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Design &
Construction |
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I have had the idea for a control
panel with build in computer for quite some time. I really need
something that fit's my living room or I can take with me to
family and friends. I got the idea to include wireless
controllers from Xbox 360 to expand the use to all the classic
consoles too, making it a versatile machine.
While you can always argument that
external arcade controls could be more practical in some
situations, I find the design much more striking this way and
the Xbox 360 controllers still provide the wireless action. This
is sort of a living room altar or statement to retro gaming.
The is a complete platform for
mini-itx, harddisk, arcade controls and cooling solution. This
makes it perfect to incorporate in a MAME cabinet too, you only
need to plug in monitor and speakers.
I would like to thank ArcadeShop.de for sponsoring some of the parts for this
project. I can definitely recommend Arcadeshop.de for their great
support and great products. Now go buy some pushbuttons and
joysticks:
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I wanted the cabinet to fit a
mini-itx board perfectly including standard motherboard
standoffs and the standard IO-shield you get with the
motherboard. I really had to study several form-factor
specifications to make it just perfect. The whole design would
be a disaster if it didn't fit the mini-itx standard.
Another requirement from my side
was that the hard disk and fan could be mounted with just
standard screws and that the underside of the cabinet would be
totally flush with no screw heads sticking out. I think I
accomplished this in the simplest way possible, making the
design as easy to put together and inexpensive as possible.
The hole on the left is for the
12 volt plug and the hole on the right side
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Another important requirement I
made, was that it needed a very effective cooling system, so
that even the most powerful mini-itx can be used with the
system, even Intel i3, i5 and i7 cpu's.
The solution was to place the air
intake directly above the CPU area on the motherboard and place
a 60mm fan in front of the hard disk mount to suck out the
heated air.
I really believe this design to
be very effective, always providing only cool air directly to
the CPU/GPU/APU/Chipset. |
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I received the laser cut parts
after a week or so, and I must say I was more than pleased with
the result. The air intake
looks just as good as I hoped for and as you can see, I really
tried hard to fit this design onto a single board.
This is how it looks when you
open the box.
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This is how it looks when you
remove all the excess material. Only a small handful of excess
material is removed. I always save these to make reinforcements
or other things. You just never know if you are going to need it
later. |
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Well - With a new born daughter,
it's pretty hard to find the time for assembling the cabinet, so
I have to do this in the late hours. This also means that the
pictures will be a little fuzzy due to the lack of natural
light.
Once more I use my trustworthy
kitchen table and wall, knowing this has an exact 90 degree
angle. |
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Same procedure on the other side.
This is quite easy.
I recommend using Acrifix 116
solvent from Evonik (Europe) or Weld-on #16 (US). These similar
products have some gap filling properties and this makes them
perfect for laser cut materials with angled edges.
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This is the critical part. You
really have to make sure the back panel is turned the right way
around, or the whole project is wasted :)
I guess we found out when mounting
the mini-itx motherboard later. |
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I love the part where the control
panel is mounted. This makes all the difference. What you don't
see here is that I use a lot of tape to make sure everything is
in place while the solvent makes the initial bond. Usually I
just forget to take pictures of it, before ripping if off again.
I recommend using office tape, the kind that can be removed
again. Some call it magic tape. |
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I forgod to take a picture of the
small panel in the front, so we jump directly to mounting the
screw hole mouldings for installing the bottom panel. The
mouldings is placed 10 mm from the edge. You see why on next
picture. |
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The bottom panel has holes for
standard brass motherboard standoffs. I recommend using some
glue or epoxy before screwing them in, just to make sure they
stay there. You can also
see the clever system for hiding the screw heads and mounting
the 2.5" hard disk with hidden screw heads. Under each hole
there is a bigger hole with room for the screw heads. |
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Page 1 / 3 - Design &
Construction |
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If you decide to make your own MAME cabinet using my drawings, please feel free to
make a donation, as I'm trying to raise enough money to make a new
up-right cabinet, that's hard to do as a student. |
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