Collins: Projects

Arbor Days

2007-07-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

My initial foray into the gardening world left me yearning for more. In addition to carefully maintaining my Sequoia tree, I did some research into other unique species of tree that could successfully be cultivated in my neck of the woods. I ordered up some seeds and got my hands dirty.

Because my giant sequoia tree is a ravenous feeder, I've been meticulous in my efforts to water it every day for the summer heat and adding balanced fertilzer. The tree itself is a great motivator because on mornings when I'd rather not get up and bike I realize that I have absolutely no say in the matter. Essentially, it's a needy stationary wife.

After several weeks of being planted, the strong breezes of the riverbank had caused the tree to lean eastward. To remedy this I took a piece of scrap wood from my storage closet and whittled it at one end. After staking the ground I attached a wire from the stake to a cable tie around the stake. I wanted to give the tree the ability to blow in the wind to strenthen the trunk so I added a coil spring to ensure some suspension.

I was quite enjoying the horticultural experience and wanted to try something else. After browsing the internet I came across the website seedrack.com which has an incredible collection of tree seeds. Two particular species caught my eye. The first one was the Bloodgood Japanese Maple (Acer Palmatum) which is a beautiful deep red maple species. Before germinating these seeds need to go through stratification, which is a faux winter season induced by refridgeration in moist soil. I soaked the seeds in water and then loaded them into a small ziplock bag of moist Peat Moss. After spending about a hundred and twenty days in the refridgerator, the seeds should be ready for sowing.

The second was the Kumaon Palm Tree (Trachycarpus Takil) which is a large Indian palm tree that can grow comfortably through New England winters. I really love palm trees and the opportunity to cultivate an outdoor palm that could survive a winter in Boston was pretty enticing. I planted six seeds in individual pots and three in a long planter in moist Peat Moss. The seeds are expected to germinate in four to six weeks. Hopefully, I can take these saplings and create my own beachfront paradise somewhere in the Greater Boston area.

Mission: Sequoia

2007-06-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

This post has been edited to protect the covert nature of the project. I will update this blog from time to time with details about the condition of the specimen.

Going Back to Square 1,0

2007-06-17T06:08:00.000-07:00

During the planning stages of my MAME project, I have repeatedly run into instances where I did some research to find the answer to a problem. While this has helped get the project to it's current state, it has left a lot of grey area in my head as to what exactly was taking place in the guts of my arcade. When I ran into a particularly difficult problem with the trackball wiring, I made the decision that it was time to start learning at the beginning with boolean logic, binary code and ohms law.

I've learned a lot about the foundations of electrical engineering so far and I expect to have a substantial arcade project update soon.

Let There Be Light

2007-03-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

Black, white and green. Hot, neutral and ground. Sounds simple enough right? Well my friends from Sega decided to throw a few extra colors in there just to spice things up a bit. Before I could proceed with just about anything else on the arcade system, I had to tackle the biggest (let's pray) hurdle; the electrical system. Because my only formal training in electronics was cutting through the MIT campus one time, analyzing and rewiring an electrical system was no small challenge.

First step was to do some research on electricity and basic wiring. I purchased the book Wiring Simplified which is an amazing book on wiring basics drafted from the National Electrical Code. While reading and re-reading this little beauty I was simultaneously mapping out the original electrical arcade system.

The original arcade electrical system consisted of two decoupled circuits. The first circuit used standard 120V alternating current to provide power to a 5V/12V direct current power supply for the arcade control ciruit boards. The second circuit used 1 Amp, 100V alternating current to provide power to the arcade mother boards, 100 Watt marquee light, coin op, and arcade display. The key to this whole system is the isolation transformer, which transforms the 120V electrical current to the 100V circuit while keeping the two circuits isolated. The logic behind this is based on the seemingly illogical way the arcade display handles power and this decoupling prevents the display frame from becoming part of the circuit and killing me when I touch it.

The wiring inside the arcade was a certified mess. Light blue, dark blue, red, orange, grey, black, white, green, brown, and puke colored wires did not immediately indicate how the hell this heap actually worked. Solder joints were covered in dust and wires were cracking and coated in mold. The power supply for the arcade controls was only partially connected which left it up to me to put the pieces back together. Using my newly attained wiring knowledge I was able to piece together how the system was originally designed by tracing the wires from the wall plug and testing specific spots and terminals with my multimeter.

