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Poor man's Candy Cab?

64MK

64MK

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Okay, I'm new and I'm not even sure if this the right place to post this but here we go.

I found a post here from someone who did ALMOST what I'm wanting to do a couple years ago: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/wooden-city-candy-cabinet-build.2420
I have a NOS AstroCity control panel I want to use and a small collection of CRTs. I honestly don't care if it ends up just being a monitor stand for a generic CRT or something that looks built in but my main goal is to use my panel with in a candy cab form factor.

First goal is to have it setup with a PC with CRT_Emudriver or a Linux distro, then Jamma then lastly MiSTer if I want to put that in there sometimee.

Feel free to lob ideas and insults. I'm all ears.
 
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I certainly dont want to be negative because I think the design is pretty cool, but I am skeptical this will be as cheap as it might seem. With the price/scarcity of timber in most parts of the world these plywood/mdf projects can be a bit of work. Not to mention the decent amount of assembly time involved.

I'm not sure how it is in the US but in Oz you see a lot of Chinese Candy clones VERY cheap. Could likely find one to take your control panel.
 
I'm not saying it'll be the cheapest thing in the world but when there's a 50:1 demand on cabs I'll do what I have to.
 
As someone who has built a cabinet from scratch before, it’ll cost you over $1000 at the end of the day. And that was pricing pre-pandemic. I wouldn’t be surprised if you spend closer to $1500 all said.

Building a cabinet from scratch is not really a good way to cut costs on getting an arcade cab. It’s more about the journey of building if you’re into that.
Otherwise, you are better off buying a n existing cabs.
 
I found a old/water damaged/gutted Atari Millipede and fixed it up (bondo, sanding, paint) for 500$.
Made a fine little trackball MAME cab.

Just saying IF you start with an existing body it will be MUCH cheaper (and I still spent 500$, from scratch as mentioned 1k$ easy).
 
64MK said:
but when there's a 50:1 demand on cabs
Click to expand...

"when there's a 50:1 demand on CANDY cabs"

Solution: Don't start with a candy cab.

Honestly, ESPECIALLY don't start with a candy cab if your plan is to mess with trying to safely run a graphics card at a lower refresh rate then it's meant to on a crt; something goes wrong and you might be SOL. You'll be happy you started with a cheaper, crappier cab and crt when that happens (and it will happen, even if its not a crtemudriver issue. Chassis break. Neckboards need work. You want something easily replicable when it's time to do your first repair, god forbid.) Sounds like you have enough CRTs to spare too, so maybe you're already used to crt work, maybe you're down to swap tubes with american cabs, maybe you've done it all before! Dunno, just assuming the experience in that department is low since I'm not sure otherwise, and don't wanna see you in the hole a bunch of cash-o-la shooting for something you might not be up for fixing.

Hunker down and start watching facebook marketplace patiently and start with a cheap $300-$600 woodie. Lots of us have been in the arcade space for years before we first picked up a candy cab. Heed the other warnings in the thread from folks who have "been there" (financially and repair wise), and start with something cheap you won't be upset to accidentally blow up.
 
I'm no CRT pro, I just know enough to (hopefully) not damage them. Running a 31khz card at 15khz would be the absolute last thing I did in the process and thankfully, I do have a SMALL stock of CRTs (hence why I'm okay with it not being a custom fit and more of a monitor stand in a candy form factor.)

Also, I think Linux might be the safer route since it doesn't rely on the CRT_Emudriver as X11 has those features natively.

The fact of the matter is the form factor is way more important than anything else to me. I don't want an American style stand-up unit, is there a way I can find something American, drop my Astro City control panel and make it a decent form factor? Otherwise, I'm willing to try to get my materials at a decent cost (my brother does window & door installation and might be able to help.)
 
64MK said:
more of a monitor stand in a candy form factor
Click to expand...
41TU-2JBZpL.jpg


So a sit-down version of the "Xtension Pedestal" :huh:
 
I used to have 17 American cabs back in 2013 till 2016 and sold all of them for 8k since I had to move and new girl ect,ectect. even had a T2 pinball but, back then they were cheaper.

IMG_20160930_185452455.jpg

Now, when I tried getting back into it.. I was shocked at all the prices and how scares they are. Luckily I kept one and it was a KRAYLIX-vewlix clone and that cost me alot just on bondo,sandpaper and paint, wiring,buttons, ect.. but i always wanted the real thing and came to this forum and got lucky and found someone locally that sold one and bought it, (vewlix F )and didn't do much to it cause alteady its costing me.. anyways, knowing what a pain in the ass wood cabs were to repair and finding donor tubes... I Settled on making my own cab. I know it's ghetto as hell but, it does the job and I enjoy it.
20220326_133201.jpg

and just on that I saw I was spending alot just on 2x4s even when trying to go cheap it still expensive. Anyways I'm happy where I'm at at the moment. I'm sure if I find a cab for good price I know I will get it and then throw away my dyi. So, I guess finding an already built cab might be cheaper?
 
