Tuesday 23 March 2010

A custom PC case

The next stage is to build some kind of custom PC case to sit below the control panel section.

Considerations:

1. Size - at 30" width and anything up to about 3' height (although I'd rather build it shorter, and use some kind of final, dummy bottom section to get the overall cabinet height right), and I'm trying to keep the depth around the 8" mark so all these dimensions shouldn't be too much of a problem.

2. Access - I need to be able to access the PC fairly easily so that I can do upgrades, maintenance etc without too much stress.

3. Safety - never made a PC case out of wood, so I need to make sure I have everything well grounded.

4. Network - I know I'm going to stick a keyboard and mouse in the control panel section, but I'd rather solve as many issues, upgrade roms, ensure the OS is patched and updated over the network, so I'm thinking of dropping in an Ethernet port on the outside of the case section.

5. Power control - somehow need to turn this thing on by a switch of some sort, so unless the BIOS supports some kind of "power on keyboard press" through USB, I'm gonna need to put an external switch somewhere - probably best to do this regardless.

6. Wiring - need to get wires in and out of the case section, to and from the other sections (control panel yes, but I'm thinking of speakers, monitor, marquee, and all things above the control panel) so we'll we'd some big holes aligned between the panels.

Overall, I think I need some kind of fairly simple box with a "door" on another piano hinge, and have the computer mounted on the "back" of the door, so when the door opens the whole PC is presented - something like this maybe :

[caption id="attachment_226" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="PC: Sketch 1"]PC: Sketch 1[/caption]

Saturday 20 March 2010

A lot of time and patience

I was watching the footy (the Wolves winning for once) on the telly with Dad, so decided to be productive as well. I know you can buy some wire for pennies, but I have a load of cat5 cable lying around from a previous job, and I thought, "I'm sure that stripped out cat5 would be perfect as the cabling for the control panel" - so I spent the next 90 minutes shouting at the telly, and stripping/cutting a bunch of cat5.

An hour's soldering later (to solder on the female crimp connectors to slot onto the micro-switches) and I end up with this:

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="wiring 1"]wiring 1[/caption]

I've daisy-chained all the ground wire together as there is only 1 ground screw connector on the IPAC to screw it into.

I know it's messy, and I'll tidy it up at some point, but this was the inside - just player 1 wired up for testing/debugging (i.e. finding that I'd wired the wrong wire into the connector block) :

[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="wiring: inside - early"]wiring: inside - early[/caption]

That night, while the kids were asleep, I wired up 2UP, screwed the IPAC down, and tested it out on the 5 year old in the morning:

[caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="his first test"]his first test[/caption]

As you can see, all good.

I now have to resist the temptation to leave the project for a bit - as you can see, it works, so I need to push on and make the rest of the cabinet - work's looking busy though - no idea when I'll have some more time????

Thursday 18 March 2010

I love the smell of spray paint in the morning

So, another visit to my dentist, and my tooth is fixed.

I have some MDF sealer and primer that I've used in the past on Chipboard and it works quite well - I like that it goes on a bit of a purple colour, then dries clear:

[caption id="attachment_207" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="sealer and primer"]sealer and primer[/caption]

Two coats of primer, with a quick sanding with 800 grit paper in between to get a very smooth finish, then one coat of black spray paint and you get this - looking tasty! :

[caption id="attachment_208" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="control: 1 coat"]control: 1 coat[/caption]

A second coat of black spray, and the buttons installed:

[caption id="attachment_209" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="control: all painted"]control: all painted[/caption]

That'll do for today! Tomorrow - the wiring!!!

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Something did happen...

...I broke a tooth. Ah well. Back to the dentist.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Can I finish the control panel today?

I'm writing this at the end of the day, and I feel like it's been very productive.

After the dentist (no work to be done there, thankfully) I'm putting together all the pieces cut yesterday.

I've used some long braces to strengthen the base, as it's put together from two pieces - not pretty, but as they say, out of sight...

[caption id="attachment_174" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="a bit of a fudge?"]a bit of a fudge?[/caption]

Marked out for, and fitted the piano (continuous) hinge to the main carcass:

[caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="piano hinge - 1"]piano hinge - 1[/caption]

Propped up the main carcass, to get that part to the right height to connect the other half of the hinge to the correct place on the tilt & front section:

[caption id="attachment_176" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="piano hinge -2 "]piano hinge -2 [/caption]

Then offered up the tilt & front and connected the other half of the piano hinge:

[caption id="attachment_177" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="piano hinge - 3"]piano hinge - 3[/caption]

So it looks like this when it's closed:

[caption id="attachment_178" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="closed - 1"]closed - 1[/caption]

Notice the gap? Yeah, not particularly happy about that - I was hoping it would close flush, but with a bit of jiggling, glueing, etc. it gets better, but not great.

