 
I will try to keep this posting updated until the project's completion, any comments, criticisms  or suggestions are extremely welcome!

Thanks for reading,
Hewskie

Edit: sorry for the poor orientation on the pics, they were taken from my cellphone

[orion]

Looks good! I couldn't help but notice your Xlobby skin. Did you do that one yourself based off of the Colby skin? I don't want to come across as presumptuous, however you might want to check out mine as I have done a ton of things to improve the functionality on the jukebox side of it.

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

[drventure]

Cool project. I've been wanted to do something with a touch screen but haven't been able to find a good deal one one (or maybe my definition of a good deal is warped 

At any rate, for the sub, why not put a hole in the side of the cab, frame it and stretch speaker  cloth over it and put the sub behind that. If you're worried about the assemetrical look, just do the same on the other side, but not bother with any speaker over there.

You could do a circular hole ala those Neon Mame cabs, or just a plain square hole that would be easier to frame/tmold.

Firing down would probably work just fine though. I've had subs before that were no more than an inch off the ground and fired down. Then, it'll kind of depend on why kind of floor you have as to the effect on the sound (firing into carpet vs tile for instance.

[Hewskie]

Hey Orion, I actually spent a long time looking at your post when I was looking for the juke software. I think I was about to post to ask you about it, but I hadn't set up an account yet, I was just a guest, and by the time saint approved my avatar and such I'd forgotten about it.

I tried to Download your skin, but I couldn't get the skin up and running. When I start xlobby with your skin, a black screen just comes up. I tried to hit Pause and GoTo a different page, but there's only 1 there called "menu" and like i said, it's just black for me. I ran into the same problem when I first loaded the Colby skin without adding the proper fonts to my windows so maybe that's the problem?

What I ended up doing was almost copying your layout for the music selection page (The pics I posted are a little out dated, it actually looks a lot cleaner now). I also added a Now Playing page. Your album viewer looks really cool though! I wasn't about to learn how to do that, must have taken a ton of research.

Dr. Venture, thanks for clearing up the issue of pointing the sub down! The thing about pointing the sub sideways is that it won't fit! it's HUGE. 11''x11''x16'' deep. The whole Juke is only 16'' across and I don't really want to force it in. I've already got the bottom cut with a 12'' hole in the center and casters on the corners, it should hopefully work fine.

As for the screen, I picked it up off ebay for $68 +$32 shipped to BC, Canada. I think that's a pretty good deal! I actually bought it after the first time I read mountain's post front to back. It was kinda an impulse by as it was 5am, I was really tired and I really excited by the prospect of a touchscreen Jukebox!

Thanks for the interest and help!
Hewskie

Edit: Oops... Orion, I'm confusing your thread with an older one that you started that i can't find now.. I seem to have a copy of Orion XLS3. I'll try out your newest version
Thanks.

[orion]

Just make sure you install the plugins into the plugin folder that I provided first before starting up the skin. That might be the problem you are having. Sorry for the short reply, I don't have a lot of time today!

[Hewskie]

No problem, I actually got your skin running last night. I tweaked it a bit for 2 hours or so. I will probably end up using it if that's alright with you. It looks great! The only down side is knowing that I spent 10+ hours working on my skin

[orion]

No problem, I actually got your skin running last night. I tweaked it a bit for 2 hours or so. I will probably end up using it if that's alright with you. It looks great! The only down side is knowing that I spent 10+ hours working on my skin

I'm glad you got it running! Feel free to do what you like with it, I posted it for people to use how they see fit, the same way that the author of the Colby skin did.  At least you learned how to work with Xlobby in that 10+ hours. I noticed that you got the mame features working in yours. I didn't do that because I have no interest in running Mame on my jukebox.... but I am sure some other folks would like to! I worked out the jukebox I leave it to you to work out the MAME stuff if you wish!  Have fun!!!!!!!

[Hewskie]

I guess you're right about learning xlobby, it really is a great program.

Getting mame to work was a little confusing. I actually ended up having to make batch files for each game I was going to run (short term solution i guess as, I'm only playing 6 or 7 touchmaster games so it's not a big hassle), then just created a database in xlobby that stores batch files, then ran them with a category that points to the database. It's not ideal, but it works for me.

