and once more, just like that, I'm a big fat failure again. Life has thrown so many obstacles in my way that this project has come to an end - again! I've sold all the parts for pennies, never finished the software properly, didn't finish the woodwork.
Will I ever attempt this again? Unlikely. I am Abraham and this is my whale.
A word of advice for those on this path - time. You need TIME for this. If you have any other parts of your life that demand time, you'll always struggle to find time for this.
Good Luck and farewell.
Wednesday 24 December 2008
Monday 18 February 2008
So much for quick...
Sorry about this folks. My last post started with "I'm getting quick at this" yet I've made no progress (and no blog entries) for 11 days. I went to the hardware store today to get another big panel of MDF and have them cut it to width (and to fit in the car) and the saw was out of order.
Downer.
The next chance I'll get to put any work in will be Friday for a couple of hours in the morning, then hopefully next Monday will be a big push.
We'll see what the week brings.
Downer.
The next chance I'll get to put any work in will be Friday for a couple of hours in the morning, then hopefully next Monday will be a big push.
We'll see what the week brings.
Thursday 7 February 2008
Illuminate.
I'm getting quite quick at this.
Today I only had an hour spare and I entirely built (not painted) the "above marquee" panel, from an odd shape piece of 9mm MDF that I had left over. This had sat underneath the panels I had painted, so is a bit messy on one side as you'll see in the pictures.
With only 1 face that was cut at the factory, I ran the piece through the table saw 3 times to get 4 square sides, then trimmed to 2' (60cm) width. Using the router, I rounded over the outer face, front edge (as per the under marquee panel) offered it up to the cab, marked it for length, and cut to length.
At this point, time to install the last of the electronics (bar the PC) the marquee light. I have an old 20" (~50cm) strip light in my spares box in the garage, so I've decided the best way to install this is on the reverse side of this above marquee panel (this has the most available space and close enough to the top panel.) I've used some 1/4" (~6mm) thick hard rubber strip to separate the housing of the strip light from the wood (I'm thinking heat insulation but I could be mad) PVA'ed into place, and screwed the strip light, through the rubber into the MDF. The rubber layer adds some additional thickness so that the 1/2" (12mm) screws don't burst through the other side of the 9mm MDF. At this stage, I've also wired the light with a standard plug on the other end. I meant to put a switch part way through the length of the cable, but I forgot. I can always revisit this if I decide I want to have the option of lights on or off.
The following photograph shows the underside of the finished (bar painting) above marquee panel.
and with it installed
Lights!
OK - I suspected this might be a problem, as I'd read similar marquee issues on other cab building sites.
The light is bleeding through the black sections of my artwork terribly - washing them out in a hazy grey colour. Not good. Solutions I have read about include printing the artwork twice then cutting out the non-black parts to leave a black template to stick under the finished logo, in essence making the black sections twice as thick. I don't really have that option without begging my brother for another print run (and my favour account is in the red) so at some later point, I'll whip out the marquee, and paint black on the non-visible side to control the light bleed. As there's no back yet constructed, you can see the light pouring out the back - I'll have to think about some form of reflector pushing all the light forward if too much bleeds out of the cracks. That's an unknown until we're nearly complete.
My enthusiasm is re-stoked, but I'm now out of MDF. I'll need a trip to my timber yard again before I can carry on. Hopefully the weekend if not before.
Here's the cabinet as at now!
Next panel in the plan - the angled vent panel!
Today I only had an hour spare and I entirely built (not painted) the "above marquee" panel, from an odd shape piece of 9mm MDF that I had left over. This had sat underneath the panels I had painted, so is a bit messy on one side as you'll see in the pictures.
With only 1 face that was cut at the factory, I ran the piece through the table saw 3 times to get 4 square sides, then trimmed to 2' (60cm) width. Using the router, I rounded over the outer face, front edge (as per the under marquee panel) offered it up to the cab, marked it for length, and cut to length.
At this point, time to install the last of the electronics (bar the PC) the marquee light. I have an old 20" (~50cm) strip light in my spares box in the garage, so I've decided the best way to install this is on the reverse side of this above marquee panel (this has the most available space and close enough to the top panel.) I've used some 1/4" (~6mm) thick hard rubber strip to separate the housing of the strip light from the wood (I'm thinking heat insulation but I could be mad) PVA'ed into place, and screwed the strip light, through the rubber into the MDF. The rubber layer adds some additional thickness so that the 1/2" (12mm) screws don't burst through the other side of the 9mm MDF. At this stage, I've also wired the light with a standard plug on the other end. I meant to put a switch part way through the length of the cable, but I forgot. I can always revisit this if I decide I want to have the option of lights on or off.
The following photograph shows the underside of the finished (bar painting) above marquee panel.
and with it installed
Lights!
OK - I suspected this might be a problem, as I'd read similar marquee issues on other cab building sites.
The light is bleeding through the black sections of my artwork terribly - washing them out in a hazy grey colour. Not good. Solutions I have read about include printing the artwork twice then cutting out the non-black parts to leave a black template to stick under the finished logo, in essence making the black sections twice as thick. I don't really have that option without begging my brother for another print run (and my favour account is in the red) so at some later point, I'll whip out the marquee, and paint black on the non-visible side to control the light bleed. As there's no back yet constructed, you can see the light pouring out the back - I'll have to think about some form of reflector pushing all the light forward if too much bleeds out of the cracks. That's an unknown until we're nearly complete.
My enthusiasm is re-stoked, but I'm now out of MDF. I'll need a trip to my timber yard again before I can carry on. Hopefully the weekend if not before.
