Vewlix / Chewlix purchase and upgrades experience | disassembly and rebuild | Nintendo Switch integration | Other fun!

[TheTrainGoes]

Hello all,

Over the past month and a bit I have been working on a Chewlix unit I picked up locally in Ontario.

There are great pockets of information floating around, so I wanted to add my expertises in hopes they help others who are looking to take the plunge into Vewlix or Chewlix ownership.

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Part 1 - Sourcing a unit

The very first part of this adventure was to find a unit. I started looking about three months ago, learning that I had just missed the infamous `fire sale` by only a small amount of time.

There were four main avenues to explore here:

1 - Buy a real Vewlix brand new from somewhere
2 - Buy a real Vewlix used from somewhere
3 - Buy a Chewlix new from somewhere
4 - Buy a Chewlix used from somewhere

During May of 2020 the world was in quite a state (and still is as of this writing in July 2020). Between the value of the Canadian dollar and concerns getting things over the boarder in any capacity I had major concerns with sourcing a new Vewlix or Chewlix unit directly from overseas.

1- Buy a real Vewlix brand new from somewhere
I sourced a few places that claimed to have brand new Vewlix Diamond Black units for sale (please note I did not follow up on these to confirm the legitimacy of their claims, so have no links to share). Prices for these were very high landed at my door, and well outside of the budget I had set for this project as a whole. For those thatt were lucky enough to get one of the Vewlix Diamond Blacks during the fire sale that happened, I expect the price of this would still have been on the upper limit of what I was looking to spend on this project as a whole before any modifications or upgrades were made.

2 - Buy a real Vewlix used from somewhere
While this may have yielded some results given a longer amount of time spent looking, the month or so that I really focused on it only resulted in a few scam listings. Had a unit surfaced that was in good condition at a price within my budget I would have pursued further. There are some well known sellers that import units semi-regularly into the USA. This was very interesting to me as that would eliminate most of the major concerns around hidden shipping fees, import fees, container fees, etc. Again being in Canada I had to consider shipping over the boarder which has been hit and miss in regards to fees since the change from NAFTA to the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.

3 - Buy a Chewlix new from somewhere
Tons of options were presented here. One trip to Alibaba presented pages of offerings from likely only a few real suppliers. On this front it would be very expensive to get a single unit imported, but I could spread the cost across multiple imported units to either lower my cost or potentially pay for my unit with a small markup on other units. This was a big risk, and after reading some of the stories and experiences others had I decided not to with the intention of limiting my risk as much as possible.

4 - Buy a Chewlix used from somewhere
This felt like the best compared to the other options. From the research I did into purchasing a new Chewlix unit there appears to be different levels of quality associated with different manufactures. Because of this I wanted to ensure that I could see and feel the unit in person before purchasing. Since I planned on gutting most of it and re-building my major focus was on getting one with a strong frame.

There were three major contenders at this point for sourcing a unit:

1 - AC in the USA

2 - Vewlixshop in Montreal

3 - Used local Chewlix



Each of these presented purchasing options that were within the budget but each unfortunately had downsides associated with them.

1 - AC in the USA

I am sure this is a well known name to all here. If not please do a quick search to find out more. I spoke with AC a few times about the costs associated with getting a new Chewlix or a used Vewlix. Although I did not go down this route I have to say that AC was amazing to chat with and I would absolutely recommend getting in touch with him if you are in the USA.



Price from $ to $$$$$ = $$$ to $$$$ depending on boarder fees



Pros:

- Lots of options to pick from

- Very good quality units

- Excellent reputation in the community

- Major importing concerns taken care of



Cons:

- Still needs to be shipped across the boarder into Canada

- Potential for high importing fees and other fees



2 - Vewlixshop in Montreal
One of the only things that pops up when you type in Vewlix and Canada on Google. Originally I thought these were actual Vewlix machines, but after some further reading and understanding of prices they are, in fact, Chewlix units. Although my experiences with them may be unique, I had a number of red flag moments during conversations with them.



Price from $ to $$$$$ = $$$$ to $$$$$

Pros:

- Within driving distance (very long drive, but drivable none the less)

- No surprises on the pricing

- Some references to happy customers online

- Could see the unit before purchasing

- Some amount of variety for making a selection



Cons:

- Prices were high

- Ownership of the business did not look to match what was on the website

- Images of unit available were never sent

- Major concerns over the control panel and control panel overlay not fitting


3 - Used local Chewlix

One was available! Buried in a local group I found a posting that surprisingly was still available. This one was part of a small import into Canada that happened a while ago and they were looking to get something else for their games room. They were a very reasonably distance from me and the price was good! Color of the unit was not ideal, but that could always be changed later.



