Project: Ultimate Arcade!

[Rankenphile]

Setbacks.

I've been trying to relocate the cabinet into the barn at the house I'm staying in now, where we have a full woodshop set up. The rain here has been pretty much relentless, and I don't want to move this thing when it is wet, because the thing is basically constructed with particle board. Even if I wrap this thing up in a tarp completely, the half-hour drive in the back of a pickup would ruin it. So, I play the waiting game and keep drawing plans and getting ideas. Once I get it to the barn, I'll post more pictures (found my camera, but can't find the mem card for it, lol). I'm going to show off some of the plans I have, but want to wait till I get it to the barn first, so I can take more accurate measurements and actually post the true plans with accurate dimensions and such.

I'm still looking for the last main components - the sound system, if I don't want to go with the car stereo amp, and the television - and waiting on ordering the controller setup next week, after I get paid again. Once I get the TV and the controller, I can plan more, as I'll know the exact dimensions of the internals so I can craft around them. Right now, it is all guesswork.

Sigh. Soon enough, though, I'll have good updates. I'll keep ya posted.

Oh, here's a good deal I found from Computer Geeks - 1000 feet of CAT5 cable for under $50, with all the tools!

Also, if you are like me and use about four or five different computers throughout the day, you might be interested in Del.Icio.Us an online bookmarking site/community. I'm always emailing myself links to cool sites I find at work or at home, and keeping them all in my hotmail account is a pain in the butt, but this looks like a neat site. You can keep all your bookmarks online, sort them by tags, and browse others with common interests.

Anyway, I'll post more info soon.

[Rankenphile]

I don't know what happened, I think there must have been a rollback on the boards or something, because I'm missing a post out of this thread. (EDIT: Just read CrimsonSky's post in the operator assistance board on the site update on what happened to the forum. It explains everything.)

Anyway, the other day was nice, which is unusual for this time of year in Washington, so I carted the cabinet into the back of the truck and hauled it into the barn. Now I've got great tools, materials, and the best part - electricity! I cna actually work on this at night!

Tonight I'm going to be taking the rest of the measurements I need, and I think I found the television I'm buying, so hopefully I can pick that up tomorrow. I'm working on writing out a heirarchy of the project's needs as part of my plan, as a new experiment. You'll see what I mean.

This weekend will probably be filled with working on the house and carving pumpkins with my family, so I'll see what I can do to get actual work done on the box, but things are coming along.

Oh! I've got the networking all set up on the Xbox, and it is working SO great! I installed about 900 or so NES ROMs onto the system, and have been haing a blast playing all the classics, as well as tons of great games I had never even heard of. Bubble Bath Babes is a current favorite - think bubble bobble meets Tetris meets half-naked 8-bit woman on the bottom of the screen. Lol.

Also - Tribal, you think that mouse is bad, you seriously should see the size of the rats in my garage. I finally chased off the last of them a couple weeks ago, only to have another one move in somewhere. I'm continuing to bait them, so hopefully this wave of vermin will be chased off soon, but UGH! I'm tired of burying these nasty things!!!

[Rankenphile]

Not much visible work yet, jsut a bit of planning. I picked up the television for the unit last night, and it is still in my car, as I have been busy with family stuff lately - we all get together for a big birthday party for a bunch of the younger kids at this time of year, and carve pumpkins. A lot of us can't be together for Thanksgiving, so this is our get-together before Christmas.

Mine got a lot of laughs - I found an image on the web of one I wanted to do, and took the image into Freehand and built a pattern of it. I think it turned out pretty cool, what do you think?

When I brought it home to my girlfriend's house, where I'm staying until we finish the remodel, everyone got a good laugh. Her father had never seen the movie, and coincidentally, it just started right after I lit it, so we all went in and watched it. Good stuff.

I also did this one from a drawing I did before we had dinner.

Now that I've got the screen for the cabinet, I'm going to be spending tomorrow morning getting some more measurements and figuring out the mounting for it. I've got to go to Seattle for another family dinner tomorrow afternoon, so I can't get too much more done, but I'll get more this coming week. Now that I have the screen, I can get a lot more done.

Talk to you soon!

