38 replies to this topic

[WibbleWobble]

Hi All,

 

As you may have seen from some of my previous threads I have been collecting the bits to try and build a freestanding MFME cabinet. I have been inspired in this by Uptown and Reg and No1Stoney all of who seem to have made absolutely amazing cabinets. I just hope that my attempt will be playable once it is finished.

 

This weekend I managed to get some time and cut the sides of the machine, and when glued together they look like:

 

 Cabinet Sides.jpg   130.83KB   7 downloads

 

The reason that they are glued and not a single piece is that I do not have the space to handle a single sheet of MDF, so after some testing I have found that I can edge glue them and the result once cured is nigh on impossible to break at the join.

 

Once these were fully cured (next day) I then started to assemble the cabinet using join blocks so that the various panels can be removed to allow access to the innards.

 

 Side and Back.jpg   126.85KB   4 downloads

 

And once the other side and a base frame were added we have a self supporting basis of a skeleton.

 

 Sides and Back.jpg   134.35KB   4 downloads

 

This evening, I have been trying to create a screen mount and get the positioning of the buttons round the screen to a position that I am happy with.

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Reg]

Good luck with this.

 

When building - always make sure that you can access the insides - if I have to change an LED bulb or anything on the front panel across the front of the machine - it's not as "easy" as it should be.

 

I had to fudge something due to that area of the cabinet being broken when I got it ( the cabinet was hacked into something else ) prior to me getting it.  The JPM Vogue cabinet actually had an MPU4 board in it !

 

Always ask yourself - how will I get to X or Y when this is completed should I need to ?

The chances are you may not - but always worth a plan - space is going ot be thing in here.

 

Loving the look of the shell - please keep us all updated.

[Bungle]

Looking good matey,unfortunately for me i have no woodworking skills atall or i would love to do something like this.lucky if i can strike a match.But good luck and will be interested to see the finished product.

[thecodfather]

Good luck with it Pete, 

 

Keep us posted.

[fatdad]

when putting screws into mdf i always put a drop of super glue on the screws so that they stay tight...

[No1Stoney]

Looking forward to seeing the progress you make with this. Please keep us all updated. I have no previous experience in wood work when I made mine and still cobbled something rough round the edges. Like Reg has already said, plan how you will access all the parts inside such as the lamps, hopper and coin mech. All the best with your project

[WibbleWobble]

Hi Folks,

 

This evening I have been trying to create/refine the main panel which will hold the monitor and some of the buttons.

 

I have decided to go for 5 round buttons down either side of the screen and a row of 5 square buttons beneath the monitor. I think that this should give me plenty of options.

 

 Panel Test.jpg   126.52KB   1 downloads

 

The monitor itself will be an HP z24i which i picked up on eBay for £22. It had some minor scratching on the screen but following some polishing out and once the emulator is running they cannot be seen.

 

Unfortunately the monitor didn't come with a stand so I am planning to use the VESA mounting points and a board which will screw to block mounted on the back of the panel.

 

Taking on board what both Reg and No1Stoney have said has meant that I have had to slightly rethink the position of the mounting blocks as they were going to impede access to some of the lamp positions. Thanks gents.

 

Thanks for the comments thus far

 

Pete

Edited by WibbleWobble, 11 October 2018 - 09:05 PM.

[Reg]

This is how I mounted my monitor - I used a keyboard panel that didn't go to plan and that was the verticle that the Vesa mount screwed into.

 

 block.png   623.38KB   3 downloads

 

More pictures here if you're interested...

 

http://www.desertisl...-mfme-cabinet/

[WibbleWobble]

Hello Again,

 

Managed to make some further progress on the build today.

 

The monitor now has been mounted onto it's panel and the blocks for this to mount on have been put on the back of the front panel.

 

 Screen Mount.jpg   110.77KB   2 downloads

 

 

Below is the main panel fitted into the cabinet with the buttons in place. I think that it is going to work quite well and the height and layout feels good.

 

 Monitor Surround with Buttons.jpg   110.57KB   3 downloads

 

When the monitor was screwed in place to test I was really pleased with the fit and the space around the sides for access to the buttons for wiring etc.

 

 Monitor in Place.jpg   110.83KB   3 downloads

 

 Screen from Back.jpg   119.5KB   0 downloads

 

Next was to look at creating the main button panel for below the monitor, I have added the following fixed buttons on this panel

 

Cancel, Hold, Hold/Hi, Hold/Lo, Hold (for Club machines), Collect, Exchange, Special (Let's play Barcrest etc) and Start

 

 Button Panel.jpg   105.48KB   2 downloads

 

And when the control panel is fitted to the cabinet and with buttons in the holes:

 

 All Buttons in Place.jpg   111.6KB   3 downloads

 

Really starting to get a feel for how it will look, and I have to say I'm really pleased thus far.

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

[evo1]

Great work shown here. Really love the creativity/idea's when a FME cab is being made,will be watching this throughout. 

[Reg]

Coming along very well.

Are you going the whole hog and doing hoppers etc ?  Or just making it keyboard only ?

[WibbleWobble]

Hi Reg,

Hoping to go the whole hog and have coin mech, and hoppers. Having a slight issue with the hoppers at the minute that it over pays due to a random coin out signal being sent when the motor starts. I'll get that sorted though, might need to buy new hoppers, I've currently got Money Controls compact hoppers.


Hoping to fit the coinmech tomorrow.

Will post a further update once done, hope I don't bore folks to death with my updates.

Pete

[richy1976]

Looks great.

[WibbleWobble]

Hello Again,

 

I have had a bit of an issue with fitting the coinmech due to a bit of a measuring oversight, but fortunately I think that I have managed to get away with it and progress on the cabinet can now continue with the wiring and connections of the buttons.

