And now for your viewing pleasure...
I apologize for the poor quality of the video - I shot it in my basement and there are barely any lights down there but you get the idea. When I finally move the thing upstairs I'll be sure to post something a little nicer...with more light.
Enjoy!
EDIT: I said Windows 98 in the video but it is clearly Windows XP. Since this video I've removed virtually all evidence that there is a computer running things (there is no splash screen and the task bar hides almost instantaneously).
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
New Skin
Not a major update but something worth noting. I enlisted the help of waveryder over at BYOAC to make a few changes to my first MaLa layout. I wanted to change the font, the logo and add an instruction card. I think it came out great - check it out:
The name of the game list and the list itself appear on the left and the original manufacturer and year released along with a screenshot appear on the right.
It looks fantastic and it's easy to navigate!
The name of the game list and the list itself appear on the left and the original manufacturer and year released along with a screenshot appear on the right.It looks fantastic and it's easy to navigate!
Sunday, March 02, 2008
So Close...
I'm pretty much finished. The next post will be a small movie showing the cabinet in action (but not out of the basement, unfortunately). All I have left to do is:
- Refine my Gamelists. This will be an ongoing aspect of owning one of these things as there are always games I can add or take away if they don't get played. There are literally thousands of games to choose from which is great but it's also a bit overwhelming.
- Make a pink dustwasher for the joystick. I tried doing this yesterday and I ended up cracking every single one. Also, centering the hole for the joystick shaft after cutting the circle was also quite difficult. I'll figure something out...
Friday, February 08, 2008
The Coin Door (Lights)
How could I forget about the coin door lights?!?!? No arcade machine is truly complete without lighting up the coin door return buttons. Shortly after getting the cabinet in a playable state, I got a message from theCoder over at BYOAC - he had put together two LEDs controlled by a circuit board and ran it all to a regular power plug. A few days later it arrived in the mail! All I had to do was plug it in and mount the lights behind the yellow coin return buttons. The only snag (if you could even call it that) was figuring out how to mount the LEDs so the light is evenly distributed. This really couldn't have been any easier and it looks great - especially when there no other lights in the room other than the marquee.
Unfortunately, the only pictures I have are of the installation and not the end result. Since the LEDs blink, there's no good way to show them off with a picture but I will make sure to highlight them when I film the 100% completed cabinet in action.
In this first picture you can see the green circuit board, the plug and the two white LEDs:
I used scotch tape (seriously) to secure both lights in place behind the coin return buttons in a place that seemed to evenly distribute the light. Pretty easy.
Thanks theCoder!!
Unfortunately, the only pictures I have are of the installation and not the end result. Since the LEDs blink, there's no good way to show them off with a picture but I will make sure to highlight them when I film the 100% completed cabinet in action.
In this first picture you can see the green circuit board, the plug and the two white LEDs:
I used scotch tape (seriously) to secure both lights in place behind the coin return buttons in a place that seemed to evenly distribute the light. Pretty easy.
Thanks theCoder!!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
The Coin Box
OK, I think we can agree that this is getting a bit tedious, right? I'm forcing myself to cross the finish line within the next week. I am about to have a few free days to work on my new project and I want this one to be complete or else I fear, much like my first project, it never will be (I'll finish it eventually!). Most of the time I used to spend working on these things has been getting sucked away because of Rock Band. I'm addicted.
Anyway, I finally put the coin box in the cabinet. There's no magic here - I took a cardboard box and wrapped it in duct tape to give it some added strength. Then I printed out the marquee and stuck it to the front for show. The only consideration was making sure it was big enough to catch quarters/tokens from both coin mechs. Here it is:
Try to contain yourselves.
Anyway, I finally put the coin box in the cabinet. There's no magic here - I took a cardboard box and wrapped it in duct tape to give it some added strength. Then I printed out the marquee and stuck it to the front for show. The only consideration was making sure it was big enough to catch quarters/tokens from both coin mechs. Here it is:
Try to contain yourselves.
Monday, February 04, 2008
The Power Button
This is it! The final actual construction on the cabinet. It's about time.