STOP THE PRESS - just at that point (literally!) the postman arrived with my buttons and sticks. Yey! - as you can see, a fantastic picture (not!):

[caption id="attachment_163" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="box of bits"]box of bits[/caption]

So, time to mark up the control panel section for the sticks and buttons (no real design for this, just "guessed" by putting my hands on the box in the places where they naturally rested when thinking about using sticks and buttons):

[caption id="attachment_179" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="buttons design"]buttons design[/caption]

I have a bench drill, and some nice bore drill bits:

[caption id="attachment_180" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="pride and joy"]pride and joy[/caption]

Drill one hole, and inserted a button to test - nice! :

[caption id="attachment_181" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="first button"]first button[/caption]

So, plenty of dust and shredded chipboard later and it looks like this:

[caption id="attachment_182" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="all holes cut"]all holes cut[/caption]

I'm going to put the "coin" and "1UP / 2UP" buttons on the front panel - I think it's more nostalgic like this:

[caption id="attachment_183" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="1UP holes"]1UP holes[/caption]

And with the final woodwork construction done, it looks like this when open:

[caption id="attachment_186" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="end of tuesday - open"]end of tuesday - open[/caption]

And this when closed:

[caption id="attachment_184" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="nice"]nice[/caption]

I'm still not happy about that gap, so I'm going to get some decorative thumb-turns to hold the tilt closed:

[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="thumbturn"]thumbturn[/caption]

Not ideal, but you have to be a bit "organic" when doing something like this, as the cabinet evolves into something similar to what you designed, but it'll never be exactly what you expected - well not for me, anyway.

I've done some glueing, and used some wood filter to fill the unsightly edges in, gave all the visible surfaces a good sanding.  It's not looking too bad at all.

Next stage will be to prep and paint the visible surfaces, then install the buttons and sticks, then do some wiring.  I'm making better progress with this than I expected.

Something's bound to go wrong.

Cost so far = £80.36
IPAC VE – £30
ROMS – £5
Buttons and Joysticks – £20.01
Piano Hinges – £4.38
Corner Brackets – £1.90
Chipboard - £13
Thumbturns - £5.98

The first few bits of wood

So I found myself with a free afternoon on Monday, popped to the B&Q on the way home from work, and had a wander around the wood panels section - funny how much I enjoy these activities, but would mock others if they mentioned it.

MDF is 3 x the price of Chipboard.  Yes, I know, MDF has a smooth finished surface that lends itself quite nicely to arcade machines, but with a little love, effort and attention, Chipboard brushes up OK.  So chipboard I bought.

Started off by slicing it all down to 30", the width of my finished machine.

The hardest part about cutting the wood will be getting the angles right to achieve the "tilt" on the control panel.  I set the jigsaw bed to a 20 degree (ish?) tilt and this is the result:

[caption id="attachment_153" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="angles - end view"]angles - end view[/caption]

I took some of the 90 degree brackets, put them in the vice, and squeezed them until they matched the angle of the wood:

[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="angle brackets - bent"]angle brackets - bent[/caption]

I offered them up to the angled piece to test the angle of the bracket:




[caption id="attachment_150" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="offered up to check"]offered up to check[/caption]

and attached the front to the tilt, like so:





[caption id="attachment_154" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="front + tilt"]front + tilt[/caption]

The rest of the control panel carcass was quite straight forward, cut to the design I sketched yesterday.  I used lots of the angle brackets to fix all the parts together:





[caption id="attachment_156" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="main control panel - brackets"]main control panel - brackets[/caption]

You've probably noticed the line along the base - I ran out of wood! I've cobbled together a base from two off-cuts - seems overkill to make this "fresh" as it won't be seen in the finished cabinet.


I've offered all the pieces up together to see what it's gonna look like - i think it's quite true to my sketch??





[caption id="attachment_188" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="first mockup"]first mockup[/caption]

I've taken tomorrow off work, so I should be able to make some progress, even though there's a dentist appointment in the middle of my morning.

Sunday 14 March 2010

Sunday

Sunday afternoon has been productive, but not as much as I'd hoped.

Here's another sketch of the control panel section.



[caption id="attachment_142" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="control panel sketch"]control panel sketch[/caption]

I've been back to B&Q today to look at their MDF - I think I used 12mm last time, and had an issue when it came to mounting the joysticks. I remember that the screws that mounted the joystick underneath the panel started to come through the top surface ever so slightly.

So I'm going to go with the 18mm - more expensive, and the final product will be significantly heavier, but I think it's the tight thing to do. I've recalculated the sizes based on 18mm and I think I've got it right. Apologies for mixing imperials and metrics, but it's how I work.