I'm having some trouble with your weather plugin though. It works and everything, but it won't remember the location I give it. Every time I close and open xlobby I have to open up the editor, go to plugins>weather>configure and just hit save. My location is there in the config menu, but I still have to open it and hit save. Very strange, any ideas?

Hewskie

[orion]

I would never have thought of your solution to get the mame games working with the batch files! That's pretty clever I think. As I said I haven't tried to get Mame to work, but I would assume it would involve the plugin "Rom2xlobby"  http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3530 Also, I don't know if you saw this thread over at the Xlobby fourms, I hope it helps you out! http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12491

As far as the weather plugin, I have to say, ya got me on that one. It's possible something got corrupted somewhere along the way. I would try deleting the XoapWeather plugin, and download it again and reinstalling it. http://xlobby.help.googlepages.com/plugins#O Also try "Load HTTP images on startup" in the settings menu. 

[Ralman]

Hmmm... that profile looks awfully familiar...  can't quite put my finger on it. 

Looking good. 

As for my jukebox, I just need it to cool down, and stop raining every damn weekend.

[Hewskie]

hehe  Hey Ralman. Uh yeah.. I hope you don't mind that I blatantly stole your design. I meant to pm you or post in your thread but I got to sketching and building pretty quick and it slipped my mind. I in no way wish to present this as  original and will give full credit of the design to you! I think the only difference is the rounded top, which was a little daunting to me.

I hope there's no sour feelings, I look forward to your next update as well

Cheers,
Hewskie

[Ralman]

I don't mind at all.  I am flattered that someone thought my relatively simple design to be worth replicating.  The best part of this community is how various builders take a design or an idea from others and make it their own.  Heck, the thing was inspired by the various commercial kiosk designs I found online.

The rounded top was actually rather easy to make using a circle jig.  The 45 degree angles can be a bit of a headache trying to make sure everything lines up without too much of a gap.

Very interested in seeing how this turns out.

[Hewskie]

Mine's actually a little shorter so I made all my angles 30 degrees. My dad's table saw made the cuts no problem My lumin disk came in the mail yesterday so I should get most of the assembly done this weekend!

Hewskie

[Hewskie]

Wow, I'm almost done, it's getting exciting. Got a lot done this weekend including:
 - got the cab assembled and painted ,1 coat primer, 3 coats High gloss Oil based Black, it's not a perfect finish.... but it's pretty damn good and I'm not a perfectionist 
 - got the moniter, sub, acrylic faceplate, t-molding, lumin glas disk, motherboard, PS, HD, CD Rom, and SmartStrip mounted!
 - danced in my garage with my girlfriend as we marveled at my OUR creation (I guess she helped paint and install the t-molding)

Still left to do:
 - Power the blue leds in the 2 pushbuttons on the front
 - hack up a keyboard/joypad to control the 2 pushbuttons on the front
 - mount the L/R speakers inside the cab
 - get my brother to waterjet cut some aluminum speaker grills at work for me
 - clean up the wiring inside (it's a mess)
 - wait for my led lit fans to arrive in the mail to replace my non-bling ones
 - mount my 2 12v blue led bars to the left and right of the speakers (inside) so hopefully the grills will glow blue a little

Any questions comments feel free to post!

Hewskie

[Chicken McNobody]

Wow, looks sharp, I love the Plasma Touch on the front. 

I am thinking I need to build one of these, but I'm not so sure I could convince The Wife of that.  I just got another arcade cabinet, and she is not too pleased with me right now. 

I'll give it some time. . .

[Ralman]

Holy Crap!  You are already done.... 

Man, do I feel beat to the punch now...

[Hewskie]

Done? I don't think so, didn't you read my to do list?

I'm really pleased with how it's shaping up though. I'm leaving for vacation on sunday and I'd really like to have it finished before we leave. Not sure if that's gonna be possible though as I just ordered a gamepad to hack and will now have to wait for it to arrive. It shouldn't be too hard to finish though.

and Chicken, it shouldn't be that hard to convince the wife...
1) It's got a small foot print, about 15.5" x 17.5x at the base
2) It wasn't too expensive (Not counting the new computer and speakers I bought I spent less than $250 CDN*)
3) It's kick ass for parties!

