Scratch Build – In Progress R-KAID-Я (15/5 Zero margins)

Let me present "R-KAID-Я", the handheld arcade unit. I´ve been sketching on it for some time now, and it´s finally time for execution. You probably all know I love old school gaming by now, and while R-KAID-Я might not be small and mobile as a DS or a Vita, it will be an interesting competitor with classic joystick+button layout, storage, flexibility and of course, amazingly good looks!



That being said, it´s still not a simple task to make everything fit in there. The console measures 28x18x9cm, which means I have to plan everything well.

Although some might think I´m monotonous when it comes to materials, I´ll be using walnut and brass, simply because that is one hell of a combination, a classic.

It will store a self booting game library of over 20.000 emulated classic game titles

This little machine will aslo have some other really nice and unique features, but more about that as I process...

It will be build sort of like a casket, with a base unit housing most of the HW, and a top piece with display and speakers.

Before I let you in on the ingredients, I just want to thank VIA embedded and Kingston for their support.






Ok, so here are the guts:

Kingston 120gb ssd and so-dimm 4gb


And here is the little board that makes this project possible, the EPIA P910 from VIA Embedded.


It´s a tiny monster! The board measures only 10x7cm, but has an 64-bit VIA QuadCore E-Series processor. I´ve attached 4x 25mm spacers, this is for mounting it under a panel.


And here´s whats going to supply the console with current, a 12v rechargeable Lithium-ion battery with 8000mAh. To make it work proper I´ll use that brick to the left, a DC-DC 12V 6A step-up&down converter.


And here´s the display I´m going to use, an 8" LCD screen with controller board.


Some things for the gamepad, a small solderless controller PCB...


... and some nice black Sanwa push buttons. You´ll notice there´s only eight of them in the picture. The ninth is going through some modifications right now. I´ll tell you more about that later.


The push buttons are also going to get a facelift, and for that I´ll use these curtain rings in solid brass.


This is the joystick. To make it fit when the casket is closed I have to make some modifications. A simple solution actually, I just cut the shaft in half More about this later...


This is the speaker I´ll be using, a tiny 50mm element.


To have a proper signal link between base and top I first had to count the signals needed. 12 for VGA, 2 for LCD power and another 5 signals for audio+volume knob. I had an old flat IDE cable laying around and decided to use that for connection. Just strip it down and use the amount of signals needed


Finally, i found this slightly convex glass that I might use with the LCD to make it look more like a retro CRT monitor.





And some process so far:

Cut some pieces of solid walnut


I wanted to use the laser cutter for some finer details, but it can only cut through 4mm, so I had to prepare the pieces by removing some material from the back.


I aslo made the two panels. For the top I used 6mm MDF. The base panel have to be slighly thicker due the the amount of pounding it´ll get when playing Track&Field so I used 10mm for that one. Walnut veneer onto that!


These where also going into the laser cutter, so some material removing here as well.


Preperations done!


First the panels...


Then onto the side pieces of solid walnut.


I made some ornament cutting on the sides for small vents. The left over piece below is quite striking. You shouldn´t be able to make these kind of things out of solid wood. I´m amazed!


The boxes are glued under pressure.


Veneering time again. In this picture you can see the ornament vent... Quite classy!


This is a 9mm brass rod...


... and this is the joystick shaft I told you about in the introduction.


I cut it, made a hole for an M6 thread and made the docking shaft piece from brass with threads on both sides. Made two of them for fun, while I was at it.


Laptops uses tiny hinges with friction for the right amount of resistance, and I needed something similar. But I couldn´t find something that suited my needs, so I decided to try making the hinges myself. I wanted to controll the amount of friction and came up with an idea using that 9mm brass rod I had laying around. More about this later.


And this is the locking mechanism. I´m going into the details about this feature later, but here are some pictures...





Well, that´s it for know. I hope you´ll like it! Sorry for the picture quality, I blame it on the phone.

I want to give a big thank you to the people here on Bit-tech who helped me out regarding the use of Lithion batteries.

/ Quizz

 

Dude?!!!! Would you just stop already??? LOL

 

Man, this is awesome!

Really cool concept. It must have taken a lot of research and time to get all the components together. What do you estimate the battery life will be like?

Impressive wood working skills and workshop too.

 

It is allready awesome project.

 

Awesome to see another quizz project on the go, handheld arcade system in the awesome quizz_kid retro styling, woo hoo.

Nice progress already.

 

Ah! Another one already? Does your brain ever switch off thinking about these projects?

I love the idea but... how much charge will you even get from a 8000mah battery? Also; that dinky motherboard is awesome. I'm assuming it'll play things like NES and SNES games. I can't see this playing N64 games.

 

NEVER! =)

Thanks Ocelot! Yes, the layout took some time to design. I have never worked with this kind of batteries before, but the board does 30w at average load, so with 8000 mAh I´m aiming at 6 hrs, at least.

Thanks a lot Pranja. Especially for all the help pre-wise.

Thanks Waynio! Why take a break while I´m in such a creative flow =)

My brain works in strange ways. It would probably explode if I didn´t have projects shooting out of my ass 247...

As I mention above, I´m hoping for at least 6 hrs of gaming with that battery. Shouldn´t be an issue there, hopefully.

I haven´t tested it fully, but I shouldn´t expect N64 running smothly. But it´s good enough for most of the MAME games, exept some of the 3D games that are more demanding I guess.





Update:

Here are the panels after laser cutting... Since I´m going to stain them dark later, I don´t have to do anything about that burned wood along the cuts.


And here is that ninth button a was talking about before. Lets see if anyone can point out the purpose of the small brass piece inserted under the push button.


Hinges dissected. They come in two parts, one with an M3 thread.


Hinges assembled. I must say I´m very proud over these. They work AND they look good. You adjust the friction simply but tighten or loosen the M3 screw. Small 7mm o-rings in between.



I´ve learned some minor metal work as you´ve noticed. It´s great fun!! Can´t wait to dig deeper into this area

 

Man that's an awesome quote.

Very nice hinges.

 

It looks like a Victorian laptop..

I effing love it !

 

Thanks W!

Well, the victorian era had a lot of beauty, so thanks!

 

Are we thinking of using that button with the brass piece for a momentary switch; say a power button perhaps.

 

The push buttons are momentary to start with =) So no, we are not thinking power button here.

 

Looks like it's gonna be the volume knob? Great concept!

 

Well it aint a volume knob =) Would be a nice idea though

 

friggin sweet! love your classic style!

ps. if you need some "special tool" i might be able to fix it, working for Ahlsell if you know that company...

 

Thanks friend!

I kinda know Ahlsell, supplier of all kinds of tools and other stuff. Thank you for offering your help, that´s very thoughtful. Don´t know if I´m in need of anything special right now, but I´ll let you know if... Do they have a catalogue or something?

 

ahlsell.se then click on catalogues

 

Do I have to order them? Can´t seem to find any online ones. Does Ahlsee by any chance have drill sets like these?

 

Another cool project squid, I'm still trying to get my head around the bits of hardware. It's definitely not a run of the mill project, you're my kind of loon. Watching with interest

 

Thank man! I´m just trying something new, which means I´m a bit confused about the bits´n´pieces going into this as well =)


Small update

Drilled all the holes for the controller panel.



And made a 35mm volume knob.


I had to make it 5mm thin because of the margins when the damn thing is closed.