Building a MAME from scratch: Round Two

[vagus]

Thanks for sharing. One day I will make one of these.

[SephYuyX]

I'm pretty sure you can build one for as little as $500 or more likely $600 and a really great one with $1000+

Depends on the quality that you want it at. The control panel itself can easily cost over 350$, Graphics 250$+ then of course everything else. Mine could have easily been 1500$ if I didnt bother to price shop.

Minions, keep PMing me if you want, or just ask here, ive been busy, but ill get to them.

[Minions]

Yeah not a problem, I need to check the blank template for the cp that you sent me earlier to make sure the size is right, then work on getting a overlay made.

[Minions]

Painting is probably the thing I like worst about doing this project. The prep work with wood filler and such, rollers making you touch up most corners and such because they leave a line due to it hitting another board and such. Also had to use a paint brush to paint the bottom of the cab. Spent quite a few hours today doing this, and in all honesty the worst part is the waiting for things to dry (wood filler, primer, paint).

First up I put on the first coat of primer. The first coat was a pain in the ass, much worse than any other coats I've put on the cabinet today. The primer is pretty sticky, and it takes quite a bit of effort to completely cover the area you want.

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/9485/71062058.jpg

Once I got it on i waited an hour or two and started on the second coat of primer. This coat went on half as hard as the first coat. This coat looked great, which the exception of a couple spots. After this coat dried I sanded a couple spots and had something under the paint for whatever reason. This caused the primer not to adhere well, and part of it came off. Tack on another hour or so of priming that area, sanding by hand, and applying another coat of primer and it was fixed. (Just a unexpected pain/delay).

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5274/34966516.jpg

Finally about midnight, I started painting the cab with my Onyx black paint. This coat went on pretty easily, and it was very easy to tell where it needed more paint. (black paint on white, makes unpainted spots super obvious) Going to give this 8-12 hours to dry (more than likely 12+) and then put the second coat on.

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/8404/87959228.jpg

Lastly, while the second coat of primer was drying I started working on installing the track ball to the top of the control panel. Ran into a little issue (bolts were too long), and were pulling the threaded thing you hammer/push into a hole you drill. I had only drilled the depth of that part, not checking to see if the size of the bolt was longer... which it was. I added a couple washers and that fixed the bolt length issue.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/703/70374270.jpg

Tomorrow I'm planning to print out another CP overlay layout, to make sure it sizes up to my control panel, and then (if it does) I'm going to try to figure out what I want to do as far as layout/artwork for the overlay. I'm also going to put the second coat of paint on, and if I have time, look into the local glass shops and price what the front of my cabinet is going to cost.

[Minions]

I put the second coat of paint on the cabinet and it looks good. (a few spots where the paint ran, due to humidity I think, and will need to be sanded down and repainted in those spots) I did the first coat of paint in the speaker grills, which was more of a pain in the butt than I thought it would be. I can still see spots where the black paint did not cover inside the speaker grills, and will have to put a second coat in there.

Today after work I headed out to pick up some supplies I needed to continue the project. I picked up some black matte material to make the bezel out of (from hobby lobby, 10.99+tax) and 75 ft of wire from radio shack (25 ft red, 25 ft green, 25 ft black, 22 gauge stranded $7.39+tax) and heat shrink (for $4.19+tax).

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/8321/21568983.jpg

I used this wire + heat shrink to extend the wire from my marquee lights to my computer. I may end up having to buy more wire, I went with 22 gauge because 22-18 gauge fit the quick disconnects that I purchased (as well as the ones that came with the marquee lights). I mathematically figured out what I thought would be the best spacing for the distance (height and width) of the marquee. I decided on starting the first one 2.5" from the side, and each one after that 3 1/8", with the last one being 2.5" from the other side. Working confined to the marquee hole was a little annoying, and I did not have a small enough bit for the screws which complicated things a little bit. I started marking where I thought the top of the lights should be (by holding them up), and measured the distances. After that I used a little larger bit (the same size as the screw) to start a little hole and screwed in the screws by hand from that point. I think it looks good.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3721/62549837.jpg

I brought my PC down stairs and plugged the molex adapter into the power supply and tested it out.

