Space Invaders Arcade Repair Video

Watch the Space Invaders arcade repair video for more info!

Space Invaders Arcade Repair: I bought a broken one!

As you can see the cabinet is a little dusty, but otherwise in almost perfect shape!

However, the electronics and wiring (as you can see) are a giant mess! Someone has added all of these jumper wires bypassing the card edge connector completely. So bizarre!

The other problem is that it’s simply showing these bars on the screen rather than loading the game. I initially thought this was the wiring, but as you’ll see shortly there’ more to this issue.

Tools I Used to Repair this Arcade

For all those who wonder which tools I use and where to get them, here’s a handy list to go along with this video and article:

• Wire Cutters
• Fluke 117 Digital Meter
• Weller Soldering Station
• Hakko De-Soldering Gun
• Quad Hands Helping Hands
• 22 AWG Bodge Wire
• EPROM Programmer
• IC Puller

Space Invaders Arcade Repair

So it’s time to get this thing disassembled and figure out what is wrong with it. Since I don’t know what’s wrong or even why these wires are here, I decided to label them so I would have a back out plan (should I need one). Anytime I am working on something new I always try to make it as easy as possible to backup a step.

After labelling all of the jumper wires, I cut them in half. This allowed me to finally remove the board from the arcade and put it on my electronics workbench.

RELATED: Building an Electronics Workbench

Diagnosing the Space Invaders Board

With the board on my test bench, I can now begin the Space Invaders arcade repair by diagnosing the board and trying to figure out why all of these jumper wires were put in place.

I started by using my multimeter and testing all of the card edges. Although they are very worn, they seemed to all have continuity to the main board and daughterboard (or so I thought, read on).

I couldn’t figure out why all of these jumpers were on there in the first place. This Space Invaders arcade repair was a little confusing! Why had they done this?

Well, I decided to take a closer look at the card edge connector on the cabinet’s wiring harness. I almost immediately realized what was going on. It seems that whoever replaced the original card edge connector didn’t realize that space invaders need a bridged connector. Meaning that both sides of the card edge need to be bonded! So they added these jumpers because there was no signal getting to the board! Insanity!

You can see on this diagram and on our Space Invaders pinout post how the wiring is supposed to work on a the cabinet’s card edge. As you can see pin A on the solder side and pin 1 on the parts side are supposed to both be +5V. If you just apply +5V on one side of the card edge, then parts of the board may never get the +5V signal it needs to work.

Removing the Jumper Wires

So with that discovery I felt pretty comfortable removing the jumper wires from the board and wiring harness. We can just add the missing bridges.

Using my soldering iron and Hakko de-soldering gun I removed all the jumper wires from the board. I then used a swab and some alcohol to remove the flux residue.

On the wiring harness, I removed all of the jumpers, soldered the wires back together and applied heat shrink tubing.

Finally, I bridged the connector pins to transfer the signal to both sides of the board.

Repairing the -5V Line (Broken Trace)

Of course, I didn’t expect this part of the Space Invaders arcade repair to fix the game, and I didn’t. Nothing changed with the operation, but at least we can get the board in and out now!

The next thing I did was start checking that we have the proper ground, +5V, -5V, and +12V everywhere on the board we expect it to be. Missing power is a common occurrence on these old boards, and indeed I found that the -5V line seemed to be missing at the processor!

After a little poking around with the multimeter I figured out that the card edge had a broken trace that I had missed!

In order to fix this broken trace I added a bodge wire to the board.

This fixed that problem and returned -5V to the processor. However, the board still behaved exactly the same.

Space Invaders Arcade Repair – Removing the RAM Chips

The next thing I started looking at was the RAM chips. Three of the chips seemed to be misbehaving when testing with my logic probe. The I/O lines seemed to either be stuck or have static on them.

I’ve been told that due to the poor design of these boards that eventually all of the RAM chips will go bad. With that in mind I decided to simply de-solder every RAM chip and put in sockets.

Adding Sockets for the RAM

I really think any good Space Invaders arcade repair should include socketing the RAM. This is just going to make all future maintenance and repairs easier.

After soldering in new sockets, I tested all of the old RAM and found two of the chips were indeed bad. So I added two replacements that I got from an eBay auction.

Replacing the Bad 75153 Shifter

After replacing the RAM, our issue was unchanged. Or so I thought. The game would still show the bars, with the game ROMs installed. But I found when I installed the Space Invaders Test ROM it now worked!

In fact, not only did it work, it immediately identified that one of the 75153 mux’s on the daughterboard was not functioning correctly.

So I grabbed another 75153 from my parts bin and replaced both of the first two on the daughterboard (since I was not sure which one had failed).

After running the Test ROM again, I get the message shifters OK and all other tests had passed! Could this be it? Will my board work now?

Unfortunately…. No.

Replacing Failed Space Invaders ROM

I noticed on the Test ROM’s main screen that it was showing a CRC of 3F55D17E for ROMs E, F, and G. This is bizarre, since that’s the CRC of a blank ROM and as you can see in the picture, they are clearly installed and I know they are not blank!

This let me to get out the logic probe again and start testing all of the pins on the ROM chips. I noticed pretty quickly that the chip enable (CE) line on ROM E seemed to be stuck. This means it was hanging the CE line for the other chips.

I grabbed my EPROM programmer and burned a new copy of ROM E and placed it in the slot.

Working Space Invaders

And it would seem my Space Invaders arcade repair journey has come to an end in success! SPACE INVADERS WORKS!

So to recap we had to fix or replace the following items to get Space Invaders working again:

• Repair the jumper wires and properly wire the harness
• Repair the broken -5V line trace on the motherboard
• Replace the failed 75153 mux IC
• Replace the failed ROM E with a stuck CE line

I’m a huge fan of making future repairs easier. So in addition to socketing every chip I replaced, I also try to label things so future troubleshooting is easier. In this case I labeled the ROMs with their position and correct CRC.

Space Invaders Arcade Repair: Playing Space Invaders!

Of course, we can’t leave it there! We have to put this board back in the cabinet and play some Space Invaders. No Space Invaders arcade repair would ever be complete without playing a few games to test it out!

And damn is she a beauty! Look at those little Space Invaders moving around the screen shooting their little weapons at me! But they’re no match for me! Just kidding, they kicked my butt good.

Well thanks for following along with this Space Invaders arcade repair. It was a blast! Nothing gives me goosebumps like taking something so cool that obviously neglected and sad and turning it back into a diamond. What an amazing game and wonderful piece of history all back and working!

The post Space Invaders Arcade Repair appeared first on The Geek Pub.

PETSCII is the name of the character set used on the Commodore PET computers of the late 1970s. This is a play on the term ASCII which is used on most modern computer. PETSCII Robots was originally designed for and released on the Commodore PET. Of course PETSCII is used as a play on the word “pesky”. Meaning Attack of the Pesky Robots, using PETSCII characters!

Attack of the PETSCII Robots may shortly become (if it hasn’t already) the game with the most ports to the most number of platforms! It’s available on Commodore, Atari, Apple, Nintendo, Sega, and many other platforms, including numerous architectures within those brands!

The 8-Bit Guy’s “Part One” PETSCII Video

A couple of months ago, David approached me about making a PETSCII Robots arcade. Of course I immediately knew this was something we had to do! You should watch David’s video on the build before finishing this article and video. It’s a Mega Update video, but he spends some time talking about the arcade version at the beginning of it.

The Geek Pub’s “Part Two” PETSCII Video

And here’s our video on the completion of the arcade and getting it up and running at The Electric Starship Arcade.

Designing the PETSCII Robots Arcade Cabinet

I got to work immediately and designed the cabinet in SketchUp! David gave me a list of cabinets that he liked and the one he liked the most was the one used by the the game 1943: The Battle of Midway. 1943’s cabinet however, is just a standard Dynamo HS-1 cabinet.

But! We wanted to change a few things. Mainly we chopped of the top so it would be about 5 inches (13 cm) lower. This allows it to roll under any standard doorway. The second thing we needed to change was the control panel. The Dynamo has a pretty cool looking control panel with a bunch of neat angles, but unfortunately that style turned out not to be compatible with the control layout we needed for PETSCII Robots.

We went through a few iterations, changing up and softening some of the angles and dimensions. We finally landed on this design (although we significantly changed the artwork and color scheme during production).

This design looks really awesome and I think we were all pretty happy with the final version.

Building the PETSCII Robots Arcade Cabinet

Building any arcade cabinet is a weeks long project. At least for the first time I’ve built this specific design. I can usually spit out repeats pretty quickly. But let’s go through my process for a first time build.

Printing an Arcade Cabinet Template

I have an HP Latex 115 large format printer and cutter combo unit for our business. This is the printer we use to print our very popular Arcade Button Labels, our Arcade Templates, and our Arcade Skins. It prints on paper, vinyl, plastic and banner materials, while the cutter is able to do die cutting (“perf cuts”) and cut through operations.

Having this printer has made it possible to really up our arcade game. Pun intended! It allows us to make better arcades and plans, and allows us to make better products for our customers.

With the template printed, I can then place it on a sheet of MDF. I like to use 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.

Cutting out the Side Panels

My tool of choice when cutting side panels for arcade cabinets is the Jigsaw. A lot people complain about not getting straight lines when using a Jigsaw. If that’s you check out our article on why your Jigsaw isn’t cutting straight! The main thing I have found besides having a good saw in the first place (with a blade guide bearing), is to resist the temptation to go faster. Keep the saw on medium speed and just go slow. This will allow you to keep the blade aligned to the material.

After a few minutes, the first panel is ready to go!

After making the first side panel, I needed to make a copy. A lot of times, I will just lay two sheets of MDF down and cut them together. Unfortunately on this PETSCII Robots build, I didn’t have a jigsaw blade that was 1.5 inches long (38mm).

I could of course, print another template, and do this all over again. Instead, I decided to use the first side panel as a template and then cut the second panel using my router and flush trim bit. This is a super fast and easy way to make a copy of something. The bearing of the flush cut bit rides on the original side panel while the blade cuts out a copy on the fresh MDF.

Adding the Top and Bottom Panels

From here, I moved on to cutting and placing the top and bottom panels onto the PETSCII Robots arcade cabinet.

To cut the panels I always default to the table saw. But let’s be clear, you don’t need one to build this or any other arcade cabinet. All you need is the same jigsaw you used to cut the side panels. In a pinch you can even clamp on a scrap piece of wood as a guide to keep your cuts straight. Never let tools stop you from making something! Remember, it was only 100 years ago that people built some of the finest furniture known to man with only a hammer, a pocket knife, and a chisel.

Another tool I like to use is the brad nailer. Again, totally optional. But if you have one you can move along with your build faster. Brad nails act like little clamps and hold the sections together while the glue dries. They really don’t add much additional structural integrity to the build, if any. Without a brad nailer just wait an hour or two after gluing before moving on to your next step.

Grab Handles for Moving the PETSCII Robots Cabinet

This arcade isn’t a home build and will be used in commercial environments. Due to this I put some extra features on the cabinet that I wouldn’t normally put on builds for someone’s home.

Arcades move games around regularly. This is part of keeping the arcade feeling fresh and new. Games will move onto the floor and off the floor during different seasons. Additionally, PETSCII Robots may find itself moving around the country frequently visiting new arcades and venues.

For this reason, I decided to add grab handles to the back-top of the cabinet. This will be a place that someone can grab the cabinet and tilt it backwards onto the rollers (more on those in a bit).

I used a large Forstner bit to drill four holes in the top of the grab handle panel. I then connected the holes using my jigsaw. I then sanded the holes to remove any marks from the jigsaw and rounded over the edges to make the handles easier on your fingers.

Once it was complete I added it to the back-top of the cabinet. I didn’t take pictures or video, but I did box these in later to make sure little kids (or adult jerks) wouldn’t be able to drop presents into the arcade cabinet that could mess things up.

Using Cleats in Arcade Builds

One thing I use in all of my arcade builds is something many refer to as cleats (or backer blocks). Cleats are small pieces of material that connect two other pieces of material. In my case they are 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch (19mm X 19mm). Cleats not only add structural rigidity, but they also make assembly so much easier since they align each section for you automatically.

I use a combination of glue and brad nails to hold my cleats in place, though many arcade builders will use glue and screws as a substitute.

Building the PETSCII Robots Control Panel

Next step in building the PETSCII Robots arcade cabinet is to build the base of the control panel. This is another change I made from my normal home builds. Normally I would make it so that the top of the CPO just lifts off. However, since this will be used in a commercial environment it is going to need some more industrial designs.

The PETSCII Robots arcade cabinet has a locking flip down control panel that is mounted on a piano hinge and locks with latches from the inside of the arcade.