Here's the cabinet as at now!
Next panel in the plan - the angled vent panel!
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Get up, you lazy monkey!
To start the day off, a quick trip to Screwfix to pickup some magnetic catches.
I've had a "light-bulb moment" over the easy access to controls by making the vent panel held in place by the kinds of magnetic catches that hold AV unit doors closed. a few of these in the right place, and the panel will hold firm, but will simply lift off with a bit of leverage to allow for quick easy access to the inside top controls - more on this in the post where I build that panel.
After an unproductive weekend (where the cab is concerned) I picked myself up and put a couple of hours in this morning - I built the panel that sits underneath the marquee between marquee and speaker panel. This took longer than anticipated for a couple of reasons. My table saw didn't come with a bench to raise it to a workable level, so I built one. Unfortunately, I accidentally built my bench with a support brace across the front, thus rendering the "tilt" mechanism (setting an angle on the cutting blade) unusable. So this morning's first task was to modify the table saw to reactivate the angle facility.
Once I'd fixed the saw, I tilted the blade to 45 degrees, cut one side of a panel at 45 to meet the 45 tilt on the speaker panel, then offered up to the cabinet, and marked the length. Back to the saw, swing the blade back up to 90 degrees and cut the panel to length. I used the router to round over the lower edge under the marquee so that, when finished, all four sides of the marquee will have their outer edges rounded - a nice effect I think.
Currently it's held in place with some clamps:
I need to be careful now as most of the remaining panels will need to be painted all together - I'm wasting far too many paint accessories painting one panel at a time. So for now, it'll stay with the clamps and for the next stage, I'll move onto the "above the marquee" panel.
I've had a "light-bulb moment" over the easy access to controls by making the vent panel held in place by the kinds of magnetic catches that hold AV unit doors closed. a few of these in the right place, and the panel will hold firm, but will simply lift off with a bit of leverage to allow for quick easy access to the inside top controls - more on this in the post where I build that panel.
After an unproductive weekend (where the cab is concerned) I picked myself up and put a couple of hours in this morning - I built the panel that sits underneath the marquee between marquee and speaker panel. This took longer than anticipated for a couple of reasons. My table saw didn't come with a bench to raise it to a workable level, so I built one. Unfortunately, I accidentally built my bench with a support brace across the front, thus rendering the "tilt" mechanism (setting an angle on the cutting blade) unusable. So this morning's first task was to modify the table saw to reactivate the angle facility.
Once I'd fixed the saw, I tilted the blade to 45 degrees, cut one side of a panel at 45 to meet the 45 tilt on the speaker panel, then offered up to the cabinet, and marked the length. Back to the saw, swing the blade back up to 90 degrees and cut the panel to length. I used the router to round over the lower edge under the marquee so that, when finished, all four sides of the marquee will have their outer edges rounded - a nice effect I think.
Currently it's held in place with some clamps:
I need to be careful now as most of the remaining panels will need to be painted all together - I'm wasting far too many paint accessories painting one panel at a time. So for now, it'll stay with the clamps and for the next stage, I'll move onto the "above the marquee" panel.
And the weekend brought rain...
The weekend came and with it came the rain - it has rained for days now, and the rain is dampening my enthusiasm to work on the cab.
I set about breaking apart the PC I have into the components I want to install in the cab and those that are superfluous. However, the PC I have is a branded one, not a home brew, and as such, the connections and positions of everything in the PC case are very specific to that PC. After much head scratching, I decided to put it all back together again and install the whole "PC in it's case" in the cab - this raises a few new challenges, such as "will it all now fit?" as this cab has been very specifically designed to take up the minimum of room in my house.
A wasted day? Perhaps, but I did spend a couple of hours playing on what I have so far with the kids, hooked up to the "out of cab PC" and they love it. Plus I've learned a lot about how/where I will do the later PC installation. So, no. Not wasted. Just not as planned.
I set about breaking apart the PC I have into the components I want to install in the cab and those that are superfluous. However, the PC I have is a branded one, not a home brew, and as such, the connections and positions of everything in the PC case are very specific to that PC. After much head scratching, I decided to put it all back together again and install the whole "PC in it's case" in the cab - this raises a few new challenges, such as "will it all now fit?" as this cab has been very specifically designed to take up the minimum of room in my house.
A wasted day? Perhaps, but I did spend a couple of hours playing on what I have so far with the kids, hooked up to the "out of cab PC" and they love it. Plus I've learned a lot about how/where I will do the later PC installation. So, no. Not wasted. Just not as planned.
Friday 1 February 2008
Speaker Panel - Electronics
After lunch yesterday I set about the speaker electronics.
I have a bunch of speaker "guts" that I ripped (carefully of course) from a cheap (fiver ($10)) set of speakers I got from eBay.
On the inside of the speaker panel, I mounted the odd shaped speakers as close to centre of the "speaker holes" I cut in the panel, with a few 1/2" (12mm) screws - I almost burst through the facing surface with one screw tip so I was very careful with the rest.
I've had a real debate with myself about the speaker controls - there are going to be times when I want to adjust, as a minimum, the volume if not the bass/treble, so how can I get at the controls without compromising the semi-authentic look I am going for?
I could cut a little hole in the speaker panel and adjust the volume with a small screwdriver, I could mount the speaker controls on the top or back, etc.
I've decided that I'll mount the controls on the back of the speaker panel, and access them through the "vent panel" (to be constructed) and somehow make the vent panel "quick release" - by doing this, I can also put the controls for the marquee backlight here and access those too - maybe even the USB ports I intend to install, although I still think I want those more accessible - a decision for another day.