One final thing that had been bothering me was the fact that I had to open the coin door to hit the power switch on the computer in order to turn everything on and off. I decided to relocate the power button from the front of my computer to the rear panel on the outside. It's out of sight but easy enough to press before and after a play session.
One consideration was that I wanted the button to be recessed in the panel - I think it looks nicer and whatever small chance there is that it will get pressed accidentally is greatly reduced. I had to come to terms with drilling through my awesome finish on the rear panel - oh well, it's necessary I guess.
Anyway, I wasn't sure about the placement of the button so I actually thought about it for quite some time. I wanted it to be out of the way, easily accessible and aesthetically pleasing in it's ultimate location. I think I achieved all three of these things. I decided to place the button towards the top of the cabinet because it would be easiest to press in that location.
The first thing I did was lay out the center for the button hole using some painter's tape (so as not to mark up the actual cabinet. I measured in from the right to the exact center of the power plug to line up the button hole (for aesthetics) and then measured down from the top the same distance and made a mark and tapped out the center with an awl:
Next, I drilled out the hole in two steps using forstner bits. The first one - 7/8" - was just larger than the overall diameter of the button at it's widest point and the second one - 1/2" - was the exact size you would drill if you were installing the button normally. Here is the resulting hole:
You can see the two different diameter holes here quite easily. Once installed, the button will be flush with the back panel. Next came the tricky part - wiring it up. I had to cut the two wires from the button on the computer case and splice in the two wires from the new button. Easier said than done due to the location of the button - I had to remove the marquee and feed the wires through the same narrow hole that the power cord from the marquee light was in. This took me almost an hour of trial and error until I finally got them in there. Check it out (also notice that I painted the inside of the hole because I'm super anal):
...and here's the button all wired up but not installed:
Here's the finished installation:
I am VERY happy with the way this worked out. The button is very easy to reach and it looks great - everything is tied into it. You press it once and the computer powers on, the marquee light comes on, the speakers power on and the LED coin door lights light up. The computer boots straight to whatever the last game played was. Press it again and everything shuts down. This definitely beats opening up the coin door and contorting my hand to reach the power button on the computer!
One final thing that had been bothering me was the fact that I had to open the coin door to hit the power switch on the computer in order to turn everything on and off. I decided to relocate the power button from the front of my computer to the rear panel on the outside. It's out of sight but easy enough to press before and after a play session.
One consideration was that I wanted the button to be recessed in the panel - I think it looks nicer and whatever small chance there is that it will get pressed accidentally is greatly reduced. I had to come to terms with drilling through my awesome finish on the rear panel - oh well, it's necessary I guess.
Anyway, I wasn't sure about the placement of the button so I actually thought about it for quite some time. I wanted it to be out of the way, easily accessible and aesthetically pleasing in it's ultimate location. I think I achieved all three of these things. I decided to place the button towards the top of the cabinet because it would be easiest to press in that location.
The first thing I did was lay out the center for the button hole using some painter's tape (so as not to mark up the actual cabinet. I measured in from the right to the exact center of the power plug to line up the button hole (for aesthetics) and then measured down from the top the same distance and made a mark and tapped out the center with an awl:
Next, I drilled out the hole in two steps using forstner bits. The first one - 7/8" - was just larger than the overall diameter of the button at it's widest point and the second one - 1/2" - was the exact size you would drill if you were installing the button normally. Here is the resulting hole:
You can see the two different diameter holes here quite easily. Once installed, the button will be flush with the back panel. Next came the tricky part - wiring it up. I had to cut the two wires from the button on the computer case and splice in the two wires from the new button. Easier said than done due to the location of the button - I had to remove the marquee and feed the wires through the same narrow hole that the power cord from the marquee light was in. This took me almost an hour of trial and error until I finally got them in there. Check it out (also notice that I painted the inside of the hole because I'm super anal):
...and here's the button all wired up but not installed:
Here's the finished installation:
I am VERY happy with the way this worked out. The button is very easy to reach and it looks great - everything is tied into it. You press it once and the computer powers on, the marquee light comes on, the speakers power on and the LED coin door lights light up. The computer boots straight to whatever the last game played was. Press it again and everything shuts down. This definitely beats opening up the coin door and contorting my hand to reach the power button on the computer!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Button Decals
This past weekend sure was productive. After completing the coin return button hack I turned my attention to labeling the admin buttons on the control panel. This thing has to be user-friendly so everything needs to be clearly marked. Four unlabeled black pushbuttons isn't going to cut it.
