Finished the HUO v1.0 Multi-cade

As often happens with projects, I lose interest and the whole thing becomes a real drag.  I managed to finish one of these cabinets, and I think it came out pretty well.  I'm just adding it here for closure.

When I last posted on this, I was just finishing up the wiring and control panel.  All of that works perfectly fine.  This cabinet plays well, it takes up very little space and it's convenient to move around.  I'm almost tempted to keep it.  It's by far the most practical of all the machines I own.

For the bezel I actually had a difficult time locating a sheet of card stock large enough to cover the surface.   I finally found something at a local frame shop that worked well.  All that was left to do was add the t-molding and clean the cabinet up.

It's close to Christmas, so it would be a good idea to get some better pictures of this and get it listed on Craigslist.  It's nice to have and I enjoy many of the games, but the best thing to have in my game room/work area is extra space.

Thermal Detonator

So I've been thinking about making something using an Arduino and the 3d printer.  Over on Thingiverse, I found the inspiration, thanks to member AprilStorm and the excellent Thermal Detonator model.  If you're a Star Wars fan, and even if you're not, you probably know about Princess Leia's little shenanigan in Jabba's Palace.  So it goes without saying, a Thermal Detonator can be helpful when it comes to those overly tedious negotiations.

I printed the whole thing on one build plate with support.  I removed the support from the tiny openings on the detonator before printing..  I think I set it to a .2 mm layer, 3 shells, and 30 % infill.
I'm currently using a Flashforge Creator.  For the models I'm using a very nice software package called Simplify3d.  It took a surprisingly long time to print but looked great and the pieces fit well together without any modification.

So on to the lights.  I didn't just want this to light up and be static.  I wanted this thing to have some life, and a cool flashy effect like in the movie.  I learned that Adafruit produces a much smaller and less expensive micro controller they call the Trinket.  I ordered two of them just in case I wanted to build another, cause they're just so cheap.  I also got a nice little battery compartment and two of the button style batteries, I think they're CR2032 or something close to that.  Either way it provided just over 5v which is what I needed to power the Trinket and a few LEDs.

I did a nasty job of wiring the whole thing up but it was sturdy, and compact.  I soldered 3 yellow LEDs to pins 0, 2, and 3, then a larger red LED to pin 1.   To each LED circuit I added a small resistor in the positive side between the bulb and the board.  If you're making one of these, be sure to have some heat shrink tubing for these tiny little wires and connections to keep it all from shorting out once its time to cram it all in the enclosure.

For the Trinket I uploaded a modified version of a Christmas Tree sketch I found in a forum.  I wanted to give the author credit but I haven't been able to locate the forum again.  I believe I only changed a few things like the pin numbers and the number of lights.  It works great for this project.

Just a quick note: Below is an updated sketch reworked by James Tucker.  This has been tested and seems to work great.  Enjoy.

//Thermal detonator

#define NR_OF_LIGHTS 4

int blink_delay = 400; //millisec
int blink_count_delay = 1000; //1 second




/**
*
*/
void setup() {
    //not sure if we need to do anything here
  //randomSeed(analogRead(0));
  //for (int i = 0; i < NR_OF_LIGHTS; i++) {
  //  values[i] = (int)random(230) + 13; // start values between 'max min' and 'min max'
  //  steps[i] = (int)random(4) + 1; // steps between 1 and 4
  //}
}

/**
*
*/
void loop() {
  //decrementing the main light by 32 every time to make it slowly dim
  //during the timer (main light is pin 1
  int count = 0;

  //have 4 lights, they are not plugged in binary order, so the
  //order of stuff is a little different
  //light 0 = middle position
  //light 1 = top
  //light 2 = last position
  //light 3 = first position