 

I fitted the coinmech into the back of the cabinet and checked it for position, 

 

 Coinmech with Monitor.jpg   144.24KB   3 downloads

 

fortunately it cleared the monitor (just)

 

 Coin exit closeup.jpg   122.77KB   2 downloads

 

with this in place I created a test piece to make sure that I could get the coin bezel to fit onto the monitor panel.

 

 Coin Entry test piece.jpg   95.14KB   1 downloads

 

Once that I had this, I was able to use it to create the holes in the monitor panel and mount the coin bezel on the machine.

 

 Coin Bezel Front.jpg   92.25KB   1 downloads

 

It was all seeming to go well, so then fitted the coinmech into the coinmech holder which I'd fitted back into the machine, when I fitted this back into the machine and tried to feed a coin in, the bezel and the coinmech didn't line up, I was slightly stumped, so I removed the monitor panel and re-fitted the test piece, which lined up perfectly, this was when I realised that I had clamped the test piece onto the outside of the cabinet and lined up the outside edges. thus meaning that the Coin Bezel was too far to the left looking from the front of the cabinet.

 

 CoinMech (off back centre).jpg   150.25KB   1 downloads

 

So after a little bit of contemplating and measuring I realised that a piece of the Cabinet MDF fitted behind the coinmech holder would bring everything back in line, however this will mean that the bottom of the coinmech sorter will hit the monitor panel, so I would need to remove a piece from the side of the back of the monitor holder, shown below by the red rectangle.

 

 Screen Mount with Cutout plan.jpg   162.27KB   2 downloads

 

So I cut a piece of MDF and mounted it behind the coinmech holder, thus moving the coinmech the required 18mm and allowing everything to line up.

 

   Coinmech holder 18mm MDF.jpg   118.57KB   1 downloads

 

with this piece of MDF in place and the coinmech mounted everything lined up as can be seen below:

 

 CoinMech (correct position).jpg   135.03KB   1 downloads

 

And the piece that I had cut out of the back of the monitor holder was large enough to allow the coin sorter to clear then monitor.

 

   Coin exit closeup New.jpg   136.37KB   1 downloads

 

 

Hope the post isn't to boring for folks.

 

 

Next I plan to move onto the wiring and position of the computer, I plan to mount the ipac and pac-drives on a board that will be able to be removed if needed.

 

Pete  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WibbleWobble]

Hi All,

 

Apologies for the lack of updates, a last minute urgent business trip to the Czech Republic has kind of got in the way of progress. However I have managed to make myself some inserts for the various buttons. I wanted something that was common across all the buttons. I found a very useful guide over on DAD's for adding multiple strokes within Photoshop and with a bit of playing I came up with the below:

 

 Buttons Layout new.jpg   174.27KB   12 downloads

 

Which when fitted to the buttons look like:

 

 20181019_185231.jpg   133.52KB   5 downloads

 

 20181019_185240.jpg   113.91KB   3 downloads

 

Overall I think i'm pretty pleased with the look that they give. Hopefully will get some more time this week to work on the build.

 

Pete

 

 

[majoris]

Apologies accepted .

I'm still looking for inspiration for my cabinet, and Yours seem to be on the top of the list, as I see the progress and shape. Reg's cabinet is still the top league, but looks he is going to have competitor.

After I finish my Arduino solution for MFME cabinets I will hopefully be able to start my own construction. Sadly It seems I've ordered to few buttons....

Take care, and continue you work.

Edited by majoris, 04 November 2018 - 05:46 PM.

[fatdad]

Hi All,

 

Apologies for the lack of updates, a last minute urgent business trip to the Czech Republic has kind of got in the way of progress. However I have managed to make myself some inserts for the various buttons. I wanted something that was common across all the buttons. I found a very useful guide over on DAD's for adding multiple strokes within Photoshop and with a bit of playing I came up with the below:

 

Buttons Layout new.jpg

 

Which when fitted to the buttons look like:

 

20181019_185231.jpg

 

20181019_185240.jpg

 

Overall I think i'm pretty pleased with the look that they give. Hopefully will get some more time this week to work on the build.

 

Pete

 

 

can i ask if you made the button inserts yourself ?...  or is there a website you got the image from...

[WibbleWobble]

Hi,

 

I made the image myself, it is just a series of layers, for the background and the text, if you are interested I can send you the PDF I used for printing them.

 

Pete

[fatdad]

Hi,

 

I made the image myself, it is just a series of layers, for the background and the text, if you are interested I can send you the PDF I used for printing them.

 

Pete

hi i just saved the image...   they look so good i thought you got them of a seller.....lol

[WibbleWobble]

Hello Again Folks,

 

I have finally managed to make some more progress on the build, and have given the cabinet a couple of coats of paint and can now start to see it coming together which is great.

 

 20181125_165955.jpg   115.69KB   2 downloads

 

 20181125_170021.jpg   130.7KB   0 downloads

 

Hopefully a couple of weeks at home will allow me to make some further progress on this, as being away with work has really impacted progress.

 

I have also wired up my Pac-Drives and iPAC onto a board (inspired by the fabulous job Uptown47 made of his) 

 

 20181126_201400.jpg   106.74KB   2 downloads

 

I have tested these and discovered that the seller has unfortunately sent me 2 x ID1 boards, so I am having to send one back for an exchange, which is a bit of a pain but not the end of the world.

 

I have also managed to make a start on the wiring of the buttons but have now run out of time for this weekend.

 

 20181125_170058.jpg   122.08KB   3 downloads

 

Hopefully further progress to report soon.

 

Pete