There's not much to say here other than to show before and after shots and maybe a brief explanation of what I did. It's really as easy as applying a sticker. Here goes:
Close up:
The decals are "Exit" to the far left for exiting out of the current game you are playing and back to the list, the single female icon for the "Player 1 Start" button, the double female icon for the "Player 2 Start" button and "Pause" for, um... pausing the game.
I have an additional decal that says "Launch Game" which is in the shape of a semi-circle which was made to go directly on the control panel above the "Player 1 Start" button. The reason for this is that when you are browsing the game list from the front end, the "Player 1 Start" button doubles as the "Launch Game" button. I'm not sure if I need it though which is why I haven't put it on yet. Start is start, right? Are people honestly not going to be able to figure it out?
Big thanks to Pongo over at BYOAC for printing up the decals for me!
I'm getting closer...
Remaining items:
- Pink Plexiglass Dustwasher
- Relocate Power Button
- Coin Box
- Software Configuration Tweaks
There's not much to say here other than to show before and after shots and maybe a brief explanation of what I did. It's really as easy as applying a sticker. Here goes:
- Clean each button with some rubbing alcohol and a q-tip. Blow it dry. A super-clean surface is essential.
- Cut out each decal as oversized as possible. The decals are small and if you have giant hands like me you want to be able to be precise with the placement.
- Peel the paper backing off the vinyl decals leaving a clear plastic film and the vinyl decal (it's sticky on the bottom, duh)
- Line it up and apply the decal to the button - be careful - you only get one shot!
- Using something like your fingernail, rub over the vinyl decal to make sure it is securely in place.
- Remove the clear plastic film leaving the vinyl decal on the button!
Close up:
The decals are "Exit" to the far left for exiting out of the current game you are playing and back to the list, the single female icon for the "Player 1 Start" button, the double female icon for the "Player 2 Start" button and "Pause" for, um... pausing the game.
I have an additional decal that says "Launch Game" which is in the shape of a semi-circle which was made to go directly on the control panel above the "Player 1 Start" button. The reason for this is that when you are browsing the game list from the front end, the "Player 1 Start" button doubles as the "Launch Game" button. I'm not sure if I need it though which is why I haven't put it on yet. Start is start, right? Are people honestly not going to be able to figure it out?
Big thanks to Pongo over at BYOAC for printing up the decals for me!
I'm getting closer...
Remaining items:
- Pink Plexiglass Dustwasher
- Relocate Power Button
- Coin Box
- Software Configuration Tweaks
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Coin Door (Return Button Hack)
Holy bananas - an actual update?!?!?!?
As previously mentioned (like 3 months ago), having to insert a quarter every time I want to play a game is a huge pain. However, it will be nice to be able to limit Bella's play time because I can just give her $5 in quarters or something and let her play until it's gone (this should also force her to get better if she wants to stretch that $5). When I'm playing, I don't want the hassle of popping in a quarter every single time so I needed to do something about it.
I thought about it for a while and did some research over at BYOAC and decided the easiest way to do this was to install a microswitch behind the coin return buttons. When the coin return button is pressed, it will trip the microswitch sending the signal to the computer. The hardest part was figuring out the placement of the microswitch and how to get it to stay in place.
Here are a couple of "before" shots of the back of the coin door. The yellow plastic is the return button and the red plastic is what will come into contact with the microswitch I'm installing.
I couldn't attach the micrswitch directly to the plastic on the coin mech because the cherry button on the microswitch would not be activated in this position. My lovely wife suggested using some fireplace kindling as a shim - what a great idea! I cut the shim to size and then positioned the microswitch on it so it would be activated once the coin return button was pressed - I marked everything with a sharpie and then glued everything together in one shot using some Gorilla Glue and a spring clamp. Check it out:
Finally, I ran the wires in parallel from the actual coin door switch to my newly positioned microswitch. The last shot really gives you a good idea how the whole thing works. The yellow coin return button is pressed which pushes the red plastic into the cherry actuator on the microswitch. Pretty cool.
