Console Rack

[FrancoB]

I've moved things around in my office recently and I've put my MX7000 under my desk to free up some room. I don't have a lot of spare room on my desk for consoles and I got a bit tired of having to keep shuffling them around so I made a rack to utilise the vertical space I have below one of my speakers.

NTSC-J Saturn + Fenrir ODE, MiSTer + Ironclad, my childhood PAL Dreamcast with chinese GDEMU 5.20 installed, NTSC-J SCPH-7000 PS2 Slim with Modbno 5 chip.

Originally I wanted to put the PS2 on the top but there wasn't enough space so I added some tabs and mounted it to the side.


I don't want or need to have them all hooked up at once but I still want to be able to hook them up easily so I made a mount for an extension cable and for a SCART coupler that's fitted to the side of my desk:

Thanks to LEGENOARYNINLIA for pointing me towards McBazel/Brook adapters. With these I can use modern wireless pads for the all the systems and I can use my Switch HRAP stick too. I might add a USB extension to go under the desk so the wire is not trailing over the top of the desk.

I took a few pictures etc whilst putting it together and I can create a bit of a build log if anyone's interested.

 

[neo-geo-mvs]

Everything you do always look great Franco! Did you change the DC case or is that a limited edition one?

 

[FrancoB]

Thanks, I've not really made anything from acrylic for a while so it was nice to have a play with it again.

It's a replacement case. I've got two DCs, the one on the left is the one I had in my 'youth', I seem to remember I swapped some Numark turntables for it The one on the right is one I picked up more recently although that was probably still 10 years ago.

The old one is pretty yellow and based up so thought I would try a shell swap whilst doing some other mods. I bought a [Bitfunx replacement shell from Aliexpress]. I went for a translucent black one. It's a little darker than I had hoped but I can't fault the quality, it's really good. The only annoying thing is that it didn't come with a die cut logo for the lid so I ended up buying [one of those] separate.

Whilst doing the case swap I installed the GDEMU, desoldered the 12v voltage regulator from the PSU, fitted a coin cell holder and swapped the LED for a blue one. Just need to curate a nice selection of games for the SD card now.

 

[Mr20to5]

I know it's off topic, but I've literally just been eyeing up those ikea drawer units to make a desk for my youngest in his room. Great minds!!

 

[kingtreelo]

that DC case looks fantastic, did you have to buy a new sticker for it or did it come with the case?

 

[cools]

The only annoying thing is that it didn't come with a die cut logo for the lid so I ended up buying [one of those] separate.

 

[FrancoB]

I know it's off topic, but I've literally just been eyeing up those ikea drawer units to make a desk for my youngest in his room. Great minds!!

IKEA Alex, yes. They are decent drawers. I used four of them and three large worktops to make a corner desk for my office. Also bought them for the Mrs's study. Drawers are great, the worktops (can't remember the name without looking) are not particulary hard wearing though, I got a couple of marks on them before too long. I've since bought two A1 cutting mats to protect the high traffic areas. There's a few (pre-mat) random photos in [this] gallery.

I planned to have one side for project stuff, PC work station in the middle and then have my CDJs setup on the other side. Three years after moving in the CDJs are still untouched in a flight case in another room There's not enough hours in the day.....

that DC case looks fantastic, did you have to buy a new sticker for it or did it come with the case?

Aye, it didn't as mentioned above. The listing was a little ambiguous. It didn't say that it came with a decal but a lot of the reviews said it did. I figured they sent a decal with the kit but they didn't advertise one due to copyright. It was only a couple of quid to buy one but I was more annoyed that I then had to wait for a sticker to be shipped from another seller on it's own.

Funnily enough all of the sticker/decal listings don't show the full Dreamcast logo in one way or another, once again I presume to get around copyright. This is the picture on the listing of the one I bought:


After my previous luck I was half expecting it to arrive exactly like that Thankfully it's spot on. It's great quality, nice and thick and
has a 3M adhesive backing.

 

[Stokers]

That looks really neat, having consoles stacked is great for the space.

Not 100% on the 'massive TV unnder the desk' thing though - doesn't that make both the TV and the desk unusable?

*unless it was a joke and I've missed it

 

[muddymusic]

Very, very nice work dude. How you manage to make even a scart plug look quality is a real skill

 

[Flinnster]

I quite like the Dr Dre cast

 

[channel27]

That looks extremely professional

 

[FrancoB]

Thanks gents. Pretty happy with how it's turned out and it makes things much easier. I'm much more likely to squeeze a game in if I don't have to go hunt a console down and make room for it.

@Stokers - TV under the desk isn't exactly optimum but it's a bit of a compromise for now. I recently had it on the other side of my office but I had to make space for another cab.

That's near the other 'wing' of my desk....once again with a load of stuff under it That side is a little clearer now and is where I do my soldering etc. I've got my PC/monitors in the corner between the wings. I don't actually sit down to do work on the side where the CRT is.

With one of my benches turned round and set to the lowest setting it's actually pretty comfortable to play with the CRT being at an angle too:

I would prefer to have the CRT higher up but beggars can't be choosers at the moment.

 

[Stokers]

Sure, makes total sense if you aren't trying to use the desk, a few other things i've noticed..

