iambuildingapicade-blog

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Upgrades, upgrades, upgrades

It has been quite a while since the last update, but yes, PiCade still lives, or should I say lives again? It moved to another town, got our toddler's curiosity and with that at some point buttons stopped working as she found she could flip the power switch on, off, on, off, on, off, etc... so to revive, first step was to install a second main power switch override on top:

After this, I opened up Picade to see what was up. One of the wires actually came loose, so probably unrelated to our little girl's fun time with the pretty switch ;) But now that I opened up PiCade, why not upgrade? I had a Raspberry Pi 4 with RetroPie installed that I used at my then girlfriend's place (now the mother of our daughter and my wife) and found this nice USB pcb board/interface (Dragonrise USB zero delay for those interested) that allows easy connection of buttons and joystick to a Pie. So ordered the USB interface and installed the new Pie:

Retropie is a breeze to install and actually can scrape box art and descriptions of each rom from the web. So shortly after installation PiCade was back and up and running again.

I did need an extra 'hotkey' to be able to exit games in Retropie, so ordered it, installed it at the front of the cabinet and replaced the stickers while I was at it.

After playing around with the new setup, I also realised having the ability to connect USB sticks and/or keyboard for maintenance/adding more roms on the front of the cabinet would be useful, so I also installed a socket at the botttom of the controls part:

This also allows second controllers to be added for multiplayer play. I now have a USB NES, SNES and Megadrive controller to this purpose.

Playing around more, I noticed that in the current setup playing SNES and Megadrive games would only be possible if I added 'shoulder' buttons, so another upgrade was ordered and, due to the simple USB interface, easily installed as well:

Now for the final upgrade, I was browsing around on some arcade-shops and saw buttons that were lit... literally. I remembered that the USB interface also had three 5v connections options, so on my birthday wish list were LED buttons and a daisy chain cable to connect it all. My wish got granted recently and after an evening of tedious fiddling (and rewiring everything again after realising red in this case was NOT the positive lead), this was the wirey mess on the inside:

But look at this final glorious upgrade from the outside:

So, yes PiCade is still alive and better than ever.

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Even longer no time, no update & miniCADE!

At the end of the last blog, I promised to post photos of the final result, so here they are:

Moreover, and more importantly, I recently did a literally smaller project. I made a miniCADE, because I recently came across a cheap 240 in 1 mini-arcade machine at the Action, a discount store, for 10 euros:

I decided to mod it into a mini version of PiCade while keeping the software of the machine in tact, so just a hardware mod. It was a matter of prying off the stickers:

And taking it apart:

Next up, I spray painted the cabinet parts.

Then, I painted the buttons yellow and green with game modelling paint and with a silver marker coloured the tiny buttons and the stick part of the joystick. 

Lastly, I designed and applied stickers to match the PiCade:

And the result is miniCADE!

How cool is that, huh?

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Long time no update...

It’s been a while since I updated this blog, mainly because the PiCade is still alive and kicking and running well. However, I recently moved, which offered me the opportunity to make the PiCade's surroundings a bit more arcade like.

I have this built-in closet that could fit the PiCade perfectly, so I took out the shelves and added a light to begin with (some previous owner already made a hole through which I could feed electric wiring). I also added some wooden beams in the back, so I could add MDF board as a new inner wall.

Next up was more electrical wiring, so I could put a RGB LED strip in the back. After the wiring was done, I screwed on MDF boards as new walls (and yes the screws are sinked again and will be hidden in the end).

Note, that this isn’t just any old led strip, but it comes with a music/volume sensor, so it interacts with the PiCade as you see in the movie below.

Next update will be when the inner walls are properly covered. I’ll also add semi-transparant perspex on top of the led strip, so the light will be more diffuse.

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Sound of silence

One thing that annoyed me a little about the finished PiCade was the noise the fans produced (30 dBs is still quite noisy), so I ordered new ones that run at 10dB at 12 V (so also ordered an adapter). I connected the two fans in parallel to the adapter, which left space on the power socket. And since I had extra perspex as well, I put some light behind the fans as well.

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PiCADE !!

So after filling and sanding, basically all I needed to do next was to paint the cabinet and put all components in, and I would be done. And that's exactly what I did over the last two weeks.

First up, a MDF primer layer. MDF is very absorbent and applying paint without primer would result in the MDF sucking up the paint and making it swell up.