I have sourced the piano hinges for the control panel and the main computer section today - £2.19 each from Wickes is an absolute bargain.

Also, I've picked up a pack of 50 corner brackets for £1.99 from Screwfix to connect the MDF panels together.

[caption id="attachment_147" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="angle brackets"]angle brackets[/caption]

Last time, I used 1" sq. strips of wood along each face, which contributed to the lack of space inside the case for the controls - plus it was a lot more cutting and drilling, etc. These little brackets should save a lot of time and effort connecting panels.

Tomorrow I hope to pick up some MDF and if I've got time, cut the panels for the control section.

Cost so far = £61.38
IPAC VE - £30
ROMS - £5
Buttons and Joysticks - £20.01
Piano Hinges - £4.38
Corner Brackets - £1.9

Saturday 13 March 2010

A good start to the weekend

Not a bad weekend so far. The IPAC VE arrived this morning and I just won the eBay auction I had my eye on.

2 x joysticks, 17 buttons and all the microswitches for £20.01 - not bad, as new from Gremlin would have been about £35 to £40. Just hope I don't find myself on the wrong side of some eBay karma.

Might go and buy some wood tomorrow, and start making the control panel - round the weekend off nicely.

Friday 12 March 2010

Open Sesame...

THE CONTROL PANEL

Two things are on my mind this time round.  Last time, I positioned the controllers way too close to the edges of the panel, and it made it quite difficult to fit the micro-switches and cables on the buttons near the edges.  Also, because I built the whole arcade machine as one unit (two sides, one top, one bottom) it made it quite tricky to get in and around inside the control panel - if a connection was loose, I had to start unscrewing things to fix it.

So I'm going to make a stand-alone control panel (7 panels, top, slope, bottom, front, back and 2 sides) and have a single USB cable coming out of the back or possibly bottom (you'll see why when I get to the PC bit at a later date)

Something like this:

[caption id="attachment_128" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="control panel design"]control panel design[/caption]

To slope or not to slope?

Surely slopes on the control panel surface is contrary to good ergonomic design, but every image of every machine I can find shows a slope.  I toyed with the idea of a flat surface so I could rest my beer on it :-), but I've gone for this little touch of authenticity.

Access to the gubbings

That problem of accessing the wiring and stuff without unscrewing the panels has got me thinking.

I am plagued with insomnia, and a night or two ago, an idea came to me that should solve this problem, and offer some opportunities to make the control panel a little more functional this time around.

This all hinges on something special - did you see what I did there?







If I add a hinge to the front lower edge, I should be able to pull up and out on the sticks, and have the whole underneath of the sticks and buttons exposed for maintenance and upgrades.

And the cream on the cake? I can stash a keyboard and a mouse in this discrete control panel unit for those tricky "if only I had a keyboard and a mouse, I could fix that little problem easily" moments.

Good, eh? Well, let's see if I can build it, then I can say whether or not it was a good idea.

And for those attention-to-detail types of you, the single USB coming out can be achieved by a little cheap hub in the control panel that has the IPAC, the keyboard, and the mouse connecting in, and one usb coming out.

Genius!

Thinking in Boxes

I have some different ideas about construction this time round.

Recently, I'm thinking very much modularly than I ever have - it's been useful at work, and I find modularity spilling out into all facets of my life.

For example, with the arcade machine, I'm thinking of building the core parts in a modular fashion, so that the control panel is an independent, discrete unit, the monitor panel is an independent discrete unit, and the PC (or whatever it may become) is a discrete part.

Last time, I tried to build one overall unit, and trying to hold monitors and control panels in place whilst I screwed the sides on was tricky to say the least.

The advantages of modular are many, but primarily I'm thinking about:

  1. ease of construction - each part can be made and tested separately then all bolted together at the end

  2. ease of maintenance - I can pop out a part, replace / upgrade / repair and pop back in

  3. ease of transport - breaking it into parts and shipping it between locations is easier that hoofing a 6'x3'x3' box into and out of vans

  4. and so on...

The Overall Design

I'm still trying to save a bit of space in the house - where I live isn't a massive place, and I'm still as keen this time to produce something that will fit on a wall or in a corner without looking like it needs a quarter of a room all to itself.  With that in mind, I've got some rough ideas about dimensions that I'd like to try and stick to.

Height - 6' - I'm several inches shy of 6' myself, and my recent memories are all of machines that are "a bit" taller than me - six foot seems about right - it's not overbearing but will have a presence.

Width - 30" - most interior doors are little wider than 30", so I'm happy that I'll be able to get it in and out of rooms without needing to take doors off hinges.  30" seems to be about right for two people to stand fairly close to one another and player 2UP games - just need to make sure the deodorant is to had for those friends who over-indulge in Street Fighter II.

