Well, we kinda face to the north and real subtle-like turn left.

Well the admin panel is mounted to the control panel box, and it fits into the space it needs to. There was some serious concern on my part I wouldn't be able to mount it properly the first time around, but I marked out the edges with chalk and that seemed to do the trick.

I also mounted the motherboard and associated computer equipment to the board I wanted to use. I'm using large panel clamps on the inside, and that seems to hold with a significant amount of force.

After years in the computer industry I figured it would be a walk in the park. I couldn't have been more wrong. For starters, I decided to dust the motherboard a bit. At that point I realized it looked like someones scalp was stuck in the heat sink. I disassembled the heat sink and fought back my gag reflex. It was pretty nasty. Put some new silver thermal paste on there, cleaned it up and reassembled. (totally expected it to boot with beep codes but had no issues).

The challenge became when I attempted to mount the motherboard to the Lian-Li tray I had purchased. Two brass stand offs broke off (yes, broke) in the mounting holes. I was pissed off and took an 1/8" drill bit and expanded the holes. That seemed to work perfectly.

Just need to finish mounting the hard drive, wire up the admin panel, and attach the wood piece that will keep the glass in place.

That will finish things until the artwork is done.

I just blew up a hotel. How the hell do you think I am?

Well I've been busy. The cab has gone through some serious play testing, and it's clear that setting up all the games with all the controls is going to take some time.

The trackballs had to have the y wires reversed, as it was functioning like a flight stick. Down was up and up was down. Easily fixed by reversing the outside wires that plug into the Mini-PAC.

It's alive! A beautiful sight indeed.
Here's Lyle playing some track and field.

Here's Darcy playing some track and field.
The camera doesn't do justice showing off the greylite #14 glass. It's dark. Very very dark.
Had to load up joust, because it's a classic.

Here is the glass outside of the cabinet.

Spent 2 days applying bondo, priming, sanding and painting the control panel box. It looks significantly better if you check out some of the older pictures.

Nice curves to it now.
The admin panel, waiting for the paint to try so I can install it.


The diamondplate came in, after I ended up going to the FedEx depot to pick it up. FedEx claimed they attempted delivery, yet no truck appeared in my parking lot and no one rang the door bell.

Tomorrow I'll take pictures of the work I've done mounting the computer onto the wood panel. I'll also take pictures of the admin panel mounted, with the cool illuminated Bulgin Vandal power switch.

Also, the cab has a name;

Conquest.

My CPU is a neural net processor, a learning computer. The more contact I have with humans, the more I learn.

I'm tired.

My goal was to take the cabinet apart to do some work on it (it's fully functional, Canuckles played a few games).

My initial plan got screwed up when my buddy J came over and I was unscrewing the lag bolts and realized I had cross threaded one of the lag bolts the entire way up. Needless to say it took the two of us to get it apart, and the bolt was about 200 degrees by the time I was done.

Took some bondo, patched up some of the parts I didn't like. 80 grit sandpaper on it and threw on some Tremclad primer.

I'll have to use a 160 or higher sandpaper tomorrow and then put another coat of primer on it before it'll be ready for paint.

We also managed to cut the admin panel, and the piece that will hold the glass in place. On Saturday I cut up the piece that I'm going to mount the motherboard, hard drive and power supply to.

I'll post some pictures in the next few days.

Also, the cab has a title.

This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then - explode.

Interesting weekend.

Saturday was supposed to be the day I finished wiring my control panel, configured the buttons, and finalized my cabinet so it was playable for Sunday.

The reality was a bit different.

To start with, I encountered all manners of issues with the buttons. It turned out that the ground and signal crimps weren't tight enough for the leaf-style micro switches I had installed on some of the buttons. It was causing them to disconnect intermittently. Once I compressed the end very tightly, they were reliable.

Then I ran into an issue with the coin door. It turns out you can't ground the coin door switches to a second Mini-PAC, they have to be grounded to the same Mini-PAC that the signal is connected to. Important lesson learned.

Then the button configuration. You have to make sure you've unplugged all but the Mini-PAC you intend to program, otherwise you're going to drive yourself nuts.

So I finished at 11pm on Saturday, got up at 7am on Sunday and worked until about 3:30 pm to get it up and running.

I'm still going to have to remap some of the keys, as the CTRL and ALT keys seem to cause all manners of conflict in Windows. As well, I have an issue with the blue trackball not wanting to reliably detect a spin on the X-axis. 'Fozzy Bear' on the BYOAC forums suggested it might be a trackball spindle that needed more oil, and after disassembly I'm inclined to agree. The spindle seems to have far too much friction.

So tonight I'll be focused on putting some oil on the 2 spindles and 4 bearings that seem to need it, as well as re-configuring the key map.

If there's a world left when this is all over, I'd like to buy you a beer.

I settled on 4 x 1/2 inch bolts to secure the control panel box to the cabinet.