So the controls and the AC/DC transformer are mounted in the centre of the inside of the speaker panel. One concern I have is the heat generated by the transformer - these do get warm and I've mounted it in direct contact with wood - not inspiring. I'll keep an eye on this and run the speakers for several hours - if I'm concerned enough I'll drop a little metal panel between the transformer and the wood. I sense this is more likely than less, as I'm not keen an explaining to the wife why and how the house burnt down.
You'll see that I had to cut plenty of wires to get the "guts" out of the speakers, as such, there is now plenty of soldering and repairing of cut wires, and a tidy up job on the wiring using my handy cable tie mounts.
Hook it up to my iPod for a quick test - works first time, no crackling or interference. An unexpected but not unpleasant effect is that the sound is a little muffled at a distance and at angles if the listener is not directly under the angled speaker cutouts, but perfectly clear and sparkly directly undernearth - this seems very reminiscent of my childhood memories of arcade machine sounds so I'm not unhappy at all.
THE REAL TEST!
Now that I have the speakers, monitor, and controls all working, time for a "REAL" test - I hook up the cables to my "as yet unmodified (as in, still in it's pale cream case)" PC and run the latest version of my gMame interface software available at sourceforge (for those joining us late, I'm writing my own interface software in Java as well as constructing the cabinet) - it's all working beautifully, and using the arcade controls with my software is working really well.
I'm a very happy bunny at this stage. The only panels left are non-electronic ones, except for the panel that will house the reconstructed PC, and I hope to make a start on them the weekend.
I have a bunch of speaker "guts" that I ripped (carefully of course) from a cheap (fiver ($10)) set of speakers I got from eBay.
On the inside of the speaker panel, I mounted the odd shaped speakers as close to centre of the "speaker holes" I cut in the panel, with a few 1/2" (12mm) screws - I almost burst through the facing surface with one screw tip so I was very careful with the rest.
I've had a real debate with myself about the speaker controls - there are going to be times when I want to adjust, as a minimum, the volume if not the bass/treble, so how can I get at the controls without compromising the semi-authentic look I am going for?
I could cut a little hole in the speaker panel and adjust the volume with a small screwdriver, I could mount the speaker controls on the top or back, etc.
I've decided that I'll mount the controls on the back of the speaker panel, and access them through the "vent panel" (to be constructed) and somehow make the vent panel "quick release" - by doing this, I can also put the controls for the marquee backlight here and access those too - maybe even the USB ports I intend to install, although I still think I want those more accessible - a decision for another day.
So the controls and the AC/DC transformer are mounted in the centre of the inside of the speaker panel. One concern I have is the heat generated by the transformer - these do get warm and I've mounted it in direct contact with wood - not inspiring. I'll keep an eye on this and run the speakers for several hours - if I'm concerned enough I'll drop a little metal panel between the transformer and the wood. I sense this is more likely than less, as I'm not keen an explaining to the wife why and how the house burnt down.
You'll see that I had to cut plenty of wires to get the "guts" out of the speakers, as such, there is now plenty of soldering and repairing of cut wires, and a tidy up job on the wiring using my handy cable tie mounts.
Hook it up to my iPod for a quick test - works first time, no crackling or interference. An unexpected but not unpleasant effect is that the sound is a little muffled at a distance and at angles if the listener is not directly under the angled speaker cutouts, but perfectly clear and sparkly directly undernearth - this seems very reminiscent of my childhood memories of arcade machine sounds so I'm not unhappy at all.
THE REAL TEST!
Now that I have the speakers, monitor, and controls all working, time for a "REAL" test - I hook up the cables to my "as yet unmodified (as in, still in it's pale cream case)" PC and run the latest version of my gMame interface software available at sourceforge (for those joining us late, I'm writing my own interface software in Java as well as constructing the cabinet) - it's all working beautifully, and using the arcade controls with my software is working really well.
I'm a very happy bunny at this stage. The only panels left are non-electronic ones, except for the panel that will house the reconstructed PC, and I hope to make a start on them the weekend.
Final Monitor Panel Installation
I found myself with a spare hour and a half yesterday morning, so I wanted to finish two jobs in progress. Firstly, all the pictures so far don't clearly show that the monitor panel isn't installed yet - it's still just in position but not yet fixed. Secondly, I have a lovely retro-looking speaker panel with no speakers, and some speaker "guts" to install.
The monitor panel:
Now that I've installed the speaker panel, the monitor panel doesn't quite fix properly, it's a little too long and needs to be beveled top and bottom to form a nice flush joint with the control panel and the speaker panel - 30 degrees on the bottom edge where the 10 degree control panel meets the 70 degree monitor panel (think the maths is right) and 55 degrees on the top edge. I do this with the table saw titled over at the correct angles and running the panel through, but as I've mentioned before I should not have finished the monitor panel to this extent, as I now have to wrap it up carefully as not to damage it in the workshop - let alone blocking all the vents on the monitor to save cutting it free and reinstalling it - a right game!
That done, repeat for the perspex that will be slightly longer but with the same angles, as it sits on top of the monitor panel.
Loads of sweeping, hovering, cleaning later and I'm ready to drill and install it.
First drill hole - loads of plastic spewed in between the perspex and wood - ARRGGGHHHH - I have to clean this monkey all over again - I'm getting bored of this cleaning, but I'll likely never get between these two panels again and the screen again. So I drill all the holes, seperate it all, clean it all (again!) and screw into place.
Finally.
