Bartop Arcade – part 1

A Facebook post from a friend of mine triggered a new project… how cool it would be to build an old school arcade machine? I did some internet digging and found some examples, some plans, and even step-by-step tutorials. I already had a Raspberry Pi B which was unused, so it would be a cool way to put it to use.

There is a lot of info online, but the most important resources I’ve found to be quite helpful were a site with free plans, some videos and an Instructable  (check Resources below). I soon found out about Retropie (also link below), and burning an SD card with an image was quite easy.

1 – Design

First challenge…All the free plans I’ve found out would not fit the area I designated for the Bartop…so I went Rambo on it and designed my own plans in SketchUp! After some iterations and cardboard trials and I’ve finally found out a design which would work for me.

The design requirements were:

• Compact design
• Maximum height of 55 cm, in order to fit between the countertop and the cabinets
• Reduce the MDF cost to a minimum
• 90º cuts when possible, as my woodoworking skill are not the best
• It had to had some T-moulding for that old-school feel, but again reducing costs to a minimum

If you want the plans send me an email and I’ll get back at you!

2 – CPU+Display+Sound

As mentioned before, I wanted to use the RPi I’ve had with no special use, so the CPU was decided. I’ve burned a Retropie image to an SD Card and soon I had this running. Some games lag a little bit, but the NEO-GEO, SNES and MegaDrive work like a charm.

For the display, I’ve found a cheap used 19′ 4:3 display online, but it was only VGA. The output of the RPi is HDMI, so I needed a converter. Here an important tip, if you need a converter go towards a powered one, passive often don’t work properly.

Having this figured out, next step was the sound: no gaming machine is good if it’s silent… The RPi only has low-power outputs, so an amp was required. I found one really cheap online and also some speakers. I’ve used some parts I already had (USB cable for power + 3.5mm stereo jack with cable), and after some time soldering I got myself an audio system… It’s far from being and audiophile setup, but for what I’ve wanted and the money I was willing to spend, it worked like a charm.

 

In the end I’ll be adding a list of the things I’ve purchased, where did I bought it from and the costs.

3 – MDF

My woodworking skills are not the best… that being said, I wanted to make my life the easiest possible, and keep the costs low. This lead me to think mostly on 1 mm thick MDF except on the sides. Since I wanted to add T-Moulding, and also to enhance the structure of the whole thing as it’s bound for some abuse, I’ve thought on using 16mm. After some Tetris planing in order to optimize the use of the MDF boards, I’ve ended out with a setup that only required the following boards:

 

(to be continued… The planning phase is over and I have most of the stuff figured it out, nevertheless I’ll keep this project on hold for a little bit… I have several other which require my attention and it’s better to finish the pending ones before starting new ventures…)

 

P.S.: For those who want such a DIY, but don’t want to mess with the woodworking, search on eBay and you’ll find stuff like this for about 150€ or less… I just prefer to build my own, as nothing beats the “I built this!” feeling, even if the final outcome is not as perfect… 😀

 

Resources:

• Pretty cool Instructables post: link
• Free plans online: link
• Cool build with plans to buy, but great videos with some useful techniques: link
• Retropie webpage: link

Take care and be safe out there…

AGT

R2-D2 key storage – part 2

Hey,

So after a looooot of masking and correcting lines, I finally finished the key storage.

Note to myself, next time sand the whole thing down first, properly primer it and start working with a perfectly flat surface…that would help a lot as making straight lines in a textured surface is a major pain in the neck…

(Major pain…another HIMYM reference, for those who get it…)

I’ve given it some coats of mate varnish and covered the inside with soft padding (the one normally used below furniture or in cabinet doors/drawers to soften up the closing), and that was it. Done!

On to the next project! 🙂

Take care and be safe out there…

Star Wars Cabinet

Ok, so I’m geek… You’ve probably already noticed that. 🙂 Oh, and I simply LOOVE the Star Wars universe…which you should already have noticed also..

I was gathering a bit of a collection, and I wanted a place to display all my stuff (and also protect it from my baby, and protect my baby from it – small easy-braking plastic parts are always a concern when you have a toddler wandering around).