I couldn't find a 1/2" drill bit, then I remembered that I had the 1/2" spade bit that hadn't been used yet. I pre-drilled with the largest bit I had (3/8") and then used the spade bit.


Here all the joysticks and buttons are installed. I wasn't completely certain on the color scheme, but after seeing it assembled I'm very happy.


Once the artwork is in place, the joystick base will be hidden nicely.




Some of the internal wiring.

You have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. Come back when you're worthy.

Managed to get quite a bit accomplished. Sat down with a few bad movies and started wiring.


Player 1 buttons. The wiring won't be tidied up until the artwork is applied, as I need to take the entire thing apart to apply the artwork.

This is the Happ trackball X axis connector. They have a AMOA plug in place with a harness. You unplug the X axis connector and Y axis connector and the Mini-Pac plugs directly in.

These are the Mini-Pac trackball connectors. Y-axis on the left and X-axis on the right.

Spinners installed. Had to countersink the bolts for them to fit flush. I probably could have used a #6 screw, but I went with a #4 as the mounting holes seemed quite small.

Player 2 buttons.

A start and coin button. The coin button is black.

The control panel is a monster and I wasn't able to reach from the bottom of the panel to the top to attach the coin buttons. I purchased some male quick disconnects and used those to plug into the Mini-Pac wiring.

Here is a nice shot of the Mini-Pac wiring.

Can't we just like kick this old school. You know, like I stick the baby in a basket, send it your way, like Moses and the reeds?

So it's been quite a while since my last update. I was hoping against hope to get artwork completed, spent some money and a lot of time making sure the digital template for my control panel was correct.

Unfortunately artwork is not happening anytime soon.

So I started to continue assembly on the cabinet, and it turned out I misplaced the mounting equipment for the coin door. (Whoops?)

Some paypal money to divemaster127 from the BYOAC forums, a few weeks of impatiently waiting and I'm back in business.



Hard to believe these little guys held me up a few weeks.



Installed some buttons, and the trackball mounting plates.


Coin door in the process of being installed.



Coin door installed, finally



Coin mechs in place.


You can see how the clips hold the coin door in place.


Unfortunately another snag when I attached the coin box. Turns out one of the wood frame pieces blocks the door from closing with the coin box attached. So I relocated the frame piece.


Red LED lights installed in place of the stock bulbs. Wasn't sure which polarity to go with, turns out I got it correct on my first try.


12v power on the top (+) and ground on the bottom (-). Since I'm just using a spool of yellow 18 gauge wire for various components, I put some black electrical tape to identify ground.


Without a tripod, it's difficult to take pictures of the coin door with the lights, but it looks sweet.


Trackballs, joysticks and buttons installed. I have more pictures of more assembly, but it's late and I'm tired.

Alright. On a scale of one to ten, what would you consider the likelihood you might be assassinated?

Managed to be productive on the cabinet. Installed the bezel, as the only things remaining now are the tinted glass, and coin door.

Bad news on the control panel artwork, unfortunately the person I had in mind won't be able to do it for me. That means I'm left designing the artwork myself which means this could end in disaster.

I was at a bit of a loss of how to attach the bezel, as it sticks out slightly from the monitor and doesn't sit flush to any mounting surface. I settled on a 2x4 block cut length wise, and some industrial strength velcro.



The difference between regular velcro and industrial strength is night and day. I'd feel completely comfortable hanging 10 or 15 lbs off of this without it pulling loose.



Needless to say, pulling the bezel off the blocks and aligning it squarely was a challenging task.



The finished product neatly hides the mounting material behind it, and when the tinted glass is installed you won't be able to see the bezel at all. Some original arcade cabinets had artwork on the bezel as well, but given my difficulty with the marquee, side art and control panel overlay I'm not going to push my luck.



Once it's assembled, this should give you a pretty good sense of what it will look like. The t-molding on the control panel will go on after the overlay is applied giving it a nice finished look.

It's getting exciting now, 2 and 1/2. Think of everything we've accomplished, man.

Well it's been some time since my last update, and I've managed to do quite a bit of work. The first thing I did was to mount the fan grills. I ended up going with 254mm fan guards and they turned out fantastic.





After that was done I turned my attention to getting the marquee light mounted. I didn't think I'd have an opportunity to easily mount it and do the wiring if the monitor was in place.









Then my attention was turned to mounting the monitor. I used 2 1/2 inch bolts through some 2x4 spruce cut to 26 inches. The bottom part of the monitor was screwed into some blocks that were angled to get the correct position of the monitor.



The spruce was then attached to the cabinet with corner brackets.



Then on Saturday and Sunday I focused on getting the T molding installed. As we used a 3/32 inch slot cutting bit, I ended up using silicone to hold the T molding in place. J suggested this, and although it was a bit more work the results turned out well.

Then after the T molding was in place I installed the 4 corner protectors. The results are nice, and it adds a completed touch.

Now I'm waiting on the control panel artwork to be finalized, and I have a friend printing off the control panel template on a wide format printer so I can ensure all the holes line up.