It looks really nice installed -
- the pictures don't do it justice - you might just see a few screw heads near the left and right edges of the perspex panel.
I thought this'd be a 5 minute job and it took ages to get the angles, length and cleaning just right - No such thing as a 5 minute job, as my dad would say - too true!
The monitor panel:
Now that I've installed the speaker panel, the monitor panel doesn't quite fix properly, it's a little too long and needs to be beveled top and bottom to form a nice flush joint with the control panel and the speaker panel - 30 degrees on the bottom edge where the 10 degree control panel meets the 70 degree monitor panel (think the maths is right) and 55 degrees on the top edge. I do this with the table saw titled over at the correct angles and running the panel through, but as I've mentioned before I should not have finished the monitor panel to this extent, as I now have to wrap it up carefully as not to damage it in the workshop - let alone blocking all the vents on the monitor to save cutting it free and reinstalling it - a right game!
That done, repeat for the perspex that will be slightly longer but with the same angles, as it sits on top of the monitor panel.
Loads of sweeping, hovering, cleaning later and I'm ready to drill and install it.
First drill hole - loads of plastic spewed in between the perspex and wood - ARRGGGHHHH - I have to clean this monkey all over again - I'm getting bored of this cleaning, but I'll likely never get between these two panels again and the screen again. So I drill all the holes, seperate it all, clean it all (again!) and screw into place.
Finally.
It looks really nice installed -
- the pictures don't do it justice - you might just see a few screw heads near the left and right edges of the perspex panel.I thought this'd be a 5 minute job and it took ages to get the angles, length and cleaning just right - No such thing as a 5 minute job, as my dad would say - too true!
Wednesday 30 January 2008
"Second" Release of gMame - the Software
I've just launched the "second" release of the java interface, with lots of nice support messages to help people get started, rather than innocuous error messages, a change of colour scheme to reflect the logos I designed, and some code optimisation.
Available at gMame@Sourceforge
Available at gMame@Sourceforge
Tuesday 29 January 2008
A lot of Java, and a little woodwork...
Today I spent about 5/6 hours working on the software available at gMame@Sourceforge - although I haven't uploaded my changes as they are part way through. I'm trying to add a lot more error handling so that the new user is not put off by odd error messages just trying to get the thing started.
I'm trying to get to grips with CVS (the version control stuff) so that I can keep my up to date working copy at sourceforge instead of a number of memory stick.
Tonight, when I got it, I had half an hour to install the marquee and the speaker panel, then offered the monitor panel back in. As pointed out in a previous post, I've finished the monitor panel too early - I need to unpick it all and pass it back over the table saw to get the right angles top and bottom.
Next time I get some time on the project (hopefully Thursday morning) I'll either do the electronics work, or get the monitor panel angled and installed, or hopefully both.
A picture of everything in place (monitor just positioned not installed) to get your appetites wet...
I'm trying to get to grips with CVS (the version control stuff) so that I can keep my up to date working copy at sourceforge instead of a number of memory stick.
Tonight, when I got it, I had half an hour to install the marquee and the speaker panel, then offered the monitor panel back in. As pointed out in a previous post, I've finished the monitor panel too early - I need to unpick it all and pass it back over the table saw to get the right angles top and bottom.
Next time I get some time on the project (hopefully Thursday morning) I'll either do the electronics work, or get the monitor panel angled and installed, or hopefully both.
A picture of everything in place (monitor just positioned not installed) to get your appetites wet...
Monday 28 January 2008
Here comes my artwork...
My brother arrived yesterday afternoon with 2 copies of my big sticky label - 
- (aka my home made marquee) - it looks great at 60cm by 15cm (2' by 6")
I took the 6" perspex I'd been saving to act as the marquee and carefully applied the marquee art to it - a few attempts later and I have it fairly square. Not bad.
Offered it up to the cabinet. Pants!
The cabinet has been designed for 5" not 6" marquee - it's too big.
I go back down to the workshop, find the 5" perspex panel I should have found first time, and tried again with the "lucky-he-brought-2" second sticker. As it's 6" there was some to either cut away or fold over - I chose to fold it over the edge - don't ask me why.
Offered it up to the cabinet. Nice! Will attach today/tomorrow when I carry on with the speaker panel.
- (aka my home made marquee) - it looks great at 60cm by 15cm (2' by 6")I took the 6" perspex I'd been saving to act as the marquee and carefully applied the marquee art to it - a few attempts later and I have it fairly square. Not bad.
Offered it up to the cabinet. Pants!
The cabinet has been designed for 5" not 6" marquee - it's too big.
I go back down to the workshop, find the 5" perspex panel I should have found first time, and tried again with the "lucky-he-brought-2" second sticker. As it's 6" there was some to either cut away or fold over - I chose to fold it over the edge - don't ask me why.
Offered it up to the cabinet. Nice! Will attach today/tomorrow when I carry on with the speaker panel.
Speaker Panel - Part 1 - Woodwork
So, Sunday came and again, little to do, and again, little money, so the impossible happened - another permission slip to work on the project. Amazing. I'm sure that I'll have to pay for this somehow in the future...
I could follow the process as per the monitor panel, cut a hole, bezel, the put a cover (speaker cloth, not perspex), but I want to be cheap and I think my process is a bit more artistic, and reminiscent of the cabs I played on many, many, many years ago. Put simply, I'll break apart some cheap (but reasonable quality - it's not as if arcade games have hi-def sound) speakers that I got from eBay for a fiver ($10), cut a wooden panel, drill lots of small holes to let the noise out, paint it, install the speakers behind the small holes to let the noise out, and install it.