This design allows for easy maintenance by being able to open the front of the cabinet to replace LEDs or failed buttons. It also prevents any unauthorized person from messing with it. The only way to open the latches is to use the key to remove the back cover of the cabinet and open the from the inside.

Making the Arcade’s Bezel

We decided the only way to go in PETSCII Robots was a CRT. An LCD just wouldn’t have the look and feel we wanted for a game that was designed in every way to be retro!

Mike Woods at Electric Starship Arcade found an old 19″ television set and removed the bezel from it. I was able to cut the bezel’s plastic down on the table saw and then make a frame from MDF to mount it in. It worked absolutely perfectly!

I just needed to route a small slot onto the MDF for the bezel to sink into.

And installed into the arcade it looks gorgeous. You may notice some roughness on the plastic due to the machine work, but don’t worry. The entire top of the bezel gets covered by a bezel overlay graphic. You will never actually see those parts!

Making the Arcade’s CRT Mount

CRTs are big and heavy. Especially arcade CRTs since they are usually mounted in a large metal frame and beefier built to withstand the abuse they will receive over their lifetime.

To compensate for this I made sure the mount in the PETSCII Robots arcade was just as big and beefy! I used some 2×4 material and cut the round-overs off of it. Scraps from my Electronics Workbench build. I first drilled them and added insert nuts for the monitor to bolt to.

To make sure they were extra strong, I not only glued them, but also used 3 inch screws from the outside of the arcade. I countersunk the screws on the outside of the cabinet and then used “plastic wood” wood filler to cover over them. I sanded it down and you can’t even tell there was ever holes there!

Arcade CRTs have 8 slotted screw holes on them. Four on each side, and then two front and two bottom. The insert nuts in our mount will align with the slots on the CRT (more on this later).

Feet and Casters for the PETSCII Robots Arcade

PETSCII Robots is going to need to be moved. A lot! And so to make this easier, I added casters to the back of the cabinet and feet to the front.

The casters will work in combination with the grab handles we made earlier. You can tilt the cabinet back and roll it around on the floor on two wheels. The front feet will keep it stable when sitting and being played!

The casters bolt to the back of the cabinet using four 1/4-20 bolts, washers, and nylon lock nuts. The feet use insert nuts and just screw in. However, the feet were a little short, so I added a 1 1/2 inch (38mm) spacer block to give them more adjustability for really slanted floors.

Routing for T-Molding

While I had the cabinet laying on the side, I took the opportunity to route the cabinet for T-Molding. T-Molding really makes an arcade cabinet pop. I never build one without it! We also offer high quality, but affordable T-Molding slot cutters in our store. A slot cutter makes easy work of installing T-Molding on your cabinet.

Building the Back Door for PETSCII Robots

Another commercial grade arcade cabinet feature I wanted to make for PETSCII Robots was the back door. The door needs to be removeable, lockable, and have vents for air flow (there will be a fan in the bottom of the cabinet).

I used a circle jig I got from Rockler, along with a my router and a top bearing flush trim bit to make rounded rectangle slots in the back door. I also put a tiny round-over on them just for aesthetics reasons.

The Rockler circle template works best if you use double sided tape, carpet tape, or fabric tape to hold it to the workpiece. Clamps work, but then they get in the way of the router.

I bought some expanded wire mesh from a big box store and cut it into squares using some snips. I then use my staple gun and stapled them to the inside of the door. This makes for a super clean look, allows air flow with the bottom fan, and keeps little kids or a-hole adults from dropping things like candy or beer bottes into the arcade. It’s amazing what you have to plan for in commercial spaces.

The top of the back door also has a key and lock that keeps anyone from opening the cabinet without authorization.

Finishing the PETSCII Robots Control Panel

Again using my HP Latex large format printer, I printed a template for the PETSCII robots control panel. I quickly punched all of the holes to make it easier to align the drill bit properly.

I then drilled all of the holes using Forstner bits on my drill press. Again, for this without a lot of tools, a handheld drill will work fine.

Because the artwork is going to roll over the front of the cabinet, I made a round-over on the front face of the control panel to make it look better.

I then glued and brad nailed the control panel top to the rest of the control panel assembly.

The Midway Completion Point of the PETSCII Robots Arcade

And we made it to the midway point! At this point the cabinet is mostly complete from a build standpoint. We just need to paint the cabinet and start the assembly process! And damn does it look good!

Drilling for Speakers

The one last thing we need to do before moving on to painting and final assembly is to drill for the speakers. We decided to go with these 6 inch (15 cm) Kenwood speakers in the arcade. They need a 5 inch (13 cm) hole to be drilled. To do this I used my drill and 5 inch “dozer” hole saw.

Caulking the Cabinet

Caulking all of the seams in your arcade is probably the most important item that get skipped by new builders. Caulking fills all of the gaps and cracks and covers imperfections in your cuts. This is especially true if you used most hand tools in your arcade cabinet build.

I caulked all of the seams on the PETSCII Robots cabinet and the wiped them off with a wet rag to remove any excess caulking.

Painting the Arcade

Unfortunately I built this arcade right in the middle of an oil-based paint shortage. I was almost unable to find any paint at all, and there was no chance I would be able to get any compatible primer.

Because of this it became clear I would have to do this build without primer and that my first coat of paint would have to be the primer.

This is fine, it’s just going to mean a little more labor in the painting process. The paint will soak deep into the MDF and will leave it with a rough texture. Similar to what happens with dimensional lumber when people talk about “raising the grain. It just means I will need to sand between coats, and especially good after the first coat.

I went with a satin black on anywhere paint would be showing. This is mostly on the bottom of the marquee, the top, and back door.

Since we’re going with really light colors on our vinyl, I painted the side panels and kick panel white. I was afraid if I painted them black there was a possibility that the black might “bleed through” and darken then vinyl artwork. In hindsight I don’t think it made any difference, Your results may vary. I did do a final sanding anywhere vinyl would be applied for better adhesion.

A lot of people always comment on my videos and articles claiming paint is a waste of time since I am applying artwork. That is a ridiculous claim. First, look a the instructions for any self-adhesive vinyl. Every single last one of them says not to apply to bare wood. Second, I’ve tried it. Six months later I was peeling the vinyl off and painting. It won’t last. The vinyl gets bubbles and starts peeling everywhere.

Mounting the Amiga 500 Motherboard

Since this PETSCII Robots Arcade is going to be powered by the Amiga 500, we need to put an Amiga 500 into the cabinet!

I drilled holes that matched the mounting locations on the Amiga 500 and placed insert nuts into the cabinet’s electronics shelf. The Amiga is attached with 3mm nylon stand-offs & washers, and hex-head cap screws.

Rather than use the aging (and destined to burn up the Amiga) factory power supply, we opted for a Nu-Brick power supply. I drilled holes into the top of the case and mounted it to the wall of the cabinet. I also opted for these short 1 foot (30 cm) power cables to keep everything nice and tidy inside.

Speakers and Amplifier

I mounted the amplifier at the top of the cabinet, and then wired it to the Amiga 500 using RCA cables.

I always like to make custom wiring harnesses anytime I do a build. I used ferrell connectors on the amplifier side, and spade connectors on the speaker side. I always label everything to make troubleshooting easier. I won’t remember what wire goes where a year from now.

I then mounted the speakers into the top panel of the cabinet where we drilled the holes.

Making the Lighted Marquee

One thing our PETSCII Robots arcade cabinet needs is a bad ass marquee. And backlit! So I went to work on the table saw making it!

I used a special blade specifically designed to cut plastics and acrylics. This blade has a flat top and makes super smooth cuts in this material. It also won’t burn it which is a big plus for materials that like to melt! One note is I do have to disable the SawStop protection electronics when cutting acrylic as the static electricity could possible set it off. The chances are low, but its a simple key turn to save yourself a possible headache.

Next up I printed out the marquee on the HP Latex 115 and and applied it to the back sheet of acrylic. There are two sheets at play here. A backer and an overlay.

And dude. It looks amazing!

The two sheets of acrylic with the marquee sandwiched between mount into the marquee slots at the top of the cabinet using some plastic marquee trim molding. It just screws in from the top and bottom.

Wrapping up the Control Panel

Now it is time to wrap up the control panel! Pun definitely intended! Many refer to this wrap as the “control panel overlay” or “CPO”.

Installing adhesive backed vinyl really isn’t that hard. Especially when you use air-egress vinyl that makes removing the bubbles super easy. We won’t print on anything else.

I wrapped the vinyl over the sides of the control panel. This makes for a super clean look. The folder over portions are hidden when the control panel is locked in place.

With the wrap done, I added all of the buttons to it.

PCBWay and TexElec Keyboard Adapter

We needed a way to connect the joystick and buttons on the control panel to the Amiga 500. Kevin Williams over at TexElec was nice enough to design us an Amiga 500 Keyboard Matrix adapter, and the sponsor of this article and video PCBWay produced and shipped it to us. Thank you PCBWay!

This adapter maps certain keys on the keyboard matrix to the input pins on the header, allowing us to connect our control panel.

Wiring the PETSCII Robots Control Panel

The next thing we had to do is wire up the PETSCII Robots control panel to the keyboard adapter.

I made custom wiring harnesses for each section of the control panel out of CAT6 cable. I again added ferrell connectors on the screw terminal side and spade connectors on the joystick and button side. I labeled each harness to make future troubleshooting easier.

Skinning and T-Molding

Again using my large format printer, we created side panels for the arcade using air-release vinyl. We worked in sections (only removing portions of the backer at a time) and slowly installed the artwork.

On the bottom and sides of the cabinet we cut the vinyl even with the cabinet. On the top and front we left the overhang and wrapped it over.

Again, with Air-Release vinyl, removing the air bubbles is as easy rolling over them with a hard rubber roller.

The arcade T-Molding then holds the folded over portions in place and makes it really pop.

RELATED: T-Molding Tips and Tricks

Installing the Monitor, Bezel Artwork, and Acrylic Protective Glass

It was at this point that I decided to get my workout for the day and install the very heavy CRT into the cabinet. I waited till the very end to do this to make moving the cabinet easier (since it was lighter), especially knowing we’d need to tip it on its sides numerous times during the build.

The monitor just bolts in using those same four screws and insert nuts we added at the very beginning of this build

After the monitor was in place, I added the bezel artwork. This literally just lays in place. It also covers the ugly sections of the trash can 19″ TV bezel we used to make this arcade. You can’t even tell. It’s awesome!

I cut out a thick piece of acrylic sheet to cover the CRT and artwork and protect them from damage.

When you close the control panel, it locks everything in place. To change the artwork or clean the CRT glass all you have to do is unlock the control panel and open it.

Of course, the cabinet wouldn’t really be complete it we didn’t install the back door!

Moving PETSCII Robots to the Electric Starship Arcade

Mike and Brendan from The Electric Starship Arcade in Haltom City arrived just in time to pick the completed PETSCII Robots arcade and transport it Mike’s awesome arcade.

Luckily Mike has a big ass box truck with a lift gate on the back of it. That took a lot of work out of moving the cabinet to his place.

First PETSCII Robots Arcade Players

With the PETSCII Robots arcade all setup at The Electric Starship Arcade, it was time for people to start playing the game. One of the first people to play it w as the super awesome Brinley! She figured things out pretty quickly and was able to kill off a few robots before she accidently crushed herself in the trash compactor! Oops!

Next up Brendan had to give it a go. You’d think he’d be tired after the moving exercise but he had to see what this was all about!

And of course, David was on-site to welcome some of the first players and give them some pointers.

If you’d like to play the PETSCII Robots Arcade game, you can visit his page that tells the current location. As of this writing it’s still at The Electric Starship Arcade, but it may find its way to various arcades all over the country! If you’d like your local arcade to host PETSCII Robots, have their owner reach out to us to schedule its availability!

PETSCII Robots Arcade Plans Coming Soon!

There will be a set of PETSCII Robots arcade plans coming in the next month or two if you want to build your own, or you want to build a RetroPie/MAME cabinet using this design. Check back for that! Coming Soon!

The post PETSCII Robots Arcade Cabinet Build appeared first on The Geek Pub.

Watch the Cocktail Table Arcade Cabinet Build Video

We highly recommend watching the Cocktail Table Arcade Build video as many concepts are much easier to communicate in video format.

Watch our Update / Part 2 Video

Building the Cocktail Table Arcade Cabinet

Building a cocktail table arcade is similar to building any other arcade. There are some basics you need to decide up front. Are you going PC based or Raspberry Pi based? Do you want to build it out of MDF or plywood?

I chose to build my arcade using Retropie (which is Raspberry Pi based). I feel like it has the most community support and it is drop dead simple. However, the Raspberry Pi can’t play modern PC games. So if you want to play Destiny on your arcade build, you’ll need to use a PC.