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6818/44180585.jpg

http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/4088/72836022.jpg

Since I don't have a marquee yet, I held up a piece of paper the size of the marquee and it seems to have universal lighting across. I really need to think of what to decorate the machine with, and find someone to photoshop the stuff. (I'm a programmer, I don't do artwork!). I ended up calling some glass places today for quotes on greylite #14 glass, tempered to 29"x23" (ish), I don't think the front of my cab is exactly square.... so we may need to get the glass cut a little wonky (I think for example one side the glass height may be 23", then the bottom right side it may be 22 7/8" or something. I should be getting a few quotes tomorrow.

[Minions]

Things still to do:
Make the bezel
Drill holes in the bottom of the CP, install the bolts to hold CP down. (may be one of the last things I do)
Mount the marquee retainers (waiting on/still thinking of what to do for the marquee!)
Install L brackets in the back to hold the glass from behind (once glass is here, if the guy at grayglass gets back to me)
Button installation (need Control panel art first)
Wiring of all the buttons/joysticks/trackball/spinner (Need to wait for cp art )
programming all the emulators to work with the working buttons (Once control panel is done)
mount the coin door and wire coin door lights/wire to ipac2 to add credits (Might wait till I move the cab upstairs, will work on wiring it up with leds in the mean time)

Completed Since last update:
Buy Matte material for the bezel
Contact local glass places and get estimates
Mount the speakers/marquee lights
Cover speaker holes with felt
Cut the 2 sheets of plexi for the marquee
Figure out how far back/mount the quarter round to hold the glass in place from the front (not mounted, but will be once I get glass)

Picture of the quarter round.

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/6020/...4600139419.jpg

Took 3 pieces of felt to show 0% light through the speaker grills. I cut them in half so it took 3 sheets to cover 2 speaker grills. Tested putting the speakers on top of the speaker grills. The angle that the board comes down is sharp enough that I can put the speakers directly on the grills and not have them interfere with the marquee. Pretty awesome. Still need an idea for the control panel/marquee.... and sideart some time down the line (least essential for functionality, but will have side art at some point)

I also ordered a Belkin Smart Powerstrip/surge protector for $30. When using this, when I power on the PC, it will turn the TV on and the speakers. This reminds me, I do need to figure out where I want to run the switch to turn the pc on, on the cab. I'm sure I'll find a way to hide it somewhere on the control panel, as I really don't want to open the coin door every time I want to play.

[Minions]

Been awhile since I did an update. It's been quite annoying attempting to get the glass I want. Apparently there is some remaining but it's going to cost me a lot more than I want to spend to get that kind of glass. (Apparently they have half a sheet left and they have a minimum $100 order requirement since they normally don't sell to individuals, then tack on the shipping which is 20+). I alternatively could go with darker glass they sell which I got a quote for $60 from a local glass place that would order it through that same vendor. Look's like I'm going to be trying to find an other alternative for glass, perhaps some self tinting stuff, or call some local tinting places that do car windows and see what their prices would be for a single piece.

As far as work on the cab as gone, I added a couple blocks of wood on the black of the speaker shelf to hold the speakers. I will also be adding some velcro to them to keep them in place. I just need to go purchase the velcro.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1...4261639419.jpg

I also added the T-Molding to the edges of the cab, and to the top, and bottom, of the control panel.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/438...4252239419.jpg

Most of my time however, has been spent wiring the buttons and joysticks. Really makes me wish I bought some better wire strippers (I definitely felt it the next morning) mainly the crimping. It was rather painless.... er should I say, easy to do and pretty strait forward. Here is half way through the wiring process.

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9...2454284419.jpg

The whole process took a few hours. Ended up running out of wire or I would have had it done. Luckily we had some other wire on hand (a lot larger, still worked out) and finished wiring the next day.

After finishing wiring

http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/3...4252474419.jpg

As you can see the trackball and spinner are still not installed. They are usb and don't need to be wired so I can install them at any time. I still have to remove all of these when I finally get a control panel overlay made. It will be annoying but really won't be that bad. I can just pop off the switches, remove the buttons, add the overlay/plexiglass, pop the buttons back in and pop the switches back on. The wires are basically labeled as you can read on the ipac where they go to.

