Check List

So with the "four month fuck" out of the way it's time to move forward.
All three cabinets are painted. All the jamma harnesses have been bundled.
Most of my tech questions have been answered by the good people over at the BYOAC site.
With that said I thought I should make a check list so I would know what remains.

* Cut out monitor support for yellow & orange bar top
* Build control panels for yellow & orange bar top
* Paint control panels
* Install joysticks & buttons into new control panels
* Wire up joysticks, buttons, and monitors (replacing existing monitor connection)
* Install new power switch in all cabinets
* Wire up the AC elements of all cabinets

That's pretty much it !
Not that much left to do really.
This coming weekend I am going to my brothers house. He is an electrician and will be helping me when it comes to wiring the cabinets. For the time being he is going to help me with the monitor supports and control panels. Once they are done I think I'll only need an hour or so to get the joysticks,buttons, and monitors all wired up. Starting with a new jamma harness really does simplify the project. Once I've got that done it will time for trip number two to my brothers house. We will (and by we I mean him) get the electrical wiring done. From there list & sell the machines..... I hope !

The Last Of The Three Musketeers Gets Put Back Together

So after the "four month fuck" as previously posted about I decided I needed to forge ahead. This week I completed the paint job of the third and final bar top. After giving it about 24 hours to cure I started to put it back together this week.

I'm hoping that next week I can get the control panels built and new monitor supports cut out. From there it's just an issue of wiring them all up.

Progress

This is where I'm at with one of the machines.
The others still need a little more work.
I think a good few hours one afternoon will put a good dent into the project.

Plexi Time

I still have to get some new bezels cut for these cabinets. Previously the monitors were mounted horizontally, however for the 48-in-1's I'll need to use them vertically.
All of the plexi used in these cabinets seems to have the protective coating left on them. It seems that they just left the coating on to double as the bezel and cut out the required area. I soaked two of them overnight in water then along with a putty knife and some Goo Gone got them cleaned up. One more left then a final cleaning.

Wiring/Power Issues

When doing this project I wanted to follow Bob Roberts "How To Wire An Arcade Cabinet" diagram as closely as I could. However when I was out sourcing the parts I had issues finding AC Line Filters and AC Distribution Blocks. In another post you can see the parts I did pick up. I think they will be suitable. And to ensure no mistakes I'm going to get my brother to assist in (or I guess I should say "DO") the wiring of these cabinets. I had some issues with respects to the Isolation Transformers. Between the three bar top's two different Isolation Transformers existed. Two of them were "Mike Proof" as they would only connect one way to the monitor. And coming off the other end were two different colored wires, one white, one black. However the other Isolation Transformer could connect either way to the monitor chassis. And the wires coming off it were both the same color. Again I'm a NOOB and wasn't sure what to do.
Luckily some great places exist with respects to this hobby.

The guys over at www.cgcc.ca are a great source of help, as are the guys and gals that use the BYOC forums. Great site to check out by the way, http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

Taking Action!

So after the four month fuck it's time to pick up the pieces and move ahead.
I'm to ask my father in law to help me cut out and assemble two control panels as well as the internal monitor supports. Today I managed to get out to the Home Depot and get a piece of MDF that I think will be suitable.

All Painting Is Done!

With bar top number three back in my possession it was time to make some progress.
I had a hell of a time drilling out the locks on this machine. I ended up just opening up the back and using a long screwdriver I removed the hinges that kept the control panel locked in place. Why didn't I think of this sooner? I broke soooo many drill bits. Anyway, that got done, the machine was taken apart and the painting completed this week. I call this machine mellow yellow!

JLF Wiring Harness Is In

To simplify this project just a little I decided I would order the JLF wiring harnesses. I found a good deal on Ebay and placed an order for 5.
They arrived this week. So I'm hoping that I can wire up the bulk of this project this week. My brother will be helping me with most of the power related stuff.

Existing Control Panel

Here is a picture of the bar top's.
You can see that the three machines have two different control panels.
one has a traditional lay out, the other two don't.
You can sorta see the angled cut towards the top of the control panel.
That was why I brought the machine to work for my co-worker.
So he could fashion a control panel that would fit over top of it.