The process:
I could follow the process as per the monitor panel, cut a hole, bezel, the put a cover (speaker cloth, not perspex), but I want to be cheap and I think my process is a bit more artistic, and reminiscent of the cabs I played on many, many, many years ago. Put simply, I'll break apart some cheap (but reasonable quality - it's not as if arcade games have hi-def sound) speakers that I got from eBay for a fiver ($10), cut a wooden panel, drill lots of small holes to let the noise out, paint it, install the speakers behind the small holes to let the noise out, and install it.
The process:
- Bust open! some cheap speakers, and save all the insides, tossing way the plastics - PHOTO
- Cut a panel to size - this panel will be mounted at 45 degrees so for an average 5'-6' (1.5m-1.8m) person it should point at the face/ears
- Draw out my speaker-holes-pattern on the panel - I've set my trusty compass the max width of the speakers, spun a circle, reduced the radius by 1cm, spin the circle, reduce, and so on until I have a bunch on concentric circles - repeat for the other speaker.
- Draw intersection lines at 0, 22.5, 45, 67.5, and 90 degrees - then draw some crosses when lines intersect without cramming too many holes too close together -
- Down to the bench-drill, and with a 3mm bit, drill all these little holes, then slightly countersink them on the facing side for aesthetics.
- A coat of MDF primer later, and the counter sunk sections have swollen - this is fibreboard I remind myself, and my countersink must be a bit blunt - DO THIS DIFFERENTLY - perhaps a sharper, larger drill bit inside of the countersink would have a better effect. Some careful sanding and re-drilling of my little holes and I'm ready for 2 coats of matt black -
- This paint I'm using is pretty thick stuff, and I don't want to brush it into the carefully constructed little holes as it'll surely clog, so I'll get a good permanent marker and fill in the bits of wood inside the countersinks that the paint. missed.
Monitor panel - Part 3 - Installing the Monitor
So Saturday came with little to do and little cash to do it with (the last payday seems soooo long ago), so "she-who-must-be-obeyed" signed my permission slip for a couple of hours work on this project.
The Process:
DO THIS DIFFERENTLY - it's only when I come to look at the next panel (the speaker panel) that I realise the monitor panel and perspex will need to go back to the workshop and passed over the table saw to get and angle on the edge which meets the monitor panel. As such, I'll need to re-wrap the perspex for protection, remove the monitor, and protect my nicely painted monitor panel - a pain and a waste of cable ties. So, if you're at this stage DO NOT PAINT THE PANEL, DO NOT MOUNT THE MONITOR, and DO NOT REMOVE THE PERSPEX PLASTIC until you're happy with the fit of this panel in respect of the two panels it neighbours.
The Process:
- I flipped the monitor panel face down and put a couple of layers of black insulation tape in the bezel-ed bit of the panel, so that the rough chipboard wouldn't scratch the monitor (it needs to be worth something on eBay one day!) -
- Dropped the panel in to check that the insulation tape hadn't upset the fit and ready for fixing -
- I have a bag of these "self adhesive black base 25mm cable tie mounts" (aka the mounts) from Screwfix which are sticky-backed and have the bonus of a countersunk screw hole in the middle -
- so that not only can you rely on the very sticky backs holding them in place, a 1/2" (~13mm) screw through each one - 
- and I'm fairly confident a few of these will more than hold the monitor securely, without the screw points bursting through the other side. - The cable ties I will use are heavy duty, thick, strong, etc. not your bargain basement stuff. I'll need three per span - two un-abused, and the "lock bit" from the end of the third -
- First cable tie - thread one through one mount, join with a second, thread the second through the opposite mount, and "lock" with the end piece of a third tie -
- get as much tension as you're happy with on the ties - the mounts should hold firmly as they're screwed down, but I don't want to stress them more than I have to, and trim the ends. - Repeat 5 times -
- overkill? maybe, and I'm not 100% on the positioning - the ties that do not cross the center are too close to the edges for my liking, but they will reinforce the others in this "mesh" format. - Offer the panel into the cabinet and top with perspex for a photo-call -
- nice! - This particular monitor has a habit of occasionally powering up in "standby" rather than "on" - as such I've drilled a 1.5mm (small) hole in line with the standby button -
- so I can access this with a straightened paperclip if needs be - I could have done this for all the monitor controls, but I think that's overkill for me - I'll have to remember to carefully drill a hole through the perspex in exactly the right place to line up with the hole in the wood, after the panel is installed.
DO THIS DIFFERENTLY - it's only when I come to look at the next panel (the speaker panel) that I realise the monitor panel and perspex will need to go back to the workshop and passed over the table saw to get and angle on the edge which meets the monitor panel. As such, I'll need to re-wrap the perspex for protection, remove the monitor, and protect my nicely painted monitor panel - a pain and a waste of cable ties. So, if you're at this stage DO NOT PAINT THE PANEL, DO NOT MOUNT THE MONITOR, and DO NOT REMOVE THE PERSPEX PLASTIC until you're happy with the fit of this panel in respect of the two panels it neighbours.
The Monitor Panel - after lunch?
The more observant of you looking at the date of this posting are either thinking "man, this guy has long lunches" or that I haven't posted for a couple of days.
After lunch, I gave the monitor panel a quick sand, and 2 coats of matt black, pulled the protective plastic from the perspex, and dropped the panel+perspex in the cabinet - looks like this -
This thing is starting to look like an arcade machine, albeit with "vertically challenged" issues!