  //analogwrite(pin, value 255 - on 0 - off);
  //write out a 7 - 111
  analogWrite(0, 255);
  analogWrite(1, 255);
  analogWrite(2, 255);
  analogWrite(3, 255);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //write out a 6 - 110
  analogWrite(3, 255);
  analogWrite(1, 223);
  analogWrite(0, 255);
  analogWrite(2, 0);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //write out a 5 - 101
  analogWrite(3, 255);
  analogWrite(1, 191);
  analogWrite(0, 0);
  analogWrite(2, 255);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //write out a 4 - 100
  analogWrite(3, 255);
  analogWrite(1, 159);
  analogWrite(0, 0);
  analogWrite(2, 0);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //write out a 3 - 011
  analogWrite(3, 0);
  analogWrite(1, 127);
  analogWrite(0, 255);
  analogWrite(2, 255);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //write out a 2 - 010
  analogWrite(3, 0);
  analogWrite(1, 95);
  analogWrite(0, 255);
  analogWrite(2, 0);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //write out a 1 - 001
  analogWrite(3, 0);
  analogWrite(1, 63);
  analogWrite(0, 0);
  analogWrite(2, 255);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //write out a 0 - 000
  analogWrite(0, 0);
  analogWrite(1, 0);
  analogWrite(2, 0);
  analogWrite(3, 0);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //blink all lights for 2 seconds
  analogWrite(0, 255);
  analogWrite(1, 255);
  analogWrite(2, 255);
  analogWrite(3, 255);
  delay(blink_count_delay);
  delay(blink_count_delay);

  //random for a 100 iterations, increment after every loop evaluation
  while(count++ < 100) {
    for (int i = 0; i < NR_OF_LIGHTS; i++) {
      //pick a random light value
      int value = (int)random(255);

      //pick a random on/off
      int on = (int)random(2);

      //if we have a value, display the value, else turn the light off
      if (on > 0) {
        analogWrite(i, value);
      } else {
        analogWrite(i, 0);
      }
    }
    delay(blink_delay);
  }

}

After getting the lights working I haphazardly painted the outside

with whatever I had on hand.  I used some spray paint and a product

called rub-n-buff to get a metallic look.  

I had at first wanted to make the top piece that slides be the switch, but in the end added a simple lighted push button to the back side, which I think actually added to the look.  I believe I wired the LED in the button to pin 1 same as the large red light in the front.

I gave this one away to my friend James Tucker.  I found a few explosive warning labels and printed those out for the box.  Merry Christmas James!

Adirondack Chairs

 I was asked to provide some wood working projects for a local charity's silent auction.  Now the sad thing is, I've known about this for an entire year.  So I had plenty of time to get this done, but guess what, It's this Thursday and I haven't made anything.

So I toyed around with the idea of making a rustic farm house style table.  That proved to be a little out of my budget.  Maybe if I had someone sponsor me for the cost of the materials, but otherwise out of range for me.

Being a bit panicked I knew I would need to have something simple and already planned out for me.  After searching through some old magazines and wood working books, I found some simple Adirondack chair plans.  I decided to make three at once, as I recall making these in the past as a one or two project, and back then I discovered it would be much simpler to make several at once in an assembly line fashion.  Looking at my schedule I knew I would be limited to getting this done in just a few days.

I was able to have the plans printed out at a local print shop at 400% to give me the right size.  I then used some scrap plywood to make a template that I cut with a jig saw and cleaned up with a sander.

For the wood I wanted these to be true outdoor furniture.  So I settled on red cedar.  I think I just needed a few 1x8"s and mostly 1x6"s so the cost was pretty reasonable.

Then it was just a matter of copying the parts with the router and a flush trim bit.

I spent the better part of a day just getting the parts cut out.  Once the curvy bits were finished the other straight pieces were quick to do with the table saw.

The next day I spent mostly sanding, first with 60 grit then 80 with an orbital sander.  Then the second part of the day was assembly.  I used all stainless steel fasteners.

This is where making three at once started to become a real drag.  Fortunately they were looking good, and there was absolutely no problems with the assembly.

The next day was Lizzette's turn to get involved.  To finish the chairs we used an Olympic solid outdoor stain.  I believe the color is Wedgewood.  I wanted something that would be simple, but appeal to most people.  I suggested the color, and to my amazement, Lizzette agreed.

So here they are, a bit of a rush job but I think they will show well.  They are very comfortable and I think attractive.

If you've never built a set of Adirondack chairs, and you're looking for a nice useful project, have a go at it.  There are numerous free plans online and it's hard to go wrong.  My next door neighbor is planning to build a set from pallet wood.