Once I understood how the original electrical system functioned I could then start planning the modifications that were needed to incorporate the Pentium 4 PC and the arcade trackball. First thing I did was chuck the old power supply from the arcade and desolder all the wires. I wanted the new electrical system to be modular so I relied heavily on screw block terminals and blade terminals for almost all of the major connections. I wired the power supply for my PC into the 120 Volt circuit by cutting the three prong plug off of the main power cable and using wiring cap connectors to join the respective hot, neutral and ground wires. The arcade trackball requires a 5V direct current connection to power the infrared LEDs inside. To achieve this with the new electrical system I chucked the floppy drive from my PC, cut the 5V DC wires, and used spade terminals to connect them to a wiring block. For the neccessary 100V connections I used wiring cap connectors to reconnect the plug for the display and spade terminals with a wiring block to connect the 100 Watt marquee light.

With the wiring all hooked up it was time for a test... VICTORY!

Hacking a Mouse

2007-01-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

What do a mouse and a trackball have in common? Everything! The guts of a standard mechanical mouse are virtually identical to the inner workings of an arcade trackball. As a result, hacking a mouse circuit board and rewiring an arcade trackball are relatively simple procedures. Everything except that last sentance was true.

In my planning of the arcade control panel I needed to look at the available arcade trackballs online. A standard three inch trackball of original arcade quality costs about a hundred twenty dollars. Since I am designing this first rig on a budget, the idea of refurbishing one of the existing arcade trackballs that I removed from the unit was a very attractive prospect. Time to bust out the old screwdriver.

Twenty two years has not been kind to this trackball. The accumulated pizza grease from two decades of use by idiotic teenagers has transformed the eggshell colored trackball into something more resembling a dinosaur egg. Oxidization from being stored in a tent has cause the axles inside to rust. Before I could get this thing rewired again, I had to scrape out the hair, goo, filth, dirt and rust and polish that ball up to a mirror shine.

First thing I did was head to CVS to pick up cleaning agents for the ball. I devised a three step cleaning process that started with soaking the ball in 91% isopropyl alcohol. This step is to remove built up grime so the additional cleaning agents can get at the surface of the trackball. Next step was to soak the ball overnight with Polident denture whitening tabs. The tablets remove any build up that the alcohol missed and break away thin layers of filth on the surface. Lastly, the balls were soaked in bleach overnight to color any remaining residue white. I rubbed the axles down with alcohol to remove the rust and sprayed the bearings with WD-40 to restore their spin.

The next step was to dismantle the mouse that I was going to hack and remove the internal circuit board. As I mentioned in the beginning, both the trackball and a mouse have a lot in common. Both have internal ball bearings that move axles with an encoder wheel at the end sporting teeth around the perimeter. Two sets of infrared LED emitters and sensors determine movement data by analyzing how many times the infrared connection is broken by the spinning teeth. By removing the X and Y Axis Emitters and Receivers from the mouse circuit board, the wires from the X and Y Emitters and Receivers on the trackball can be wired into the empty board holes. Now the mouse circuit board will relay the trackball data to the computer via the mouse port.

I warmed up my soldering iron and proceded to remove the receivers from the mouse circuit board. Because the receivers require power to interpret the infrared signal, one of the circuit traces for each of the receivers is devoted to the electrical charge. Before I could proceed to solder the trackball wires onto the board, I had to use a manual ranging multimeter to determine which combination of solder points yielded a five volt charge. With the circuit traces determined we can now start the insanity.

Fun With Wood

2006-12-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard the expression, "A poor carpenter blames his tools."? Well, that's a load of crap because a good carpenter wouldn't use a really ratty tablesaw. How does this apply to me? It doesn't because I use a really ratty tablesaw.

With the production of the second control panel in the works, I needed to start thinking about the control panel frame. I designed some plans in Adobe Illustrator over the course of a few hours. Building a wood control in the same shape and with the same angles as the original metal panel is extremely complex. Each support panel has three unique angles in order to support the upward angle of the button panel.

Once I finally worked out the complicated angles and drew out the plans, I piled up some lumber I had in my storage closet and headed to the workshop. This step caused me to face a problem I had known about for some time and had been avoiding. The problem? My tablesaw is a disaster. I purchased a portable Ryobi tablesaw this past summer knowing I needed a tablesaw for light woodworking. My attempt to saw a piece of pine with the included 24 tooth saw blade was met with the same results as sawing through an iron ship keel. Before I could proceed with any serious construction on my control panel I would have to roll up my sleeves and make some serious adjustments.

First step was to replace the blade. My dad and I installed a 10" DeWalt 80 tooth carbide blade which cut through my test lumber like butter. Next was to square the blade angle. My test cuts initially made 90 degree cuts that were approximately 87 degrees. With a few turns of the screwdriver we were finally making true cuts.

