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Cabinet Build #5


Reg
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This is a live thread that I will update as I go on this journey for the cabinet build #5.

Opening to show what we have done in the past...

Looking back, I've build a few devices to run MFME in the past, we MVFME I needed something different although the third cabinet would likely be fine with it.

The First Cabinet
A keyboard experience for MFME.
Current Status: In Loft

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The Second Cabinet
A converted JPM Vogue
Current Status: Mostly scrapped, some internals used for the third cabinet.

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The Third Cabinet
A converted touch screen game call Bank Raid.
Current Status: Gifted to a friend

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The Forth Cabinet
A hand made mini cabinet to support the new emulators.
Current Status: PC used for Emby server as was struggling in cab due to external SSD - gathering dust ATM.

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PC ready to be tested...

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Works...

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Now the next job is to find a work touch screen driver - the windows one is crap and I had something much better on my old one.

The original PC never came with this cab so nothing I can take off the drive.

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Shout out to @Martinb who helped me with a missing driver for the touchscreen, many thanks.

Today's work between Kiosk updates, losing files, having to do them again was create a template to hold PacDrivers and a IPac board. 

I only have one PacDriver at present but the other has been ordered.  That basically need to have different ID's.  I have #1, need #2.  Kiosk software also updated to support multiple done - so two birds - one stone.

To mount these, I want to be as clean and neat as possible, this board was made.

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This might seem overkill, but I want a serviceable cabinet and not the rats nest I have created in the past.

The boards sit in as below and will connect to the loom that will present above it - I am using the internal wiring as much as possible.

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This is how it looks in the cabinet.  I am using bolts that are already present to push this onto, so no Velcro or anything like that.

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The bolts are such a tight fit, they don't need the nuts.  The loom is above that will feed into these.

@spa you bracket is printing at the moment !

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14 minutes ago, Martinb said:

Look forward to watching this progress you will put my rats nest to shame and I’ll have to re work it with your printed accessories! 😁 it’s an amazing cab to convert you will love it. 

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Do you have a 3D printer - all good things and all that - the help you gave me with the driver prevented a showstopper, would you like me to print off an extra for you of everything I make ?

I have some much filament that it costs nothing to do this.  No cost BTW, all free.

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1 minute ago, Reg said:

Do you have a 3D printer

Not as yet I do keep thinking about it. 

 

2 minutes ago, Reg said:

would you like me to print off an extra for you of everything I make ? I have some much filament that it costs nothing to do this.  No cost BTW, all free.

Thanks really appreciate that lets see yours progress then I will list a begging letter lol 


A few things I wish I'd done so you don't make the same mistakes:

1. For ease try and make the PAC lamp and button output match most of the emulator designer/layout standards on MFME. I did it with the iPAC but forgot on the drives due to the RGB setups of the buttons.
2. I still want to install a PC USB power setup so when I start and shutdown the PC it also does the same on the many PSU's. A bit like how T8 does. I will re visit this at some point
3. Fit a sub, sound is poor without is brilliant with (mine is a cheap test sub you can go mad!) the  door speakers are fine. you will see the sound matting in the cab on my pic cap and makes all the difference too.
4. the 10p hopper on that setup has a bogus signal when it energises so you are always 10p short (needs a de-bounce), and on trial settings it wont pulse at all just a tiny pulse. You may be better fitting the other hopper if we can make it fit the setup of the interplay cab, another I need to re visit. You don't really need 10p's at all for most modern stuff but to enjoy the line up era its much better to have one.

Cant think of anything else atm. Happy to help where I can.  Enjoy!

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Brilliant, thank you.

I will look at all those points as well.

As you don't have a printer, I'll print a set of whatever I make for you as well.  It's no big deal and I got so much filament it goes to good use.  If you don't want it in the end, I'll bin it.  I am printing for Spa as well, so an extra print is only a moment in time.

 

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Got a bit of work done tonight, buzzing out all the connections.

Objective is to understand what wires from here...

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...will go into here, when the second Pac Driver arrives.

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So we ended up with a bit of a nest of wires once the connectors had their pins removed and the end results was this.

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This is the table of what you need to find should you do this yourself.

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The key thing here, is each board will have sixteen inputs.  Looking at the shared ground present it makes sense to do buttons one to five on the first Pac Driver and buttons 6, 7 and the Bezel on second Pac Drive.

Next job, await the post.

For anyone that is planning on doing this - take special care in releasing the pins, if you don't know how to do it, you press the little square of metal on the side of each pin in the connector.   Do not use force to pull them out, when the pin goes in they will slide out.  I was using the Multimeter tip to do this.

