Arcade Cocktail Cabinet Project

The Parts and Software
Assembling The Case
Installing The Electronics
Final View

Installing The Electronics

I put the control panel in place and screwed on the clear plastic backboard. Notice the groves where the T-molding will go later on.

Here you see the back of the control panel.  This is a metal bracket I had to bend from a piece of metal.  It took some trial and error to get peices that fit just right. On the bottom are two buttons mounted on the right-hand  side of the control panel.  They will be the tab and enter keys.  Having dedicated buttons makes it easier to get to the MAME settings menus.

Here is the other side.  There is one button on this side which will go to the  power switch  of the motherboard  so I can turn the system on.

The speakers are mounted using a screw on each side and a peice of picture hanging wire.  This works because of the way the speakers are shaped in the back.

The Smart Strip is mounted along the wall.  One interesting problem I ran into was that the original plan was for the power supply  unit to  have it's power  cord going through the  hole in the bottom.  This way the power supply fan can  circulate air.  But the problem is that power supply needs to plug into the smart strip which is inside the case!  And the cord to the smart strip needs to get to the outside so it can plug into an outlet.  And there was no extra hole.  So I slid the power supply  over an inch and looped the  power supply cord back up into the case and to the the smart strip. Then feed the smart strip cord down that same whole.  Since you can't see underneath the box then this is okay.

The mother board goes in middle.  I had to leave some room along the sides for the lcd stand.  The motherboard is mounted on some L-shaped plastic legs.  Those are in turn screwed to small wood blocks.  The whole thing was then put in the case.  I considered glueing it down but decided it was fine just sitting there.  A wireless card will let me access the system remotely (via vnc and mapping a shard folder).  There is no keyboard or mouse.

I pulled a hard drive moutting bracket from an old pc case and used a peice of wood, a screw and some wood glue to secure it  the side so it does not move around with vibrations. The final space is for the sub woofer.

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Almost done.  The LCD stand has been put in and the lcd monitor hooked up.All of the  electronics are in place now  and the system is fully functional.  All that really remains is some cosmetic stuff: the T-molding, other speaker covers and the bezel. The monitor and subwoofer will be left with thier switches in the on position.   The smart strip will control thier power.

Next: Final View


Date: 2/27/2010