For awhile now I have been working almost exclusively on this robot.  I was considering not posting anything about it here,  it has nothing to do with thirty-year-old video games.  Then I figured why not, this is really just a place for me to keep a journal of projects, and other silly things.  Besides, this is the "Spaceport Arcade" and what good is a spaceport without a robot or two.

I believe it was back in September or November that I really began.  The best reason I have for doing something like this was to force myself to learn a few new skills.  After a little research I learned that making a full size Astromech replica was a serious undertaking.   I could expect it to take a year or two, and be relatively expensive.   In the end however, I would have something totally unique, and a list of new skills as well.

This project started with a great deal of woodworking.  I'm no stranger to woodworking, but cutting circles and hoops to an exact size proved challenging.   Cutting out the pieces and assembling the frame that would eventually make the body of the droid forced me to use my router in ways that I never would've attempted, and I learned a great deal about what I was and wasn't capable of.

This is a frame designed by Mike Senna, one of the first people to ever build a working replica R2-D2.  Its a great design, very strong once assembled and surprisingly light weight.  I believe there are approximately 22 or 23 interlocking pieces.  

Then came the legs.  Cutting these from wood with a router would be enough of a challenge for most folks.  However that isn't good enough here, these have to be perfectly symmetrical and cut to exact dimensions.   Making a template from a paper pattern took me several tries and a few weekends.

The legs are made by cutting five layers of Baltic Birch of various shapes, then laminating those layers together to form the needed thickness.  Here are a few shots of the legs being assembled.

The piece you see above that has the channel down the middle is the inner most layer.  It will house the power cables that will eventually run down to the drive motors.

The barrel shaped Senna frame that I showed earlier gets wrapped in a styrene skin with a carefully cut pattern to match the design seen in the movies.  Cutting the skins out of plastic from the pattern was again, challenging, at least for me.  It was also very tedious and not something I want to do again in the near future.  There are four pieces that make up two layers for the front and back of the droid.  These are made by gluing a full sized pattern to a sheet of 0.04 inch thick styrene.  It took me several nights of careful work with a razor knife and ruler.

One last pic here of a test fit of the skins on the Senna frame.  This was done to hold the frame together for drying, and to be certain it was the correct size.

If you stumbled upon this blog and you're interested in building a replica R2-D2 or some other similar droid from the Star Wars Franchise, head on over to www.astromech.net.

For various reasons I've taken on the daunting task of building a full size astromech droid.  I haven't quite decided at this time if it's going to be a replica of the famous R2 or some other astromech from the Star Wars franchise.  Either way, it's going to force me to learn new things and work with various materials, many of which I have little to no previous experience.

Over the last few weeks I managed to bring together the parts necessary to build the dome logic displays. In the world of replica astromech droid builders, the Teeces are an array of boards and LED's controlled by an Arduino to reproduce the familiar logic displays mounted in the droid's dome.  The pcbs were from OSH Park, the leds from china, and the other components I ordered from Digikey. Here is a shot of the Teeces boards from OSH Park.

Last night I started adding the components to the rear logic display.  This required loading a bit of code up to an Arduino Pro Mini.  Then a few led driver chips were soldered to the main board and the Arduino was mounted on the back.  I started the process of adding the LED's to the board and testing each one. Everything was looking good, but I ran out of time.  It's a tedious task to add all these tiny LED's to the board and check each for polarity.  Hopefully tonight I can get them soldered in place.

More work on the multicades

I got bored with these jamma multicades.  It's been quite some time since I've done anything with them.  This weekend I picked up one of the control boards and tossed it on my drill press.  After making the button and joystick holes, I guess I was motivated enough to press on.

Here are a few pics of the progress.   As you can see the control panel looks nice.  I had the parts laying around from almost a year ago, so it was a simple matter of bolting everything in place and testing it out.

I tidied up the control panel wires and added a break connector.  A few zip ties later and it was looking nice and organized. 

For this project I ordered a Vision Pro LCD for the display.  The LED display allowed me to make the cabinet much shallower than a traditional arcade cabinet.  I think these cabinets will work very well for a home game room.  They are small enough to move around easily and have a small footprint.

