1Up Arcade Mod: Adding Video

Screwed onto the LCD is a small tin box. Inside this is the game board. (Interestingly, 1Up sands off the identifying information on the chips.) Detach the power and video cables from the 1Up board.

Installing the Video Board

Buy a video logic board to decode HDMI and sound for your ODROID. If you don't have an ODROID, and your single board has a mini stereo out, you can use that instead of the audio decoder on the video board. I got the video board below with the two EPROMS. You can discard this driver board as you don't need it (you just need the decoder and LCD driver card - the one with the HDMI or VGA inputs).
 
Note that you should try install this as low as possible on the front panel that the LCD is mounted to so the cables to the SBU and amplifier can be short. To avoid RF interference, you should not attach this video controller to the LCD. I did, because the cable was not long enough from the LCD - so I attached a wooden mount with hot glue.

I used 1/4" polyethelene tubing (125degF) as a spacer, cut to 1/4 sections, as finding spacers was (a PITA), its workable, and strong (like bone). Also, polyethelene is a very weak conductor of electricity (or restated its a good insulator).

My temperature gun tells me the video controll runs about 90 degF, so it does not need specific cooling, nor does it present a fire risk to the 1/2" wood mounting board..

Plugging It In

A decent short (18") HDMI cable can run from the video board to the SBC.

Attach the Audio

I don't like clutter and the longer the analog audio cable the more chance for noise, so I used an 18" stereo mini to RCA cable to connect to the amplifier. Plug this into the video logic board.

1Up Arcade Mod: Adding Speakers and Amplifier

The 1Up has a slat directly under the joystick panel on an angle. It is about 1/4" thick and its coated with some laminate and 460mm W by 180mm H. I measured out the speakers (80mm D), amplifier (100mm W 40mm H) and the old buttons from the PacMan (1" D about 28mm D). (Inspect the page if you want this template for your laser cutter. You will see a scale factor for mm to pt and the measurements are in mm. It's hand coded SVG.) I went to the maker room at work and cut the board. The laser had issue with the laminate, so we had to run it 3 times.

I like recycling, so I had an old Insignia NS-PCS40 pair of desktop speakers. I didn't find the speaker specifications, aside from it using a power adapter that output 12V and 700mA load. When we ripped the speakers appart (doh, screws behind the fabric), I found they were 4 Ohm 40 W. The amplifier I bought, the Kinter MA 170, would have no problem powering those...

So if you want an inexpensive set of speakers, you can try these

I debated using hot glue or expoxy. At least with hot glue, a heat gun can help fix a mistake. But expoxy is permanent, so I used hot glue.

The issue with the hot glue is it is not compressible. So I ended up with 1-2mm of gap between the speaker mount and the faceplate board. Here is the result

However, the final product was almost perfect. I just needed to use my dremmel to make notches for the arcade buttons. My plan for them is to connect them to the GPIO on the Odroid and use them for restart or shutdown. Almost - means that in hind sight I should lower the buttons by 3/4" because I miscalculated the USB hub position and height for when USB cables are plugged in! I was lucky in that I could position the cables around the button and still use the wiress network and keyboard adapters.

I added 1/2" angle brackets under the amplifier with hot glue to give it more stability. Again, hindsight tells me I should have raised the amplifier box by 1/4".

1Up Arcade Mod: Fixing the Sound

After assembling my cabinet, I noted a lot of feedback (noise, or humm) through the amp. I tried a few tricks to isolate the noise, but I am not done yet. Often this is caused by some circuit (bit of electronic equipment) being grounded, or slightly "out of phase" because they're on different power suppies - though everything I have is grounded and on the same power supply.

• changed/shortened the audio cable from the video card to the amp
• change the position of the power cables and power supply

This did not work. So I ordered some ferrit clips and this "Ground Loop Noise Isolator" from Amazon.

It absolutely eliminated the hum! But it also cuts the high and low frequencies, so the sound is a bit muffled. However, until I can really isolate the noise, it is very livable.