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11 hours ago, Reg said:

The key thing here, is each board will have sixteen inputs.  Looking at the shared ground present it makes sense to do buttons one to five on the first Pac Driver and buttons 6, 7 and the Bezel on second Pac Drive.

This is key especially as I mentioned in hindsight I’d have done the lamps to match what ‘most’ emulations default build as. That way the re-work per game is very minimal. 
I also vaguely recall I followed standards with the hoppers on PAC 1 15 & 16.

More importantly in current emulation terms are the digi emulators only have one pac drive (atm) so make sure start (button 7 in your mapping) is on pac 1 AND the hoppers. 
 

I’ve overcome it by saving templates but I’d still prefer to load a game on MFME and the majority just work in basic form and then button colour tweaking can be saved for you all time favourites 😁

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22 minutes ago, Martinb said:

This is key especially as I mentioned in hindsight I’d have done the lamps to match what ‘most’ emulations default build as. That way the re-work per game is very minimal. 
I also vaguely recall I followed standards with the hoppers on PAC 1 15 & 16.

More importantly in current emulation terms are the digi emulators only have one pac drive (atm) so make sure start (button 7 in your mapping) is on pac 1 AND the hoppers. 

Thank you - I have update the diagram to flip the iPac positioning and include the hoppers.

Do MFME games work basically, I always had to apply templates and adjust.  IE, the different numbers for Start etc.  Is there something I might be missing ?
I've just grabbed Pook's latest release here.

When I used to put it in cabs, I would have a template for techs with basic buttons sorted and load in and adjust.

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3 minutes ago, Reg said:

Do MFME games work basically, I always had to apply templates and adjust.  IE, the different numbers for Start etc.  Is there something I might be missing ?

Thats a good question ! You have me wondering now if I did apply templates to them all (somehow way back when) ! 

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5 minutes ago, Martinb said:

Thats a good question ! You have me wondering now if I did apply templates to them all (somehow way back when) ! 

I only ask as I was heavily involved in the testing of this giving Chris ideas etc and if there as a shorter way - now would be a great time for me to know !

In other news, my OCD has made me adjust this...

...I need to have the Pac Drive's in their relevant position on the machine otherwise it will annoy me - even if closed. 

I am printing replacements for you and @spa, I have so much filament that at least now I have use for it ! 

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Updated diagram, this was such a ball-ache and thank to @Martinb for answering a couple of questions for me.

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This is the updated diagram, but when you look at the combined LED / Switch component for the button you see the connector as I mentioned above for Switch Wiring.

I made the first mistake of thinking I had buzzed out the purple for GND and Martin showed me it was blue wires.  The second mistake was found today after I just did the RGB lights for the buttons.

When I turned it on, they were all purple by default, I only run a quick test in the GPC Arcade Kiosk last night - hang on - that's not right.

It turns out the we like to think of RGB in that order, it was Red, <Green - Single Wire>, Blue, Green on the damn connector.  Anyway got there now.

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This weekend it's get the coin mech working.  Just been making a little simple bracket to hold the wires in place for the coin acceptor.

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That was a job for tonight but due to the huge loom I must make, more wire is needed !

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So big update and problems sold - thank you to everybody I have been annoying this week.
So first problem was the coin mech.  The one in my Interplay was broken.  The spare I had did work and it was sending me potty with my wiring etc and eventually got there.

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The left one was the eBay one that worked, the right one as the cabs original.  I had no idea how to swap the top part of the mech - got there in the end with some help !

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Testing was sending me potty when you thought you had the wiring sorting and you move across to the real mech and it didn't work - but looked alive.

There have also been some fun Kiosk updates, here is a clue, you have to watch the video...

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It's nuts how everything was breaking and the project came together in the past couple of hours !

Progress is slow, but getting there.

Here's a video but a quick snapshot of outstanding tasks...

Routing Plug Fix.

  • Maybe a new coin mech to fix 50p not working and also add £2.
  • Hoppers to enable once Routing is fixed.
  • Note acceptor to add once repaired and back with me.
  • Ensure Kiosk can run all emulators.
  • Do everything I have done already again, for a good friend in their cabinet.

Here is an updated chart as I go...

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Some good progress today - everything had gone bad until about 8pm and then stopped and tired again.

The headline is, I don't need to replace the CCTalk hoppers in my cabinet and can now dispense coins.  I have to wire it into the kiosk, but basically a homemade CCTalk adapter works a dream as this Interplay has an older version of CCTalk it was possible to use these hoppers.

Still got to put it into the cabinet, but for those technically interested...

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