Now that the coin door is set up, I can insert coins whenever I want but if I don't tell anyone, maybe I can sucker a few friends into dropping some quarters in the machine!
As previously mentioned (like 3 months ago), having to insert a quarter every time I want to play a game is a huge pain. However, it will be nice to be able to limit Bella's play time because I can just give her $5 in quarters or something and let her play until it's gone (this should also force her to get better if she wants to stretch that $5). When I'm playing, I don't want the hassle of popping in a quarter every single time so I needed to do something about it.
I thought about it for a while and did some research over at BYOAC and decided the easiest way to do this was to install a microswitch behind the coin return buttons. When the coin return button is pressed, it will trip the microswitch sending the signal to the computer. The hardest part was figuring out the placement of the microswitch and how to get it to stay in place.
Here are a couple of "before" shots of the back of the coin door. The yellow plastic is the return button and the red plastic is what will come into contact with the microswitch I'm installing.
I couldn't attach the micrswitch directly to the plastic on the coin mech because the cherry button on the microswitch would not be activated in this position. My lovely wife suggested using some fireplace kindling as a shim - what a great idea! I cut the shim to size and then positioned the microswitch on it so it would be activated once the coin return button was pressed - I marked everything with a sharpie and then glued everything together in one shot using some Gorilla Glue and a spring clamp. Check it out:
Finally, I ran the wires in parallel from the actual coin door switch to my newly positioned microswitch. The last shot really gives you a good idea how the whole thing works. The yellow coin return button is pressed which pushes the red plastic into the cherry actuator on the microswitch. Pretty cool.
Now that the coin door is set up, I can insert coins whenever I want but if I don't tell anyone, maybe I can sucker a few friends into dropping some quarters in the machine!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Update!
Finally an update! Well, I haven't actually done anything on the cabinet but I have made a FINAL list of things that I need to do. I'm posting them here so I don't forget.
- Refine the MaLa Layout. I like the way things are laid out but I want to change the font to something more "girly" - the games are displayed in Arial right now and it just doesn't blend in. I also want to increase the size of the font, if possible although right now any letter like 'g' or 'j' or something that hangs low gets cut off a bit... I also want to incorporate some of the colored flowers from the background of the marquee into the background of the layout... I don't know... I need to teach myself how to make these things.
- Refine my Gamelists. I don't know how to use the "Tree" functions in MaLa yet - right now I have an "All Games" list, a "Horizontal" list and a "Vertical" list and they are still too cumbersome to sort through. I'm thinking I need to separate them into categories like "Puzzle", "Classic", "Shooter", "Fighter", etc. I also need to go through them and remove the duplicates and generally crappy games that no one will ever play (which there are quite a lot of).
- Install the microswitches behind the coin door return buttons for "insert coin" - right now I repregrammed the "Pause" button as "Coin" because it was such a pain to keep inserting quarters for credits. This is actually a decent solution (just get rid of pause) but after playing the other day I realized that interuptions are frequent no matter who is playing so a pause button is essential.
- Install the coin box. This should take 10 minutes.
- Possibly relocate the power button. Right now if I open the coin door I can reach inside and hit power on the computer itself to power on and off. It works I guess but I'm thinking of relocating it to somewhere on the cabinet (I don't know where yet though - probably the rear of the cabinet). I don't want my kids opening up the cabinet every time they want to play.
- Apply the vinyl button decals. I had some pink vinyl button decals made to apply to the black admin buttons. They are really cool - the Start buttons are little girl icons. This shouldn't take too long.
- Make a pink dustwasher for the joystick. I want to take a piece of 1/8" thick plexiglass and make a 2-1/2" diameter circle and paint the bottom pink and then polish the edges. Details like this and the button decals will really make the control panel stand out I think.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Pink Skin!
Now that the cabinet is working and the computer is mostly configured it's time to start polishing the details. The first order of business is replacing the "gamelauncher" skin on my front end with something a little nicer - and customized for Bella.