Our office is quite small! When we purchased the house I imagined it to be the biggest room, but it ended up as being the smallest…funny how things turn out! We had to think on how to properly fit everything we wanted without making it unusable or too “crowded”. I like the end-result, but some more real estate would be nice…maybe next time, when I earn enough to purchase a house with a proper man-cave.

Well, let’s get back on-topic. As always, money is a concern, so an IKEA Besta was the solution for the cabinet. I’ve ordered some tempered glass doors cut to fit, and after some DIY tweaking I got quite a nice place to show my stuff.

Under the desk I have a switch, which transforms the office into “non-work mode”: it turns on indirect lighting on the end of the desk, a Batman sign on the wall, and I wanted also this to light the cabinet. I had some LED strips from a previous project (a cloud lamp for the baby room and also the Batman sign, soon to be featured in the blog), so the light source was chosen.

After some time working all the cabling, the end result was quite satisfying… Since I already had the led strip, the only cost was with the electrical cable (~6€), the led strip adapters (~4€) and a 12V 2.5A Power supply (~7€)! Happy times!

In the shelves you can check out some past and future projets…

Take care and be safe out there…

AGT

R2-D2 key storage – part 1

One thing we’ve been lacking since day one at our house is a proper key storage. Currently they are all inside a drawer, and every time we need to find a specific key it’s a pain.

So, after giving it some thought and not really liking the options my local hardware shop had for me, I had an idea.

Chinese shops use to have (at least in Portugal) small wood boxes with no finish, just raw wood…why not use one of those to store the keys? 

Ok, so the base solution is found…but I’m not using this as raw wood, I have to give it a protective coat of paint or varnish.

Then internal unease arises…There is no way I’m putting a basic coat of paint without any kind of customization… I’ve got to add some personal feel to it.

My brain starts working and after a quick research I found the answer. Why not make a R2-D2 themed box? I’ve seen some lunch boxes which transform the cilindrical form of the R2 into a box-shape, maintaining the R2 feel.

After some googling around, I’ve found these instructions to make an R2 paper robot. These gave me the ground base I needed to start working (credits in the picture).

  
Then painting stage begins. I have to start by saying that my painting skills are rather basic, and I did not wanted to use an airbrush or spray. I had some vinyl water based paint around – from Titan paints, really cool stuff – and I also wanted to make this project as cost effective as possible, so this was my weapon of choice. Just needed to buy one black bottle and one grey, since I already had cyan blue and white.

I wanted to base the whole artistic part with straight lines, so my initial thought was to use masking tape it order to guide the paint. I dont trust my skills to do decent curve lines… Though, since the wood surface is a bit rough, the masking tape did not attach perfectly and it caused a lot of paint bleeding in the first tries. Eventually I’ve solved the issue by giving a first coat of the base color before painting the top color. The base color seals the masking tape, not allowing the top color bleeding. The process takes twice the time, but the end result is worth it. Since drying times are of a couple of minutes, it takes some time but Its feasible. The last few nights after the baby is asleep had been dedicated to this.

I’m currently finishing the (first) front panel. I know it’s not very detailed, but it’s giving me way too much trouble as it is…and I’m kind of happy with the way it’s coming. 

The first shapes took me some extra time to fine tune as some were crooked and had to be corrected… I’m hoping the following ones can be quicker as I perfect the process.

  

  

More to come soon.

BTW, 3M masking tape is really great… 
Take care out there…

AGT

 

 

New projects for 2016

Arrived this week directly from Japan…

It’s always funny to order stuff from the other side of the planet, the newspaper wrappings are incredible.

Note to myself: next time I have to remember to pay for separate shipping in order to avoid customs…

I’m guessing these will take forever to finish, but I’m not in a hurry.

I only wish that this warning is not too important. 🙂

Take care and be safe out there…

AGT

Fitness Apps and Elliptical Workouts

Unfortunately, I have neck and back issues. More precisely, my neck lacks it’s natural curvature, which develops all kids of muscle contracture and enough pain for several lifetimes. But enough on that.

Since I’m a bit overweight, I thought that I had to get back to being active… a lot of past preferred sports were obviously out of the question, namely Mountain Biking, Football, Gym with weight trainings, Body Combat, Body Pump… all of this is forbidden for me right now, since I cannot widthstand the vertical impacts and loads that all of these provide.

