Electronics...

So, the easy bit (for me) ... All the hard work to date has led me to this bit, which is the moment of truth really... Will it work, will it function as planned, have I configured everything correctly... Well, test fit number 1:

Believe it or not, this "mess" of cabling tested as working 5/5; time to tidy and add lighting...

 Now a final rig up before it goes into the arcade itself, just to double check that nothing came loose while I was tidying up the cable run...

Okay, working as planned! All systems go, now to play a game... Just to make sure of course!

Yep, Metal Slug works a treat, as does Batman, Discs of Tron, and Pacman, that's all I've played on it thus far, just enough to test the configuration... Brilliant! So, possibly onto installing into the actual cabinet soon, have to wait on postage for a few things, and will need to screw everything down into final locations once sideart is on; don't really want to put this in just yet, as the arcade machine is living in the shed until such time as it's completed.

Control Panel Construction...

What have you been up to so far this weekend? Well, today I had to go shopping, which lasted much longer than any party involved would have liked! Meaning for lunch we ended up at the chip shop, which is fine by me! Then after lunch... Construction time!

I even enlisted the help of she who must not be named ((my wife) who has requested not to be anyway) with further construction, as she is a self proclaimed expert at adding vinyl! More on that later though; so, with a bit more drilling out, and a few screws, we now have a constructed control panel, that just needed a slight bit of filling to bring it up to useable standards...

So, some filler, some sanding and a spot of paint at the corners of the inner bezel for inside the glass (to hide where the monitor will sit) and we're left with...

While waiting for the filler to harden, it's time to test fit the speakers and wire up (can't test yet, sadly, mini amp has yet to arrive... up to THREE weeks! Can you believe that rubbish? Shipping from HK, and up to THREE weeks to get here, now that's just slack, wonder who's flying that plane!):

NOTE: as This is MDF, always make sure you drill pilot holes for screws otherwise you risk splitting it, which is A: Costly, and B: Time consuming if you've already cut to size

Speakers are as far along as they can be, don't worry about that front panel, there is a grill that will be covering it, which is why it's a bit scruffy looking (almost like a Nerf Herder?)

Anyway, back to the real work of the day; Vinyl has arrived for the inner bezel and the Control Panel, so onwards I hear you cry... Well yes, only, my wife is a self proclaimed expert at this, so in an excited voice, I got the "can I help" (by the end it was more like "just let me get it finished") so, here we go, bezel and CP fitout with a lot of help from the lovely lady...

Is it me, or does she already look tense? Don't think she liked me helping with my project at this point! At least she's got the hang of the X-Acto knife, treat it with respect, or it will cut you, and make your life unhappy at best! These are sharp craft blades, and highly dangerous if you're not very careful, I can't emphasise enough here; be careful with it, treat it with the same respect you'd give any power tool! Or any other tool for that matter.

Anyway, enough talk; how did it turn out, what does it look like fitted... Well, here it is sans glass and front bezel (hasn't arrived yet) as the glass was to reflective for a good photo in the sun today:

Now onto the hard part... Control panel:

Okay, Not as bad as we thought; just time consuming to say the least, and there's that great big trackball hole that really isn't a square, oh no it's not, that just keeps coming back to annoy me!!!! Now to button / trackball / joystick fit out... Back to me...

Since it was nearly dinner time, and I have (quite clearly) invaded the dinner table; I only had time to quickly wire up and test the trackball as below, but there we have it... A constructive shopping day for my wife, followed by a constructive day of construction for me after that! Haven't wired the buttons up yet, but I'll get to that in good time... Test run of trackball...

... And goodnight! No more project work today :)

Control Panel, Test fitout...

Completely forgot that I didn't put a test fit picture up for the control panel; hopefully vinyl will arrive soon and I can do this properly... According to the post company it was delivered to the wrong delivery branch, so with that in mind; hopefully will arrive tomorrow. Anyway, the control panel test fit, just to make sure everything lined up and fit as I wanted...

That's all for now. Still waiting on parts; obviously want to be getting on, but have run out of things to do until more stuff arrives.

Trackball lighting solution...

A nice quick post this evening, I completely forgot to add details about the HAPP trackball lighting; it comes with a 12v light attached, but no cabling! Annoying to say the least; not the fault of the supplier though, this is just how they are supplied from the HAPP factory.

So, initially; I decided to use 2x USB cables to try and power it, figuring 10v would be close enough (wrong) however, in my haste to build a lighting solution, forgot completely about other factors, and of course it didn't work, thus killing a couple of USB cables without any real need, DOH!