When the cabinet is first turned on it loads directly to the MaLa front-end with the "gamelauncher" skin and looks like the picture to the right. There's nothing "wrong" with it I guess - it displays all of the game names over top of a screenshot. It's simple and easy to use but I really want to tie the front end in with the rest of the design - and that means making it pink!
The great thing about MaLa is that it is totally customizable but unfortunately you need some computer skills to get the job done. I was lucky enough to have superbigjay over at the BYOAC forums take a few minutes away from his awesome project to design something for Bella's Arcade.
Check out the results:
It looks great! The main gamelist appears in the largest box on the left and the screenshot for each game appears in the large box on the right as you scroll through the list. The other rectangles contain information like the name of the Gamelist (Favorites, Maze, Puzzle, etc.) or the controls (4-way/1 button, etc.). This is all customizable so I can get it looking however I want.
The design isn't finalized yet - I still need to pick a "girly" font to display the game names (Arial is the default and it's a little plain) and finalize the type of information I want to display in each panel but it's a great start. The cabinet's pink theme is really coming together!
When the cabinet is first turned on it loads directly to the MaLa front-end with the "gamelauncher" skin and looks like the picture to the right. There's nothing "wrong" with it I guess - it displays all of the game names over top of a screenshot. It's simple and easy to use but I really want to tie the front end in with the rest of the design - and that means making it pink!The great thing about MaLa is that it is totally customizable but unfortunately you need some computer skills to get the job done. I was lucky enough to have superbigjay over at the BYOAC forums take a few minutes away from his awesome project to design something for Bella's Arcade.
Check out the results:
It looks great! The main gamelist appears in the largest box on the left and the screenshot for each game appears in the large box on the right as you scroll through the list. The other rectangles contain information like the name of the Gamelist (Favorites, Maze, Puzzle, etc.) or the controls (4-way/1 button, etc.). This is all customizable so I can get it looking however I want.The design isn't finalized yet - I still need to pick a "girly" font to display the game names (Arial is the default and it's a little plain) and finalize the type of information I want to display in each panel but it's a great start. The cabinet's pink theme is really coming together!
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Quick Update
Argh! I've been using MAME .118u2 with the hi score patch (compiled myself using Mr. Do!'s excellent tutorial) but Mappy and Super Pac-man were giving me errors when I tried launching them. Apparently there is a known issue with the mappy.c driver in MAME .118u2 which both games use to run. This is completely unacceptable.
I decided to recompile MAME using version .119u3 with the hi score patch hoping that the games would work again and I was right - they worked! Unfortunately, Galaga is no longer playable. This is doubly unacceptable. Galaga is on the short list of must-have games for an arcade cabinet. I'm missing a file called 51xx.bin which was added in the Galaga file starting with MAME .119u3 so tonight I have to recompile yet again and go back to MAME .119u2. What a pain - hopefully I can get everything working!
I'm not sure why I posted this... maybe this information will help someone else out there. I don't know.
I decided to recompile MAME using version .119u3 with the hi score patch hoping that the games would work again and I was right - they worked! Unfortunately, Galaga is no longer playable. This is doubly unacceptable. Galaga is on the short list of must-have games for an arcade cabinet. I'm missing a file called 51xx.bin which was added in the Galaga file starting with MAME .119u3 so tonight I have to recompile yet again and go back to MAME .119u2. What a pain - hopefully I can get everything working!
I'm not sure why I posted this... maybe this information will help someone else out there. I don't know.
Monday, October 08, 2007
The Coin Door (Wiring)
One of the last things I have left to do on this cabinet other than configure the software is to get the coin door working. I bought a Happs "Small Single Coin Door" which comes with two $0.25 coin mechs to accept quarters (or tokens).
The setup is pretty basic - a microswitch is tripped when a quarter is inserted into the coin slot which sends a signal just like any other button press on the cabinet would do. I decided to wire both the player 1 and player 2 coin slots to the same input on my U360 joystick wiring harness so no matter which slot the coin is put in it will register as a "credit" for player 1. This doesn't pose a problem because most of the alternating 2 player games don't care which coin slot the quarter is inserted into. If two coins are entered into the same slot you press the "Player 2 Start" button for a 2 player game. Also, since the cabinet does not have 2 player simultaneous controls all of those games will be available in 1 player mode only.