So, what to do? The best workouts for me right now are swimming and non-impact cardio, such as static bike and elliptical. I’ve bought myself an elliptical machine, and I’ve started regular workouts at home.

Now comes the issue that took me some time to figure out, and the reason of why I wrote this boring introduction.

I’m an engineer and my professional activity is related with logging data (environmental data, to be more precise). So, working out without logging my trainings was definetely not an option. So, how can I track my workout history and review my performance? I think that if one starts to see improvements this will keep him engaged and will help skipping out workouts… I know myself, I can get discouraged and I need to find ways to keep me motivated other than wanting to be healthier and look better.

This started my quest for the best/cheapest hardware+app combo for my home workouts.

Since I wanted to center my information in my phone (iOS environment), I’ve started to buy myself a Bluetooth Smart (BLTE or Bluetooth 4.0, whenever you want to call it) Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). You have several available from the most prestigious brands, but since I want to keep this on the cheap I went to AliExpress and ordered an CooSpo for <25€ which works like a charm.

Now, how to log data…this is where apps come into play. I’ve tried a lot of apps…more than I like to admit…and I think I have it more or less figured it out (at least for my needs).

• Garmin is awesome…their hardware is great and it’s definitely my favorite, though it’s expensive. First prize, but out of the question right now mostly due to the cost. Nevertheless the Garmin Connect app is great and I’m keeping it installed on my phone…
• Strava is good for challenging your friends in specific running/cycling workouts…for elliptical and logging home workouts it sucks big time.
• Withings I use for logging my weight and blood pressure, but it’s no good for workouts.
• Fitbit is good for daily tracking, for sports not so much.
• Adidas miCoach is great; I love the app and it’s definitely a great workout app environment…if you only want heart rate. If you want additional cadence sensors in your elliptical it’s not the way to go, as all the adidas sensors are more outdoor focused (GPS, foot pod, etc).
• Nike+ and Runtastic are mostly for running workouts.
• Endomondo supports several indoor activities but lacks bluetooth sensors support apart from HRM.
•  ….yada yada bla bla bla etc etc…
• cutting to the chase: Wahoo Fitness is the solution!

It’s not the prettiest app, actually is quite basic and simple… and it has some issues since you can’t select exactly the data you want to show on the screen, but you have several screens to chose from…but the best asset and the reason why this is THE app is that it supports a lot of external BLTE sensors, not only HRM , and one can export workout to major apps (Garmin Connect included! wink wink 🙂 )

So, I’ve bought a CooSpo cadence sensor (~16€), attached it to my elliptical and now I can log not only the heart rate but also my cadence. Since there is no gearbox, there is a direct relationship between RPM and Km/h, which I have retrieved with simple math (basically had to figure out the perimeter of the “wheel” in order to relate RPM and Km/h).

I had a small installation glitch, though… I thought on using the magnets on the moving parts, and keep the sensors static, as I would normally have on a bike, but the RPM at low speeds were being overestimated by a factor of 2…this meant that <~40 RPM the sensor would get twice the RPM, and >~40 RPM it would give me the correct RPM.

I actually don’t know why that was happening, nevertheless I got it fixed by switching the sensors and the magnets position: stuck the magnets to the bike and zip-tied the sensors to the moving foot platform so that when the platform is moving down vertically, the sensors pass through the magnets and a new reading is made.

Hurray, problem solved! Now I have my workouts in my favorite fitness solution (Garmin Connect), but the workouts are done with the Wahoo app…. and the best of all, this cost me less than 50€ for both sensors (app is free).

Maybe a Garmin Fenix3 is in the horizon, but for now I have it covered. 🙂

I actually don’t know if all of this can be handy to anyone, but the fact is that I haven’t found much info about logging elliptical workouts.

One thing to keep in mind if you want to try this…Sometimes there are communication glitches with the BLTE. But maybe that’s because I also use a BT speaker when I workout.

Below some screenshots of a small training in Wahoo and in Garmin Connect.

 

 

Take care and be safe out there…

AGT

Word Clock

This project took me forever to finish… but still it is one of the best looking ones I’ve built so far.