I also chose MDF for my building material. I often get questioned by people on this choice. Why not plywood? It is true that plywood is much lighter making for an arcade that weighs significantly less. It is also true that plywood isn’t near as dusty as MDF when cutting and sanding it (MDF for the most part is simply compressed sawdust). However, it is much easier to get a great finish on MDF than plywood. Plywood will need some additional work to remove the woodgrain texture from it. If you plant to 100% clad your arcade with vinyl artwork this may be a moot point for you.

If you want to build this arcade we a have a very detailed set of Cocktail Table Arcade Plans available that include templates, parts lists, and all of the dimensions.

Cutting Down the Material

The first step in any arcade build is generally to cut down the material into usable sections. I started by breaking down the sheet goods. In this build there are three sizes of sheet goods needed. 1/2″, 3/4″, and 1″ (13mm, 19mm, and 25mm). However, you’ll see later I have a solution to avoid buying the larger of the three materials!

I cut the sheet goods down using a Bora saw guide. This is very handing for using a circular saw to get long straight cuts. The main thing I am doing here is attempting to get pieces that I can easily handle on the table saw. Though if you don’t have a table saw then you can use these guides to cut to exact dimensions.

I then used the table saw to cut the side, bottom, and player panels down to their final dimensions,

Pro Tip: Always label your parts as you cut them out. This will make all of the next steps much easier, faster, and less confusing.

Using Cleats for Assembly

I almost always use cleats when assembling my arcades. I just feel like this extra effort makes for a much easier and cleaner assembly process.

The cleats add structural rigidity to the build. But more more importantly they turn all of your parts into puzzle pieces that all align and go together simply. No measuring needed.

I usually cut a small piece of scrap wood that is the exact size of the spacing required. For example, if the the side panel is inset by 1/2″, then I would cut a scrap board at 1.25″. That’s the thickness of our material, plus the inset. All you need to do then is line the cleat up using the spacer and nail it in place. Again. No measuring required and a perfect fit every time!

I use a combination of glue and brad nails to hold everything together. However, brad nails are purely optional. They just act like mini clamps that hold the MDF together while the glue dries. If you don’t have a nailer, just wait 30-45 minutes for the glue to dry.

And the finished cocktail table arcade cabinet base looks amazing!

Making the Control Panels

Cocktail arcade cabinets generally have two control panels. One on each side (although some have three). In our plans, I include “spray and stick templates” that make this process very simple. Just cut out the template and use some spray adhesive to attach it to the part to be cut.

I prefer to stack the parts and use double sided tape to hold them together. This way I can cut out more than once piece at a time. I used my bandsaw to cut these parts out, but a jigsaw works just as well.

I also include templates for drilling the control panels. This makes things go really fast.

I like to use a center punch to make a divot at the center point of every hole. This gives the brad tip of the drill bit a place to catch and keeps it from wobbling away from the hole’s center when it starts turning. I recommend using a Forstner bit for this operation, but a cheap Home Depot paddle bit will work fine.

Assembling the Control Panels

1/2″ MDF doesn’t do well with brad nails. It tends to crack and/or split. For this reason I decided to just use glue and clamps. This just means I’ll need to wait about 30 minutes before moving to the next steps.

Routing for T-Molding

Before final assembly of the cocktail table arcade cabinet we need to route the components that will receive T-Molding. It’s super important we route the T-Molding slots before we assemble, because the router will not be able to reach the components after glue up! This is a mistake many first time builders make.

Mounting the Control Panels

Mounting the control panels for our cocktail table arcade cabinet takes a little thought. We need to be able to access all of the wires and have a place to pass those same wires between the two different compartments.

To start, I cut out a 2″ (~50mm) tall access port on both sides of the cabinet. This is much easier to do on the outside of the cabinet than it would be later on the inside! I used my jigsaw for this operation.

I then proceeded to carefully align the control panels, glue, and then clamp them into place. The access slots make a perfect place to pass the clamps through!

Making the Table Top for the Cocktail Table Arcade Cabinet

The table top of the cocktail table arcade cabinet is 1″ (25mm) thick. As I mentioned at the beginning of this build, I didn’t want to spring for a full sheet of 1″ MDF since that would cost a lot of money at today’s prices, and I only need just a small piece.

Instead I decided to just glue together (or laminate) two 1/2″ (13mm) pieces of MD to make a table top of the thickness that I need. This is a pretty common practice in arcade builds by the way!

I applied a liberal amount of glue to the entire top surface of one of the sheets, combed it out, and then sandwiched them together into a single larger lamination. I clamped it up and let it sit overnight.

The next day I trimmed the laminated top down to its final dimensions on the table saw and then applied my big ass tabletop template to the top of it using spray adhesive.

Cutting out the Tabletop

I cut the tabletop of the cocktail table arcade cabinet using my jigsaw. I tried to stay just slightly outside the line and then came back with my orbital sander in order to bring things back down to the line.

The finished tabletop looks amazing!

Priming and Painting the Arcade

I almost always prime my arcades with filler primer. (See Why I use Filler Primer.) Filler primer fills in all the little imperfections and when you sand it, leaves a finish smooth as glass. It’s awesome.

I then shot the arcade the arcade with flat black. All of this using rattle can paint from Home Depot. You’d be amazed how good the finish of rattle cans can be if you take your time and do it properly (using proper techniques that is).

I really like flat black finishes on arcades. Of course, it really makes no difference if you plan to clad your arcade with a vinyl graphic decal.

Installing the T-Molding

In my opinion, no arcade is complete without T-Molding. It just gives it that awesome retro-look! Be sure to check out our full line of Arcade T-Molding in The Geek Pub Store!

On our cocktail table arcade cabinet, we decided to go with our line of yellow T-Molding. We put it on the sides of the cabinet, the faces of the control pane, and around the table top. It looks amazing!

We used three different sizes of T-Molding to cover the different sizes of material. You’ll need to plan ahead unless you build all of your cabinet from the same thickness of sheet goods.

Installing the Cocktail Arcade Monitor

I bought a 4×3 CCTV monitor on Amazon and then removed the LCD panel from it. Finding the right monitor with a good viewing angle is important. It’s also a good idea to find a monitor where the panel is not glued in and can be easily removed with a few screws. You can find this info on this monitor in the plans.

Installing the the Controls and other Components

We’re in the home stretch now! Just need to install all of the components and controls for this cocktail table arcade cabinet! That includes the encoders, buttons, joysticks, coin door and of course the Raspberry Pi.

For our build we’re using the Yellow Arcade Controller Kit from The Geek Pub Store. This kit includes the large and small buttons, joystick, encoders, and all wiring. You kind the the arcade controller wiring instructions for these kits here.

I started in this case by installing the coin door. It just slides into the hole and is secured by little brackets from the backside.

Then I installed the joysticks. They screw into the back of the control panel using four screws.

The buttons are next. They just slide through the holes and are secured by a plastic nut on the backside. The encoder is installed between the buttons and the joystick. The perfect place to hide it.

Each button gets a dedicated wire that connects to each button, along with a shared wire for powering the LEDs.

Once all wired up its time to install the control panel into the cocktail table arcade cabinet. I plugged the controller into a USB outlet just to check everything lit up and and it was a success! “Let there be light!”

You can see here the final wiring inside the cabinet. I tried to do a little cable management to keep everything organized. Mounted on the left side wall as a power strip, and the Raspberry Pi.

Installing the Glass Top

Every cocktail table arcade cabinet needs a glass top. When I see builds that skip this part I always shake my head!

I sat the glass top onto the cabinet and then gave it a really good cleaning with glass cleaner. I then attached it permanently at all four corners with tabletop arcade glass clips. These are just little U-shaped clips that screw in on the bottom side of the tabletop.

The Completed Cocktail Table Arcade Cabinet

I am so incredibly happy how well the completed cocktail table arcade turned out! It beat all of my expectations. Here’s a picture of it playing Pac-Man on MAME!

The post Making a Cocktail Table Arcade Cabinet appeared first on The Geek Pub.

That case you see on Wikipedia (pictured below) is just a case some hobbyist made in their garage! There was no official Apple 1 case! This hobbyist made case was thoughtful though! It included a space for the monitor to sit, video connections via BNC connectors, and even a power plug to power the monitor! So bravo to this person for making an Apple 1 case that became iconic, even if it has nothing to do with Jobs or Wozniak!

The Apple 1 Replica: 8-Bit Guy Style

My brother The 8-Bit Guy made a replica Apple 1. If you haven’t see that video, you should definitely check it out.

It’s hard to call what David built a “replica” though. I mean it is not an Apple 1 that Jobs and Wozniak built in their garage in Palo Alto. But its also not a replica of the type you regularly see today. For example, if you look at the Replica 1, its a modern Apple 1 that only replicates the original in electrical function but looks nothing like the original. It uses modern components and completely redesigned PCB. You can call these functional clones more than replicas.

The 8-Bit Guy’s Apple 1 replica is built using only a replica of the original PCB. All of the other components are old stock and era correct. This makes his version almost original. These are the very same parts that the Steves would have sourced and used to build their Apple 1.

The Apple 1 Case: Geek Pub Style

With this in mind, I wanted to try to capture some of the old school style components of the build along with some modern styling ala the Jony Ive era of Apple design. Could I combine them together and give this Apple 1 a case that honors both the old Apple and the modern Apple? I think I can!

This case will eventually wind up in our museum at The Geek Pub. A place where it will be on display for all to see. Which means we want our case to make the Apple 1 board visible and on display. A fully enclosed case is paramount though to keep people from touching the sensitive circuitry that is very hard to find replacements for today!

Of course in Geek Pub fashion we must add something geeky to this case as well! But we will save that for the end of the article. A little surprise if you will. Let’s get to building!

If you want to see just how great this turned out, you can also watch our video on this build!

Tools Used in this Project

If you want to know more about or purchase any of the tools used in this project, here are some handy links.

Parts List for this Project

If you want to build this project, here are some handy links to the parts we used.

Some of these links may be affiliate links. If you use them they cost you nothing, but we get a small commission that helps us keep making projects like this!

Making the Apple 1 Case Frame

Our Apple 1 case will be made mostly of wood and we are going to need to cut down some boards to make it. However without spoiling things, we do want to give the modern era Apple rounded corners. This will require some woodworking trickery!

I started by using the table saw to mill down some pine boards to make the outer walls of the case. I sanded them down lightly to remove the saw marks and then cut them to length on the miter saw. As always, I like to label all my parts as I cut them.

Using these corner jigs to keep things perfectly square, I glued and clamped the sections together. The old saying that you can never have enough clamps in the shop is definitely true!

So as we mentioned earlier, all of the corners of the box need to be rounded over. That will be a problem because there’s not enough material on the corners to round them over, at least to the depth we need to go. In order to rectify that I’m going to add a couple of blocks of extra material to each corner with wood glue and then we can just cut that down on the bandsaw after it dries.

Now if I were Matthias Wandel, I would totally make a rounded box joint here!  But, I am not that cool and I don’t have enough time to go to that level. I’ll have to stick with a Steve Ramsey butt joint. A little patience will be required though! I am not going to use brad nails here, because I don’t want to be hitting those nails with my band saw. I’ll have to wait for the glue to dry!

I used this circle jig to make both the inner and outer curves.  Most of time I just use a paint can. I guess I wanted a little more accuracy this time.  Or maybe I just couldn’t find a paint can of the right size. You decide!

Over on the bandsaw I trimmed the outer curves away from the case, keeping about an eight inch away from the line. I then used my bench sander to bring the material flush with the line. I then did the same operation on the inside of the box, keeping just slightly off the line.  In hindsight I probably would have made the bocks shorter! I used the spindle sander in order to clean up the bandsaw marks and bring the material to the pencil lines.

We need a slot on the side of the box for the expansion slot.  We’ll discuss that in a bit, but for now I just marked it with a pencil and then cut it out with the jigsaw.

Making the Case Bottom

I added glue to the bottom of the case and flipped it over onto a sheet of quarter inch plywood.  The plywood is slightly larger than the bottom of the case all the way around. This way I can use a flush trim bit on the router and make it align to the sides and curves of the case perfectly!

Making the Apple 1 Keyboard Cover

I first needed to cut out the basic dimension of the keyboard. I used my table saw to do this.

Note: My table saw is a saw stop. I had to disable the safety function of the saw before cutting metal material. You also need to switch over to a non-ferrous metal cutting blade before cutting aluminum.

To cut out the keyboard I taped the template onto the keyboard, drilled a pilot hole and then used the jigsaw to cut it out.  I need to get my CNC out of storage as this would have been a great use for it!  But it just goes to show, use the tools you have. Don’t let tools be the excuse why you can’t make something!