 
Originally I had an unshielded stereo mini to RCA cable that was 3 ft. Way too much cable and I want a tidy cabinet - and limit noise. I replaced it with a shielded 1.5 ft cable - so I have less clutter but it was not the source of the hum.

Adventures in Chromebook Land

Today I was inspired to take apart my old chromebook that used crosh and crouton to get a feux linux.

  Breath - inspired me to find  where the write protect screw was and crack the machine to remove the screw to install linux a la  this way.

Mostly I am seriously annoyed that my single boards are so fragile when it comes to GPU support, wifi USB support, and pretty much I spend all my time configuring Ubuntu when all I want to do is build my arcade cabinet.

Bye 2021 - Hello 2022

 Happy New Year

Looking back on 2021, I think its safe to say it was more bad than good for many of us. But looking at the good,

• Got through COVID / Made many new friends
• Started cancer treatment / Finished cancer treatment
• Started new job / Learned some cool ML stuff
• Went to Cancun and to celebrate many things 
• Confirmed remission / Cleared tp get out "the port"
• Spent a lot of time with family

When I was sick I made some promises to the universe

• Give back to family
• Give back to the universe
• Give back to spirit

Give Back To Family

All the amazing support from family and friends, including new friends, I believe helped me through the ordeal.  "Never give up, never surrender." It made me realize how important we all are to each other, and how interconnected we are, even when we're distant. A thought, little gesture, or kind words can mean so much. Be kind. Be compassionate. Be empathetic. Let avarice and wrath flee from your mind like darkness in sunlight. Love everyone.

Give Back to the Universe

We live in such a beautiful reality.  It's creative. It's organized. Be respectful to everything. Set, sort, shine, standardize and sustain. Order and simplicity evolved from chaos and complexity; and the marvelous irony that chaos sprang from nothing. "Pure energy" became material as it lost energy. It came together again only to get so complex it exploded into new material. And that organized again. From plasma to hydrogen; from hydrogen into the periodic table; from atoms to molecules; from molecules to enzymes; and enzymes to everything alive. The stoics "mind fire" and Bergson's "creative evolution". Love everything.

Give Back to Spirit

Its unfortunate we get caught in ruts and lose sight of the special things that make us unique. We stop using our gifts. Let's make music. Let's play games. Let's do crafts. Make time to find joy and expand your mind - and get that feeling of euphoria and calm that just comes from knowing you are expanding your spirit and being positive. Do the things you love; love the things you do. Love yourself.

2022

Going into 2022, I made a few more promises to myself and I've started to fill some promises.

• I started rock polishing. My goal is to explore at least one gem trail with my wife. Turn a rock into a gemstone.
• I will no longer be silent.  "Silence like a cancer grows." This is true in all things but especially true when it means "do the right thing" and "don't be a bystander."
• Cherish the life I've been given. Effectively I have a second chance, and its time to stop treating my body like a neglected dump. I don't know if I can get chiseled, but I can try get healthy.
• I want to be fluent in Spanish before the end of the year. 
• I want to learn martial arts with my kids and play more creative "brain" games like D&D.
• I want to have a patent with my new employer before the end of the year (that contributes something really cool to technical fabric.)
• I want to get frickin organized and stay that way.

Philips TV UPnP Fills Devices on Windows NO MORE

Oh my, it took me forever to figure this out... My Philips TV keeps changing its registration ID via UPnP and fills up my Windows device lists. Once I'd go into regedit and clean these up - but just so many. Now I've automated it. FOR /F "tokens=2* delims= " %i in ('"pnputil /enum-devices /class {14b62f50-3f15-11dd-ae16-0800200c9a66} | findstr /c:"Instance ID:""') do pnputil /remove-device %j

Cortana Skills are Gone

Well, it is over.

Cortana is dead.

In February, Microsoft killed third party skills.  Though you can skill invoke the bots, the interface from Windows or Invoke is dead.

So the question is ... now what.  Relaunch the skills I have as plug ins for Teams chat? Or just wait... continue to build on Google Actions. 

Update: I spent 5 minutes and hooked the bot webchat to the Art of War and Mediations pages. So... at least you can still see the botframework part in action!