Anyway, onto the mk. 2 solution... I decided that buying adapters and cabling wasn't really the way I wanted to go, and it would also mean the Trackball would be on even if the computer wasn't if I did it that way, so, I mulled over my potential solutions for a couple of days, and decided that a USB light would do the trick nicely (tested with the LED light in my phone first, as that's pretty similar in luminance ratings), and bought one off Trademe for $3... Job done! It arrived today, and with the help of a USB extension will reach the computer in the arcade, and allow perfect positioning... Example image below (pre fitting of course):

Build Time...

Today; my awesome neighbour has dedicated some of his own hard hours to this build with me, no doubt he'll also get to rack up a few hours play time to make up for this, and probably a bottle of something alcoholic enough to strip paint!!

Which leads us to today's progress; well I'm sure you remember my control panel design from yesterday. Today we got to test whether it will work (yes, thank goodness, wasn't looking forward to having to do that again!) and how everything would fit, so I now have a speaker shelf, an actual shelf for in the arcade, squared up the rear fan hole, as that had been roughly routed out prior to my getting the cab (the only thing I forgot to take a photo of!)

After today; unless you are highly competent with a router, I would very much recommend getting someone who is to do your routing, and any jigsaw work you need doing. I did have a go, but it takes me far longer than my neighbour and my workmanship is nowhere near as good as he is a master builder, so the majority of the credit for this has to go to him without a shadow of a doubt, so to photo's:

This is my neighbour using probably the most awesome tool I never knew even existed (a router) until a few days ago when I started researching how to lower the face of the wood so that the joysticks would sit higher in the cab! Definitely a credit to his trade, and if you have a construction project, you should hire him!

This is the finished control panel, even has the trackball mount in it already! That was the hard part, as you can see; the trackball isn't quite a simple square shape to fit in, as I had assumed in my measurements, that probably took us the longest out of everything we've done. Extra holes by the trackball L + R button keys are: P (pause) Esc (exit game) and Enter (Enter)... A must if you're going to hide the keyboard, which I am doing.

This is a test fit of the Sanwa joystick, looking very good, I was still a little worried about the height, but this is spot on for playing, definitely no need for a top mount, which makes me happy as the closest to seeing anything from the top will be the trackball panel, which unfortunately has to be there as to route out the required area would make the wood to thin to support the weight.

And finally; a test fit of the monitor bracket, monitor and monitor cover, yes, I took this whilst the arcade was in the shed, I forgot to take it prior to packing up for the day, and there was no way I was going to be pulling it back out of the shed for one photo! The project has already cost me a very bruised shin this morning just getting it out of the shed! Weighs a tonne, and is getting heavier now things are being added! Still not long until it can take up residence methinks.

that's all for now, possibly for a little while, as next weekend is a construction free weekend, and I need to order more bits (namely vinyl to cover this MDF).

The control panel...

Now; the controversial part; everybody has an opinion on what a control panel should look like, and how it should be spaced, the placement of the buttons / joysticks, whether there should be a trackball, or whether it should be joystick only... Well, these are the decisions I made and why:

1. I like the Sanwa joysticks, so the plates are a different shape to the standard, but they will be much nicer when they're in.

2. I like HAPP buttons best; to be precise the competition buttons that can be mounted in anything up to 28mm (I'm using 18mm MDF for my control panel so the deep fit is important, as SANWA and Seimetsu buttons only allow shallow fit, meaning either much more routing, or a metal control panel).

3. I much prefer the natural feeling of the Sega layout for buttons, so after much trial and error, I've created a Sega layout.

4. I wanted a trackball, and on impulse, I purchased one, so I felt the need to use it, and it also doubles as a mouse, which is important for a MAME machine, so without further ado; here it is, the MD Control Panel Mk. 1:

Busy day ... More prep

Okay, so now officially the prep is finished! Yay, thank goodness!!

So, today saw a trip to Jaycar (which is similar to Radio Shack / Maplin, depending where you're reading from) to get 0.75mm terminating spades, as the joystick harnesses didn't have them on, so for anyone that's not sure how to fit a spade: You strip the wire at the end you want to crimp, slide it into the crimp, and press the crimp tool down as hard as you can then pull on the crimp and the wire to make sure it is secure, as per below making sure to use a crimp tool (If you don't have one, don't use pliers, go out and buy one, they're cheap, and they're well worth having in your tool box because you will use it again, and again, and again!):

So, crimped up, it should look like the below:

Now wash, rinse and repeat until you're finished:

and there we have it, 2x joysticks fully crimped and ready to be plugged into the iPac controller.

Getting ready to build...