Anyway, wiring up the microswitches was a snap - I wired the NO (normally open) pin on each switch to the last wire on the U360 wiring harness (which has been set to "insert coin") and the bottom ground pin on each switch to another ground wire on the control panel completing the loop. I should note that the microswitches on my coin door had the NO and NC (normally closed) pins reversed compared to the standard white pushbutton microswitch. It took me a minute to figure out when nothing was happening when I inserted the coin. Simple!
The setup is pretty basic - a microswitch is tripped when a quarter is inserted into the coin slot which sends a signal just like any other button press on the cabinet would do. I decided to wire both the player 1 and player 2 coin slots to the same input on my U360 joystick wiring harness so no matter which slot the coin is put in it will register as a "credit" for player 1. This doesn't pose a problem because most of the alternating 2 player games don't care which coin slot the quarter is inserted into. If two coins are entered into the same slot you press the "Player 2 Start" button for a 2 player game. Also, since the cabinet does not have 2 player simultaneous controls all of those games will be available in 1 player mode only.Anyway, wiring up the microswitches was a snap - I wired the NO (normally open) pin on each switch to the last wire on the U360 wiring harness (which has been set to "insert coin") and the bottom ground pin on each switch to another ground wire on the control panel completing the loop. I should note that the microswitches on my coin door had the NO and NC (normally closed) pins reversed compared to the standard white pushbutton microswitch. It took me a minute to figure out when nothing was happening when I inserted the coin. Simple!
Everything works like it should but I realized after about 10 minutes of playing on the cabinet that fumbling for quarters/tokens every single time I wanted to play something was a huge pain. I think I'm going to try and rig the coin return buttons to act as "insert coin" buttons when pressed which should eliminate the need to have quarters/tokens on hand all the time.
I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to do this but I don't think it will be too hard. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
New "Punch-List"
Well, I'm coming down to the wire... there's really not much left to do on this cabinet other than software configuration and getting the coin door up and running. I figured I'd make another "to-do" list just to keep me moving forward - this one is really nit-picky but here goes:
Construction
We will be having some friends over to the house in about two weeks so I'll try to have it 100% finished by then - I'm also coming up on the year anniversary of starting this thing which is pathetic so I'd like to finish before that day passes too.
Construction
- Wire coin door to U360 wiring harness (assigned to "5" in MAME)
- Rig the coin reject buttons to register a credit when pressed
- Power the LEDs behind the coin slots
- Install a coin box to catch the quarters/tokens (cardboard?)
- Apply pink vinyl button labels
- Relocate power button from front of PC to rear panel of cabinet
- Relocate volume knob from speakers to somewhere on cabinet
Computer Configuration
- Finish tailoring my Horizontal Gamelist (vertical one is finished)
- Change font in MaLa layout for game names to something girly - make it pink!
- Download and install "snaps" for background of gamelist
- Configure 45-degree maps for the U360 joystick (for Q*bert)
- Configure MaLa to play "Arcade Ambiance" when browsing gamelists
We will be having some friends over to the house in about two weeks so I'll try to have it 100% finished by then - I'm also coming up on the year anniversary of starting this thing which is pathetic so I'd like to finish before that day passes too.
Friday, September 28, 2007
The Plug: Part 3
It's installed - and more importantly, it works! Or at least it seems to work - no sparks, no smoke and the SmartStrip has power so I'm reasonably sure the installation was done properly. After much discussion about the right and wrong way to wire this thing over at BYOAC we collectively figured out which wires from the SmartStrip should be connected to which wires on the plug recepticle (I hope). The last step to installing the plug recepticle was to cut a rectangular hole 1-1/16" x 1-13/16" out of the back panel.
Easy, right? Wrong. It took over 2 hours to cut out the hole accurately. After laying out the hole I started by drilling out as much material as possible using a large drill bit in each corner. Then using a very small keyhole saw I connected the holes to remove most of the material. That wasn't so bad - what was excruciating was trying to square everything up to the lines. I ended up using a metal file because I couldn't get one of my chisels in there to really do anything due to the small size of the hole. I thought this would take 5 minutes!