After lunch, I gave the monitor panel a quick sand, and 2 coats of matt black, pulled the protective plastic from the perspex, and dropped the panel+perspex in the cabinet - looks like this -
This thing is starting to look like an arcade machine, albeit with "vertically challenged" issues!
Friday 25 January 2008
The Monitor Panel - Before Lunch!
For those of you who have been following the story, I started this blog retrospectively (as in, I wrote about stuff I'd already done) and now we've caught up - we're in real-time, baby, yeah!
This morning I started work on the monitor panel. I want this panel to be thicker than the rest (all the other panels are 9mm) so I want at least 12mm, as I will rout a recess in the rear of the panel so that the monitor will fit snug. Also, as it's near the end of January, and the last payday was a long time ago, I have purchased some Chipboard (£4 for a board of 1200mm (4') x 600mm (2')) as opposed to MDF (£8 for the same size) - the finished panel will be painted and under perspex, so it's unlikely anyone will notice the difference, plus it's similar to work with, although rougher in finish - some careful sanding with fine paper should make all of this viable.
The Process:
By popping the perspex on the top of the panel -
- and going close up with a rule - 
- I can show you the process I tried to describe in earlier postings, that I am making the "bridging" panels (monitor, control, etc.) slightly recessed in respect of the side walls (the closeup shows ~5mm) so that a final stage will be to use a flush-trimming bit in the router and bring the sides in to fit the panels, rather than make the panels fit the sides - should work.
Anyhoo, like I said at the start of this posting, we're in real-time now, I'm hungry and the primer needs 2 hours before I can sand and paint, so time for some Super Noodles and I'll catch the lunchtime news.
This morning I started work on the monitor panel. I want this panel to be thicker than the rest (all the other panels are 9mm) so I want at least 12mm, as I will rout a recess in the rear of the panel so that the monitor will fit snug. Also, as it's near the end of January, and the last payday was a long time ago, I have purchased some Chipboard (£4 for a board of 1200mm (4') x 600mm (2')) as opposed to MDF (£8 for the same size) - the finished panel will be painted and under perspex, so it's unlikely anyone will notice the difference, plus it's similar to work with, although rougher in finish - some careful sanding with fine paper should make all of this viable.
The Process:
- Make a template of the monitor - my template is in thick foam (it's just what was closest at hand at the time - nothing particularly special about the foam - could easily have been stiff card)
- crucially cut out a small hole at the center of the template, and mark on the bezel dimensions of the monitor. - Cut the 4'x2' Chipboard panel to 2'x2' -
- Draw lines from corner to opposite corner -
- the position where these lines cross is the center of the panel - Lay the template on top of the panel and line up the hole in the center of the template with the position where the two diagonal lines cross (apologies for the blue rubber gloves - very messy in the garage now) -
- ensure the template is square in the center, by measuring the distance from each corner to the nearest diagonal line - this process ensures the monitor will be in exactly the center of the panel - YOU MAY NOT WANT THIS - you might like your monitor a little higher or lower in the panel - this is your choice. - Draw around the template and using the dimensions for the bezel jotted on each edge of the template, mark out the position of the - actual screen area in the monitor -
- The inner square will be cut away to show the screen, and a recess will be made using a router in the area marked as the outer square - once finished, the monitor will be recessed a few millimeters into the panel so that it doesn't move around - this recess will not be deep enough to hold the monitor in the panel, just for positioning - 
- Cut out the inner square with a jigsaw - a steady hand helps, as you need nice straight edges to mirror the nice straight edges on the screen of your monitor -
- Take your trusty router (mine is more senile than trusty due to it's age) set the depth to approximately half the thickness of board, and rout the outer square from the panel - you don't need to be too careful as freehand router-ing is a similar process to trying to bath a cat - a "close enough" approach will do here - you can always pad the routed area with tape if needed when installing the monitor - I intend to regardless of the fit so that the monitor isn't damaged by contact with the wood and should still be worth something on eBay one day -
- I applied some masking tape to the "bezel" (routed area) and took it upstairs for a quick trial with the monitor - fits first time and like a snug glove - very, very happy! -
- Back to the garage, and drop the panel (minus the monitor) into the cabinet for a glimpse of the future -
- A quick sand, a coat of MDF Primer (I have no Chipboard primer, and don't know if such a thing exists) and fingers crossed that the MDF primer does what I want it to do (seal and prime) on Chipboard.
By popping the perspex on the top of the panel -
- and going close up with a rule - 
- I can show you the process I tried to describe in earlier postings, that I am making the "bridging" panels (monitor, control, etc.) slightly recessed in respect of the side walls (the closeup shows ~5mm) so that a final stage will be to use a flush-trimming bit in the router and bring the sides in to fit the panels, rather than make the panels fit the sides - should work.Anyhoo, like I said at the start of this posting, we're in real-time now, I'm hungry and the primer needs 2 hours before I can sand and paint, so time for some Super Noodles and I'll catch the lunchtime news.
Thursday 24 January 2008
Arcade Control Panel - Part 2 - Electronics
OK - I have a control panel - it's built - <bias>it looks lovely</bias> - so let's try and connect the hacked keyboard controller (see earlier posts) with the built panel, and see if we can't get it all to work.
MORE PHOTOS TO FOLLOW
The Process:
So I connect this thing to my PC fire it all up and......
NOTHING - not a sausage
Pants!
Panic! - I've broken it all - the keyboard PS2 is broken again - one of my solders has shorted - i don't understand what's going on.
One Chicken & Mushroom Pot Noodle, and one Stargate Atlantis episode later, and a thought occurs to me, "Do I understand how these microswitch-y thingies work?" - let's google them.
