IT WORKS!!!

I'm so excited!! Earlier this week I finished mounting the monitor and I was able to attach the hinge and fire up the cabinet for the first time!! I don't have any good pictures but here's one of the thing all closed up with a game running. The flash on my camera combined with the dust on the glass tabletop really ruined the picture. When I get a few better pictures I will definitely post them.

I played a few games of Ms. Pac-man, Mr. Do! and Galaga and it felt great. I even squeaked out a 75,000 Ms. Pac-man score on my first game without really concentrating so the controls are working well. I still have a TON of software tweaking and game management to work on but if I wanted to I could have the thing playable for a party or something in a few hours of work. There are still a bunch of things I have to do until I call this project "complete" (and start the next one!). Here's the punchlist of outstanding items...


Cabinet construction:
1. Drill holes in base and install leg levelers
2. Drill hole for speaker volume controls
3. Splice speaker controls and thread through hole
4. Mount volume control underneath long CP with velcro
5. Wire coin door switches to ipac
6. Set coin door to accept tokens
7. Wire coin door LEDs to power supply
8. Wire plexiglass LEDs to powersupply
9. [Figure out how to remove CPs]
10. Seal any gaps in CPs
11. Seal any gaps between bezel and monitor
12. Install glass clips to hold glass in place
13. Install t-molding around CP3
14. Glue grommit for power supply plug in place

Other:
1. Print artwork to scale on vinyl at www.mamemarquees.com
2. Apply artwork to tabletop

To Buy:
1. Plexiglass for CP1 and CP2 lighting
2. LEDs for CP1 and CP2 lighting and coin door lights
3. Admin button labels

Computer Set-Up
1. Install and configure Front End [MaLa]
2. Manage game list
3. Hide Windows operation as much as possible upon boot up and power down

The PLUG

OK, not much to report as far as progress goes, unfortunately. I'm having a bit of trouble with the monitor mount. Attaching the monitor to the tabletop is proving to be far more difficult than I thought it would be...

As I've said plenty of times throughout this process, I want to make this thing look as "clean" as possible and not homemade in any way other than its uniqueness. One of the problems I encountered was getting everything to power on and off at the touch of a button. This was accomplished rather nicely by using a Smart Strip power supply.

Once I figured out where to place it within the cabinet, I had to figure out where to drill the hole on the outside for the power cord. I decided on the lower left side of the cabinet underneath the hinge for the access door. This simple decision turned out to be a bigger problem than I had ever envisioned.

I carefully measured the plug every which way I could and determined that it was 1" in diameter. So, in order to make this thing look "finished" I needed to drill a 1" hole in the proper location, feed the cord through the hole and then put a grommet of some kind around the hole to thread the cord through so it will look nice. Simple, right? Wrong.

The first problem I encountered was finding a 1" grommet. I looked all around at Office Max, Staples and Home Depot for something but the best they could do was a 2" grommet and it was going to be huge. I decided online would be my best bet and I eventually found one at Modern Office Interiors for approximately $10 ($3.75 + shipping). Kind of a rip off but at this point I just want to finish.

As I was waiting for the part to arrive I drilled the 1" hole using a hole saw attachment for my drill. When I tried to thread the power cord through the opening, it didn't fit. The hole was about 1/16" too small and there was no way to redrill it (and the grommet was already on the way). I ended up taking a razor and shaving off the rubber around the plug prongs until I could squeeze it through. I was able to get it through after about 10 minutes of tweaking. Whew!

A few days later the grommet arrived and I was anxious to get it installed, however I quickly realized that a 1" grommet only has a 1-7/8" interior diameter - there was no way to get the power cord through the grommet opening! I wanted to scream! Fortunately, a solution quickly presented itself. I thought about it and decided to take a razor and cut the grommet down the side. There was just enough play in the plastic to open up the grommet wide enough to slip the power cord in there. With the grommet cover in place you can't even see where the cut was made. Hopefully the pictures provide enough detail.



I think it came out nice in the end and just how I initially pictured it in my head. I just have to touch up a little tearout from drilling the hole with some leftover blue stain (that's what I get for using an old hole saw!). It was worth the trouble!

The lesson learned for all of this is no matter how much planning you do, there are always going to be things that pop up you didn't think about. It was frustrating but it was very satisfying to be able to come up with a solution.

Thanks for looking!

Bezel / Monitor Mount

Here are a couple of shots of the table top with the bezel in place. I want as snug of a fit as possible around the edges and I think once the weight of the glass is on there everything will fit together nicely. Mounting the monitor and getting the bezel just right has definitely been the hardest part of this project for me so far.

The bezel is not glued into place or anything and right now it is just held in place by painter's tape as you can see. The edges around the monitor do look nice though and I think the screen is centered. The monitor does allow me to move the picture around so if it's not perfectly centered when I turn it on I can tweak it.

I'll be posting some pics of the inside of the monitor mount later. Thanks for looking!

The Power Button

These shots are from the underside of the long CP. The red button is the power on and power off switch. One press turns everything on and one more press turns everything off (thank god for the smart strip!).

It was pretty easy to install - I used a 1-1/4" forstner bit to drill a hole about 1/2 way into the bottom panel (from the inside/top) and then using the center mark left by the bit, I just drilled a hole all the way through for the shaft of the button (note the tear out - I'll touch it up later). The reason for the "two-step" drilling of the hole is so I could get my fingers around the shaft of the button to turn the nut that secures the button in place. It also made wiring it up a little easier.

You can't see it at all where it is located and no one will even know it is there unless I tell them. Also, the button is quite tough to press so I'm not worried about an accidental press by someone's knee during play...

Thanks for looking!