This Apple 1 case is starting to exceed my expectations!

A Fused Power Switch for the Apple 1 Case

I decided it would be best if our Apple 1 case had a power switch that was fused to protect it from all kinds of electrical dangers. Most original Apple 1 hobbyists just plugged the little guy directly into the mains supply. Ouch!

I also wanted to have a standard IEC-14 socket on the back so that any regular computer power cord could be used with the Apple 1!

I added some masking tape, used a little wood template I made and market out where the IEC-14 fused switch would go and then cut it out with the jigsaw. The masking tape serves two purposes. It protect the paint from being scratched up by the jigsaw. But it also makes it much easier to see the pencil lines than they would have been on the black surface. Win-win!

RELATED: Why Your Jigsaw Doesn’t Cut Straight Lines

Apple 1 Aluminum Finish

Both the keyboard cover and case for the Apple 1 are going to be covered in Aluminum. Modern Apple computers seem to use a sand-blasted or soda-blasted type finish. I don’t have a sand-blaster or a soda-blaster. So in order to make this work I am going to have to use an alternate method. I found that using a 220 grit sanding disc on my orbital sander mimicked the Apple look close enough! It removes the glossiness of the aluminum but still leaves it looking like a shiny metal surface!

Before moving on to the application, I took a quick minute and cut the same slot for the Apple 1’s card edge connector into the aluminum.

After the metal was sanded and I was happy with the shine and texture, I moved to applying the aluminum to the Apple 1 case. This was a tricky procedure because I needed to bend the aluminum around the Apple 1 case and hold in place while the glue dries. For the glue I chose 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.

I once again proved you can never have enough clamps in the shop!

Finishing the Keyboard Cover

To add just a little more decoration to the keyboard cover, I added some oak strips around the outside of it (that will be painted black to match the case). This will hide the ugly plywood edges and give the keyboard itself a finished look. I just glued them on and of course since we’re not cutting it I used brad nails to hold them in place while the glue dries.

Wow does the finished keyboard cover look amazing! The black trim and the sanded and lacquered aluminum just make it pop!

Installing the Apple 1 Board into the Case

On the bottom of the Apple 1 case I added some machine screws and then put plastic stand-offs on them. This will support the Apple 1 board in the case. On top of the board, I used some washers and nuts to hold it in place.

I used the same mounting method for the transforms in the back of the case.

Apple 1 Case Wiring

To connect the wires from the switch to the transformers, I used this little four post terminal block.

I then added an RCA style connector to the back of the case and soldered it to the video leads, connecting them to the Apple 1 video header.

Finishing up the Apple 1 Case

The Apple 1 case needs some rubber feet on the bottom to keep it steady. So I added one at each corner. I also added an Apple logo to the front of the case to make it feel the part!

Since the Apple 1 computer is going to wind up in The Geek Pub museum room , I wanted to make sure the main board would be clearly visible through the top of the case. Even with the monitor on top of it. In order to accomplish that I used some 3/8″ (10mm) acrylic (aka Plexiglass) sheet.

I cut the acrylic sheet down on the table saw to the exact dimensions, then used the bandsaw and bench sander to create the curves. I found that going slow with the sander prevented the acrylic sheet from melting.

Using the orbital sander on its highest speed setting I just sanded around all of the edges and corners. Once all of the saw marks were gone, I used some red compound on the buffing wheel to bring it back its transparency.

Note: I am aware of the MAP gas torch trick to restore the transparency of acrylic. However, I don’t like this method because it just leaves waves everywhere the saw marks were -and- if you apply too much heat accidentally there is no chance of fixing it. And that’s an easy mistake to make.

Oh man! I am getting excited.  But before we fire it up we need to remove the plastic wrap from the acrylic top and place it on the case. 

The Finished Apple 1 Case

Woooooow!!! This turned out even better than I had hoped for! This case really drives home the old school + modern mashup I was going for!

A Little Geek Pub Surprise

I said I was going to add a little something geeky to this project to make it more exciting. And here it is! You really need to watch the video to get the full effect. RGB lighting!!!

Apple 1 Case Final Thoughts

What a fun project! I really really enjoyed building this and I tried to capture a lot of the different eras. So a little bit of the old school Apple world with the old school boards and the old monitor. But then also a little bit of the new aluminum style that of the Jony Ive era!

And then also got to have a little geeky with some of RGB lights????? Now the truth of the matter is… I really didn’t need RGB! However, this is going to land in the museum here at The Geek Pub and I wanted to make sure that this board was lit up! So the RGB lighting is really always going to be white or maybe a light blue. The LEDs are a way to make sure the board is nice and bright so that when visitors come to the museum they can look at it. But I thought for the video it would be really awesome to just have them go crazy!!

Behind the scenes is a little ESP-32 microcontroller running a software package called WLED.

We’ll probably see this in a few more videos! I need to do a clear screen button and a couple of other little things that just didn’t have time to do for this article and video.

The post The Apple 1 Case appeared first on The Geek Pub.

Watch the YouTube Studio Build Video

Building the YouTube Studio: Goals

As this is something I’ve been thinking about for some time, and planning off and on for a year or more, I had several goals for building my new YouTube set by the time I got around to being able to do it.

Goal 1: The set had to be very functional. I’ve seen lots of YouTube studios on other channels that are “gaudy” and elaborate, but at the end of the day they’re just not very useful.  If I have to spend 30 minutes getting it ready every time I want to use it, no thanks.

Goal 2: The studio needed to have a TV or large monitor I could place in view of the camera. In many cases it will just show The Geek Pub logos.  In other cases I can use this monitor to show artwork, extra details, or even zoomed in closeups of what I am discussing.

Goal 3: It has to be transformable. You read that right.  The set needs to be able to transform into different sets.  Should I ever decide to do different channels I’d like to be able to easily make the set look significantly different by changing the props, décor, and lighting to match a different topic. Additionally the set will be used for The Geek Bits Podcast and therefore should be able to support both close up shots and wide angle shots when three or more people are in the scene.

Goal 4: It needs to be affordable. That’s even more important with today’s ridiculous lumber prices. I can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on this. In fact, I wound up cost reducing the set after my first YouTube set design came out to be well over $1000 in just lumber.

Building a YouTube Set can be a loft goal. And indeed for some, building the set from scratch may not be an option.  But I hope you can learn from ideas what works and what doesn’t, and if nothing else help you buy the right furniture from Ikea or others.

Items Used in the Project

I’m always asked to provide links to all of the tools, parts, and materials I use in a project.  Here’s a hand set of links to everything. A few of these are affiliate links, which means if you buy the item I get a small commission. It costs you nothing, but it really helps me out.

Tools:

• Bostitch Brad Nailer
• DeWalt Cordless Jigsaw
• DeWalt XR Impact Driver
• DeWalt Laser Level
• Sawstop Cabinet Saw
• Rockler Corner Clamps

Parts and Materials:

• Samsung 50 Smart TV
• 12×12 Acoustic Foam Panel
• WS2813 RGB Led Lighting Strips
• WS2813 Wi-Fi LED Controller
• WS2113 12V Power Supply
• Staples Office Chair
• 3M Super 77 spray adhesive
• Dap Spackling
• Sherwin Williams paint: Light French Gray
• Sherwin Williams paint: Tricorn Black

YouTube Set Designs Ideas (and Cost Reduction)

My first attempt at building a YouTube Studio design was pretty ambitious.  Not from a standpoint that it would be hard to build, but from the standpoint it was going to cost more. In fact, a lot more than I had anticipated.  We’re in August of 2021 and lumber prices are through the roof. A sheet of plywood that would normally cost $25, currently costs ~$100.  So a set that requires $500 in lumber, now costs $2000.

In addition to the high cost, others who I shared the design with thought I should scale back the TVs from two, to one; and make it smaller. Relying more on props and decorations behind me for effect.  I agreed and redesigned the set to something much less elaborate.  However, I found a way to give it some punch!  More on that later.

The set design I ended up with is really pretty cool.  It’s a single 50″ TV (127 CM) centered on the wall, flanked by floating shelves on each side, and a credenza below with 14×14 boxes for decoration to sit within.

Painting and Prepping the YouTube Studio Room

Before I could get busy with construction of the set, I needed to get the room ready.  If you’ve watched our video on Buying the New Studio Building, then you know they left us the building in kind of a mess.  Lots of trash to be hauled away.  They didn’t patch or paint any off the walls where they removed artwork and just left it for us to deal with.

The walls in the studio room were painted a beigey-brown color. And it cast a yellowish tint on everything in the room.  Something I definitely did not want in my videos!

So with that I went to work patching and painting and priming all of the holes in the walls, along with scratches and scuffs.

The next chore ahead of me was to remove the ugly brown rubber base molding on the walls.  It was gross and dirty, and was definitely not going to match the new paint. Rubber base molding is typically glued to the drywall.  This means that you must be careful when removing it.  Otherwise you’ll pull the paper off your drywall.  That’s going to happen, but we need to keep the damage below the molding.  I found that pulling down on the molding and using my 5 in 1 scraper tool made easy work of an otherwise tedious job.

And with all that done, I started painting the set.  I chose the color Light French Gray from Sherwin Williams. It something better than white, gives just a tad bit of contrast to the walls, and makes for a more please appearance on camera.

Constructing the YouTube Set: Credenza Build

Next up in building a YouTube Studio set, is the credenza.  This is the piece that will form the lower backdrop of the set.  I wanted it to have some cubbies for displaying props and décor behind me.  But it also needed a place to hide some of the cabling, an Apple TV, and small PC using for controlling the TV that will be wall mounted above it.

I go into a lot more detail in the video above if you’re interested.  I constructed the credenza from 1/2″ plywood (13mm) with glue and brad nails.  To give it a nice front appearance and hide the ugly plywood layers, I built a face frame from 1×2 cabinet grade pine (25mmx50mm).

I then painted the cabinetry with a Tricorn Black from Sherwin Williams. This is a nice and dark black in their “ultradeep” series.  I thought the black would make a super nice contrast to the light gray.  I want all the color of my set coming from the items and props on display, as well as the RGB LED lighting we’re going to add later!

I decided that rather than spray the credenza I would just roll it with a foam brush.  Setting up the paint sprayer is a huge pain in the rear and I felt I could roll it just as fast. And I did. And it turned out fine.  Building a YouTube Studio set for the win!  I did use a small brush to the cut-in work though, being careful to quickly go back over those areas with the foam rollers to remove the brush marks.

Since drywall is never straight and to give it a nice clean look I installed some scribe molding between the credenza and the drywall to hide the gaps and cracks.

Hanging the TV for the YouTube Set

At this point in building our YouTube studio, we need a TV.  It will be the centerpiece of the set and be the perfect place to show off more details or photography of the current topic!

I go into all the detail of how we installed it in the video, but for brevity it’s stud mounted and all of the cables are run inside the wall for a really clean look.

Floating Shelves for the Studio Set

With that awesome TV on the set, its time to add some floating shelves on each side of it to give us some additional space to display props and décor items for our backdrop.

Floating shelves are awesome.  They look very modern, and since there are no sides there won’t be anything to block the camera, regardless of how we’re shooting that day. And with floating shelves you can do some other cool tricks with lighting!

I constructed the floating shelves out of the same plywood and 1×2 pine the credenza is made from and painted them with the same black paint.  Floating shelves just mount on pegs that are attached the wall.  I tried where I could to put the peg’s screws into the studs,  Where that was not possible, I mounted them using screw in drywall anchors.

Adding WS2813 RGB LED Lighting

The next thing I did on the YouTube studio build was to install WS2813 LED lighting under all of the floating shelves, and inside each of the twelve 14×14 boxes in the credenza.  I installed the lights on the front lips, so that the LED light would cast over the front of anything sitting on the shelf.  This of course makes it look awesome on camera.

I ran the 12v wiring for the LED lights inside the walls for a super clean look. Keep reading for the reveal.  These turned out amazing!!!!

Installing Acoustic Foam Panels

When building a YouTube studio set, one of the things you’ll need to address is echo sound deadening. Since the studio room in my case is mostly bare walls outside the set itself, I would definitely need to deal with this.  The echo was simply unbearable.

I chose to go with a 2″ thick, 12×12 tile that I got from Amazon.  And trust me, it was hard because most of what is on Amazon is nothing more than packing foam and sucks big time.

I installed a sheet of plywood on the wall first.  This is so that if I ever want to move or completely remove this panel the walls won’t be covered in glue and I can easily patch a few screw holes.  Using some 3M Super 77 spray adhesive I attached the panels to the plywood being sure to turn them 90 degrees every other tile for proper echo cancellation.