The Four Month Fuck

So about four months ago I spoke with a co-worker about helping him build his MAME machine. I turned him onto a local supplier of arcade parts who also has monthly auctions. He was really excited to get things started and decided not only to build one cabinet for himself, but another for his brother. He was going to build the cabinets himself from scratch as apparently he is a skilled carpenter. So after a bit more talking I realized he didn't really have any idea on how to set up MAME.
In the end we worked out what I thought was a pretty good deal for both of us. He would help me out by building two control panels for me and I would MAME a PC for both him & his brother. Was a match made in heaven as I didn't have the skills & tools to build the control panels and he needed help with the software end of things.

We talked it over for a few days, about what I was looking for, what I expected, what I wanted. I was honest, SOMETHING SIMPLE ! I honestly didn't care. The machines were for sale and just had to function. Something that fit and three buttons and a joystick was perfect. Even with respects to the layout I was very open. In fact I told him whatever is fastest would work for me.

I ended up printing out some templates for him that featured a layout I thought would work. I also printed out and provided to him measurements that I thought would work. On one of the bar top's they layout in similar to your standard run of the mill arcade machine. However the other two have the buttons laid out on the front of the machine. If I were to install a joystick into these machines the joystick would point toward you (the player) as opposed to up (towards the ceiling).

If you look closely at the picture you can see there is an angled cut towards the top of the control panel. My co-worker thought it would work best to design a control panel that would fit over top. Again I was cool with that. I don't work with wood so I took his word for it, as I'm sure he would if I gave him some MAME input.

He asked me what the angle was that he needed to make the cut. I didn't know. I asked him, "Is it better I just bring you the machine ? The two machines are the exact same. This way you can make it fit perfect!" So that was that.

I brought the machine into work I believe in December. Then I waited, waited, and waited. Then I waited even a little longer. Every time I asked the design was changed or a new idea had popped up. So I wanted again. It got to a point where I thought I had waited enough. All be it a favor was being done for me I felt enough time had passed. So I said to my co-worker, listen I need this stuff back done or not, I'm cool, but I really got started on this project. So I was told that weekend it would be banged out.

That Monday I went to work and to my surprise my stuff was not returned. This went on for a few weeks. Again I was told of some change, some new idea, some crap really. I began to question if anything was even done, and if not, would it ever be done ? So again I provided the easy out, done or not I need it back. I put deadlines on it, but nothing worked.

So one week I say again I need the stuff back Friday. That Friday I had to leave work right away to visit my father in the hospital. And guess what I was told on Monday, my stuff had made it work ! Yet that week it never returned odd as it was.
So yet again a deadline was put on this. I can't recall how many weeks passed from it's alleged arrival at work. But again one Friday I had to leave right away as my brother was at my house waiting for me. And yet again that Monday it was brought to my attention that my items were at work that Friday. Yet again a familiar trend, they never returned that entire week.

I spoke to a friend of mine that works with me and asked him if he would take issue bringing home my goods if they ever did make it into the office. Really my intention was eliminate another excuse. So I spoke to "the carpenter" and told him if ever my goods make it into the office, as opposed to hauling it back and forth should for some reason I miss you give it to my friend. "Great" I was told, I'll do that.
So that Friday when I asked I was told the goods were getting dropped off that night. My buddy waited at work for the bar top to show up. He was reassured several times it was coming, in fact he even stuck around for an extra hour because he was told "%100 it's coming tonight." Then to our surprise a text message was received, it wouldn't be arriving that night. Something had come up.

I got a text message shortly after to let me know that Saturday the stuff would be brought to my house. Needless to say Saturday I got no call to ask for my address or really anything. Yet again I got fucked. But now I was really pissed off because my buddy got fucked over and wasted an hour of his time. And now I was beginning to think the plan was to simply keep my stuff hoping I just let it go.

The following week I waited after work everyday to make sure to provide a "friendly reminder" that I wanted my stuff that week. Then that Thursday I must have called my office about 30 times trying to get "the carpenter" on the phone. But each and every time I called I got no answer. Finally around 10:30 PM right before he finished work my buddy messaged me to say he was at his desk. So I called my buddy who then yelled at "the carpenter" to "take this call!."

I spoke to "the carpenter" for a just a moment or two, and just let him know to make %100 sure he brought my stuff back that Friday. I let him know I'd wait that Friday after work to ensure I got my stuff. I reminded him how all past delivery attempts had failed and asked if a morning reminder was needed. That Friday I got my bar top back, however NOT A SINGLE THING WAS DONE. Not a single hole drilled, not one control panel, nothing.

That was how I got fucked for four months!