For convenience I installed the service and test switches to the back of the machine at arms reach.  The power switch is also just to the top right of the back.  You can see in this photo I still have a bit of cleaning up to do with the cables.  Still it is all very straight forward.  All that is needed to play one of the thousands of early 80's jamma boards, is to remove the harness from the current board, and plug it in.

I've been hooked on playing Time Pilot on this game.  I'm not sure why, I never really liked it much back in the day. 

So that's it for now.  I plan to add a black paper bezel just underneath the glass to frame in the display nicely. Also the t-molding needs installed.  So far its looking nice, and it's great to see a clean new cabinet for once.

Project Table

A few weeks back, I was in Harbor Freight and spotted a large plastic shop cart.  That got me to thinking I needed one of my own.  They're not cheap though, somewhere around $80.  At the same time I was tossing around the idea of making a heavy duty work bench.  The problem is I just don't have much room at the moment.  So somehow the two thoughts merged and I came up with the Project Workbench on Wheels.

I like the high top work tables you often see in magazines and I wanted something easy to work at, so I decided it should be on the tall side, around 40" tall should be about right.  Also I wanted it to be large enough to hold the new table top disk sander I just got for Christmas.  Sadly it's still in the box, because I just don't have anywhere to use it.  So I got out the graph paper and came up with this.  A table that was roughly 2 and a half feet wide by 4 feet.

I spent around $100 dollars on the materials.  Yes it could be done for much less, if I used scraps or if I did this and not that, but I wanted this to look nice and be easy to use.  Here's my list of materials.

• 2 six foot long 4x4's
• 3 eight foot long 2x4's
• one 4x8 sheet of plywood, I got the 3/4 inch 
• 4 of the 3 inch locking casters
• a box of Kreg 2 1/2 inch screws.

The 4x4's got cut roughly in half to make the corner posts.  I cut the rails and stringers for the frame of the table from the 2x4s.  I believe they were around 28" long for the four side rails and 15" for the ends.  The plywood got cut into three equal pieces because I wanted the table top to be approximately 2 1/2 feet wide by 4 feet long.  I had decided I wanted the table top to hang over roughly 4 inches on all sides to give me a good surface to use clamps on, and also to sit up under while doing detailed work like soldering.

When it came time to build the frame, I used the Kreg pocket hole jig.  If you don't already own one of these go and get one.  It will open up a whole new world of possibilities for you.  If your projects fall into the weekend warrior class, like mine, you'll soon be doing much more in less time and it will look better than ever before.  People will think you're some kind of woodworking master, but actually it's just a simple tool.
Check out their site here.

See how quickly that went together.  The pocket hole joints are very strong, and easy to do with the jig.  I screwed and glued each of these and it took less than 20 minutes.

I added the casters here then flipped the whole thing over to see how it rolled.

The height was exactly what I wanted.  Now to do the tabletop and bottom shelf.  I cut the plywood into three pieces.  I then squared the sides using a router to get them smooth and perfectly straight.

I wanted the corners to be rounded so as not to bang into things and myself, plus the plywood looked shabby on the corners.  For this I found a rounded scrap from another project and clamped it under the corners.  Then it was just a matter of using a tracing bit on the router to duplicate the shape on all four corners.

I then counter sunk screws into the top of the frame, and fastened a second sheet of plywood on top using wood glue and my staple gun.  Then I used the same tracing router bit to make the top piece flush with the first.  This gave me a very thick and sturdy tabletop that can take alot of abuse.

Then it was just a matter of  cutting out a few pieces to fit the bottom shelf.  These I did in two sections.  I wanted them to hang over a little to match up with the look of the top, so it was a little bit of a task figuring out just how this should be done.  I made a cutout from scrap that would fit the way I wanted in the corner then used it as a template to cut the real shelf.  It worked out pretty good and I looks the way I had planned.

After putting away almost every tool and measuring device I own, and sweeping up a butt load of saw dust and scrap I now had a rolling work table.

Then came the sanding which cleaned it all up pretty nice.  I'll be using this to do everything from spray painting to potting plants.  I can see it being used as a bar during parties, or an extra table on Thanksgiving day.  Either way, its versatile and built like a tank.

So here it is, ready to make any and all projects just a little less tedious, I hope anyway. =)