The Completed YouTube Studio Set

Oh man.  Building a YouTube studio set was a tough job, but am I ever happy with how this turned out.  You really need to watch the video to get the effect of the RGB lighting and all of the animation it can do. It’s simply amazing!

Of course, 99% of the time our set will just be with neutral white or light blue lighting.

The post Building a YouTube Studio Set appeared first on The Geek Pub.

My ultimate electronics stations finally came down to these basic requirements:

• It needs to have multiple levels for test equipment, such as power supplies, meters, and oscilloscopes, as well as somewhere to store items that are waiting on replacement parts to arrive.
• It needs a side a side table for parts bins and for small projects that are not yet complete
• It must be counter height so that I can stand or sit on a stool
• The top must be made of out of something durable (like Melamine)
• Many outlets for plugging in equipment and projects
• Excellent lighting
• A place to attach some kind of glass magnifier or a place to put a digital microscope

Beyond price, I also encountered another hurdle: Price!  These benches range from $375 to $4000+.  And for what? Some MDF and a few stamped metal pieces?  I could build my own for less than $200 and that’s at todays ridiculous lumber prices!  And to top that off, most of these electronics workbenches were really small.  Meaning I’d need to purchase two of them to get enough space.

With that in mind, I set out in Sketchup to design my very own electronics workbench!

Watch the Ultimate Electronics Station Video

Designing the Ultimate Electronics Workbench

Sketchup is usually my go to tool for designing projects made from wood. It’s super simple to use and I can rapidly iterate design ideas. So I took a quick look at all of my requirements and then began the design process.

During the layout I began to think about the materials I wanted to use to build this station.  I could build it from cheap wood, such as pine boards, or I could build it from more expensive hardwoods such as Oak.  Or I could build the frame from metal which would be very durable but also very expensive and weigh a ton.

I eventually wrapped my head around the fact that this is not “fine furniture”. It is a workbench and needs to serve that purpose. It does not need to be beautiful or elegant. It needs to be functional. With that in mind I decided to simply build the ultimate electronics station base from pine boards and the table tops from melamine.

After several iterations the design I came up with looked like this.

Material Choices

Using construction grade lumber for my electronics station means some tradeoffs. It’s going to be super cheap to build; less than $200 in lumber. While at the same time, that lumber can be frustrating to work with.

Construction grade lumber (which is almost always pine), tends to be crooked and just overall wonky. It’s next to impossible to find perfectly straight boards.  This is something I will need to deal with during the building process. 2 by X material also has rounded over corners, and rough sides.  All things we need to address during the build.

The other choice I made was to use melamine coated particle board as the table tops. This is basically the same material any store bought electronics workbench would have used. The problem with melamine board is that it is only finished on the top an and bottom.  All of the edges are bare particle board and must be dealt with.

The simplest way to clean up the edge is to use melamine edge banding. But I have to be honest, I don’t like that choice. I just feel like it never looks quite right.  Another option is to use some kind of wood strips (such as Walnut or Maple) to create a trim around the outside.  This would look really nice, but its overkill for this project.  Again not fine furniture.

So, what I do have laying all over the shop is: T-Molding. And I have it in just about every color you can imagine. I use T-Molding in just about every one of my arcade builds.  I checked my stock and I had plenty of black T-Molding in stock. So that’s what we’re going to use.  T-Molding is very durable and easy to replace if it does get damaged.  Perfect for our workbench.

Parts List for this Project

Here’s a handy parts list for those who want to know exactly what we used in this video. Some of these links are Amazon links. It costs you nothing, but if you use them we get a small commission.

Materials, Plans, and Tools

• Ultimate Electronics Workbench Plans
• 2.5″ Torx-head Wood Screws
• T-Molding
• T-Molding Slot Cutter
• Screw-In Feet Levelers
• 2″ Desk Grommets
• Bench Dogs
• Bora 100″ Saw Guide

Bench Tools and Equipment

• 10 Outlet Power Strip
• Self Healing Project Mat
• Weller Solder Station
• Hakko De-Soldering Gun
• Siglent SDS 1104X-E Oscilloscope
• Korad KA6003P Benchtop Power Supply
• HAYEAR 34MP electronics microscope
• Lab Stool

Building the Ultimate Electronics Workbench

So let’s get started with the build process.  You can grab the plans from the link above if you need additional guidance, specific dimensions, etc. (Premium Members already have access).  The plans also contain options for putting the side table on the right side, or eliminating it completely.

Cutting out the Table Tops and Shelves

Step one was to cut out the table tops. I bought two 4ft X 8ft X 3/4in melamine sheets (1220mm X 2440mm X 19mm is the common size outside of North America). I’d always recommend getting the thicker 3/4″ (19mm) material when possible.  The thinner stuff is just too thin and particle board gets very weak in the thinner sizes.

Because I was working alone on this project, I couldn’t lift these melamine sheets by myself. They are very heavy and I am getting far too old. What I decided to do was simply cut them down where they lay instead of moving them to the table saw. For some, this is the the proof that you don’t need (and I don’t even always use) fancy tools to build things. I simply placed 2 X 4 pine boards under the sheets and cut them using a hand-held circular saw and clamp on guide bar.

A pro-tip when cutting melamine with a circular saw is to cover the cutting line with a quality masking tape.  This will prevent the melamine layer from chipping off during the cutting process.

I wanted to round over the corner of the tabletop electronics workbench ends, first to make it easier to add T-Molding to it and second to make the impact of my hips into it far less painful.

I just used a gallon paint and pencil can to mark the rounder over. No need for fancy tools. I did decide to use a jigsaw blade that cuts on the down stroke in order to prevent the melamine from chipping out during the cutting process.

The final steps to finish the tops and shelves is to install the T-Molding. I used a trim router with a 1/16″ slot cutter installed and quickly routed the front edges of each of the melamine sheets.  I did not slot the backsides because they will be against the wall and not visible.

The edges if the melamine sheets are bare and need something to cover them.  I decided on T-Molding since I had a bunch of it left over in my parts bins. Installing the T-Molding is as simple as popping the T-Molding into the slot using a soft rubber mallet.  If you want to know more about installing T-Molding, you can check out our T-Molding Tips and Tricks page. The T-Molding I used from Amazon.

One thing I always like to do when making projects (especially if they are going to cross multiple days or weeks) is to label each part.  For things that are unfinished, I just use pencil.  For things that are finished and I don’t want to mess up, I just use masking tape and a sharpie to label them.

Building the the Main and Side Table Bases

Next up for our Electronics Station is to build the bases for the main and side table.

I went to Home Depot and bought the highest quality 4 X 4 posts and 2 X 4 boards that I could find.  This was not an easy task!  I did buy the higher grade lumber and that did help.

One of the major irritations of using pine studs for building things is that the edges are rounded over (fun fact, no one actually knows why this is the case, though there are some theories). These round-overs make it hard to line things up and make tight seams. So we’re going to remove them.  On the table saw I removed 1/8″ of material from each side of the board. The exception being the table runners. I only removed the top side round-over, since I wanted to have s round-over where my legs might make contact with the bench.

The posts I cut down on the miter saw.  Using a speed square I found the center and then drilled a two inch hole in the bottom of each one. In the hole I installed threaded nuts.  In these nuts I installed feet levelers.  These will make it easy to level the bench when its in its final location in the project room.

Everything is assembled using 2.5″ Torx-head wood screws. I much prefer these over slotted or Philips style screws.  They are very unlikely to round out or slip.

Painting the Electronics Workbench

To paint the electronics workbench (everything except the melamine), I picked up a gallon of “Light French Grey” paint from the local paint store. I wanted something that would have some contrast from the white melamine and also the black T-molding.  So light grey seemed like the way to go.

One thing I always get asked is “What are these little pucks you are using to hold it while you paint?”.  Those little pucks are called Bench Dogs. They’re super handy and I cannot recommend them enough.  #notsponsored.

Electrical Needs for the Workbench

In order to make room for plenty of power on the workbench I installed a 10 outlet power strip that has the outlets spaced a decent bit apart.  This will allow for the plugging of power bricks or other large things into the outlets without wasting the outlet next to it.

At various locations on the tabletop and shelves, I drilled 2″ pass through holes and added 2″ desk grommets for power, ethernet, and HDMI cables.

Equipment for the Workstation

Of course, part of what makes this electronics station ultimate is the equipment we put on it to work with. Here’s a list of everything I decided to use.

First up is a project mat. Every workbench needs one of these. It makes for a nice non-slip and non-conductive surface.

Next up is my Siglent SDS 1104X-E Oscilloscope. This is my favorite scope I’ve ever used.  I also have an oscilloscope tutorial video on using it.

RELATED: The Best Oscilloscopes for Hobbyists

Next up is my Korad KA6003P Benchtop Power Supply.

I recently bought a HAYEAR 34MP electronics microscope that has an HDMI output.  Not sure how I lived without one of these before!

Of course, no electronics workbench is going to be complete without a soldering iron.  I have a Weller Solder Station.

I also need to routinely de-solder items.  For that I have a Hakko De-Soldering gun. This thing is an absolute dream to own. #notsponsored

And last, but definitely not least, everyone needs an awesome lab stool to sit at.  This unit is inexpensive, and very comfy!

The Completed Ultimate Electronics Workbench

So here it is! The completed electronics workbench for The Geek Pub’s electronics room.

If you’d like to build this yourself, grab the plans and get started!  The plans include a complete parts list, cut list, all dimensions, and some optional features you can add (or remove) from your design.

The post Build the Ultimate Electronics Workbench appeared first on The Geek Pub.

Watch the Wall Mount Arcade Video

A Wall Mount Arcade For Everyone

In this article we will go step by step through the process of building a wall mount arcade, starting with cutting out the panels from MDF or plywood and finishing up with installing the electronic components (such as the monitor, buttons, and joysticks).  This arcade is powered by a Raspberry Pi running Retropie.  If you’re looking for more info on that we have several posts on these topics too!

If you’re looking for detailed wall mount arcade plans with cut and stick templates, we have them here!

Tools and Consumables Used

If you’d like to make this arcade and like the tools we used, here’s a handy list for you.  Using these links costs you nothing, and we get a small commission.  Thanks for your support!

Tools Used in this Project

• DeWalt Jigsaw
• Woodpeckers T-Square 24 inch
• Circle Templates
• Forstner Bit set
• Saw Stop Table Saw
• Bostitch Brad Nailer
• DeWalt 20v Router
• Router Slot Cutter Set
• Pro caulking gun
• Bench Cookies for painting
• Vaughan SF12 Soft Hammer
• Center punch
• DeWalt 20v Drill
• DeWalkt 20v Impact Driver
• Cricut Vinyl Cutter

Consumables Used in this Project

• Double sided fabric tape
• 3M Super 77 spray adhesive
• 18 gauge brad nails
• DAP black caulking
• Filler primer
• Flat white paint
• Vinyl Assortment Pack

Constructing the Wall Mount Arcade Cabinet

Let’s go step by step constructing the Wall Mount Arcade Cabinet!

Step 1: Layout the Side Panels and tape them together

We’re going to start the arcade by making the two side panels.  Because the side panels are exact copies of each other, were going to cut them out at the same time. Of course, of you’d prefer to cut them out individually, you can do that too.

I started by taking two scrap pieces of MDF I had in the garage and used double sided fabric tape to stick them together for the cut.  If you don’t have scrap pieces, just cut off a section of MDF or plywood from your source material and lay them over the top of each other.

Now that you’ve got them together, it’s time to layout the dimensions following the plan files.  Many people worry about angles when laying out arcade side panels.  I’m here to tell you there is an easier way!  If you layout the lines according to the plan files, all you will need to do is connec the dots between the lines and the angle will be created for you. It’s almost magic!

When laying out the side panels, we don’t create any curves.  All of the corners form hard angles.  Some of you will want to round over the corners for a more decorative look on your wall mount arcade.  You can do this an any number of ways.  You can use special circle jigs that you can get from places like Rockler.  Or you can use simple round things you have around the house such as a spray paint can or a socket.  I just used a 1″ socket from my Craftsmen socket set.

Set the socket up against any of the two intersections you want to round over and use a pencil to the create the arc by following the outside of the socket or other round surface.

Since these are purely for decoration you can make them as large or as small as you’d like (or completely leave them off). Make it your own!

Step 2: Cut out the Side Panels

Now it’s time to cut out the side panels of our wall hanging arcade. About the only way to do this for the average arcade builder is to use a jigsaw. Though if you had a full on woodshop you could use a bandsaw for this operation as well.  A quality jigsaw will make all the difference in how straight your lines are.

As with all operations of this type, going slow is the key to getting good quality results.  The faster you move the saw, the more likely you are to get off the line or make a mistake.