As you might notice, I have taped off a part of the cabinet. I did this, because I wanted to use three colours. More specifically, I wanted the final design to look like this:

So next up, I applied two layers of blue paint (sanding in between layers with high grain sanding paper), then taped off the border of the blue and painted the white border, then taped the white off again and covered it with black. All in all, this took a couple of days since the paint was dust dry after 3 hours, but another layer of paint could only be applied after 16 hours:

The black paint I also used to paint the speaker covers, which I then covered with speaker cloth. After which, I was able to build in the speakers using nuts and bolts. Since the joystick didn't need any stickers around it, I bolted that in place as well:

The power cord connected to the power switch below the joystick needs to be connected to an internal socket. To this end, I glued a socket that I still had to the inside of the cabinet and connected it to the terminal block of the power switch. I also made a case that would hold the Raspberry Pi in its place out of spare MDF and glued that to the inside as well:

As you can see, duct tape holds the world together ;) As you might also notice, there is a Raspberry Pi logo on the case for the Pi. I did this by making illustrations in Adobe Illustrator and printing them on photo sticker paper. I did this for the ventilators and made stickers for the front of the cabinet as well. But first it was time to take off the tape and see how the paint job turned out:

Brilliant! Also notice I fiaxted the marquee graphic, which I had printed on A2 paper of 150 grams/m2, in between the transparent and opaque perspex. So, as said time for stickers:

Next up, putting everything in its place and hooking it all up:

And that's it. PiCade done! The final machine:

And here it is in action:

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Filled up and smoothed

As mentioned in the last blog entry, next up is filling all those screw holes and sanding the cabinet with a silky smooth result in mind.

So last week I filled up over 75 holes (I used a box of 75 screws and then some) and edges using special MDF filler. A patchy cabinet was the result:

Now sanding this indoor would result in dust until Christmas, so using the wheels I made earlier I transported it to the balcony. An hour and a half later it was smooth again. Here's a before and after:

Next up, paintwork! :D

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Closing up

Woke up early this morning, so I had a full day to work on the cabinet. A couple of things needed to be done; first off, fixating the perspex such that I can later still loosen it to add the printed graphic.

Then it's a matter of topping it off with more 4 mm MDF and start working on the back

The back of the cabinet I will cover with 4 mm MDF, but I will leave space for three 'doors'/ panels that can be taken out, so I have access to the screen, marquee, controls, sounds system and backup screen in the lower part. The panels will be thicker so they will be sturdier and I can make handles to grasp them, so I'm using 18 mm MDF for that.

Now, the panel in the picture above needs a handle. To this end, I drilled four 24 mm holes at the corners of a 60 by 120 mm rectangle. On top of that, I screwed and glued a rounded rectangle (used a wine bottle cap for this) of 4 mm MDF on the outside and a simple rectangle of 4 mm MDF on the inside. 

And two more of those makes three.

After that I screwed magnets on the inside of the panels and their counterparts on the inside of the cabinet and fitted them:

One more panel and it's done, so let's do a walk around (also to see the computer fans that I installed):

Next up, applying filler and sanding.

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Let there be light!

The perspex I ordered online came in today. Did a quick test to see which opaque perspex works best (either 70% or 30% light passing). Given that there will be paper in front of this as well and then transparent perspex (used that in this test in front of the opaque), I'm choosing the 70% version. Let there be light...

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When in doubt, use more clamps

Spent most of this saturday clamping, screwing and gluing the front panel and part of the marquee and then it was just a matter waiting for the glue to dry. The result looks great (lower right panel). Only the top and back are still on the to build list :) Also ordered some transparent 2mm and opaque  3mm perspex for the marquee, which should arrive later this week.

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Tuesday Tinkering

As mentioned, I planned to continue building in or after the weekend. The last two nights (but mostly tonight) I have been working on the all important front panel which covers the monitor and will carry the small speakers of the speaker set, which I took from their housing by carefully cutting it open using a small multi-purpose saw (lower right and middle panels in the picture).

To make the front panel I took 4 mm MDF plate and cut out the hole for the monitor with a jig saw by hand very carefully (a circular saw would be a too crude tool to use for this) and at the bottom I took out two corners. Behind these gaps I glued a second 4 mm plate, so that the cut out corner parts can be screwed onto it as speaker covers (lower and upper right panels) using small bolts and nuts. Through both the back plate and the cover parts I drilled a 67 mm hole using a hole cutter. The speakers can then be clamped between this back plate and the covers. I'll cover these parts later with speaker cloth to finish them.

Upper left panel shows the front panel in its place; not fixed permanently yet, just fitted it to check whether I did the measurements correctly.

Slowly, but steadily I'm getting there...

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I've got mail...

Physical mail, that is. From Florida. Thanks Shea, keep up the good work!

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Festivals, flu, but finally the build continues

Due to some festivals, with getting some nasty eye infection and flu at the last one, I was out for a couple of weeks, but finally I had some time again to continue to build. For the back and the top of the cabinet I needed some more circular saw work done (right panel), including creating some small beams under an angle (bottom left two panels) for the marquee light (upper left panel). Next is putting it in place and thus finishing the woodwork of the cabinet. Maybe this weekend, but otherwise next week, so stay tuned...