*I could have used a recycled computer I had kicking around but the front end lagged ever so slightly and I thought it would be annoying in the long run, futurshop had a decent system on clearance for $300 and I was able to talk the manager down to $250 so I splurged. I also could have used some old speakers that I had lying around, but I really wanted this thing to knock your socks off while still retaining the ease of using computer speakers so I picked up the logitec z2300s for cost +10% (yay girlfriend's discount at futurshop!)

[Chicken McNobody]

and Chicken, it shouldn't be that hard to convince the wife...
2) It wasn't too expensive (Not counting the new computer and speakers I bought I spent less than $250 CDN*)

When you make money but have no control over its use, it is a bad thing even at a "low" price like that.  Once you are married and have kids you'll understand.  I don't have a good priority filter, that is where The Wife comes in.  If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have the nice new house and other things for the family.  But we would have a killer selection of various arcade games, Blu-Ray movies, and Star Wars toys. . .

[Hewskie]

heh, I guess I can understand that I'm only 24 and it seems like most of the time I'm a spending machine! Your wish list of things to buy if you were single amuses me  I've got over 400 dvds myself and I browse CL all the time looking for new arcade machines, the only thing holding me back is the fact that I live in my parents basement until I finish school and he'd kill me if I filled it with cabs, was hard enough to get my mame machine built. Also my girlfriend is pretty cool, she's agreed that when we do finally get a house, it has to have a large basement or something like that for a games room/bar.

Good like with the wife, I'm sure you can warm her up somehow!

Hewskie

[Chicken McNobody]

Good like with the wife, I'm sure you can warm her up somehow!

Hewskie

I've got two kids already, how else would I get the new LCD TV and PS3?

[orion]

That's looking really good! I am always amazed when someone can get a finish like that with paint. I saw the pics and thought that you had skinned everything with black plexi! I could never in a million years get a finish that nice with paint.

[orion]

and Chicken, it shouldn't be that hard to convince the wife...
2) It wasn't too expensive (Not counting the new computer and speakers I bought I spent less than $250 CDN*)

When you make money but have no control over its use, it is a bad thing even at a "low" price like that.  Once you are married and have kids you'll understand.  I don't have a good priority filter, that is where The Wife comes in.  If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have the nice new house and other things for the family.  But we would have a killer selection of various arcade games, Blu-Ray movies, and Star Wars toys. . .

That is so true! My wife gives me an "allowance" every two weeks, and that's all the money I am allowed to spend on myself.

[mountain]

Great job! 

I have been away for a while and missed this thread (and alot of others). Nice to see you using Orions skin on with Xlobby. Really clean.

I look forward to building a Juke like this someday. I love the idea of a stand up juke.

[Chicken McNobody]

and Chicken, it shouldn't be that hard to convince the wife...
2) It wasn't too expensive (Not counting the new computer and speakers I bought I spent less than $250 CDN*)

When you make money but have no control over its use, it is a bad thing even at a "low" price like that.  Once you are married and have kids you'll understand.  I don't have a good priority filter, that is where The Wife comes in.  If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have the nice new house and other things for the family.  But we would have a killer selection of various arcade games, Blu-Ray movies, and Star Wars toys. . .

That is so true! My wife gives me an "allowance" every two weeks, and that's all the money I am allowed to spend on myself.

Same here, I get $40 per pay for whatever I want, so $80 a month.  And special purchases are agreed upon at times as well. 

To her credit, we were stuck with 2 house payments when we built our new house for a year.  And due to her budgeting, we did not build up a ton of debt, and actually came out on top when we sold our other house.  This is what aforded us to drop close to $5,000 in cash, no credit, on doing our yard.  That is a Sprinkler syster, 15' x 20' playground area and playground for the kids with 810 pounds of rubber mulch, about 250 square feet worth of patio area, top soil, and grass planted.  We did all the labor ourselves, other than the sprinkler system, but it still was a lot of money.