Step 3: Cut out the Rest of the Panels

I used my table saw to cut out the rest of the panels for the wall mount arcade. However, for those of you without a table saw, just keep using your jigsaw.  If you have a handheld circular saw that will do wonders as well!

Be sure to label each part as you cut it out to help you keep track of it later. Trust me. Do this.

Some of the panels have optional angles on them.  If you want to do these, you’ll need to set your saw to the correct angle as indicated in the plans. Most all saws (including jigsaws) have a setting to change the angle of the cut.  For the wall hanging cleat, I actually just oversized the board and cut it in half at a 45 degree angle to make both boards in one go. A super simple time saving step.

Step 4: Drilling the Control Panel

Before we assemble the wall hanging arcade we have two more steps to do! The first is to drill out the control panel for the buttons and the joysticks.  This can be accomplished using any number of bits such as a paddle or spade bit.  My favorite bit for this operation is called a Forstner bit.

From the plans, print out the spray and stick template.  I like to use 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. Just spray the back of the template and wave it around in the air to get it tacky.  After about 30 seconds you place it on the control panel and it will stick perfectly.

helps to use a center punch to start each hole (you can just use your smallest screwdriver in a pinch).  The spade or Forstner bit will have a brad point on the end of it that will align into this hole for a perfectly placed cut!

Step 5: Installing the Cleats (Optional)

My preferred method of building an arcade is to use cleats on the side panels to hold all of the other panels in place during assembly. This is a purely optional method, but it works very well.  If you are going to use screws (especially pocket screws), then there is no real reason to do these.  When using glue (with or without brad nails) this makes for a super easy and strong solution.

The first step is to lay them all out on one of the side panels to verify their positions and that you didn’t miss any during the cutting steps.

I took each of the cleats and applied glue to them. Then using other cleats as a spacer I positioned them in their exact locations.

Then I used my brad nailer to tack them into place. Brad nails don’t really provide much structural integrity.  At the end of the day they are just mini clamps that hold the wall hanging arcade together while the glue dries up over the next few hours.

Be sure to wipe away any glue squeeze out.  If you leave it, your panels won’t line up later because the dried glue chunks will be in the way.

Step 6: Routing for T-Molding (Optional)

The final step before assembling our wall mount arcade is to route out for T-molding. This is another purely optional step, but it really makes for a super clean finish and is very retro!

I normally use my router table for these types of operations, but for this video I wanted to show how to use handheld router, since that’s what most of you are likely to have.

They key to a good result with this type of operation is to go slow and take your time.  The faster you go, the more likely you are to jerk or misalign the router.

I routed out the side panels, the marquee, and the control panel for T-molding on this arcade.  This is your arcade, so make it your own!

Step 7: Assemble the Wall Mount Arcade

Now it’s time to assemble the arcade. This is the easiest part of the entire build.  I took each component and laid it out according the plans. I glued and brad nailed it into place.

My suggestion here is to start with the bottom panel first, and then the top panel.  Once those two are in place use a square to make sure the arcade is square and perfectly aligned.  Then install the rest of the panels.

The complete assembly looks really awesome!

Step 8: Prepping for Paint

The outcome of the finish work of any arcade is only as good as the prep work you do beforehand.  It’s important that paint has a super smooth and clean surface to lay down onto.

In order to get that super clean finish, we need to start with filling any nail or screw holes left over from assembly of the wall mount arcade. In my case a bunch of brad nail holes!

I used some spackling to fill in all of the nail holes.  I prefer spackling because it won’t leave a divot or “sink in” after it dries like caulking or some other putties might.  It also dries super fast.  I applied the spackling with finger and then used my 5 in 1 tool to wipe away the excess for a perfct smooth finish.

The next thing I did was sand the entire cabinet with my orbital sander.  And then touched up any corners it couldn’t reach with a rectangular sanding sponge.

Then after sanding I caulked any visible joints of the arcade with some black caulking I had left over from another project.  With caulk, less is often more.  Don’t put too much on or it will be a paint to clean it up.

Step 9: Painting the Wall Mount Arcade

After the caulking has dried and been sanded lightly its time to prime the arcade.  I generally like to use Filler Primer for this operation but I was completely out at the time I made this. So I just used regular Rust-O-Leum primer.  I only shot a single coat and let it dry overnight.  Plywood and MDF can really soak up the paint, so a good primer is a must!

The next morning after the primer was good and dry I gave it a quick sanding and then shot it with flat white Rust-O-Leum paint. You guys have been complaining that all I ever make is black arcades. So I made a white one!

I have a full HVLP sprayer. But I have to tell you for small jobs like this, I much prefer a rattle can.  There’s no sprayer to clean up afterwards and I can do just as good of a job.

The only thing I’d caution on with rattle cans is this: If you want to avoid runs, use lots of thin coats rather a couple of heavy coats.  You’ll get much better results.

Step 10: Installing the T-Molding (Optional)

Of course, if you decided not to do T-molding you can totally skip this step! But everyone knows that I am all in on T-molding. I love the stuff. It makes an arcade look like an arcade!

I decided that red T-molding (along with red buttons) would be absolutely gorgeous on this white arcade and let me tell you, it does not disappoint! I have an entire video on How to Install T-Molding if you want to learn more about the process of installing it.

In a nutshell, I recommend using a soft face hammer, such as a rubber mallet to do the install.  The mallet is not about forcing the molding into the track, but rather saving your hands and fingers from all of the pressing.  You’ll thank me later.

Anywhere the T-molding bends, you’ll need to notch or slot the track portion to bend around the curves. Super simple. I just used some side cutting pliers.

And people does it ever look gorgeous!

Step 11: Install the Speakers

I decided to install different speakers than I normally do for this wall hanging arcade.  These little speakers are from Drok and have a separate power amplifier.  I decided to mount them inside the marquee for a super clean look.

Unfortunately I wasn’t sure up until this step which speakers I was going to use so I waited to drill these until after assembly.  You could certainly do this step before assembly and paint.

I used a regular bit for drilling the mounting holes, and Forstner bit for drilling out the sound holes.

Step 12: Install the Marquee Light

The next thing I did was install the light for the marquee.   This is just a regular 12-inch under cabinet light I bought from Home Depot.  I just screwed the mounting brackets against the back of the arcade and then it just snaps into place.  It plugs into the quad outlet in the bottom of the arcade.

Step 13: Installing the Monitor

Installing the monitor is pretty simple. It just leans back into place.  I put some foam weather stripping down in order cause a tight seal between the monitor and the arcade cabinet.

Then the monitor simply press fits into place and is support by the cleats we installed in step 5.

Step 14: Installing the Buttons and Joystick

I include two templates with the arcade for the control panel.  A single-player template and a two-player template.  For this build I chose the single player template.  It’s just a simple matter of dropping the buttons in place and screwing the nuts on the backside.

I normally like to screw the joystick down using wood screws from the back side of the arcade.  However, since the wall mount is too small to get a drill under, I decided to use exposed machine screws on this build.  I might change these out at some point with some red anodized ones if I think about it.

And let me tell you.  I love the color theme of this arcade.  All of the red and white just looks amazing!

Step 15: Rear Cable Management

I really wanted to clean up all of the messy cables in the wall mount arcade. I decided on using some plastic cable clips to route all of the cables in a single bundle around the edges of the cabinet.

Since this arcade is super thin in the spirit of wall mounting it, there isn’t much room for cables to stick out the back of it. In order to solve for that problem I added a 90 degree HDMI adapter to the back of the monitor to keep it from interfering with the wall.

And with everything in place the cable management really turned out nice!

Step 16: Making the Mushroom Marquee

I wanted to make a super special Marquee to go along with this awesome color scheme.  I decided on a Geek Pub logo along with some super awesome mushroom dudes reminiscent of my all time favorite game.

I started by taking some plexiglass (acrylic sheets) cut to the right dimensions and laminated one of them with some white vinyl from my Cricut vinyl cutter. I used a razer knife to cut it to size and then a random gift card to squeegee out the bubbles.  Some of the stubborn bubbles I popped with a needle.

Then I used the Cricut to cut out my logo.

And then I made some awesome mushroom dudes on the Cricut.  This was a four layer process.  Each component being cut and applied separately.

And wow was I happy with how these turned out!  This marquee is going to totally rock!

Step 17: Installing the Marquee

The marquee simply slides into place in the marquee slot at the top of the wall hanging arcade. To keep it from coming out, I added two little decorative trim pieces, on each end.  This allows servicing if needed but will otherwise hold it permanently.

This is definitely my favorite marquee of all of my arcades!  And I thought it was going to be hard to get a decent size marquee on a wall hanging arcade!  So excited with this version!

The Completed Wall Mount Arcade Cabinet

I could not be happier with how this arcade cabinet turned out!  It is absolutely gorgeous in every single way.  If you want to make this wall hanging arcade, you can grab the plans here.

The post Make a Wall Mount Arcade appeared first on The Geek Pub.

Watch the Tabletop Arcade Video

A Smaller Tabletop Arcade

In order to maximize our space savings for this arcade cabinet, we’re not only going to use a smaller 4 X 3 monitor, we’re going to liberate the LCD panel from the monitors case.  This will allow us to save about another inch (~25mm) from the width and two inches (~50mm) from the depth of the arcade. This is a significant savings!

Parts List for this Project

If you’d like to build this project yourself, here’s a handy parts list to get you started:

• 1/2 sheet of 3/4″ MDF
• 4:3 LCD monitor
• Raspberry Pi 3
• Raspberry Pi power supply
• HDMI cable
• EasyGet arcade controls (Sanwa style)
• Power receptacle w/switch & fuse
• Cooling fan
• Mountable USB ports
• Buttons for LCD menus
• USB speakers
• T-Moulding
• Rust-Oleum filler primer
• Rust-Oleum flat black
• The Geek Pub Tabletop Arcade Plans

And here are some of the tools I used in this project:

• SawStop cabinet-style table saw
• Shop Fox 12″ disc sander
• DeWalt jigsaw 
• Center punch
• Bosch router
• T-Moulding router bit
• Irwin clamps
• Bostitch brad nailer
• 1-1/4″ brad nails
• 220 grit sandpaper
• Cricut vinyl cutter

Liberating the LCD Panel

When I originally spec’d and bought this monitor, it never occurred to me that LCD panels would be glued into the bezel.  Well, it turns out they are. When I opened the case of the monitor I was very disappointed at what I saw. However, I then did some research and found out that this is a new trend in monitor construction and it might be difficult to find a monitor that was not glued in.

The second thing I discovered is that simply buying the LCD panel is two to three times the price of buying a monitor and just gutting it! Ridiculous. I need my tabletop arcade to be somewhat affordable after all!

So first things first, I removed the back cover. This requires just removing three screws and then using a couple of screwdrivers to pop it open by going around the bezel.

After that, I just unscrewed and removed all of the components inside the monitor.  We’ll need to save all of these. They’ll get added to the inside of our cabinet in just a bit. If you bought the same monitor for your arcade, you should have four boards (still wired together).

• LCD main board
• LED backlight driver board
• Front panel buttons board
• IR receiver board

Removing the LCD Panel from the Bezel

The good news is, removing the glue actually turned out to be super easy. All it took was a couple of flat tip screwdrivers and a little scraping. It was surprisingly easy to do!  This is great because I wanted this to be a simple project anyone could do.

Just use a few different sizes of flat tip screwdrivers and slowly work around the edges of the LCD panel scraping away the glue. Once you get it all removed the LCD panel will simply lift up from the bezel. After that, I just went around the bezel with a razor knife and removed any remaining gunk.

Laying out the Tabletop Arcade

Next up I laid out the components on the MDF and came up with the mounting locations for the LCD, joystick and buttons. This took a bit of time to get everything sorted out where it would feel comfortable to play and still meet my strict size requirements (smaller the better!).

The thick outer lines are simply a reference I used for the cabinet walls underneath. This way I could make sure I didn’t do something dumb like put the buttons where the walls were!

The good news you don’t have to do any of this, as you don’t have to do any of this, because I put everything into SketchUp and Adobe Illustrator and created an awesome set of Tabletop Arcade Plans you can use to make quick work of this.

Just print them out and glue or tape them to a sheet of MDF and cut/drill away.

[button link=”https://www.thegeekpub.com/product/tabletop-arcade-cabinet-plans/” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Get the Tabletop Arcade Plans HERE[/button]

Cutting out the Arcade Parts

Next up I used my SawStop table saw to cut out the main section. One thing I’d like to point out though is that you don’t need expensive tools to make this project! I have received a variation of the following commend at least 100 times on my other arcade videos: “Well, if I had your tools I could make this too.  This video is useless.”. The truth is quite the opposite though. The only tools you really need to do this project are a jigsaw (an quite honestly, a $12.99 Home Depot handsaw would work too!), and drill. Everything else is completely optional.