[Rankenphile]

Progress, at long last!

I've got everything moved into the barn now, and look! I've got TOOLS!!!

This is SO much better than the garage at the house I bought. Heck, it has electricity, and NO RATS!!!

I'm sure that my next mod will end up in that garage, but after I finish this cabinet, all my work is going into that garage and house to get it liveable. We're almost ready to start work, we're getting the plans soon, and can start making some headway on that enormous project.

I got the TV on Friday, and it's been int he back of my car ever since. I finally got to open it up and do a thorough examination of it. Take a look.

I've torn out almost all the rest of the hardware inside the cabinet, and am saving everythign I've taken out, except for the old monitor. Here's what it looks like inside.

I'm going to be replacing the entire front panel, and I think I have an old sheet of MDO that is almost exactly the same size in the garage. I'll look tomorrow. I was using it for a drafting board before, and it was too large. I'll just have to riip down about 3/4" on one side, and about 3" off of the top.

My project for today was to create the base for the television. The first step was to get an idea of the footprint of the thing. I turned it over and took a look.

I cut a piece off of the box it came in and took some measurements, and ended up with a decent model of the footprint. It wasn't quite right, so I used it to make the second one, below.

I poked around in the scrap pile for the garage we're building at this house (how many dang projects can we have at once?!? Seriously, it's getting rediculous.) and found a scrap piece of plywood that was perfect! Exactly the right size. THe interior of the cabinet, from left to right, is 23.25" wide, and the piece of plywood was exactly 23", and was perfectly deep enough for the television.

I love it when things work out.

I sanded the scrap piece down to a smooth finish. Then, I had some thin strips of MDO I salvaged out of the Free Wood box at work, and lined them up around the footprint, creating stops to keep the TV from sliding backward.

The TV will be mouted at a slightly upward-facing angle, so this should work great. The top of the shroud inside the cabinet will be cut to fit around the back of the TV, keeping the top part steadily in place, and this will prevent the bottom from slipping.

These will be hidden from site, so they don't have to be pretty. I took a strip of the MDO and cut it in half, creating thin stops for under the forward-facing part of the footprint, and used a taller strip at the very back, to fit just perfectly with the contour of the TV. I used some roofing tacks to hold them in place, and was all set.

Once it is completed, this whole piece will be painted flat black, as it is structural and not cosmetic. Very little, if any, of it will be seen anyway.

I had the old monitor mounts left over, and wanted to mount them to the bottom of the board. I found another strip of MDO and cut it to size, to act as a riser to give the screws something to grip when I attach the mounting brackets.

Here is a picture of the mounting bracket just sitting on the riser, to give you an idea of what I mean.

I drilled the pilot holes and counter-sunk the screw holes for the four screws I used to attach the risers.

Countersinking the screws allows the mount to sit flat on the risers.

I attached the risers, and was all set for today.

I flipped it over, took a couple pictures, and congratulated myself on the first day of actual progress I had made so far...

And that was when I noticed I attached the mounts on backwards.

It was easy enough to switch them back around, and have it all finished now, but my stomach is rumbling and it's time for dinner.

THe only other thing I did was order the controller. I am JAZZED! I went to the website (X-Arcade.com) and found that they had the very controller I was looking for, the two-player stick setup, on sale for $100 flat! It was factory refurbished, and still featured the lifetime warranty, so I snapped it up. I still have to get the adapter so it will fit the X-Box, but that's only $20, so I ended up saving about $30 off of what I was expecting to pay. SWEET!!!

I'll post more as progress warrants. Things are falling together now, so I'll have more to share.

See you soon!

[Rankenphile]

A little more progress today.

I tore off the old front of the cabinet, and work was nice enough to donate a sheet of MDO to replace it with. I trimmed it down to fit, and it looks like it will work out perfectly.

I also hung a strap from a rafter and hung up the TV rack and spray-painted it black. Hanging is by far the easiest way to paint things, as I can walk all the way around it, making sure I get all sides, and I don't need a spray booth (the barn is plenty ventilated with the doors open). Plus, it hangs all nice until it's dry.

