Monday 23 August 2010

Powered by Ubuntu (2)

Still have to get the side panels sorted, but a couple of final changes before I do that.

I was concerned that the cabinet was too short, as the angle of the screen and the angle I had to tilt my head to play, wasn't the best.

As such, I've bought some cabinet legs - the kind you put on kitchen cabinets, and have attached to the base.  They lift the unit up by about 6 or 7 inches and that makes all the difference.  I'll be able to clip a cover to the cabinet legs as per "kick boards" on kitchen cabinets.

Also, I've whipped out my paintbrushes and made a stab at putting a big ubuntu logo on the front.  I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it looks ok.

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Some words about the software

It's probably worth talking a bit about the software.

This time round, I've stuck to my principles and stayed with Ubuntu, but instead a trying to build a perfectly tuned system from the ground up, i've installed an "off-the-shelf", vanilla Xubuntu desktop and trimmed off the unnecessary.

Xubuntu is a variant of the standard Ubuntu image, using the XFCE desktop instead of gnome, and is optimised for older machines, in that it's less resource hungry. This should keep the processor and memory focused on running the emulator and not on producing fancy desktops in the background, that aren't being used.

If you're not a Linux fan, think of it this way - if you're using Windows to run your arcade machine, you've got to use your antivirus software for starters (not needed on Linux) then you have the whole windows OS and all it's bloat running in the background instead of focusing on the job you want the computer to do. Linux isn't as scary as it was a few years ago, and these days, most hardware etc. works straight from the go - no driver installations or other steps to get stuff to work. It really is worth a look.

Preaching finished - back to my setup. Vanilla Xubuntu from www.xubuntu.com. During the install, I made sure to choose an easy username, and password and chose auto-login. The machine needs to login automatically as I will only have the arcade controls available, and it doesn't need to be secure.

I also spent some time in the partition manager, as I like my root and home partitions separate - I find it helps with reinstalls and upgrades. Just a personal preference - nothing to worry about if this isn't for you.

After the first boot, I spent some time removing everything I didn't need, such as office software, multimedia software, graphics, printing, games(!) - you get the idea.

Then added something from the ubuntu software centre - open ssh server. This will enable me to remotely connect to the machine and do anything I need to, such as upgrades, adding new ROMs, etc. And of course, I have to install mame.

Then it's installing Wahcade from http://www.anti-particle.com/wahcade.shtml - it's a free frontend to sdlmame thank has fantastic configuration capabilities, a screen layout editor, and loads more. No more trying to invent the wheel for me!

I'll post some screenshots when I can, but it's easier for you to take a look yourself.

Thursday 12 August 2010

Powered by Ubuntu

I decided to put the power button on the front under the monitor, with the HDD activity LED next to it. Bought a 30p (extortionate!) LED holder, drill and mounted on the front panel. Notice the Ubuntu Sticker on the power button recently acquired from Canonical's Store. I'll be working on some more Linux art for later on...

Finished the speaker panel

I'm afraid the photos are few and far between now.  I mounted the speakers on the speaker panel so that their centres were over the drilled hole patterns.

Attached the monitor panel to the control panel in the usual way:



I added some sides to the speaker panel, added the top, and put the marquee I made from the mark I arcade machine on the front of the speaker panel.

I have some of those cold cathode tubes from eBay (<£10) that people use to "bling" their PC cases, and have mounted these behind the marquee to provide the backlight.



Speaker/Marquee section done.

Mounted on top of the monitor section - done.

Smashed carefully extracted the power button and hard disk activity led from the front of the PC case.  I don't know about you, but I find that blinking light so reassuring when I turn a computer on, and like to see it flashing like mad if I've pressed something and the computer seems to be stuck.  I wired the power button up to my remaining arcade button that I've saved since I acquired the controls, and used some Cat5E cable to placed them in the marquee/speaker section for now, until I decide where I want them permanently.

Roughly and quickly wired everything up and turned it on:



Well blow me down, it actually works - I haven't cross wired anything and none of it caught fire - a first for me.

Drilled some holes in the back of the PC case bit so that I can put a 4-gang extension lead inside the case so that only 1 plug comes out, and also for a network cable.  Once I fasten all this together, I need to be able to manage it remotely, although I do still have access to my keyboard and mouse in the control panel section (see earlier posts for details)

That's about it for now.  Need to put some sides on at some point in the near future, but for now, here's some photos to keep you drooling.



Friday 6 August 2010

Day 3 and lots done

Day three of the recent "spurt" saw lots accomplished.

My plan today was to cut, prep and paint as much as possible early on in the day, so I can get some more of the final thing assembled.  The more this starts to look like the finished job, the more motivation I have to finish it.

The monitor I have is 17" and is that standard "computer monitor grey" colour, so I'm going to need to paint the bezel black so that grey bits aren't showing through the front of the machine.  Try as I might, I can't dismantle it to remove the bezel and paint it, so I've had to carefully mask out the screen and paint the whole thing - only need to do the front as it's the only part to be seen.

Took one of the off-cuts and will build the speaker panel from it.  Offered it up on the top of the monitor panel, marked it out, drew a speaker mesh pattern and drilled it, and also trimmed up another off-cut for the final "roof" of the whole machine.  This is a picture of the monitor and 2 speaker panels with the first coat of MDF primer on the woodwork:



With all these panels painted and dry, I turn my attention to fitting the monitor into the monitor panel.  I'm a fan of the cable-tie-mounts I've used in the past, so will be using these again - search the blog for details of the mounts if interested.