I used my 12″ disc sander to round the corners. You could use a jigsaw or a hand file for this as well. I like the disc sander because it gives me very precise control over the finished product and a super smooth edge. I do follow this procedure up with a little 150 grit sandpaper just to make it smooth since I am running 60 grit on the disc sander.

To cut out where the monitor goes, I used my DeWalt jigsaw. It’s the best jigsaw I have ever owned, and it is not even battery powered!

RELATED: Why your Jigsaw won’t Cut Straight

It’s super critical that you go slow here and make sure you get these lines as straight as possible. I actually made a slight error in two places and couldn’t figure out why I was struggling. After it the cut was finished I realized the blade was bent! Ugh.  Well its good enough not to redo.

Drilling the Joysticks and Buttons

Next up I used my templates from the plans and some spray adhesive to prepare for drilling the holes. Without the template this is quite the pain to measure out.

I centered punched the holes using my trusty punch. This makes it super easy to align the Forstner bit (or a paddle bit) to the template and drill the holes. I highly recommend you use a waste-board behind the top pane to keep the wood from blowing out during the drilling process.

Reverse Counter Sinking the LCD Display

This part it completely optional, but I felt it would make the completed tabletop arcade look more finished. The MDF is 3/4″ thick. That’s a long way for the LCD panel to sit below the tabletop.

Using some 1/8″ strips of plywood and some carpet tape to hold them in place, I used my router to reverse countersink the LCD display about 1/2″ into the MDF.  Then I used a 1/8″ round-over bit to finish the top side of the new MDF “bezel”.

Slotting for T-Moulding

Our awesome tabletop arcade build must have t-moulding! T-moulding just has that awesome retro-look that!  I’ll put t-moulding on both the table top as well as the side sections.  I used a router with a t-moulding slot cutter.

Tabletop Arcade Assembly

Over on the table saw I cut out the rest of the base.  I needed a front section, back section, and two sides.  I cut out the two sides together. This is both convenient and time saving, but also makes certain the sides are identical.

Next up I had to drill out the buttons for the back panel, and cut the power/fuse/USB ports. I’ve made this super simple with an awesome stick on template you can use.

Lastly, we need drill the holes for the speakers. Again, super simple with a spray and stick template.

The finished product looks like it was made in a factory.  If you don’t use my templates, you could also do this on a CNC machine.

Finally its time to join all of the base sections together into a completed base. I used glue to join the sections and some Rockler clamps to keep everything lined up.  Once it was together I tacked it with some brad nails.

People often assume brad nails are for structural integrity. That’s actually not the case all.  Brad nails are fairly weak and pull out very easily. Brad nails are only there to keep the sections together while the glue dries. Another example of why the “If I had your tools” myth needs to die. Brad nails allow me to go faster and move on with the project without waiting 24 hours for the glue to dry.  In other words, brad nails are completely optional and if you don’t have a nailer, you just need a little more time.

And my Major Screw Up…

And this is where I made my huge mistake.  All of this work to get to this point to ruin the whole project?  Thankfully not.

What I did was glue the base on upside down. Ooops.  I was in a hurry with dinner cooking and family over and just needed to get this one last step complete. In my hurry I put the base on upside down!

I didn’t realize my mistake until about 10 minutes later. I’d already put the camera and lighting away. Off camera I quickly popped the base back off (luckily the glue hadn’t completely set yet) and flipped it over.  I let the glue dry overnight and the sanded off the glue on the bottom of the base. All is well!

[button link=”https://www.thegeekpub.com/product/tabletop-arcade-cabinet-plans/” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Get the Tabletop Arcade Plans HERE[/button]

Painting the Tabletop Arcade

Next up we need to paint our tabletop arcade!  When building things from MDF I like to use filler primer.  Filler primer is just like it sounds, it fills gaps and imperfections in the material. It goes on a little rough and leaves a bit of a texture, but just 5 minutes with 220 to 320 grit sandpaper and its silky smooth and the MDF will look like glass. It’s fantastic!

I painted the tabletop arcade with Rust-Oleum flat black. It goes on looking very glossy, but after it dries its got a very retro flat look to it.

One question I get a lot is why not use my HVLP sprayer?  Honestly? It’s a giant pain in the ass and I can get close to perfect results with a rattle can. I just tend to go that route on smaller projects and save the HVLP sprayer for the big stuff.

Installing the T-Moulding

Installing the T-Moulding is a pretty simple task. I like to use a little rubber mallet and just tap it into place. Try to drive the T-moulding in straight and not an angle. If you get too far off center you will damage the track and have to start over with a new section.  How do I know? Yep. I’ve screwed it up before!

When you get to the end, use a very sharp razor knife to cut the t-moulding, using the ends as alignment tools. If you do it right, it should make an almost invisible seam.

Installing the Tabletop Arcade Electronics

First up on the list is to install the monitor. It just sits in the recess that we routed out earlier. However, its going to need something to hold it in, and we’re going to to need a place to mount the guts of the monitor.  We’ll handle this in one step!

I cut a 3/4in by 12in piece of plywood out and added some double-sided tape on the bottom of it.  This will will sandwich the monitor in place.  The double-sided tape doesn’t support the monitor, its just there to keep it from moving or wiggling when the arcade gets some abuse.

I mounted the LCD panel controller board and LCD backlight driver board on this same bracket. It’s the perfect location. I used some 1/8in plastic stand offs between the boards and the bracket just to provide some clearance.

I used a similar mounting method for the LCD panel’s power supply.

I went ahead and mounted the joystick at this point. Mostly because I would need to work around it with everything else and wanted to make sure it had plenty of room.

The instructions for the joystick say to use through hole carriage bolts, but I think those look just tacky as as can be, so I use #8 X 1/2in screws from the underside.

I used this IEC-13 power receptacle that has a switch and fuse. This is going to be my new method going forward for all of my arcades.

I wired the IEC-13 power connector to a single-gang box.  Be sure the ground wire is connected to this box as well as the outlet!

Next to the power outlet is the perfect spot to place the Raspberry Pi 3 B+!  Again, I used some small plastic stand-offs to lift the board off the wood and give it plenty of clearance.

I use these awesome little USB powered speakers in most of my arcade builds. They rock because they sound pretty good and they are powered via USB. This eliminates the need for amplifiers or additional wiring. Of course, you can certainly install better speakers if you like.

There is a powered USB port on the back of the monitor’s control panel. This is the perfect place to get power for our USB speakers!

Speaking of USB, one thing I like to do is play console games on my arcade. Having some external USB ports makes this super easy. So I installed these surface mount USB ports on the back of the arcade. Perfect place to plug in my Atari and Nintendo clone controllers.

Installing the Tabletop Arcade Buttons

I used my Cricut vinyl cutter to create the numbering and lettering for my arcade buttons. You can make all kinds of cool designs, but I just went with standard numbers, ST, and SE (for Start and Select).

Then I set each button into place on the tabletop arcade to make sure everything looked right.

The buttons are secured on the backside of the arcade with plastic nuts. Just tighten them down until they won’t move when smacked around (cause you know they will be smacked!).

Last up, I connected all of the buttons to the EasyGet controller board.  This board just plugs into the Raspberry Pi via USB.

Connecting the LCD Front Panel Buttons

The monitor had 5 front panel buttons on it.  These were Auto, Menu, Power, Up, and Down. They are what allow you to configure the monitor, change its inputs, and reset it if something goes wrong.  I wanted to keep these, but I didn’t want to have to turn the arcade upside down in order to do it.

To make it easy, I added 5 new push buttons on the back of the tabletop arcade cabinet. These are just pin for pin soldered to the original control panel’s circuit board.  This brings all of monitor controls to life on the back of the arcade!

[button link=”https://www.thegeekpub.com/product/tabletop-arcade-cabinet-plans/” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Get the Tabletop Arcade Plans HERE[/button]

The Finished Tabletop Arcade Cabinet

And that completes this awesome tabletop arcade cabinet.  As usual, the artwork I ordered didn’t make it here in time, so I just put my name and “tabletop arcade” on the front of it to give it some flair for the video!  I hope this inspires you to make your own tabletop arcade!

We also have a great tutorial on installing and setting up RetroPie here.

[button link=”https://www.thegeekpub.com/product/tabletop-arcade-cabinet-plans/” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Get the Tabletop Arcade Plans HERE[/button]

The post How to Make a Tabletop Arcade Cabinet appeared first on The Geek Pub.

We will step through this build in 4 phases of construction:

• Voltage Step Down – First thing we have to do is step the voltage down from 120 volts AC to something low enough we can work with.  In our case we’re going to step down the voltage to 12 volts AC.
• Rectification – After stepping down the voltage to 12 volts AC, we need to convert it to DC or direct current.  We will do that by building a super simple full wave bridge rectifier circuit.
• Filtration – We want to make sure this circuit is stable and not producing ripple.  We will add some capacitors to solve this problem.
• Voltage Regulation – Finally, we want to ensure our circuit outputs a consistent voltage, even if the power from the mains is not stable.  Additionally, we need to step down our voltage from 12V to 5V.  We will do that with a LM7805 voltage regulator and heatsink.

If you’re new to electronics we have a ton of resources to help you get started.  As we go through this tutorial we will link quite a few additional resources in case you need some help.  You might start with our tutorial called “What is voltage?”  Another great way to step down voltage for small loads is to use a voltage divider.

RELATED: Voltage Divider Calculator

Parts List for this Project

Here’s a han dy parts list for this project to get you started:

• 120V to 12V step-down transformer
• 1N4002 rectifier diodes
• LM7805 voltage regulator
• Heatsinks for regulator
• 10uF electrolytic capacitor (x2)
• .1uF ceramic capacitor
• Breadboard
• Breadboard wires
• USB cable

You might also be interested in our guide to buying your first multimeter, and picking an oscilloscope.

Another thing you might want to consider, depending on the nature of your project is that there are more efficient circuit designs out there for USB charger circuits that utilize semiconductors and switching.  I chose not to use those for this project because 1) I didn’t have any in my parts bin, and 2) it would be much harder to understand.  This tutorial is about learning the basics of how this stuff works.

USB Charger Circuit Tutorial Video

The Schematic and Diagram

The following is a schematic and Fritzing style wiring diagram that should help you build this circuit.

Stepping Down the Voltage

The first thing we need to do is to convert our wall outlet, or mains voltage down to something that is both safe for us humans and something that in a range that our components can work with.  This will require a step-down transformer.  The one we’re going to use converts 120V AC down to 12V AC. If you live in other countries where the standard voltage is 220V AC, the only thing in this project you’ll need to change is the transformer.

I used this 120V to 12V transformer that I had laying in my parts bin.  Its capable of up to 2 amps.

One thing to note, you could also used a 120V to 24V transformer, or a 120V to 9V transformer.  The important part is to make sure you voltage regulators input side can work with whatever your input voltage is.  In my case, I am using an LM7805 that supports an input voltage of 8V to 25V.

The closer you can be to that lower number the more efficient your circuit will be.

Rectification

After stepping down the voltage to 12V we’re in good territory, but we’re still AC.  Our USB charger circuit needs to be DC!  To do that we’re going build a full wave bridge rectifier circuit.

Rectification removes the negative portion of the AC waveform. A full wave bridge rectifier circuit is built using four diodes. As you know, diodes only allow current to flow in one direction. In first half cycle of the AC waveform, diodes D2 and D3 are forward biased whole diodes D1 and D4 are reversed biased.  In the second half cycle of the AC waveform, diodes D1 and D4 are forward biased, while diodes D2 and D3 are reversed biased.

Simply put, what happens during this process is that the negative portion of the waveform is converted to positive!

RELATED: How Diodes Work

However, at the end of the day, this still isn’t a DC circuit and not clean enough to feed to our USB devices.  We need to do a couple more things.

One additional note before we move on. You can buy off the shelf bridge rectifiers. But I think its important for everyone to build their own at least once so they can learn how they work. The off the shelf rectifiers are ultimately nothing but diodes in a single package.

Filtration

We need to get this waveform flattened into a true DC as we’re still not quite in true DC territory yet with all of this ripple in our waveform.

We will solve this by adding filter capacitors to the circuit. These filter caps will go on both sides of a voltage regulator. They will charge until the oscillation reaches its peak, and then as the oscillations fall low, the capacitors will discharge into the circuit flattening out the oscillations and creating DC.

It’s a very simple fix.

Voltage Regulation

We’re almost finished building our USB charger circuit! The last thing we need to do is add a voltage regulator to keep the voltage stable at 5V for our USB devices to consume.