I spent the rest of my time today drawing up plans for the box that will hold the Xbox itself. I've settled on a design, and just need to get a few final measurements and I can get started, hopefully as soon as tomorrow.

I just ordered a pair of 12" sound-activated UV CCFLs and a can of Clear/Green UV reactive paint (see the Lotus Blossum mod for an example) from FrozenCPU, and four six-foot extension cables for the xbox controllers, so they should all be here by this weekend, as should the two-player arcade-style controller.

So stoked! I can finally get things done! I'll be drafting up my plans in AutoCAD (took drafting all four years in high school, and a couple classes in college to keep sharp) as soon as I get the last couple measurements, sot hat will probably be most of what gets done tomorrow.

More soon!

And let me know what you guys think! I've got a lot planned for this thing, and I know it's not pretty now, but with any luck, it will be fabulous when it is done!

[Rankenphile]

I've got materials and stuff on the way, and I spent a little while in AutoCAD drawing out some more plans for the mount fo rthe Xbox itself. I've got it about half done,a nd will finish it tonight, and hopefully get started on some of the cutting for it. I didn't get home until late - I have a freelance project I work on most Tuesdays - so I should have a lot more time to get work done tonight. Plus, my girlfriend is gone all night to go see Weezer and Foo Fighters play in Seattle, so I've got the place to myself. I'll post the drawings up as soon as I get them.

[Rankenphile]

Quick update - I've finished the basic plan for the stand that the Xbox will sit on. It may be a bit hard to tell from the drawing here, but this is what I have (note - I've reversed the colors to make it easier to see on screen. Click for the full-size plan). I know the colors and line sizes are goofy, I didn't follow standard specs for those things, because it has been so long I can't remember them. This is just to remind me of how to put this together once I get into the shop with the wood. :p

The xbox will sit just nice and snug in this area, and still leave easy access to the controller ports. The back is just slightly lower than the back of the xbox, so that it will be slightly hidden, but will prevent it from being pushed off the stand. The holes in the back allow the cords to tuck out and then back under the stand, where they will go to their various components. The circular holes in the back are to allow air flow, as they sit right behind the fan. The holes in the front, below the stand where the Xbox sits, are where the controller cords will feed from.

I've got to wait to get the wood for this until this weekend, I think. This whole piece will sit inside a box behind a plexi clear door where the coin door is on a standard arcade machine. The door will likely be too small to get an xbox out of, to prevent theft. The back door of this box will open and lock, allowing me access to it as needed, but keeping it secure. Inside will feature a pretty cool paint scheme, if my idea works out.

Keep checking back. More to come!

[wingman358]

Lookin' good, Rank. I'm anxious to see how this comes out.

By the way, how are you faring on the sound-sensitive LED bars?

[Rankenphile]

I'm working on it. It may be a week or two before I can get the components and actually test out the circuit design that CrazyBillyBob found for me. I will definately let you know how they work out - I'm excited about it.

I didn't get anything done last night - I actually ended up leaving work early with some sort of stomach bug. I'm feeling a lot better now, and hope to have some time this weekend to at least make the pedestal that I have outlined above. I've got a few other plans too, but I want to get this part built and try to install the television mount - a tricky process, as I have to cut the shroud around the back of the TV, and it is a very difficult shape. I have no accurate way of predicting, at this point, exactly what shape or size to cut the shroud to make it fit right, so I'm still puzzling over that one.

I'm going to look tonight for the amp that will power the sound system - I have a car stereo amp, but I just don't want to have to use that if I can avoid it. The power transformer itself is nearly $100, and it still wouldn't give me the features and flexibility I really want.

I'll let you know.

[Rankenphile]

Lots of progress today!

I got a ton of scrap MDO from work yesterday, and spent all day in the barn building the custom stand for the Xbox itself. Take a look at it, with all it's majesty there.

Oh, how I love it so. Hehe.

I plan on modding it a bit further, once I get a few more supplies in. Ideally, I'd like to cut out the top bubble and add a fan, but I don't think there is room inside, and a fan on the top would look... goofy.