A couple of websites and some wikipedia later, and I have the answer I suspected - "No, you don't understand how they work!"
Three connections per microswitch and I need 2 -
- I connected all my wires to the top connector and the bottom connector - I find out from my google-ing that a microswitch can either "make" or "break" a connection depending on which of the two side connections you connect - I had setup the switches in "click to break" mode - essentially meaning that all the keys were pressed and I pressed a button to "lift my finger off the keyboard"
Embarrased, but strengthened by the Pot Noodle, I returned to the panel, and pulled all the black connections (see, I told you the colour coding would come in useful) from the lower side connection and pushed on the upper side connection - again, this would have been a lot easier if I'd left some more length on the cables, but I managed.
Second test
It's a good job the wife and kids weren't home, cos I'd probably have terrified them with my manic whooping and jumping around.
I have a working control panel.
Picture Homer Simpson drooling over doughnuts, "UUUUUUMmmmmm Control Panel" and it doesn't quite do it justice.
MORE PHOTOS TO FOLLOW
The Process:
- Install the microswitches for the joysticks and buttons
- 6 buttons per player, 1 joystick per player (4 switches), 1 coin per player, 1 start per player, 1 game selector (the ESC key) = 25 microswitches: 2 wires per microswitch=50 connections. Each connection on each microswitch receives a 1.5mm crimp connector, so we need to make 50 wires of, let's say, 9" (~23cm) length, each with a crimp connector on one end, and the other end stripped ready to be installed in the screw block connector.
- I made 25 white wires and 25 black wires - one for each side of the microswitch, and also, now that I know one connector has to connect to the top layer keyboard connections (see the Keyboard Hack posting for more details) and one connects to the lower layer, I know all my white wires should be together and all my black wires should be together in the screw blocks. Not a necessity, but useful for troubleshooting.
- I don't trust crimp connectors, so after I've crimped my bunch of wires, I also drop a splodge of solder into the crimp connector to make sure I have a good connection.
- DO THIS DIFFERENTLY - 9" per wire was way too short - I had a real struggle when it comes to screwing these all together into the block connectors - no enough play on each wire so the controller which I expected to rest several inches from the underside of the panel, actually comes to rest within a few millimetres of the underside - not ideal.
- Time to look at my keyboard pairings again -
- I look through this sheet, highlighting all the keys that my control panel will use - UP, DOWN, CTRL, ALT, etc. Now I count all the left column numbers, and all the right column numbers, so I end up with a number of wires to connect to screwblock 1, a number for screwblock connector 2, and so on for the 26 connections. So for example, if I know there are 4 wires for connection 2, I twist 4 of my white wires together, screw them into connection 2, then push the 4 crimp connectors onto one side of the 4 microswitches that will use connection no. 2. Hope this makes sense. - I work my way sequentially through each of the block connectors, counting the number of wires, twisting, screwing into the block, pushing the crimps onto the correct microswitch, etc, untill all 26 connections on my Keyboard Hack are complete.
- I now have an arcade control panel with a keyboard connection - it's not been hard to do, but has taken some time - time to test it!!!!!!
So I connect this thing to my PC fire it all up and......
NOTHING - not a sausage
Pants!
Panic! - I've broken it all - the keyboard PS2 is broken again - one of my solders has shorted - i don't understand what's going on.
One Chicken & Mushroom Pot Noodle, and one Stargate Atlantis episode later, and a thought occurs to me, "Do I understand how these microswitch-y thingies work?" - let's google them.
A couple of websites and some wikipedia later, and I have the answer I suspected - "No, you don't understand how they work!"
Three connections per microswitch and I need 2 -
- I connected all my wires to the top connector and the bottom connector - I find out from my google-ing that a microswitch can either "make" or "break" a connection depending on which of the two side connections you connect - I had setup the switches in "click to break" mode - essentially meaning that all the keys were pressed and I pressed a button to "lift my finger off the keyboard"Embarrased, but strengthened by the Pot Noodle, I returned to the panel, and pulled all the black connections (see, I told you the colour coding would come in useful) from the lower side connection and pushed on the upper side connection - again, this would have been a lot easier if I'd left some more length on the cables, but I managed.
Second test
It's a good job the wife and kids weren't home, cos I'd probably have terrified them with my manic whooping and jumping around.
I have a working control panel.
Picture Homer Simpson drooling over doughnuts, "UUUUUUMmmmmm Control Panel" and it doesn't quite do it justice.
Arcade Control Panel - Part 1 - Woodwork
So here we are.
My joysticks and buttons have arrived from eBay (many thanks to Andy @ GremlinSolutions for the excellent buttons) so it's time to get down to building the control panel. I chose this panel first, as I think this is one of the most complex parts of the beast.
See my earlier postings on design (under the Early Thoughts tag) for my sizing and reasons for sizing, etc.
The process:
My joysticks and buttons have arrived from eBay (many thanks to Andy @ GremlinSolutions for the excellent buttons) so it's time to get down to building the control panel. I chose this panel first, as I think this is one of the most complex parts of the beast.
See my earlier postings on design (under the Early Thoughts tag) for my sizing and reasons for sizing, etc.
