[Build] (Another) PiMame Arcade Tabletop

Mathes75

Hello and thanks a lot for this project! It's been big fun to try it and now I started to build a mid sized Desktop Arcade. Pi is running, housing is ready - current setup:

- 15" Belinea VGA TFT Screen (runs on 12VDC!) with built in speakers. Stripped down and mounted in cabinet.
- Pi running PiMame 0.7
- wireless keyboard and two PS-Controller attached (via USB2PS adapter) to control
- 12V to USB car-adapter (1.5A) to bring power to Pi
- LED strip to brighten up the thing
- Two 12V 7,0Ah batteries to power the cabinet (will be switchable in final state to external power supply)
http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/EmergencyPower1.jpg
http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/EmergencyPower2.jpg

Things left to do:
- Attach arcade buttons and joystick to selfmade USB keyboard-to-controls converter (3rd&4th picture)
- Attach extra buttons to control MAME4all (Esc, Tab, etc.)
- Attach Pi Expansion Board when it is delivered (http://www.suptronics.com/RPI.html)
- Get the 12V power supply working (The cabinet will run on batteries when ready!!)

Pics:
http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/Arcade.jpg
http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/Arcade innen.jpg
http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/USB-Con1.jpg
http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/USB-Conv2.jpg

I think there will be a few questions around using PiMame... so hang on ;-)

Conno123009

That's amazing. Congratulations. :-)
Good luck with finishing it off

--
Conno123009

Mathes75

Thanks!
This afternoon I found an old Hitachi 2x20 LCD display - and I know you can connect it to the Raspberry, but I wonder if there is a way to use this display together with MAME4all to show score/name of the game etc?

mholgatem

You can, but you will need to write a custom script to display to the lcd and you will need to edit and re-compile the mame emulator to output the score to a file that can be accessed by your script.

Conno123009

That should work. You can find the Mame4all source here: https://code.google.com/p/mame4all-pi/
As far as how the script will go, I can't help you there, sorry.
Good luck getting it working though :)

--
Conno123009

mholgatem

This should get you going with the script for controlling the lcd. This guy used a 16x2, but you should be able to adapt it pretty easily.

http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2012/07/16x2-lcd-module-control-using-python/

SSilver2k2

That is really clean! Are you thinking of painting it?

Mathes75

As the wood has a nice structure (and the nice label on the side ;-) ) - I think I will leave it as it is. A bit of grinding on the edges and a transparent back ... that's it.

I think I will keep the usage of the LCD simple. Just display the uptime (gaming time :D) and the IP for the ROM upload. Hope I'll have some time this weekend!

Spottbroder

Nice job!
What did you pay for the expansion board?

Mathes75

Thanks!
I ordered it at dx.com [http://dx.com/p/expansion-board-made-for-raspberry-pi-multicolor-black-278750#.UwH6lT8Tauk ] for $37,77 - hope it slips through the German customs ;-) otherwise there will be additional Tax and customs ~10$.
It will arrive in the end of Febuary - hopefully...

Mathes75

Short Update: The expansion board arrived and works perfect! I figured out, that everything is running properly with a voltage of 7.5V ... that's how I drained the batteries after I got the thing working ;-)
Unfortunatela there is not much room for a LCD display as planned - but I will definitly give it a try to display the IP adress, date and time.

http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/Arcade_working.jpg
http://www.mathes75.de/galerie/Arcade_Inside.jpg

(Yes, after I was sure it is working, I mounted the Pi and the converter to the groundplate :D)

SSilver2k2

So slick! I like it.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

Recommended Accessories