Table Top Cocktail Multicade Pacman

In this instructable I will show you how I went about making my own Table Top Cocktail Multicade.

Step 1: Items Used

3/4 inch plywood. I wanted to use something strong and would take some beating as its meant to be portable.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Sande-Plywood-Common-3-...

My screen is a 15 inch HDMI LCD screen with speakers

1/8 in plexiglass

Raspberry Pi

LED back light arcade controls

https://www.amazon.com/Easyget-Encoder-Joystick-Il...

Power strip. I used Amazon basic.

Power pass through with switch.

Step 2: Basic Planning and Cutting

This is where Ill give you my basic layout and how I went about laying everything out.

This will be different for you as all monitors as sized different and different cases.

I measured the over all width of the monitor as it will sit sideways in the case.

I took this measurement and added an inch leaving 1/2 on both sides once centered.

I then measured the over all height of the monitor as this with then be the width of the case.

I took this measurement and added 1 1/2 inch. this left me with room to put 3/4 inch ply on both sides to add my supports you'll see in the next few steps.

My control panel was suppose to be 6 inches but they came out to be 5 7/8 after my angle was added but I made it work.

The top angle down ended up being 37 degrees.

to wrap this up the last step was to save 3/4 inch on both side pieces for the end caps.

Pocket holed the inside together to give me a strong base to work off of.

Step 3: Supports and Screen Testing

So a ton is happening here all at once and will do my best to explain. (and happy to answer questions below as needed)

The side supports as I mentioned before shown running longways with the monitor

- cut 1/2 inch longer than the monitor leaving 1/4 inch on each side for movement and adjustments.

I turned the monitor over on its face and measured to its tallest point this is were i got the height of the runners

offset the runners 1/8 inch lower from the top lip leaving room for the plexi glass.

install the side to side braces at the bottom of your runners and your set. (clearer pictures in steps below of the braces)

Step 4: Power Pass Through

Test fitting the power block.

Step 5: Adding End Caps and Control Panel

This is were I made mistakes. A ton of mistakes.

I had to walk away kick the bucket yell at my table saw.

This step it totally trial and error.

I added shims to the inside lip to screw the control panel to for easy access. drilled and recessed the screws as shown.

Step 6: Fitting the Plexiglas

Straight forward here cut the Plexiglas to fit.

I then measured the monitor case to the screen took then and put it on the plexiglas taped the back side and painted it on the back side.

this turned out better than expected.

Step 7: Drilling the Control Panel

This step is totally user preference.

my button lay out started with 1.5 inch spacing between all buttons.

first row is .5 inch lower

I used the picture layout as above minus the left and right triggers

Joy stick cut out then above that is my start and select buttons

Step 8: Prepping and Painting

This is where it started to take shape and looking more like a finished product.

Step 9: Adding Electronics

I will not go into detail on the games or raspberry pi. Some quick searching will give you tons of info.

Wired the pass through to the power strip and just started putting it all together.

Step 10: Last Call

A couple of issues I ran into.

When I would flip my master switch giving power to all my electronics my pi would time out looking for a video source.

This caused me a ton of issues until I learned I could delay the start up on the pi. My good buddy David was nice enough to do this for me.

Being a cocktail style cabinet you will have to program the games to rotate from player one and two between turns. (very time consuming)

Please overlook my grammar mistakes.

Happy to answer any questions with wood work or project related.