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Ascending to new levels

Ascension day, so another day to continue the build. The lower protruding part of the cabinet is where the controls will go, so time to make some panels with holes. First off, I noticed while playing with the mock up control panel that the buttons were a bit too far from each other, so I repositioned them:

Next up, I drilled holes in 4 mm MDF board and made it sturdy with beams of thicker 18 mm MDF glued on to it and for the top panel made some room in these beams for the joystick to fit:

In the bottom panel I want to have a power switch that turns on power of the internal socket box that will be inside the cabinet powering the Pi, the screen, ventilators, sound system and the marquee light. If you pry open an unused socket box with integrated lighted power switch, it doesn't cost you anything (just some time to break off some plastic):

Then, it's just a matter of using the jig saw to make a hole in which the switch fits nicely:

Okay, let's fit these panels in between the side panels by drilling holes, countersinking them and then screwing them in place and if they fit, glue them as well... And there we are, controls part done:

I also made some beams with wheels that, using some bolts and nuts, fit underneath the cabinet, so I can move it easily if need be.

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And the build continues

Another couple of hours spent on the build this weekend: using a hole cutter of 80 mm I drilled a hole in either of the cabinet side panels, so I can install fans to let out heat from the screen and Pi when the cabinet is fully closed.

Next up, I clamped the sides onto the framework, fixed the lower front panel in between and started drilling 3 mm holes, followed by adding countersinks of 10 mm (conical hole) to the holes using a countersink bit, so the screws will not stick out and can be covered with MDF filler later. Once the holes were drilled I screwed it altogether to make it fit properly. After knowing the fit was good, I unscrewed everything, put wood glue in between everything and screwed it all together again. 

Also fitted the panel that will cover part of the screen (lower right panel in pic above). It's starting to look more and more like an arcade machine :)

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The real build starts...

How do I get from the scribbled version of the cabinet in the last blog to something more substantial? First off, I created an Illustrator file where I used a millimeter-to-centimeter ratio (1:10), based on measurements done on the framework and monitor's size and angle:

Height of this more precise sketch is 165 cm high and 56 cm wide, so I bought one big board of 18 mm thick MDF of 244 by 122 cm and had it cut up into two pieces of 180 by 60 cm in the DIY store (so it would fit in my car) and  also kept the remainder piece of 122 by 64 cm.

Next step is transferring this design onto the MDF and see if it fits.

Yes, it does!

I have only drawn this design one of the two MDF boards; I'm planning to put the two boards on top of each other and thus cut both sides of the cabinet at once. Lining them up properly will ensure both sides will be equal.

Now, I don't have all the power tools myself, but I have friends who do, so time for a little trip on Sunday with the drawn MDF boards loaded in the car.

We unloaded the boards, put them on trestles, aligned them, fixed them with screw clamps and fired up the circular saw.

We used the circular saw carefully and patiently and were thus able to almost cut into the corners of the design, leaving just a tiny bit we needed to cut using a jig saw. Any last residue after using that, we sanded off. After an hour and a half (and creating a lot of saw dust), it's done and both sides (and other parts we cut) can be loaded in the car again.

Then it's just a matter of unpacking the car and using screw clamps to check whether it fits...

Doesn't it look nice? :)

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Supporting the source

Just backed Shea Silverman's Kickstarter to develop PiPlay further.

Keep up the good work, Shea :D

Oh, the Dutch shop from which I got the arcade control also posted my blog after some email back-and-forth about a control I ordered.

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Forming a cabinet

Now that the system is working in terms of software and control hardware, it's time to build a cabinet. For this I first did a Google search to see if there are arcade cabinet building plans available online and what do you know? There are. I decided to pick the plan of the Defender cabinet to base my cabinet on, since it's from my birth year :) I will scale it down a bit and make some adjustments (it does not need a coin panel, for example), but it will be loosely based on this cabinet, just as this miniature version (graphics will be completely different).

An important part is figuring out which height is comfortable for playing. For that purpose I built an inner framework that I need anyway and created a makeshift controls pad. For the framework I used Ikea Ivar shelving units and some spare wood panels that I had. The controls pad I made out of some pine wood and MDF.

An afternoon of measuring, sawing, drilling, strengthening the shelving unit using metal hooks, etc. I ended up with this temporary setup. It plays nicely and comfortably. Plus, the shelves create neat options to store backup-screen and hold the woofer unit of the audio system.

I also scribbled around with some measures this afternoon, including doing some trigonometry as you can see.

Stay tuned...

P.S. almost forgot: Shea Silverman (creator of PiPlay) shared this blog on his blog. Thanks for that! It created some traffic and hopefully sparks some enthusiasm in others to build a PiCade as well.