Price from $ to $$$$$ = $$$

Pros:

- Within driving distance

- No surprises on the pricing

- Could see the unit before purchasing



Cons:

- Price was a little higher than I originally wanted to pay for a used machine

- Had white trim pieces which was not my ideal

- Had 720p screen in it

After some more considering I decided to go with option 3 and made the trip out to pick it up.

The quality of this specific Chewlix was fantastic! Nice heavy and sturdy metal parts with great fit and no wobble.

Came with a bag of extra stuff as well! Bonus.

About an hour and a half later I had a Chewlix in my garage and whole lot of work to get started on.

Part 2 will be on prices and budgets! Spoiler - things add up quickly

[TheTrainGoes]

Pardon the quick photoshop job, but here is the used one as it stood before pickup

"

[TheTrainGoes]

Part 2 - Pricing and Budgets

This will be a fairly small section for now. I want to be as transparent as possible about pricing to give everyone an idea of what has gone into it, and also let potential owners know what might be coming!

Note 1: These prices are in CAD, and will be converted to CAD if they are USD purchases.

Note 2: Once I get though everything I will come back to this as the end part and try to make a massive buy list for everything that went into it.

The budget for all of this was $4,000 CAD. This was intended to cover the purchase price of the unit and everything that is needed to upgrade and modify it along the way.

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Chewlix - $1,900 CAD

This included a bag of extra stuff including two Pandora units (a 4S and a 6) along with a new amp and a few other things.

I was able to sell off the extra amp along with the Pandora's boxes for a total of around $200 CAD.

This brings my total initial investment to about $1,700 CAD (or about $1,250 USD).

[TheTrainGoes]

Part 3: Control Panel

Spend the bulk of my first night disassembling the machine to a point where it was manageable to get up and into my office.

After that it was onto cleaning, restoration and upgrades.

The control panel needed a bath, had a fair bit of dirt kicking around on it. The 2-player panel itself was also a little off-centre and sticking up on the bottom right.

On closer inspection there was a fair amount of scratching to the top-panel sticker. This is one of the cheap stickers, no where near the quality of the original Taito stickers.

On this specific Chewlix unit the 2-player panel insert is cut from a piece of steel and there is a heavy duty vinyl / plastic sticker on top. I am looking to replace this with a 2-p 8 button setup from a maker in Brazil.

I used some left over Novus plastic restorer which did an OK job. Has certainly cleaned up the sticker nicely. You do not really notice anything on it when it is not in direct light. There is a stage 3 Novus you can get, however I do not think it is going to get much better than it is now.

After stripping down the entire control panel and cleaning everything it was reassembled, tightened and given one last wipe down.

I am planning on changing the colour of the white side panels, possibly to dark metallic grey or black. Going to experiment with vinyl wrapping it before I look into paint options.

For button and joystick topper colours I am still on the fence and would like to get the replacement control panel first. I have my eyes on the Samducksa 202's with a Sanwa silent JLF for the stick.

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Costs

So far $0.00 extra here. This is all stuff I had laying around.

[TheTrainGoes]

Part 4: Gutting the main unit

Since none of my plans for this involve Jamma or a dedicated arcade built I thought it was best to completely gut and clean the unit.

When I say gut I mean everything!

Nothing too exciting here so here is a picture of a completely empty Chewlix unit!

[TheTrainGoes]

Part 5 - Power

The original Chewlix unit I got had a generic arcade power supply in it as well as a double Japan style outlet that was being used for the monitor.

This will be used for modern gaming via Nintendo Switch as well as a Pi4. All of these things run off the normal NA standard.

This will not be an always on cabinet, so having a power switch was a must. The other machines I have in my house have remote switches for them to make powering up quick and easy, but I had a soft spot for the chunky glowing red switch so it was kept.

The custom power loom is an APC power bar that splits off at a 4-pin illuminated rocker switch and then connects directly to the back of the machine for a breakaway cable.

I wired up the original fuse, although I doubt it was needed.

This leave me with a machine that now has access to six plugs, and a nice rocker switch to get everything flipped on.

All of the ends were crimped and then soldered to their respective wires. Heat shrink tubing used to cover exposed areas. The quick-disconnects were also all checked to ensure nothing is loose in there.

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Costs:

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC APC 6-Outlet Surge Protector Power Strip 1080 Joules, Surge Arrest Essential (PE66) = $25 CAD

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[TheTrainGoes]

Part 6 - Speakers

Originally this Chewlix unit came with four smaller speakers. There was nothing wrong with them. They produced sound, and were surprisingly good at it for cheap speakers. I was not super happy with the amp, bass levels and general quality of the speakers however.

I have not bought a new set of speakers in quite a while. Rocking a set of Logitech Z906’s for my main arcade setup in the basement. Speaker quality in general has gone downhill from the mainline consumer side as the years have gone by, so I was not too happy with the sound in any of the Logitech Z33x range of speakers.

I tried a set of Z337's out but returned them.