Without voltage regulation, our 5V could rise up or fall down as the AC input changes. This could happen if there was a power spike or a brown out. That could have disastrous effects on the device we intent to power.

RELATED: How Voltage Regulators Work

The voltage regulator also solves another problem for us. It lowers the 12 volts we’re getting from the transformer down to 5 volts.  Voltage regulators can generally handle a wide range of varying input voltages.  The LM7805 that I chose can handle anywhere from 8 volts to 25 volts on the input side. The closer your transformer’s output to lower number on your regulator, the better the efficiency will be and the less heat the voltage regulator will produce.

As you can see now on the oscilloscope, we have a perfectly stable 5 volts for our devices to consume (5.96 without any load on the circuit is normal).

RELATED: Oscilloscope Tutorial

Some Final Thoughts on this USB Charger Circuit

There are some final thoughts I’d like to share with you about this USB charger circuit and its design.

It is not the most efficient design for a USB charger! Yep. That’s right. There are far more efficient designs that use semiconductors and switching techniques. However, those circuits are almost like magic and they don’t serve the purpose of teaching very well. The entire purpose of this circuit tutorial was to show the steps you need to go through to convert mains AC down to a regulated 5 volts that a USB device can consume.  Showing a a chip with two wires in and two out doesn’t teach much.

The post Building a USB Charger Circuit appeared first on The Geek Pub.

The Commodore line of 8-bit computers used a disk drive called the Commodore 1541 (later the 1571 and 1581).  This venerable drive is a classic and deserves to be treated us such.  However, it’s also not all that reliable these days as its age is catching up to the components. In fact, many of the Commodore 1541’s components are no longer available at all. For this reason, I try to use mine as little as possible and keep it as more of a showpiece in my museum.

Why Choose the Pi1541?

There are other drive emulators out there.  In fact we wrote the SD2IEC Manual (Unofficial Manual) a couple of years ago, a very popular page on our site.  The SD2IEC is simple “emulator” that allows you to read and write SD cards on the C64.   I put emulator in quotes, because the SD2IEC is not a true emulator, rather it emulates some functions of the 1541 based on commands passed to it.  This can be a problem, since anything that attempts to change code in the 1541 will fail to work.  This means many copy protection schemes, fastloaders, and other such utilities are simple not going to function on the SD2IEC devices.

The Pi1541 is a Real 1541 Emulator

The Pi1541 on the other hand is a true Commodore 1541 emulator! It uses a copy of the original ROM images from the Commodore 1541 and a full 6502 emulator to present itself to the computer as a true drive in every way. Due to this, everything works with 100% compatibility, including all fastloader routines, copy protection systems, and the like. It just works.  In fact, it works with the EPYX fastloader cartridge also, one of my favorite C64 fastloaders!

In addition to being a full emulator, it has a hardware LED, and piezo buzzer to provide the sights and sounds of the drive working, along with an OLED screen for browsing SD card images.  Oh! Did I mention you can 3D print some awesome retro cases to put it in?

So today, we’re going to build a Pi1541!

Building a Pi1541

Let’s begin the process of building our Pi1541.  First let’s make sure you have all of the parts you need to get started.  Here’s a handy Pi1541 parts list to get you started:

• Raspberry Pi 3
• Raspberry Pi power supply
• I2C OLED screen
• 8GB micro SD card
• Momentary buttons
• Copper breadboards
• Red LED
• 220 Ohm resistor
• Passive Piezo buzzer
• I2C safe logic level converter
• Assorted 22 gauge wire
• 6-pin DIN connectors

Some Optional Parts and Tools

• JST connector kit w/crimper
• QuadHands helping hands
• Weller solder station
• .6mm Fine solder for circuit boards

If you plan to 3D print your case, you can get the files on Thingiverse.  If you don’t have a good 3D printer, here’s the one we use and have had great luck with.

Pi1541 Build Video

Prototyping the Pi1541

The first thing I did before building my Pi1541 is to simply prototype it on a breadboard to make sure everything actually works.  This is a simple way to find mistakes and test ideas before putting the Pi1541 on a soldered board which is much more difficult to change after the fact.

It’s also important to note that as of this writing, only the Raspberry Pi 3 and 3B+ are supported by Pi1541.  The RPi 4 is not yet supported and there is no timeline for supporting it (if ever).

Pi1541 Wiring Diagrams

The Pi1541 comes with a wiring schematic that is decent enough to follow.  However, I know so many people prefer simpler Fritzing style diagrams for these types of projects.  So in order to make this project as simple as possible for you to replicate, I’ve provided both.

Pi1541 Wiring Diagram (Fritzing style)

If you’d like to just create the Pi1541 on a breadboard (or you just find Fritzing style diagrams easier), you can use this simple diagram to get you started on your project.

Pi1541 Schematic Diagram

This is the official Pi1541 wiring schematic for this project.  Note that the official schematic does not show connection of the OLED display.  If you decide to use an OLED or LCD display, connect the OLED displays’s pins as follows:

• OLED SDA to Raspberry Pi PIN 27
• OLED SCL to Raspberry Pi PIN 28
• OLED VCC+ to 3.3V rail
• OLED GND to Ground

You will need to make a change in the options file to enable this, covered later in this tutorial.

Building the OLED and Switch Board

The first part I tacked was building the circuit board that will hold the Pi1541’s OLED display and its hardware control buttons.  I used the circuit boards listed above and scored them with a razor knife, snapped them, and then finished off the rough edges with a little sandpaper.

On the back of the OLED circuit board, I simply jumped all of the grounds together to make it simpler to wire.  It might not be the most elegant solution, but It works just fine.  The final wire is tied to a common ground.

To make wiring everything to the Raspberry Pi simpler, I decided to use JST connectors.  This simply slide over the header pins of the Raspberry Pi‘s GPIO header and makes things clean and simple.  You can find links in the parts list above.

The Commodore 64 and most other Commodore machines use 5 volt serial lines.  This was very common in the 1980s.  Today, most everything uses 3.3 volts. The Raspberry Pi uses 3.3 volts for all of its GPIO pins.  In order to keep the C64 from frying our Raspberry Pi, we need include a Logic Level Converter between them.  A logic level converter translates the voltages between the C64 and RPi to make sure everything works.  I also put a JST header on the logic level converter so that I could simply and quickly attach my custom C64 serial/IEC cable.

Since many of the wires in the schematic above go to common terminals such as 3.3 volt, 5 volt, and ground, I decided to make an additional circuit board to provide common headers.  I also used this board to hold the passive Piezo speaker that the Pi1541 uses to make drive track movement noises.  I simply hot glued this to back of the case.  So let’s talk about the case next!

3D Printing the Pi1541 Case

Next up we need a case to put this Pi1541 into and make it look the part.  To do that, I used files from Thingiverse.  Eventually, I am going to remix this case and change some things to suit my liking.  For one, I am going to eliminate the large hole in the back of the case and replace it with a hole designed for a wire and grommet to pass through.  It works fine for now.

The thing I most like about this Pi1541 case is that is looks like the 1541-II that Commodore released a few years after production of the new C64C.  It looks great!

Installing the Pi1541 Firmware

Installing the Pi1541 firmware is a completely different process than setting up the Raspberry Pi for Raspbian.  This confuses a lot of first time Pi1541 users.  In the case of the Pi1541, Raspbian is not loaded onto the Pi! In fact, the Pi1541 software becomes the operating system for the Raspberry Pi, replacing Raspbian.

Software You Will Need

You will need to download the following software:

• The latest version of the Pi1541 software
• The latest Raspberry Pi Firmware (note this is not the same as Raspbian)
• Latest version of the Vice emulator (to get the 1541 ROM files)

Pi1541 File System Must be FAT32

The first you need to do is obtain an 4GB or 8GB micro SD card.  You can use a larger micro SD card, but you will need to partition it to only 8GB or less.  This is because the Pi1541 needs to be a FAT32 file system.  It will not boot from exFAT.

Using the SD card formatter, create a FAT32 file system on your micro SD card.  The most common reason that setup fails when building a Pi1541 is because the file system is formatted as something other than FAT32 (exFAT, NTFS, etc.).

Building the Pi1541 Micro SD Card

Now that we everything ready, build the Pi1541 micro SD card as follows:

1. Unzip the Raspberry Pi firmware file into a temporary location on your hard drive.
2. From the firmware\master folder copy the following three files into the root of your micro SD card: bootcode.bin, fixup.dat, and start.elf
3. Unzip the Pi1541.zip file into the root of your micro SD card.  This should create a folder called 1541.
4. Unzip Vice to a temporary folder on your hard drive.
5. From the vice-3.x\DRIVES\dos1541 folder in Vice, copy the file dos1541 to the root of your micro SD card and then rename it to d1541.rom (note that you could also substitute jiffy.bin if you are using jiffyDOS).
6. From the vice-3.x\C64 folder, copy the file chargen to the root of your micro SD card. This is the Commodore font.
7. Place any .d64 images you’d like to use inside the 1541 folder.  You can also create folders to organize your files (ie games, utilis, etc.).

With the micro SD card ready to go, place it into your Raspberry Pi connected to an HDMI monitor and plug in the 5V USB power connector.

You should almost instantly be greeted with the Pi1541 home screen on your monitor.

Enabling OLED Screen Support

It’s practical to have the Pi1541 connected to an HDMI monitor all the time, even though there are some fantastic bits of information it shows on the screen.  The better option is to attach an OLED or LCD screen to your project.  If you decide to do so, you’ll need to make a change to the options.txt file in the root of your micro SD card to enable the screen.

uncomment the following line by removing the two forward slashes from it:

[code language=”bash”]
//LCDName = ssd1306_128x32
[/code]

This works with OLED screen we’re using in this project.  If you’re using a different screen, uncomment the line that matches your screen.

Additionally, if you’re following our wiring diagram above, you’ll need to uncomment the following line to configure Pi1541 to use our alternate I2C pins (27/28 rather than 3/4).

[code language=”bash”]
//i2cBusMaster = 0 //SDA – pin 27 SCL – pin 28
[/code]

Lastly, you’ll probably want to uncomment the following line in order to enable the CBM native font (which just looks amazing!).

[code language=”bash”]
//ChargenFont = chargen
[/code]

Final Assembly of the Pi1541

Once you’ve got the firmware loaded and you’ve tested everything, its time to begin final assembly.  If you’re using the same 3D printed Pi1541 case that we chose, you’ll just need 6 small screws from Amazon or Home Depot.

About the only hard part of final assembly is carefully tucking all of the wires into the Pi1541 case without damaging anything.  If you used the JST connectors like I did, it helps to feather all of the wires into place after making your final connections.

Using the Pi1541

Using the Pi1541 couldn’t be much simpler.  There are five buttons across the front of the device.  These buttons are for operating the drive emulator.

• SELECT / START EMULATION – This button selects a folder (and opens it), or selects a disk image to start emulating.
• MOVE UP – Moves the cursor selection up one row.
• MOVE DOWN – Moves the cursor selection down one row.
• EXIT / BACK – Exits the current folder (back up one level).
• ADD DISK TO SET – For adding disk images to a multi-image set. Handy for games that use multiple disks.

If you’ve correctly placed all of your disk images (some people call them ROMs) into the 1541 folder, you should be able to push the select button on the 1541 folder and see all of your games.  use the up/down buttons to scroll through the list and finally hit the select button to mount the image and start emulation.

If you used folders, use the back/exit button to go up one level.

Trying out the Pi1541

Now we’re ready to use the Pi1541 to do what we all love best, play some amazing 1980s retro 8-bit games in all of their glory!  I started out by playing Jumpman.  It turns out I really don’t remember how to play this game and totally sucked at it!

Next up I tried Spelunker, I am so much better at that game.  Spelunker was one of my all time favorite games on the C64.  I played it for hours on end as a teenager.

The Pi1541 is 100% emulation of a real 1541. It even supports all of the LEDs and drive noises you’d expect to hear out of a real 1541 disk drive!

Some Things I Would Do Different

If I were to rebuild this Pi1541 there are just a few minor things I would change or do different:

• I would reprint the case in high resolution mode.  I used draft mode to save time and there are pretty ugly spots.  Draft mode took hours off the print job though.
• I would remove the large hole in the back of the case and replace it with a hole for the wire and a grommet.
• I would make a single 40 pin header with the JST connectors making it a single connector to the Raspberry Pi.  This would make the Pi easy to remove and replace without rewiring every time.

Well I hop you enjoyed this article and our fun Raspberry Pi1541 build tutorial!  If you run into any problems or have any questions, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to help you out!

[adinserter block=”5″]

The post Pi1541 Build appeared first on The Geek Pub.