- Damn the picture on the B&O TVs looks good - I had a MX7000 and wasn't keen at all becuase of the tinted glass and barell distortion but they look really nice.
- I love the charging docks for the 8bitdo pads - never even knew they existed
- Lovely vewlix cab, hopefuly Martin is going to deliver my first next week. (no idea where i'm going to put it)

Wait does that mean there are 3 B&O tvs in that room

 

[FrancoB]

It has got a lovely picture. I got it from the wonderous @wonderbanana and he bought it from an ex B&O engineer who had gone over it and so it's in tip top condition.

They're not charging docks for the M30 pads, they're just some stands I printed (not my design). I can't find the ones I printed but there are similar ones [here]. I've got some of the 8bitdo Ultimate controllers which do come with charging stands. They're great and are my 'go to' pad for most things.

Congrats on the incoming Vewlix, they are great cabs to work on IMO 🙂 I like the 'buy now, think later' approach, a guy after my own heart 😁 There's a couple more pics of mine in [this] thread along with the older MX4200 set up.

Just got the two B&Os, the MX7000 and the MX4200, the latter is now in my wardrobe (and no I don't play it in there 😬 ) but that might be going to a friend soon.

 

[Stokers]

It has got a lovely picture. I got it from the wonderous @wonderbanana and he bought it from an ex B&O engineer who had gone over it and so it's in tip top condition.

They're not charging docks for the M30 pads, they're just some stands I printed (not my design). I can't find the ones I printed but there are similar ones [here]. I've got some of the 8bitdo Ultimate controllers which do come with charging stands. They're great and are my 'go to' pad for most things.

Congrats on the incoming Vewlix, they are great cabs to work on IMO 🙂 I like the 'buy now, think later' approach, a guy after my own heart 😁 There's a couple more pics of mine in [this] thread along with the older MX4200 set up.

Just got the two B&Os, the MX7000 and the MX4200, the latter is now in my wardrobe (and no I don't play it in there 😬 ) but that might be going to a friend soon.

Indeed. I recall Mr Banana having a wonderous MVS U4 that I couldn't afford

What an awesome setup / gaming room. I love the artwork as well - is that an original metal slug poster? I've just realised I was chatting to you on AO about a universal monitor mount - I need to get on with putting my name down for one!

 

[FrancoB]

He's a man of good taste is old 'nana

I love the artwork as well - is that an original metal slug poster?

There was some talk around that recently in this thread [here]. Looks like it isn't sadly. I've had it for about 11 years though and not seen another similar repro.

I've just realised I was chatting to you on AO about a universal monitor mount - I need to get on with putting my name down for one!

Indeed you were. Think I've currently got two left that aren't being held. If you want me to hold one stick your name down here > http://dvd.2.vu/vumm

 

[Mr20to5]

IKEA Alex, yes. They are decent drawers. I used four of them and three large worktops to make a corner desk for my office. Also bought them for the Mrs's study. Drawers are great, the worktops (can't remember the name without looking) are not particulary hard wearing though, I got a couple of marks on them before too long. I've since bought two A1 cutting mats to protect the high traffic areas. There's a few (pre-mat) random photos in [this] gallery.

That looks great in those photos, @FrancoB . Some really nice little touches to make it bespoke to the room. Is it wrong to like it better without all the stuff in the room?

 

[FrancoB]

Oh I like it clear too, the problem is I like stuff too much too 😬

Couple of QOL updates.

I'm using wireless joypads for each system but the sticks I'm using are USB. I got tired real quick of the USB cable trailing from the rack so I remade the foot thing.

The laser in the PS2 has been giving me some gyp too. I was going to replace it but thought I would look at other loading options and decided to use psx-pi-smbshare to load games from USB. I didn't really want a Pi in a box with additional cables floating around so I thought I would see if I could fit something to the top of the PS2 PSU. It was a bit of a challenge to keep everything within the footprint and whilst keeping all of the cables axial but I managed it.

I used a Pi Zero with a ethernet/USB hat and a DC>DC voltage regulator to drop the 8.5V to 5V power the Pi. 8.5V is passed through to the other side to then power the PS2.

The button is to shut down the Pi so that files are not corrupted from a hard power off. I connected the button to the GPIO pins and edited the /boot/config.txt file to suit.

To tidy some of the excess wire I made a cable tidy to go on the bottom.

I was a bit concerned about any issues with heat but I checked the PSU and Pi with a IR heat gun before and after and it's made no difference.

 

[funk]

I know it's off topic, but I've literally just been eyeing up those ikea drawer units to make a desk for my youngest in his room. Great minds!!

Did the same configuration myself 4-5 year back, always looks smart but working at it all day wasn't ideal.

Ended up buying a second adjustable desk from flexispot when they were on offer (happens regularly) and haven't looked back. They'll take the IKEA kitchen and office worktops, can easily have the draws either side of the frame too.

@FrancoB was the acrylic hand cut or have you used a laser cutter? Looks really smart!

 

[FrancoB]

@funk - Thanks! Acrylic was made with a router table and pillar drill and then hand polished. Laser would be 1000x quicker/easier 🙃

I've got a few more process pics I can upload if interested.