Hey guys!
It’s Mike from The Geek Pub.
And on this episode I’m going to show you how to put all of the electronics in your
game cabinet.
Alright.
So on top of the cabinet I have cut this hole, and in that hole I am going to put an electrical
conduit box and in that box I am going to put this little paddle switch.
And this will work as sort of a master on/off switch for the entire cabinet.
So in order to hold the cables in and keep them from rattling, I am going to use these
little clips that just wrap around the cable and screw in.
I’m going to install this electrical conduit box in the bottom of the cabinet and it will
be connected to a power cord that runs out of the back of the unit and also to the switch
we just installed at the top of the cabinet.
This will be the main power source for everything in the unit.
The arcade cabinet is going to have a lot of electronics in it and in order to keep
those electronics cool, I’ve purchased this little USB powered fan off of Amazon that
I am going to install in the back of the cabinet.
And to power it, I got this little Belken power strip that has USB ports on the side
of it.
Alright so the really good new is that while you can design your arcade in pretty much
any way you want, any form factor, you can have a stand up like this, or you can have
a cocktail table like I was originally going to make.
The good new is that all of the componentry that goes into it, over the years, has pretty
much been standardized.
So for example, this board right here is a keyboard controller that wires all of these
buttons directly to a USB port on your computer.
So you don’t have to do any special wiring or any soldering.
This all comes pre-manufactured.
Al you gotta do is assemble it into your cabinet.
So the same thing for all of these little buttons.
They come with micro switches that just attach to the bottom of the switch.
You can get these in all kinds of different colors.
Unfortunately I messed up and ordered all of mine in black, so I’m going to order
some new ones in different colors.
But these little micro switches are standard.
You can get these from anywhere: Amazon, Mouser Electronics, X-Arcade.
You name it.
Same thing for the joysticks.
Same thing they are standard.
You can just put them together and assemble them into your arcade.
The coin door is all standard mech.
You can get this mech off of Amazon for $29 or you can get it from companies like X-Arcade.
As I said before they sell a lot of arcade parts but they are not the cheapest.
So just kind of look around and decide what you want.
So we’re going to go ahead and assemble all of this into our cabinet.
So now we need to install all of these little micro switches on to the backs of all of the
buttons.
OK.
So whats left to do now is to install all of these little wiring harnesses.
They will wire into the PCB and then connect to all of the buttons.
So now its time to just start butting all together.
So the coin mech is really simple to install.
It just slips into the slot, and then it clips in with these clips from behind.
Once again I am going to use these little clips with screws to hold the cables in place.
So the speaker bar is just some MDF that I’ve drilled some holes in, and I am going to cover
that with this black cloth.
Behind it I am just going to glue in these really thin speakers that I got at the local
big box store.
And all that’s left to do now is install the monitor.
Ok guys, well that is all for part 2.
Come back for part 3 and we’ll put the lighted marquee in, the t-mould, and hopefully the
graphics if I get them printed in time.