First post and First Project

[diazsinger]

Just wanted to say thanks to all of you people that have contributed to these forums and made for such a treasure trove of knowledge.

I've been interested in Mame cabinets for awhile, and always entertained the idea of building one... but never quite got around to it.  On Craigslist I found a
gentleman that had a Captain America and the Avengers cabinet with no monitor for 50.00.

The weird thing about this was it was only a two player cabinet, and every Captin America I remembered was 4.  So after inspecting the Cabinet after I got it home
I see the original stickers for Championship Baseball, and then see how the control panel was modified from underneath.  Now that took any guilt I had about making
this a MAME cabinet away.

The gentleman that sold me the Arcade Cabinet also had 5 19" arcade monitors he would sell for 25.00.  I'm still thinking on going back and getting them, even though
he said he didn't know if they worked or not.  For my cabinet, since my deadline of Christmas is fast approaching, I took a 19" Slyvania television and mounted it in the cabinet.

The PC is a Intel Atom mini ITX board that I had bought to build a NES PC and never got to.  The nice thing about this board is the S-Video out built in.
But the television that i purchased doesn't have S-Video in.  I remembed I had a RF Modulator with S-Video in.  Hooked that up and it worked beautifully.

I know that is not the best quality way to hook up the tv but I still think the screen looks better than half the arcades at my local putt putt.  Maybe the RF Modulator smooths
it out more for me.

So now I am at the point of the keyboard encoder.  I think I'm going to get the ECO keywiz, due to the ease of cost.

There is so much more I want to do, and I know this sounds like a very vanilla build, but I want it done by Christmas for my son, and I figure its a good starting out point, to get me bit by the
bug.

UPDATES AND PICS LATER TONIGHT!  





*note the Mario background is due to the fact the Mobo and HD are from a NES PC project.

[IG-88]

Very nice    and welcome!

If I were you and if you have the space I would go grab those arcade monitors. They are more than likely non-working but at $5 each I wouldn't pass them up.

[diazsinger]

Thanks, I thought it seemed like a steal.  I know they are dangerous behind the cap, but if I was to not fiddle with anything other than hooking them up and testing, and not grab them by the
cone, how dangerous are they?

[IG-88]

If by cone you mean the neck (narrow part of the tube) I wouldn't do that either. That is the weakest spot on the tube and can easily break.    Just decharge them if you're worried about getting zapped. Its a snap (no pun intended). Or ask the seller to do it for you. If he's an op I'm sure he can do it.

And before you power them up, post some pics on the monitor forum and ask some questions first. You never know whats been done to them. You may fry something if you apply the juice.

From what I've been hearing, 19" monitors aren't being made anymore so we should at least get a look at them before they get destroyed.