Around 2012 some friends introduced me to the Biegert&Funk QLOCKTWO. I found this to be pretty awesome, and soon I was started thinking how hard could it be to build one of my own…

QLOCKTWO

I think it was by this time that I’ve found out about Instructables, and I’ve found this one.

As Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother would say:

I’ve started building the clock following the steps, but soon enough I’ve started making some changes:

• Printed a portuguese word clock layout in transparent acetate sheets in a local Staples, and stack them up for a dark professional look.
• Used the original IKEA RIBBA frame, as it was a pretty good enclosure for this project, and cut a bright green passepartout out of a sheet of thick paper.
• Used a perforated prototyping board for the shifters and the amplifiers, with lot’s of wiring…not the most professional look, but it was cheap and got the job done.
• The support for the leds and electronics was a piece of thick cardboard.
• Used an Arduino UNO, since I didn’t want to fiddle around with oscillators, etc, but mounted a power regulator so that the UNO and the Amplifier and Registers would get a stable voltage.

It took me forever to solder the Leds to the resistors…

Led to resistor soldering process

When finally I’ve ended all the soldering, I have to say that I ran out of motivation juice, and the project stood still for a while… until I thought to myself that I was not going to be one of those guys who start a bunch of things but don’t finish them.

After a lot of soldering (and patience) I’ve ended up with this:

Final hairy connections done.

I know, it’s not pretty…but hey, it works. 🙂

The Arduino code was relatively easy to write, and soon enough I’ve ended up with my own Word Clock. YAY!

I think the outside looks a lot better than its guts, but after 3 years it still works.

Backside with the hours and minutes set buttons

Here it is in its final position, close to my Batman vehicles and the first version of the Iron Man Arc Reactor (more on this later…).

Finished project!

Take care, and be safe out there!
AGT

Star Wars Hoth Diorama – part 2

After finishing the “test” diorama, I though I was OK for going towards the main goal.

The first step was shaping the big AT-AT, such as turning the head slightly to the side and filling the base of the raised food with the bottom part of a bottle cap. Regarding the snowspeeders, the idea was to improve the original diorama design by placing one flying around the AT-AT with the cable and another one crashed on the snow. For the one which was flying I’ve added a pilot made of miliput and the one crashed had the canopy modded so it can be left open. I’ve also made a miliput leg print, so I can leave some AT-AT steps on the snow. In the photos is also visible one F-toys Tydirium, which I also primed and painted together with the rest of the ships.

The process for painting all the ships was the same:

• airbrush primer with Vallejo white primer
• airbrush with Tamiya paints (dilluted 1:2 with Tamiya thinner)
• airbrushing with Vallejo gloss finish
• add MIG washes (Neutral wash for the Tydirium and Snowspeeders, Dark and Brown for the AT-AT)
• airbrush with Vallejo mate finish

For the colors, I’ve did some research, mostly in RPF forum. I did wanted to use Tamiya colors since they’re easier to find:

• AT-AT: XF-66
• Tydirium: mix of XF-19 and white (XF-2)
• Snowspeeder: mix of XF-19 and white (XF-2), but with a “lighter” mix

This is AT-AT after all the paint, weathering and finishing steps.

Finished AT-AT

Regarding the speeders, first step was to carve some scratches before the primer, and after applying the base paint coat I’ve hand painted the dark grey and orange stripes.

The next step was to add the chipping effect to the stripes, in order to give it a more weathered look and add some texture for the washes to grab into.

Orange speeder after and grey speeder before stripes chipping effect.

The last steps was to add the MIG Neutral wash and seal with the matt varnish.

Adding MIG Neutral Wash

Regarding the first small diorama, I’ve made some changes. Since the original glue turned the snow a bit yellow, I decided on buying some appropriate materials for the new diorama, namely a bottle ~1/2 L of Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement. With a brush I’ve layed some of this cement on the top of the yellowed snow and poured some flakes on the top. I think it solved the issue, and gave the snow a more realistic and textured look. I think this is finally finished apart for some pigment work.

Finished small diorama.