Here's the hole pre-installation:
It's probably the ugliest part of the entire cabinet - I've tried to plan each cut out and make the lines as clean as possible but this is just a mess. Thankfully there is a bezel around the plug recepticle that will hide everything.
And here's the hole post-installation - I secured the plug recepticle to the cabinet using two screws and then added some screw caps for a "finished" look:
Here's a close-up without the screws holding it in place:
And here's a super close-up of the finished installation. I still have to erase the layout lines that I made since I couldn't decide where to put the thing and still leave room on the inside to mess around:
It looks pretty nice.... or at least nicer than a round hole with a plug hanging out.
The only thing left to do was crawl inside and connect the wires. I reversed the black and white wires from my previous post - this is what all the discussion over at BYOAC was about. We were having a hard time figuring out which wire was "hot" and which was the negative one. Turns out U.S. Electrical Code mandates that "hot" wires are black, white wires are neutral and green wires are ground.
Finally, here are some shots of the inside - as you can see it's quite a mess. I mounted the Smart Strip on the inside of the cabinet - it's ready for the computer! I also used some velcro to hold the plastic box containing the wire hack against the side panel.
Maybe I'll paint the interior of the next cabinet I build to really give it a professional look but that's probably crazy talk.
I did take the time to test everything - I hooked up the computer and played a few games of Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. I have never been more excited about this hobby than I was when I fired it up for the first time and everything worked like it should - with the press of a button, the marquee light, speakers and monitor came on and the computer booted straight to a random game on my gamelist - the cab is fully playable and it's awesome. I still have some software tweaking to do and I have to hook up the coin door but I'm 99.9% done. What a feeling!
Easy, right? Wrong. It took over 2 hours to cut out the hole accurately. After laying out the hole I started by drilling out as much material as possible using a large drill bit in each corner. Then using a very small keyhole saw I connected the holes to remove most of the material. That wasn't so bad - what was excruciating was trying to square everything up to the lines. I ended up using a metal file because I couldn't get one of my chisels in there to really do anything due to the small size of the hole. I thought this would take 5 minutes!
Here's the hole pre-installation:
It's probably the ugliest part of the entire cabinet - I've tried to plan each cut out and make the lines as clean as possible but this is just a mess. Thankfully there is a bezel around the plug recepticle that will hide everything.And here's the hole post-installation - I secured the plug recepticle to the cabinet using two screws and then added some screw caps for a "finished" look:
Here's a close-up without the screws holding it in place:And here's a super close-up of the finished installation. I still have to erase the layout lines that I made since I couldn't decide where to put the thing and still leave room on the inside to mess around:It looks pretty nice.... or at least nicer than a round hole with a plug hanging out.The only thing left to do was crawl inside and connect the wires. I reversed the black and white wires from my previous post - this is what all the discussion over at BYOAC was about. We were having a hard time figuring out which wire was "hot" and which was the negative one. Turns out U.S. Electrical Code mandates that "hot" wires are black, white wires are neutral and green wires are ground.
Finally, here are some shots of the inside - as you can see it's quite a mess. I mounted the Smart Strip on the inside of the cabinet - it's ready for the computer! I also used some velcro to hold the plastic box containing the wire hack against the side panel.
Maybe I'll paint the interior of the next cabinet I build to really give it a professional look but that's probably crazy talk.I did take the time to test everything - I hooked up the computer and played a few games of Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. I have never been more excited about this hobby than I was when I fired it up for the first time and everything worked like it should - with the press of a button, the marquee light, speakers and monitor came on and the computer booted straight to a random game on my gamelist - the cab is fully playable and it's awesome. I still have some software tweaking to do and I have to hook up the coin door but I'm 99.9% done. What a feeling!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Plug: Part 2
It's about time. After a month I finally manned up and cut open my SmartStrip plug. The goal is to splice the plug to a recepticle on the exterior of the rear panel of the cabinet. I'm still a little nervous about this process but I'm reasonably positive (99%) that I did this safely and correctly.
I bought a plastic box at Home Deopt for $2 and the idea is to completely seal off the wiring block and any chance of someone touching a live wire. The wire from the SmartStrip goes in one end and the wires from the plug recepticle go in the other - pretty basic stuff. This is about as safe as I think I can make it.