So, I can't complain, she does a good great job.  Once we finish our basement within the next few years, and I have my game room, things like this may be a stronger possibility.  Until then, I'll be happy with what I got, which I am. . .

Back to the topic, this thing looks Fantastical!

[Hewskie]

Wow. So I haven't updated this thread in a while and the juke is now 99% complete!

First, thanks for the compliment mountain! It should go without saying but your work here has inspired many projects including mine so thanks for taking notice!

I've hacked a cheapo game pad for the 2 buttons on the front. they are used to exit the visualizer (either button) and in MAME to exit (left button) and fast forward (right button). I couldn't really think of a better use for the right button, but I wanted 2 for symmetry. So as you can see in the pictures the only thing I haven't done is cover the speakers. I really want to use some kind of perforated metal like so many others here, but I haven't been able to find a source locally. The inside of the speaker cutouts are routed so all I have to do is cut the metal to size and throw it in. If anyone has any suggestions on what I should use or where I can get it I'm all ears!
 
Anyway, on to the pics.

Lights on:


Lights off:


Lighted case fan:


Speaker area that needs to be covered:


Thanks for looking!

Hewskie

PS: sorry for the crappy pics, they were taken from my cell phone

[orion]

This is where I got my perforated metal from.... once you are able to stop yourself from laughing at their name, the sizes and prices are good. They ship it out pretty fast and I had no issues from them and would use them again. It was the only place I was able to find any that didn't require me spending a ton on a large sheet. (sorry for the long link I don't know how to shorten it)

http://www.smallparts.com/s?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_r=0QYHASB43G02DDTYSE67&pf_rd_s=center-3&field_browse=16310161|468240&searchSize=20&field_availability=-2&pf_rd_t=301&refinementHistory=availability%2Csubjectbin%2Cbrandtextbin%2Cenc-merchantbin%2Creview-rating%2Cdate%2Cis_prime&searchKeywords=perforated%20metal%20sheet&pf_rd_p=467590031&searchNodeID=16310161|468240&pf_rd_i=0&field_launch-date=-1y&searchRank=relevancerank&searchPage=1&field_keywords=perforated%20metal%20sheet&pf_rd_m=AIUBT5HP6PMAF

[Hewskie]

Thanks for the link, I've placed an order, will post pics, (hopefully better quality ones) once I've made the cut outs.

Hewskie

[orion]

I'm glad I could help you out with that. I recommend painting it with flat paint though, as gloss shows every tiny little dent in it.  If you cut it, you will have to hammer it flat as it will tend to want to warp a bit around the cut. 

[Hewskie]

yes, I've cut other thin metals before so I know I'll have to hammer it flat. You mention I should paint it? I was planning on leaving it as is, is there a problem with that? Are there any good techniques to polish it up so it'll shine a bit?

Thanks

Hewskie

[orion]

yes, I've cut other thin metals before so I know I'll have to hammer it flat. You mention I should paint it? I was planning on leaving it as is, is there a problem with that? Are there any good techniques to polish it up so it'll shine a bit?

Thanks

Hewskie

When I got mine, it was coated in grease (which they do to prevent sheet metal from rusting) and had a hint of rust on it. It just seems to me that if you don't paint it or at least put a clear coat on it, it will get all rusty over time. It's kind of like the steel you can get a Lowe's (that is if you got the steel and not the aluminum) I would either paint it silver or paint it with the spay can version of this http://www.liquidstainlesssteel.com/products.html If you don't want to paint it, I would recommend polishing it up with a dremmel and some jewelers rouge and then hiting it with some automotive lacquer.

[Hewskie]

I actually did get the aluminum. Any tips on finishing up this type of material? Oh,also, my brother agreed to cut it for me with a water jet cutter he uses at work, so I'll have very bzve cuts!

[mountain]

I have painted a lot of aluminum grill material in my day. Wipe it down with rubbing alcohol and prime it with an automotive sanding primer. You can get it at any auto parts store, Lowes and HD also carry it. No need for a thick coat, just a few light mists. Then finish it with a flat or satin paint of your choice. What is the hole spacing?