Apparently; it's harder than it looks to measure out dimensions accurately! It took me a good couple of hours to get the monitor mount and monitor cover dimensions chalked up. I won't be doing anything else until Saturday now, when I'll template the control panel. After which time, I'm waiting on the graces of my neighbour who just so happens to be a builder, so has all the right tools and experience required for the build to go ahead as planned, but this is what happens when I'm left to my own devices on a public holiday...

I also measured up for the new flourecent as the last one (that wasn't known to be working or not) suffered what I could only describe as catastrophic failure, which is to say: After removing it from the arcade, I set it down behind me, completely forgot about it whilst tidying up the inside, stepped backwards and BOOM! Catastrophic failure! On the bright side, the new one is 25w more efficient than the former one, so at least it's better for the environment.

That's all for now. I'll take more photo's and go through what else I've done as I progress with the help of my good friends and neighbours.

Potential Layout...

So, I know everybody has their favourite layouts, but I do like the Sega layouts for buttons (AKA Golden Axe as a perfect example) but shy on space means this is one of the potential layouts I have ... Yet to be confirmed (credit of course goes to the hard working folks at www.slagcoin.com for the dimensions as below)...

So, after some juggling; I've got an approximate template as below:

Thinking that I may drop to 6 buttons though, as this would give me a bit more room to maneuver, and it's only the newer consoles that use more than 6 buttons anyway, so as this is more about the classics (late 70's, 80's, and early 90's machines) then there may not be a need for 8 buttons per player.

Obviously; I have to think on this until it's time to cut wood for the build.

Parts time...

I'm lucky enough to work in IT, so a set of speakers were easily acquired through an old 2004 donor computer, keyboard and mouse aren't a problem as I have lots around the house, a working donor computer was a little more problematic, but a very good friend of mine is donating an oldie, but fully functional XP build to the project!

As to buttons / Joysticks; all of these had to be ordered, and I did also find a great looking trackball which I've added to the project, I wasn't initially going to put one in, but it means we don't need a front end, as the trackball will also double as a mouse!

Buttons and Joysticks were ordered from ebay, and arrived in short order...

That trackball also has the added benefit of being a USB device, so I don't even have to cable it to the iPac controller you see on the right hand side of the first image! I've left the card on the trackball in case you can make it out, as I have an American surplus reseller to thank for that, as I got it for less than half of the HAPP advertised price from Tornado Terry's (the name is searchable on e-bay).

The downside is the trackball also takes up significantly more room than anticipated, so onto potential layouts to see what we like best.

To be continued...

Arrival and prep...

So we've spent the last few weeks after arrival in the prep phase, but if you do things right, you only need to do them once, so after much research (okay a few trips to the arcade, and some fond memories) I decided to order Sanwa Joysticks & HAPP competition buttons; an odd combination I'm aware, but I just don't like the way Sanwa buttons feel, yet love their joysticks, and the HAPP buttons just remind me so much of all the old classics, so I couldn't resist!

The first thing to do is strip what's left of the cab and sort out measurements though, so here goes....


.... Around two hours pass, and we're left with the below removed (even after the arcade tech had removed what he actually wanted from the cab):

And the bare bones of the cabinet itself; looking a lot better than last we saw it already:

So, This is what it looked like when I went to see the seller...

Okay, a bit scruffy looking, but that's fine; the bones are in good condition; and the seller wanted to keep his control panel, which was also fine by me, as I'll be remaking the whole thing anyway... so, what happens next? Well; I made sure before I accepted both that my friend definitely wanted the other, then I arranged as part of the deal that he deliver them to me when everything he wanted was removed... I really only want the bones, any more is going to be wasted because this isn't going to be a JAMMA unit, this is going to be MAME...

The beginning...

Well, where to start... I suspect the beginning is as good place as any! I've been asked by a few folks to create a blog charting my "franken-cade" progress, so where did it start? Why am I doing this?

Frankly; it started by accident, as most things do, from time to time I look at the arcade machines and decide I want to build one just for me, (as I've helped with a few of them in the past for my friends) so I make a half hearted effort at getting an old (preference to non functional) cabinet, the latest such effort; a query at the video shop that was closing down led me to the guy who supplies most of the arcade machines in the Auckland area (New Zealand for those of you reading internationally), so, he called me up and told me he had TWO such cabinets that he was going to scrap!

a few $$'s later I had myself one of these cabs, and one of my friends asked me to get the other for him, so stored in my shed were two of these cabinets! The first of which has since gone to my friend, so please don't ask me if I'd be prepared to part with it... The answer was obviously yes, but as of right now; I don't have a spare!!

As to the why; well, if you're reading this, I suspect you already know the answer to that! Who doesn't want an arcade machine at home? Street Fighter II? Sure, Mortal Kombat? Why not, 1942? Oh definitely (to name but a few of the classic titles I'll be playing).