With the saw calibrated correctly, I could finally start working on building the panel. To support the weight of the controls I am making the frame from oak, which is a very strong wood. Oak, however, is outrageously expensive. Because of the complicated angles of the wood panels, I am making numerous pine copies before proceeding to the final oak version to ensure the craftsmanship is top-notch.

The Grind

2006-12-24T16:58:00.000-08:00

Here's some good news for our fighting boys overseas. The wonderful folks at the Sega Corporation have developed a thin plastic material that can't be destroyed by conventional weapons. They were also good enough to coat both sides of my arcade with this substance just incase it was hit by some stray artillery shell.

With the wiring in a good place, I wanted to focus on the cabinet. I spent the first part of this weekend designing a wood frame for the arcade control panel. Next it was time to sand the body. After some initial tests with various types of sandpaper I wasn't making a dent in the plastic laminate. Time to break out the big guns...

I busted out my angle grinder and attached a circular steel wire brush head. After four hours I was able to remove all the laminate from one side and annoy about fifteen neighbors. I hadn't anticipated this step taking as long as it had and my plan of having the second control panel completed this weekend had to be scrapped. Hopefully I can make the most of the upcoming long weekend and get the control panel set.

Christmas Come Early

2006-12-23T05:34:00.000-08:00

I walked into my apartment after work and tripped over a small box. That could only mean one thing... My controls have arrived!

I took that as a sign from the zerg overmind that it was time to start constructing the control panel. Having made my paper template, I knew the button positioning I laid out was very good. I picked up a large sheet of .5 inch MDF (medium density fiberboard) at Home Depot and began plotting the holes. The difficult part of this task was fitting the joystick. The joystick can only be set behind a maximum of .5 inches of material. Because I am going to cover the MDF with a layer of .25 inch plexiglass, I needed to use a router to create a .25 inch recess so the overall material thickness between the joystick baseplate and the handle remains .5 inches.

This joystick recess also creates a new problem. With the recess in the MDF, there is now only .25 inches of drillable material to screw the joystick in. Faced with this, I decided to make a second panel and use this first control panel as a test run for various screws of different widths and threadings. Once I know the appropriate hardware, I can then make the second panel correctly and take into consideration a few of the small things I learned from making the first one.

It's Alive!

2006-12-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

Look out you dirty commie rebels. Your endless fleet of soviet tanks and missile launchers are no match for my seemingly bulletproof helicopter gunship. I have been sent on a ludicrous mission to single handedly destroy nine thousand miles of enemy territory.

After mapping out the key circuits and attaching some of the original arcade buttons to the screw terminal, I fired up my PC and plugged in the keyboard encoder. It was time to test the wiring. SUCCESS. Using my wiring matrix, I was able to test every single arcade control for two players.

With the wiring up and running it was now time to start planning the control panel. I am refurbishing an arcade that is designed to be played by two players. With a loose idea of the games I want to load onto the system, I anticipate needing two eight-way joysticks, six action buttons for each player, two start buttons, an insert coin button, a quit button, a miscellaneous button, and a trackball for games like Centipede and Golden Tee.

I have created a preliminary template of my control layout in Adobe Illustrator. The next step is printing the template and laying it over the original control panel. With the panel positioned at the actual standing height I can get an idea of how the layout will feel to the user and make any necessary adjustments.

Keyboard Madness

2006-12-18T20:04:00.000-08:00

The past few days have been devoted almost exclusively to designing and planning the arcade controls. An arcade button is nothing more than a small switch. When the button is pressed, a connection is made and a circuit is created. The onboard computer detects this circuit and performs an action.

Unfortunately, the onboard computer for my arcade is a worthless relic and is laying in pieces next to our bikes in the back hall.

Because I am using a traditional personal computer as the brains for my M.A.M.E. Arcade, there are no open points to connect to the button terminals. There are several parts available online that can solve this problem, but I opted to go for a makeshift (free) solution to improve my technical skills. I decided to attempt what is commonly known as a keyboard hack.

A keyboard hack involves using the keyboard encoder circuit board that is built into any keyboard and wiring it in a way that tricks the circuit into interpreting arcade button clicks as keystrokes. There are two very labor intensive steps in modifying a keyboard encoder for this purpose. The first is mapping the key circuitry and the second is soldering the arcade button circuit wires directly onto the board.

A keyboard uses two sets of inputs to determine a keystroke. This is because having a single input for every key would take up massive amounts of space. The keyboard I am using has 116 keys. Having that many inputs would cause the keyboard encoder to be at least triple the size it is now. Instead, my keyboard has one set of inputs that has 18 terminals (set X) and another set of 8 (set Y). Each keystroke is assigned an input for each set. This allows the keyboard to decipher 144 possible keystrokes using only 26 inputs.