Now it is time to “marry” the AT-AT with the Snowspeeder. I’ve used a piece of copper wire (used for coil windings), drilled one small hole in the AT-AT food and another on the back of the snowspeeder. To give it a bit more strength, I’ve twisted the wire inside the AT-AT food and filled it with hot glue, so it does’t move and provides a stable base. For the crashed snowspeeder, I’ve glued the canopy open and twisted the cannons a little bit for a more damaged look. Below the mock-up before adding the snow.

Mock-up before the snow

Now the snow part. As before, I fitted a k-line base with some holes in it, to ease the snow drying process. I’ve mixed the snow with the cement (2:1 proportion) and created a first base.

Frame with the k-line base

Starting to lay down the snow.

Snow base layer

Then, I’ve placed the crashed speeder with some drag marks and added some texture to the snow. I’ve also created a stamp with a bottle cap and some miliput in order to add the raised foot footstep.

Bottle cap used for the footstep

Finished footstep

After placing the AT-AT in its position and “stamped” the foot mark in the snow, it looked like this.

After texturing the snow and adding the footsteps.

The drying process took some days, inside my custom-build IKEA BESTA Star Wars cabinet (maybe I’ll post this IKEA hack later). 🙂

Snow drying

 

This is the final look of it. Maybe I’ll add some pigments in the crashed speeder in the future, but for now it’s ok.

 

Finish..for now! 🙂

Take care and be safe out there.

AGT

Star Wars Hoth Diorama – part 1

Hi,

This first modeling post is about Star Wars, one of my long-time favorite geek stuff.

This is a slightly more thorough post than I’ve made in the RPF Forum (link below).

Basically I wanted to recreate one of my favorite scenes of the older trilogy, the Hoth iced planet AT-AT vs Snowspeeder scene. This is by no means an original idea, in fact I’ve followed Dr. Fausts and Toxicrafa’s videos on youtube. (I’m a firm believer of giving credit to the ones who deserve it, so you can find the links below:)

I’m a complete newbie to both airbrushing and weathering techniques. After a lot of searching I’ve bought myself an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS with a cheap multi-purpose compressor which makes a lot of noise but works very good. Maybe I’ll do an airbrush post in the future, with a description of how I’ve built my own cheap paint booth from a plastic box.

Regarding the diorama… at first I’ve ordered the F-Toys models from eBay. As far as I could understand, F-Toys is a japanese maker which developed small and cheap Star-Wars vehicles plastic kits, which are not easily available in Europe. So, eBay was the way to go. First I’ve ordered the AT-AT and the Snowspeeders, but messed up: instead of ordering the big AT-AT I’ve ordered the two smaller ones by mistake.

Since I did not had any experience with the artificial snow and with pigments, I’ve thought on making a smaller version of the diorama with the two AT-ATs, one walking and another one destroyed. For that I’ve sanded the head mount of one AT-AT and glued the legs in order to get the “face plant” position.

AT-AT Walking Position

Crashed AT-AT

I kept the original paint, but weathered them with Mig Productions 502 Abteilung oils and finish with some dark “Rocket Exhaust” pigment.

The support is a small cheap frame, such as in the inspiration videos, and in order to get the snow effect I’ve bought Woodland Scenics Soft Flake Snow and mixed it with standard PVA glue.

Snow drying

It turned out quite ok, the only thing is that the white glue turned the snow a little yellow after drying.

After Pigments and “yellowed” snow

(To be continued)

Links:

RPF Forum

Dr. Faust

Toxicrafa videos

 

Take care and be safe out there…

AGT

Hi!

WordPress has this first post template, and I’ve decided to use it. Let me start by explaining why I created this site. When I start any project, the first thing I do is look around the web to see if I can get any additional info that can help me save time/money/effort. Well, I thought that it would be nice to give back and share some of these projects I’ve done as they might be useful to someone.

Nevertheless, it annoyed me that, due to my broad interests, I had to publish it to several different sites… so instead of spread my post in Instructables, Ikea Hackers, RPF, car owners forums, etc I’ve created my own vault where to put my stuff.

I’m Portuguese, but since I wanted to give a wider focus all the posts will be written in English.
Well, hope you guys like my ideas (or my take on others ideas), and feel free to comment.

Take care and be safe out there…

AGT