Hive13 Cabinet

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Hive13 Project
Hive13 Mame Cabinet
Status:Active
Start Date:12/20/2009

Contents

[edit] Overview

We have two standup arcade units. We will be combining these into one good unit and will either donate or scrap out the other one. This cabinet will stay in the space and will be 100% open source/open hardware and it is intended for people to be able to pimp it out and add features whenever they feel inspired. While this cabinet will be free to play for members I would like to set the coin door to accept coins/tokens to play for fund raisers, etc.

[edit] Project Members

  • Craig (Project Leader)
  • Add your name to the list if you want to participate

[edit] Progress so far

We have moved the coin doors and prepared the main base. The control panel has been cleaned. The marque has been printed and is ready.

[edit] Worklog

Sorry, I have been bad about keeping this up to date. I will working on updating this section as we work on things.

[edit] Jan 21, 2010

Measured out the control panel and entered the data in Qcad. DXF file is available here: http://portal.hive13.org/arcade/control-panel-qcad.dxf This was my first time using qcad and this file may get changed and updated. After doing all the measurements for everything including the drill holes I found out the next day that the file didn't properly save and I lost all my work. Luckily I took most of the measurements down and was able to recreate the control panel (minus the drill holes) fairly quickly. I also measured out the hole layout for a joystick and put that in the file as a "group" This will allow placement of the joystick holes as a single object when designing a new control interface. I tinkered with importing the dxf file into blender and Inkscape. Blender worked better if you first convert the dxf into a vrml file (dxf2vrml) and inkscape could read the file fine. Eventually I will probably use Inkscape to draw the art for the panel and use the imported qcad file as a 'mask' to lineup the artwork. Blender is just to visualize it in 3d and to make it look cool :P

Bare control panel layout

[edit] Jan 26, 2010

I have a proposal for the control panel layout which I will post here. If there are not any objections then the next step for me is to rent a metal hole punch and begin cutting this out. I think we can fit 3 players in a street fighter layout, include one trackball and two additional non-standard buttons (one for 'exit game' and one for 'pause')

Image:Cp-proposal-3d.jpg

[edit] Feb 4, 2010

I bought a kit of metal hole punches from Harbor Freight. The largest one we could use for arcade buttons was 1 inch. I tested out the tool on the top of a PC case. While they worked I was not happy with the fit. One inch is too tight and the buttons basically have to be threaded into place. This often times leaves a lip and the button not flush with the metal. So I ordered a 1-1/8" sheet metal hole punch.

I drew out the first player controls in pencil on the control panel and was not happy with the spacing of the buttons. They felt awkward. So I measured a few others and decided that a button spacing of 2" (center-to-center) was too far and made it 1-5/8" instead. Also the metal control panel rests on a wooden frame which is 1 inch thick. I thought it was smaller than that when I did my original layout and the track ball is too close. So I had to move it up a bit but it should still fit fine. The new DXF file for the layout can be found here: http://portal.hive13.org/arcade/control-panel-qcad3.dxf

[edit] Feb 7, 2010

The 1-1/8" metal punch kit came in so I wanted to test it out. I cut another hole in the PC case and dropped in a button. It looks much nicer and you can see from the picture below how much more flush this button is (BTW, it's the BLUE button ;). This punch requires more of a standard pilot hole (1/2") as opposed to the 3/4" one that the harbor freight kit needed. So all-in-all this one is better. I went a head and did the pilot holes for the Player 1 controls and punch in the joystick. The first button got too tight for the adjustable wrench so I will see if I can find a 3/4" socket to finish off the buttons for next time.

[edit] Feb 8, 2010

Got a 3/4" socket and that worked MUCH better. Although the last two holes were very hard. I noticed that my drill marks were very rough in that area too so maybe it was just a hardened section of the sheet metal...shrug. I managed to get the Player 1 controls punched out! (minus the drill holes for the joystick mount) But still, great progress.

[edit] TODO

These things still need to be done (as of 1/15/10)

[edit] Resources

[edit] Pics

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