Inside the keyboard are two layers of flimsy (thin plastic) with circuitry paths printed on them. Under each key there are circuitry points on each layer of flimsy that come in contact with eachother when a key is depressed. This contact creates a closed circuit traveling through specific inputs from set X and set Y. I know; this crap is baffling. See the following diagram for some clarification.

As you can see, the diagram shows the circuit path of the keystroke F10 on both layers of the flimsy. Both circuit paths arrive at a specific input on the keyboard encoder. From this diagram you can decipher the specific circuit input information for each key. After I logged all the possible key combinations I would need for my arcade controls, I began soldering wire to each solder point on the back of the encoder. These solder points allow you to wire your own circuits onto the board using your arcade controls.

Once wire has been soldered to each solder point on the encoder, I connected the loose end of each wire to a screw block terminal using spade terminal connectors. By using a screw block terminal, you do not have to touch the solder connections on the board to rewire your controls. Notice one block has 18 terminals to connect with set X and the other has 8 to connect to set Y. I now have the capability to wire arcade buttons to match any key on a keyboard. Where's the w00t button?

Honorable Discharge

2006-12-14T18:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun fact. A CRT monitor can store anywhere from 20,000 - 30,000 volts of electricity when it's unplugged. There goes my plan of hacking into that shit with a sawz-all. I consulted my new arcade holy bible for some details on how the monitor operates and where the various high-voltage points were. The high voltage is created on the circuit board by a transformer and is stored in the anode on the tube exterior. There are several other points where exposed high voltage is present.

If a repair is needed on the monitor almost all repairs must be conducted when the anode is drained of it's stored electrical charge. This procedure is called 'discharging'. This is a difficult task because draining the stored charge requires the user to stick tools into high voltage places. A mistake can literally cost you your life, and possibly your eyebrows. For those of you playing along at home, consult the following graph before breaking open your Zenith.

When I get the appropriate computer hardware to connect my arcade monitor to my computer, I can test to see how bad or good the picture is. If it's decent, I can adjust the dials on the circuit board and smooth the picture out. If it's a disaster we may have to perform some Back to the Future action. 1.21 Gigawatts dude.

Power Up

2006-12-14T04:19:00.000-08:00

My arcade project just received a massive power up from my good friend/nemesis Nat Tarbox. Nat found this gem at the MIT Bookstore in Cambridge, MA. It's 476 pages of arcade based greatness covering every single component of a traditional arcade unit including the potentially dangerous monitor. It's offically ON.

M.A.M.E. Arcade Project

2006-12-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

Recently, I did some research on old arcade units. I've always been fascinated with arcades and classic video games. Since classic arcade and console games are experiencing a renaissance I thought it would be a cool idea to buy an old unit on the cheap, clean it up and put it in the apartment.

That's when I found out about M.A.M.E.

MAME, or Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, is public software which allows a personal computer to play the raw game files that were installed on the original arcade hardware. Essentially you can program your computer, with some special hardware modifications, to play just about every classic arcade game ever made on the original arcade CGA monitors. The software is available for Windows, OSX and Linux. While I'm normally an OSX loyalist and regard windows as the inadequate piece of crap that it is, I opted to go with a Windows XP based system because the file and hardware support resources are much better.

I have broken this projects into two parts. The first part is the rebuilding of an existing unit. The second part is creating an entirely new system with a customized body and assembly. I purchased a half-working 'Major League Baseball' system by Sega for 25 bucks. After reviewing the condition of the system and cleaning out the evil army of arachnids that had established a basecamp, I began to carefully remove the internal circuit boards and power source while making sure to clearly label each wiring group so I could analyze the assembly.

My friend Dan gave me his old heap of a PC that was chock full of spy/ad/poison-ware. After completely wiping the harddrive I downloaded and installed the MAME software and have begun prepping the system to work with the existing arcade monitor.

The difficult part with this first system is the monitor. A special videocard (AVGA) is required to communicate the video information to the CGA monitor with a specific signal. I'm hoping the existing monitor is still in working order as I don't want to spend money on two brand new arcade displays which can cost anywhere from three to seven hundred dollars. This project is proving itself to be a formidable one and I am really enjoying its complexity.

I have a blog. This is not special.

2006-12-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

This is the first post of the Matt Collins project blog. This blog is intended to be a continuously evolving bulletin of my latest industrial and graphic creations. While there is absolutely nothing to see here right now, I have every intention of developing this crappy blog into something actually worth reading.