After wiring all of this up (and daisy chaining the grounds) I wanted to wire up the coin door. Went out and checked some automotive places (at the recomendation of some old threads on byoac.com) but found only one of the automotive places carried the LED's I wanted, and it was a huge 15~ led (or 4 led) ones and were about $16 for 2 bulbs. In addition to that they wanted another $10 for the socket for the thing..... that means it would have cost me $36 to light up the coin door. I said **** that and went online to http://www.superbrightleds.com and ordered a couple red 6 led wedge lights which cost me $8.79 shipped. Ebayed a socket which would work (worked perfect actually) and it cost me $4.86 shipped for 2. So I got them for roughly $14 online. The socet had a V bracket which slipped over a metal piece above the hole for the light. The lights were small enough (I measured before I ordered) and they actually go inside the reject button. The outcome is....

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/637...4251814419.jpg

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/906...4252004419.jpg

Here is the top of the CP, you can see the reject buttons when they are not lit for comparison

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2...4251544419.jpg

Pictures don't really do it justice, but yeah it looks great. These I wired to the extra molex added from the marquee adapter. I actually pulled the pins out of the molex, fit the wire inside those pins, then pushed them back into the plastic piece of the molex connector. Doing this allows me to still use the molex connector if needed.

I also spliced into the coin button wires I had run on the control panel, and soldered the wires so I could run a wire to the switch on the coin door on each side. I also spliced into one of the ground wires and ran a wire down to ground that switch as well.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4...4274899419.jpg

As you can see the wiring up top is for the lights, and the bottom is the switches that trigger a credit when a quarter passes. I had wondered why the prongs on the back of one of my coin mechs was bent up. Found the answer for why that was today. When I added the quick disconnects (which I had to bum from my dad, these are actually much larger than the ones needed for the regular buttons) they would not clear the door of the cab. The prong on the switches barely clear the door. So the solution for this is to bend the prong up, and put the quick disconnect on vertically. Pretty funny, I guess the actually cab these mechs came from had the same issue, perhaps it is a common thing.

You can see the bent prong/vertical quick disconnect in this picture

http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/8...4275119419.jpg

Also turns out the size of the prongs for the quick disconnects was not the only difference. After wiring all of these up and testing all the buttons (which worked fine) I started up maximus arcade for some arcade action. And..... nothing. Maximus would not do anything. Joystick movements did not do anything, none of the buttons did anything. So I hit the keyboard arrows. This did nothing as well. So I'm going what the hell? I tested all the buttons in Winipac (a program to test ipac/button mappings) and it tested fine. (part way through the wiring it worked fine as well), so I threw a quarter in the coin door. This caused the coin button to light up.... and..... stay lit. I checked which prong I wired and it was the same as all the other buttons. I swapped it with the other prong that none of the other switches used.... and it worked. Turns out the prongs are switched on the coin doors older switch. Once I changed this, Maximus arcade worked fine. Pretty weird that pretty much disabled maximus arcade, but it told me I had a problem. Glad it got remedied, cause I was worried for a few minutes.

Overall quite a bit done, moreso I played a few games on my computer screen I put in the cab temporarily. (I can't carry that TV up on my own... its seriously like 90 lbs + bulky) plus I need to move the cab around to mess with wiring and such. Once I get everything situated I can add the TV and finally cut the bezel. (Hopefully I don't mess it up, not exactly sure what to do/expect)

I also need to wire up a power switch for the computer to somewhere (likely under the control panel, or perhaps somewhere else, to turn the PC on. I also want to install some switches on the coin buttons on the CP, so I can enable/disable them when I want. Lot's of work still to do, I really need to figure out what I want to decorate this cab with, at least for a marquee/control panel. Side art can be delayed, those other two need to be done/printed/made soon.

[Xno Kappa]

Man, I would love to make one of these one day but I completely suck at woodwork lol. Keep the updates coming, it's motivating me lol.

[Minions]

Well I had the mame Pc's hard drive fail on me. I got another on order, but thank god for having an IT background and constantly being told to back things up. Because of this I have a folder called ARCADE BACKUP with all the foulders/roms/emulators all ready to be move/configured. That in itself would save me an week or so of finding/downloading/reconfiguring. The hard drive should come some time soon. Got it lecheap since its Pata/IDE

[Minions]

Replacement hard drive won't partition.... I sware I'm going to regret ordering used parts and using my old pc. Guess I get to rma this and delay longer. (I tried partitioning on other pc's as well so it's not the pc), partition magic says some boot sector error or something, and some error about not being able to determine the drives size or something, Idk. Windows XP install won't partition it either.