Here's the box:
And here is kind of sort of what I'm trying to accomplish... actually, I don't even know why I took these pictures but here you go:
Here's the exciting "before" picture of the plug. Wow.
And here is the "after" shot. It was like ripping off a band-aid. I just closed my eyes and made the cut with my trusty utility knife.
At this point there was no turning back. Inside, there were three wires representing positive (white), negative (black) and ground (green). The next step was stripping each of these wires to expose about 1/4" of the interior copper wire. Thie next picture shows the three wires (but not stripped).
I matched these wires up to the wires in the wiring block that spacies from BYOAC set up for me. All I really had to do was screw them into the wiring block attached to the plug recepticle. This is how it ended up before I closed the plastic box:
Here are the final shots of everything all closed up:
I'm not totally finished with this (I should be tonight) and I plan on wrapping the wiring block in electrical tape before closing up the plastic box for good. Also, the last thing I want to do is somehow cover the back of the plug recepticle with either electrical tape or some sort of foam - I can still see metal sticking out and I can only assume that once the cabinet is plugged in it will be "hot" all the time whether the computer is on or off.
I bought a plastic box at Home Deopt for $2 and the idea is to completely seal off the wiring block and any chance of someone touching a live wire. The wire from the SmartStrip goes in one end and the wires from the plug recepticle go in the other - pretty basic stuff. This is about as safe as I think I can make it.
Here's the box:
And here is kind of sort of what I'm trying to accomplish... actually, I don't even know why I took these pictures but here you go: Here's the exciting "before" picture of the plug. Wow.And here is the "after" shot. It was like ripping off a band-aid. I just closed my eyes and made the cut with my trusty utility knife.At this point there was no turning back. Inside, there were three wires representing positive (white), negative (black) and ground (green). The next step was stripping each of these wires to expose about 1/4" of the interior copper wire. Thie next picture shows the three wires (but not stripped). I matched these wires up to the wires in the wiring block that spacies from BYOAC set up for me. All I really had to do was screw them into the wiring block attached to the plug recepticle. This is how it ended up before I closed the plastic box: Here are the final shots of everything all closed up:I'm not totally finished with this (I should be tonight) and I plan on wrapping the wiring block in electrical tape before closing up the plastic box for good. Also, the last thing I want to do is somehow cover the back of the plug recepticle with either electrical tape or some sort of foam - I can still see metal sticking out and I can only assume that once the cabinet is plugged in it will be "hot" all the time whether the computer is on or off.I want to be sure 1000% sure that there is zero chance of something going wrong or someone getting hurt. My daughter is only 3 and she's curious. If she managed to open up the door on the front and crawl inside I don't want to have to worry about her getting hurt.
That's all for now.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
The Plug: Part 1
I am about to try and hack a SmartStrip by basically cutting off the plug and wiring it to a different plug/electric socket. I want to achieve a "finished" look on the outside of my cabinet as well as be able to disconnect the power cord if I feel like it. Plus, I've never done something like this before and I'm always up for learning something new.
I'm not quite sure how to do this yet but I will post my progress as I go. Anyway, there are three wires coming out of the plug thingy and (presumably) three wires in the SmartStrip after I cut off the plug - I'm just not sure which wire from the plug connects with which wire from the SmartStrip. Check out the pics:
I'm not quite sure how to do this yet but I will post my progress as I go. Anyway, there are three wires coming out of the plug thingy and (presumably) three wires in the SmartStrip after I cut off the plug - I'm just not sure which wire from the plug connects with which wire from the SmartStrip. Check out the pics:
Kind of boring but I'm at the tedious part of the project now... oh well.
Friday, August 17, 2007
The Master Plan
The plans are here! Well, I finally dug them out of the garage and brought them to work so I could scan them and post them here. The dimensions aren't exact but they are close enough, I guess. I wanted an "80%" cabinet so I downloaded the Ms. Pac-man plans from Jakobud's site and shrunk all the dimensions using my slick math skills. I didn't cut things out perfectly due to the weird conversions (like 80% of 1/16" is kind of tough to measure) but it came out great anyway.
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