A couple at each corner, eight in total, like this:



Heavy duty cable ties, all trimmed up nicely and it should look something like this:



You'll notice I've put a couple of braces across the back of this section, just to strengthen it.  Pop it back on the control & case sections:



My 80's nostalgia gland is starting to twitch!

Last job of the day is to smash carefully dismantle an old pair of speakers ready for fitting their guts into the speaker panel - I'm using the cheapest set I have, as my memories of sound quality in arcade machines are pretty horrendous, and we do have to try and keep this thing authentic, right??

Thursday 5 August 2010

The Monitor Section

This morning, the case and the monitor section.

Just to finish off the case section, drilled some "intake" holes for the ventilation near the bottom of the front panel of the case, then a quick coat of MDF primer (I know it's chipboard, but it does a great job of lifting the loose fibres, so a quick sand, then paint, and you do get a really good finish on a really rough piece of wood) and 2 coats of black spray paint, and thus:

On to the monitor.

Another trip to the B&Q and another effort to find a "saw-dodger" (see previous post for the definition of a saw-dodger) and a 6'x2' sheet is cut into 2 x 30"x2' and a 12"x2' off-cut, thus:



Found the centre of one of the big panels by marking corner-to-corner, then accurately measured the visible area on the front of the monitor (the screen of the monitor if you will) and carefully measured and marked it onto the panel, thus:



WARNING - DON'T COPY THE NEXT PART - you'll see why in a bit.

Drilled the four corners to get the jigsaw in, thus:



Turned the jigsaw blade to 45 degrees, to give a better viewing angle on the screen, and a better finish on the panel, and tested with a small cut, thus:



Spot the problem? I want to bevel the sides, but I've drilled straight down.  Bugger.  The four edges will look good, but the corners are just wrong - no other word for it.  If I was dedicated and doing this for someone else, I'd start this panel again, but as I've said earlier, some sacrifices are being made, and I want this finished.  I want to say that this gives the thing character, these little problems, but I'm just in a bit more of a relaxed mood about these things nowadays.  So it looks like this:



I've trimmed the bottom edge at around 15 degrees so that the monitor panel "leans back" into the machine, so that taller users should get a better viewing experience.

TIP FOR THE FUTURE: I haven't leaned it back enough, that, or I haven't built it tall enough because I am having minor viewing issues with the finished box.

2 coats of MDF primer and 2 coats of black spray paint.

Propped the monitor panel on the top of the case and control panel and this is what I've got:



Is it just me, or is this starting to look like an arcade machine??? :-)

Sides for the monitor panel next.  Using one of the off-cuts, offered up the piece to the side of the monitor and marked out the size and shape of the sides for the monitor.  Cut them, and offered them up to check the fit:



Lay the monitor panel on the floor and glued and screwed to put it together:



That'll do for today - pick it up again in the morning when it's time to get the screen in, I reckon.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Building the case

On the 3rd August, I popped over to the B&Q, fetched a big sheet (8'x4') of 18mm Chipboard off the shelf, and set about finding someone to run the big saw to chop it into manageable pieces for me.  This proved harder than I expected, as it seems running the saw is a job to be dodged at my local B&Q.

Finally found someone, and got them to turn one sheet into this:



The idea is to make a 30" high by 30" wide case, so I got the man to cut it 3x30" parts, then cut the 30" by 4' down to 30" by 30".

So I ended up with 3 x 30" x 30" panels, 3 x 30" x 18" panels, and a 6" by 4' panel.

I want the finished case to have a single panel on the front, so when it's put together, I see only one panel from the front, without side or top "bits" so I split one of the 30's into 2 x 15"x30" for my sides, thus:



I did draw for some cut-outs on the side panels to give a more "arcade machine feel" to the design, but quickly realised that not only would it be harder to construct a front to fit the cut-outs, but the PC would have very little room inside the case.

DESIGN NOTES: It's worth pointing out at this point that I've decided to sacrifice a few aspects of the design.  It's important to me to get this finished now, so I will be cutting the odd corner here and there, but I still want something relatively authentic (nice?) to look at, so will try not to sacrifice too much.  I'm not going to have an access panel in the case section as per earlier designs - I'm going to screw the panel to the case unit, and unscrew when I need to fix/upgrade something.  Hopefully this will be rare.  Anything to do with software/files on the machine I can do remotely over the network.  Ubuntu/Linux gives me enormous flexibility and control that Windows simply doesn't provide

Trim 2 of the 18"x30" off-cuts down to 15" (minus the thickness of 2 sides = 36mm) and I now have two sides, a top, a bottom, a back and a front.

Put all but the back together and we get this:



And with the front:



Under the control panel - open and closed:



You might see a little ledge at the back? I could claim it's deliberate but it's not.  I'd not taken into account how much room the control panel needed when opened, so it doesn't meet the back - that's not as important as you might think as I'll be fixing sides onto this beast that will hide these "redesign factors" but also, it gives me the opportunity to drill some holes in that little ledge for ventilation of the case compartment - more on this next

Monday 2 August 2010

I've gone and done it!

I can't believe it's been March 23rd since I last posted.

I was in serious danger of letting this project lapse, again, possibly for the 3rd or 4th time, but a little prompting from my 5 yr old son, and I got up off my backside and started the project again.  I'm spending the next few days going at it like the clappers and hopefully it'll be pretty much done.