The process:
- cut the perspex to size - a table saw helps
- cut the MDF to size - a table saw helps
- clamp them together
- mark out the player 1 control layout
- drill the player 1 control layout - a bench drill helps - my freehand drilling isn't accurate enough
- copy the layout onto the player 2 side
- drill the player 2 control layout
- DO THIS DIFFERENTLY - I'm not 100% happy about my control panel - when you look at the finished article, player 2's controls are far too close to the right hand side of the cabinet for my liking, and player 1's start too far in from the left hand side - I'd have tried to centre them better next time around, inside of striking a line in the middle and copying one side to the other
- prep the MDF for painting - light sanding and a coat of MDF primer/sealer
- paint the MDF - foam roller and matt black for me - spray paint if you prefer, but I think it's too expensive for this job
- paint it again
- remove the perspex protective plastics
- install the joysticks and buttons
- go all funny/nostalgic inside looking at it
Wednesday 23 January 2008
Started my SourceForge!
Joy of joys!
A great day.
I've just found that my gmame sourceforge project request was approved on Monday (funny I didn't get the notification email, but no matter) which now means I have a place to properly support the software side (my custom interface) of this project.
Woo-hoo!
Now, all I have to do is figure out how to use it...hmmm....
UPDATE: think I've sussed it - have posted my first set of zip files via sourceforge - time to get slaughtered by those who know how to program properly, not some wannabe code monkey like me! :-P - my code looks SOOOOO rough - I really will have to split my time been blogging, coding, and building - core, tricky doing this in quasi-realtime.
A great day.
I've just found that my gmame sourceforge project request was approved on Monday (funny I didn't get the notification email, but no matter) which now means I have a place to properly support the software side (my custom interface) of this project.
Woo-hoo!
Now, all I have to do is figure out how to use it...hmmm....
UPDATE: think I've sussed it - have posted my first set of zip files via sourceforge - time to get slaughtered by those who know how to program properly, not some wannabe code monkey like me! :-P - my code looks SOOOOO rough - I really will have to split my time been blogging, coding, and building - core, tricky doing this in quasi-realtime.
Saturday 19 January 2008
First Woodwork
So, about time I got to building this thing?!
I took 2 sheets of 9mm (3/8") MDF, lay one on top of the other, and clamped the together at the factory corner/sides (i.e. sides I can be relatively sure are straight and square)
I drew out the design I wanted for the top section of the cabinet (read my post on Motivations for more details) using my trusty protractor and a steel rule.
DO THIS DIFFERENTLY: I jigsawed out the design as accurately as I could, and because it was free-hand, there was the odd slip here and there. On reflection, I should have jigsawed out the pattern wide of the lines, and used my flush-trimming bit on the router at the final construction stage to bring the sides in flush with the body - I'll describe this better in a later post.
As above, the final pair of sides were not as accurate as I'd have liked, but they will suffice for now (I intend to tidy them up much more in the final stages) so I set about installing the "batons"
The diagram I will upload at a later date does much to explain this than I can in words, but here goes. For each of the panels that will bridge between the two sides, I measured the thickness of the panel (remembering to include the thickness of any perspex sheeting where applicable - such as the control panel) and scored a line on the inside of each side panel to match the thickness of the bridging panel, plus a few millimetres spare, so that I can tidy up the sides later.
For example, the control panel is 9mm MDF, with 6mm Perspex=15mm - on each side-panel, where the control panel will bridge the two sides, I scored a line at 15 (+3 spare) mm on the inside of the side-panels. This line represents where I want the bottom of the control panel to connect to each side.
I took my stock of 1" sq. batons made earlier, cut to the "depth" of each "bridge" panel and installed them using the lines I had drawn on the side-panels, so that each "bridge" panel would sit on the baton at the right position.
Like I said earlier, much easier to explain using the pictures! :-p
At this stage, I have my two side-panels cut to the right shape, and installed with batons for fixing the "bridge" panels, so I quickly dropped in a couple of lengths of 1" sq just to get a look at the size of the final cabinet.
My heart skipt a beat!
I took 2 sheets of 9mm (3/8") MDF, lay one on top of the other, and clamped the together at the factory corner/sides (i.e. sides I can be relatively sure are straight and square)
I drew out the design I wanted for the top section of the cabinet (read my post on Motivations for more details) using my trusty protractor and a steel rule.
DO THIS DIFFERENTLY: I jigsawed out the design as accurately as I could, and because it was free-hand, there was the odd slip here and there. On reflection, I should have jigsawed out the pattern wide of the lines, and used my flush-trimming bit on the router at the final construction stage to bring the sides in flush with the body - I'll describe this better in a later post.
As above, the final pair of sides were not as accurate as I'd have liked, but they will suffice for now (I intend to tidy them up much more in the final stages) so I set about installing the "batons"
The diagram I will upload at a later date does much to explain this than I can in words, but here goes. For each of the panels that will bridge between the two sides, I measured the thickness of the panel (remembering to include the thickness of any perspex sheeting where applicable - such as the control panel) and scored a line on the inside of each side panel to match the thickness of the bridging panel, plus a few millimetres spare, so that I can tidy up the sides later.
For example, the control panel is 9mm MDF, with 6mm Perspex=15mm - on each side-panel, where the control panel will bridge the two sides, I scored a line at 15 (+3 spare) mm on the inside of the side-panels. This line represents where I want the bottom of the control panel to connect to each side.
I took my stock of 1" sq. batons made earlier, cut to the "depth" of each "bridge" panel and installed them using the lines I had drawn on the side-panels, so that each "bridge" panel would sit on the baton at the right position.
Like I said earlier, much easier to explain using the pictures! :-p
At this stage, I have my two side-panels cut to the right shape, and installed with batons for fixing the "bridge" panels, so I quickly dropped in a couple of lengths of 1" sq just to get a look at the size of the final cabinet.
My heart skipt a beat!
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