Depth - 16" (at the widest point) - now I know what you're thinking (or what you should be thinking) - that's very slim for an arcade machine.  Well I did say that I didn't want it to dominate a room.  The 16" is at the widest point of the control panel, so when you think that the monitor and PC bit shouldn't be much deeper than 8", this machine will look like it has an eating disorder.  I have some ideas about the PC construction that should make this very conservative estimate realistic in terms of depth usage.  I do have some "tipping over" concerns, but with some weights and perhaps wall attachments, this might just do the trick.  This is what I'm aiming for - maybe I'll need to put a little weight on later in the construction, but I'm hopeful that this'll be about right.

Thursday 11 March 2010

The story so far...again...

ROMS

OK. I had a couple of hundred ROMS, but as the MAME engine has been moving on, more and more of them have been marked as "not working" so I've bit the bullet and bought an eBay auction for a set of DVDs with 6500 ROMS. Nice :-)

The disks arrived yesterday and I spun disk 1 for the first time today without issues - I'll make the assumption the rest are OK and get round to playing them when I have some time.

INTERFACE CONTROLLER

If you scan back through the history of this blog, you'll see the fun I had hacking a keyboard to serve as an interface controller. I thoroughly enjoyed that experience, not least because I discovered a lot more about how they all work, but I suppose I get a kick out of that kind of stuff. Sad. I know.

I did occasionally experience a problem with my homebrew controller that I've spotted in a couple of google searches, that there's a limit to the amount of simultaneous keypresses on a standard keyboard controller - I think it's 6. I could have built 2, or I'm sure USB doesn't suffer, or 2 USBs. UPDATE: more searching reveals this is a hardware issue with almost all keyboards.

But, I've decided to buy a proper interface controller, so I've plumped for the I-PAC VE controller from Ultimarc. I looked at these carefully last time round, and back then couldn't justify the 30 quid for the little clever box, when I could crack open a keyboard and build my own for the cost of a bit of wire and a strip of block connectors.

Ultimarc have several versions of these gizmos - I've picked this one because I only need 2 players - I did think about 4, but know full well it'll never be used enough to justify it. The VE version has a couple of minor limitations over the standard version, buy I don't need them, plus it currently has a free shipping offer, which makes all the difference in price.

It's on order, and could be the best part of 3 weeks before it gets here. Watch this space.

BUTTONS

Back in Blighty, we have Gremlin Solutions, who I purchased my sticks and buttons from last time. They're not cheap (about 35 quid for my needs) so i've got my eye on an eBay auction of someone who, just like me the first time, bought the kit and never even unpacked it. I eBayed my parts last time for a pittance, so I'm hoping the Karma fairy pays me a visit and let's me win this auction for a reasonable outlay.

Cost so far = £35
Rom DVDs - £5
Interface Controller - £30

We're going again!

So...

We're gonna go again!

A couple of years later, a little older, a questionable amount wiser, and a completely new life. I've always regretted not continuing the last attempt. But there's a different woman in my life and all the things that were important to me, that I never started or never finished, are important again.

As most everything in life, my renewed interest in this came entirely by chance. My son is now 5, and he's as addicted to all things computers as much as me - a good thing or a bad thing - I can't yet tell. We were on the laptop together a few weekends ago - he stumbled across my mame roms and said "what's this, dad?".

Yes - you're absolutely right. A five year old asks you THAT question when browsing your laptop and you panic.

We spent the next while (I'll claim 20 minutes, but it probably was a couple of hours) cracking open the old games and bashing away on the up, down, left and right, ctrl and alt buttons until they nearly came off.

I asked him if he remembered the last attempt (from here on in, referred to as version 2.0) and he didn't. Shame. We used to play the Work In Progress together, but he was 2 or maybe 3 at the time. They're too young to remember the stuff you'll cherish forever.

So, I'm going to have another go at this arcade machine thingy. I'm sure I'll try and kid myself that this is as much for him and his sister as for me, but the jury's out on that one.

Version 3

The new one's called gMame 3.0 - might knock up a marquee at some stage with that on. Not sure, but I think I should mark the passing of those that came before.

Ubuntu

I'm still a massive Ubuntu fan (haven't used windows for a few years now - Windows 7 - that was NOT my idea) so we'll keep the Operating System, but obviously the later version - 10.04 is round the corner.

The interface

I'm not as keen on Java as I was, and I've been playing around with a little Python lately - not 100% struck but there's a lovely little environment in Ubuntu called Quickly that has a great Interface editor, source editor and it all packages up nicely, so when I get round to coding my own interface again, I'll likely pick this. Coming to a sourceforge near you soon.

So that's the new start. I'll let you know where I'm up to in the next post.

Wish me luck?