Anyway, I brought the Xbox out to double-check the measurements I had in the plan (see the above post), and sure enough, I was off by a little bit - I had designed the stand about 1.5" too wide. I redrew some plans and adjusted a few things, and spent some time drawing out the actual patterns on the wood before I went down to the tablesaw and started cutting - planning saves lives, kids. Always measure, and re-measure everything before you cut it. And once you're ready to cut, measure again. Nothing is worse than getting to assembly and finding out you cut something a quarter inch too short.

Except getting eaten alive by electric eels, I would imagine, but I'm not exactly an expert in that field, so we'll just let it go.

I cut all the pieces out, and ended up with some... cut wood with pencil marks on it. See?

Now, it was at this point that I realized we don't have a scroll saw, or anything similar to it. I am a true woodworking newbie, so I'm playing things safe here. I needed to cut out the big holes in the top, with rounded corners, somehow, but wanted to puzzle over the best method, so I started drilling the holes in the front.

The front is going to feature five holes along the bottom for controller cords. I drew them out and drilled out a pilot hole in the center of each one.

I then started drilling out the actual bores for them.

I decided that the easiest way to cut out the back holes was to use a drill to take out the corners all nice and rounded-like. I had a band saw I used for the bottom slot, and it turned out really nice, but I had no way to feed the blade through the holes I had. I cut out a couple grooves near the lines (just on the inside to allow myself some fudge-room) with a small circular saw, and got ready for the next step.

I then took a hand saw and cut out the rest of the inside, as close to the inside as I could. I took a grinding wheel bit for a dremel and set it up in the drill press, set it at the correct height, and slowly ground down the insides to a nice, smooth line. It took a while and might have been faster with a router, but I don't know how to creat the templates for the router, and just wanted to get through this. It worked pretty well, but I'll end up using the router later for larger holes for the cabinet.

Pay no attention to the shape of my thumb - I have a terrible habit of picking at hang nails when I don't have anythign else to do with my hands, and I sometimes end up with fingers that look like they've been through a meat grinder. My girlfriend is sure it's mild obsessive-compulsive disorder or something, but then again, she's a Psyche Major, so she diagnoses everything. :p

After a bit, I ended up with the back all smoothly cut out.

The large holes on top are where the network, video/audio out and power cords feed through. They go out those holes, and then feed back into the bottom hole, disguising them so they don't show up.

The squares marked off in the center there are where I needed to drill out a number of holes for the fan to breathe. The xbox sits pretty snug in the case here, so I had to make sure that air flow wasn't going to be a problem.

I marked off the holes a quarter-inch apart, and used a slightly smaller drill bit to start digging them out.

After a few minutes, I had them all set to go, and the hard part - cutting and preparation - was done.

The only thing left to do was assembly. I started by plotting out where my screws would go - I found a quarter-inch piece of very sturdy wood in the scrap pile that the Xbox will sit on, so I added some three-quarter inch strips of MDO below it to support it and accept the screws in the sides, hanging about a half-inch from the bottom. I drilled pilot holes for each screw and counter-sunk the surface to allow the screws to sit cleanly inside with a low profile. A few screws later, I'm good to go.

Here you can see the front, all drilled out, with the countersinking done. You may also notice that I rounded off all of the edges a little bit to prevent scratching myself when I'm reaching in, and prevent the corners from having the paint rubbed off when I have to reach in to turn it on, reset it or change controller setups.

This is the completely assembled stand, without the base itself. The base sits atop the runners on the sides, and has black carpeting to pad the Xbox from noise vibration. I sanded the surface of the board to give the glue a good surface to grip to, put on a healthy layer of wood glue, pressed the carpet down on it and clamped another piece of MDO on top of it to keep it tight while it dries.

See? Isn't it fun to watch glue dry? Also - in the background you can clearly see a jug of Gatorade. I've become a junkie for this stuff since I quit drinking energy drinks all the time. This particular flavor is their raspberry lemonade. Good stuff.

The only other step was painting. I hung up the stand and hit it with the first coat of paint. The whole thing will be painted flat black, but will have some other cool details I'll show off later - assuming my plan works.

I'm hoping to get some more materials in this week, and am planning on doing some circuitry work for some lighting effects next weekend. I'll keep you posted as things happen.