Just to let you know what you are up against in only mounting the Astro CP to a panel which you will fab:
  • You have to cut a hole into the panel that traces the outline of the panel
    • Only that hole has to be about ~1/4"-1/3" smaller than the actual panel
    • Otherwise, the panel just drops right through the hole you'll cut
    • Since it is impossible to do by hand, you'll need a jig
    • That jig will then allow you to route trace the hole
    • The only way you'll get that jig is to borrow someone's Astro CP so you can trace it with a router
  • Now that is solved for, you have to bevel a recess at the top of that whole so the panel's thickness sits flush
    • You'll need a router bit that will cut that bevel across the top of the hole you've just cut so that it is ~1/4"-1/3" bigger
Those two router bits are going to set you back like $50. Plus you'll need a router. Plus you'll need a drill and bits for the mounting holes. Then there is the cost of the wood. All of this can be done. I've done it myself, but then again, I have all these tools handy. I did the above by using a 1/4 scrap piece of plexiglass. I used an actual Astro panel as a jig, to make a jig using the plexiglass. Used the Astro panel to line up the mounting holes. Then drilled holes into the plexi. Then mounted the plexi up under the Astro CP. Then routed out the hole. The result, a jig. From there, I used the plexi jig to cut the hole I needed. I made another jig to route trace the holes.

It becomes easy for the panel part once you have the tooling. Good luck man.
 
RealMFnG said:
You have to cut a hole into the panel that traces the outline of the panel
Click to expand...
Yea if you want it to look "good"
If you just don't give a fuck, mount the panel on top (no recessed channel/flush mount) and drill huge holes to allow the buttons/stick to extend downwards.
That's all it takes (disclaimer will look ghetto AF).
 
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RealMFnG said:
Just to let you know what you are up against in only mounting the Astro CP to a panel which you will fab:
  • You have to cut a hole into the panel that traces the outline of the panel
    • Only that hole has to be about ~1/4"-1/3" smaller than the actual panel
    • Otherwise, the panel just drops right through the hole you'll cut
    • Since it is impossible to do by hand, you'll need a jig
    • That jig will then allow you to route trace the hole
    • The only way you'll get that jig is to borrow someone's Astro CP so you can trace it with a router
  • Now that is solved for, you have to bevel a recess at the top of that whole so the panel's thickness sits flush
    • You'll need a router bit that will cut that bevel across the top of the hole you've just cut so that it is ~1/4"-1/3" bigger
Those two router bits are going to set you back like $50. Plus you'll need a router. Plus you'll need a drill and bits for the mounting holes. Then there is the cost of the wood. All of this can be done. I've done it myself, but then again, I have all these tools handy. I did the above by using a 1/4 scrap piece of plexiglass. I used an actual Astro panel as a jig, to make a jig using the plexiglass. Used the Astro panel to line up the mounting holes. Then drilled holes into the plexi. Then mounted the plexi up under the Astro CP. Then routed out the hole. The result, a jig. From there, I used the plexi jig to cut the hole I needed. I made another jig to route trace the holes.

It becomes easy for the panel part once you have the tooling. Good luck man.
Click to expand...
What is the best way to interface the controls to USB/MAME? I mean, I know I can just cut the cables and use a random encoder but that seems like the worst possible way.
 
Do what you must given circumstances. If you cab has a JAMMA harness, use JAMMAizer, JAMMASD, etc. if no harness, use any PCB encoder and just wire straight to the sticks and buttons.
 
jassin000 said:
Yea if you want it to look "good"
If you just don't give a fuck, mount the panel on top (no recessed channel/flush mount) and drill huge holes to allow the buttons/stick to extend downwards.
That's all it takes (disclaimer will look ghetto AF).
Click to expand...
He can just trace with a marker the exact CP outline. Rough cut a hole smaller than that traced outline using a jigsaw. Then bevel by hand with a chisel. Depending on his resolve, it can look decent. None of this is going to be cheap on the pockets or time needed to invest. And only way he is going to be happy is to settle for less.
 
64MK said:
What is the best way to interface the controls to USB/MAME?
Click to expand...
For your project I believe the iPac2 would work best...
ipac2_top[1]_o551-gg.jpg


You can also buy a 4 player version (if a Turtles cab is more your style).

This USB device will identify as a keyboard with the default MAME player keys mapped for both players 1/2.
Its better than using 2 single USB encoders for one simple/infuriating reason... Whatever USB device Windows decides to see first becomes player 1.
That means you'll be remapping keys whenever that happens (and it happens often/at boot with NO way of stop it).
 
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RealMFnG said:
Does MiSTer work with keyboard encoders?
Click to expand...
MiSTer technically supports anything their Linux kernel config supports, so yeah. (Weirdly they won't enable other common sense stuff.)

My issue isn't with the encoder, it was cutting off the stock connectors but.... I guess there's worst you can do.
 
Connectors is the least of your problem. Sounds like you don't have a crimper at all if you worried about connectors. Hope you have the tools you need to pull this off.
 
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