[Hewskie]

Thanks for the tips mountain, I bought this:

 http://www.smallparts.com/Aluminum-3003-H14-Perforated-Sheet-Gauge/dp/B001DE921K?ie=UTF8&qid=1254953573&pf_rd_r=03RP38HKDWHJSBYH11Q7&pf_rd_p=467590031&pf_rd_i=0&sr=1-6&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_m=AIUBT5HP6PMAF&pf_rd_t=301

1/16 In. Round Perforations On 1/8 In. Staggered Centers

the price was definitely right! I'm looking forward to finally finishing this thing. It's been sitting as is for almost 2 months now.

Hewskie

[Hewskie]

Wow! So I come home today to find a package on my doorstep and think, there's no way it got here this fast... but it did! Overnight from Florida to Vancouver for $7. This is by far the fastest service I've ever had. Will hopefully get my brother to cut it this week and have it finished by the weekend!

Hewskie

PS lol... it obviously refers to the aluminum I ordered

[orion]

WOW that was fast! I got mine in just a few days after ordering. I told you they were a good company to deal with! Sounds like Mountain has a lot of experience in working with aluminum, his advice sounds good to me. Can't wait to see you complete this!

[rablack97]

Hello,

I'm in the middle of building a arcade cab, and I had this notion to add plasma balls to my circle cutouts on the sides of the cabs.

I came across these lumin disks, which will be perfect mounted in front of my 12" neon speaker rings.  I was going to have some sort of art inside the cirlce, but I didnt like it.  So this will be perfect.  You can see my artwork for the cab here and my ideas http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=96162.0.  First go at Photoshop so dont 

Can you give me some insight?

Total diameter of the disk?  I have 11" circle cutouts, would the 10" work, or should I go with the 12".

Also, how did you mount the disk, are there any mount holes around the diameter, etc, or did you mod it.

Thanks for your help

[Shortbus]

Looking great!

and I feel ya Chicken....my wifes boyfriend(Dave Ramsey/Money Guru) says "You gotta live like no-one else(NOW), To live like no-one else(later)".. .... Whatever Dave .....I just want to build stuff and hear that sound of UPS or Fed Ex truck heading to the house, the squeal of the breaks, then a door-bell ring............pooof....parts are here. good times..... But they are right, we wouldn't have our house, cars and stuff without her budgeting.....

You do good work, thanks for sharing....

[Hewskie]

Looking great!

and I feel ya Chicken....my wifes boyfriend(Dave Ramsey/Money Guru) says "You gotta live like no-one else(NOW), To live like no-one else(later)".. .... Whatever Dave .....I just want to build stuff and hear that sound of UPS or Fed Ex truck heading to the house, the squeal of the breaks, then a door-bell ring............pooof....parts are here. good times..... But they are right, we wouldn't have our house, cars and stuff without her budgeting.....

You do good work, thanks for sharing....

haha, What? that was odd  

Thanks I think, Anyway, radblack, the disks are a little tricky to work with. When I made my purchase, I didn't know that they have a power transformer thing on the back. It extends the depth by over 2 inches and it's about 3-4 inches in diameter, so you would have to account for that. I used the 12 inch one, it would help if I took a picture but it's all assembled and I don't really want to take it apart. Basically, there's a 1/4 inch ring around the edge of the disk that doesn't illuminate, So I made my cutout about  11.5 inches and routed out an extra half in "lip" on the backside of the cutout. Inserting the disk into the cutout from the back, I used two small pieces of scrap wood and just pinned it from the top and bottom. mirror clips would probably have worked just as well, I just wanted it to be sturdy.

Like I said, your biggest problem is going to be the power thing on the back of the disk, if you're not decasing your moniter/tv, you might have a problem fitting everything together.

I hope that helps, if you have anymore questions  feel free to ask.

Hewskie

[rablack97]

ok cool,  should be fine, i'm using a 32" lcd tv instead of a monitor so it's flat and not bulky like a monitor.......

with my cutouts already done I dont see how i could route a lip now. any suggestions.

I am going to use neon speaker rings, so maybe i could sandwich the lumin disk between the rings and the cab and use the four screw notches on rings to secure the whole thing.....

Not sure of the weight of these things, so i might have to be more creative to secure both........