I also have a Virtual Pinball machine I made, as well as a pedestal arcade. Both of those are using Logitech Z2300’s and sound fantastic, so a new set of Z2300’s it had to be. Luckily there was one for sale locally for a great price, so a new set of speakers I had.

The Chewlix has four satellite speakers though, so I needed two sets of Z2300's to have all the satellites needed.

After fully disassembling the Chewlix speaker boxes and extracting the speakers I cleaned up and put the new Z2300 satellite speakers in. Along with this I re-wired with an AmazonBasics RCA cable so they can plug right into the Z2300 sub which seconds as the main plug point. Along with this I made some new backplates out of some plastic board I had kicking around.

The Z2300’s sub has some silver trim around the front, and I wanted to have a more consistent flat black look to it so I took my new painting skills (more to come on this) to the garage again and did a tape-up and paint. I think it turned out great!

Nice to finally get some parts back onto the Chewlix! Hope everyone is enjoying the build and upgrade progress updates.

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Costs:

Logitech Z2300's = $50 CAD
Logitech Z2300's = $80 CAD
AmazonBasics 2-Male to 2-Male RCA Audio Stereo Subwoofer Cable - 15 Feet = $20 CAD
AmazonBasics 1-Male to 2-Female RCA Y-Adapter Splitter Cable - 12-Inches = $16
AmazonBasics 1-Male to 2-Female RCA Y-Adapter Splitter Cable - 12-Inches = $16

Total = $182 CAD

I plan on selling off the extra controller and sub from the second set to offset this a bit, but even without that factored it is was only $130 CAD for all the speakers I needed.

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[TheTrainGoes]

Part 7 - Screen Replacement

Through some poking around on the internet I was able to find two main threads that deal with monitor replacement. One of them deals with an actual Vewlix, the other a Chewlix. One of the issues with the thread is that it is a few years old now, and some of the monitors talked about either are not available, or there are better options out there now.

A note about my monitor choice:
I don’t play fighting games on any sort of competitive level. I barely even play them on a casual level. If I fell into either of those categories, or even aspired to fall into one of those categories I would have chosen a higher end monitor.

After a few days of poking around looking at currently available monitors I narrowed in on what I was looking for. Here were my requirements:
1 - 1080p or above, avoid 4K unless price is not impacted
2 - Refresh rate not a major concern, 60+ Hz only as a bonus on a pick
3 - IPS display (I am an IPS fan)
4 - Must have bezel

Price was a factor on this, but I was also not willing to put the wrong monitor in to save money.

The immediate go to was the LG 32GK850G-B, which is a 1440p 144Hz G-Sync compatible monitor that would run close to $1,000 Canadian dollars. This was referenced a few times online, and for serious fighting game players it is a no brainer. So this was the upper limit on choices, but came at the cost of an IPS panel in favour of a VA panel.

On the low end there is the LG 32MA70HY-P, which is a 1080p IPS display coming in at around $300 Canadian dollars.

There were a few middle ground options including some Acers, a few Samsungs, and a handful of other brands, but none of these stood out.

Unfortunately the monitor I ended up getting is no longer on Costco’s site, but I was able to get an LG 32QK500 for just under $350 Canadian dollars. This was a fantastic collection of all the factors I was looking for. It is a 32” 1440p monitor with an IPS display, bezels and a refresh rate of 75 Hz.

The monitor arrived in record time, it was tested quickly to ensure no dead pixels, and then I got to work on taking the old display unit apart.

The Chewlix unit that I got had a 720p display that had a great rich image on it. It was also covered in a layer of glass which made the entire assembly very heavy.

Flipping it over You can see that it is held into the frame with four brackets. The four side holes attach the frame to the main Chewlix body.

Removing the four screws on the frame that were connected to the brackets I was able to remove the screen without issue.

Under it I found a sheet of glass held in place with six clips. After removing those the glass came free and I was able to give it a quick clean.

I may not have noticed this on the post I read though, or maybe my Chewlix was different than the others, but there was a small lip on this frame that bent inwards.

After getting some isolation foam from Amazon (called Sponge Neoprene Stripping W/Adhesive) that was 3/8” wide, 1/8” thick and 50’ long I attached two full rounds on the inside of the frame. Making sure to give about a millimetre from the edge to account for the expansion of diameter when pressure is applied.

The brackets were stripped of the existing foam, and I cut new strips to put on them. This was the same isolation foam from the step above (there was a ton left over). I put one strip over where the bracket would make contact with the monitor, and two small bits over where the bracket would make contact with the frame.

After a good half hour of small adjustments I finally had it perfectly in place, and I set out to tighten the brackets down. One of the side posts was welded lower than the other, so I needed to bend the bracket for it to fit. The bottom two brackets were also bent on an angle so that I could still screw them in. You can see on those I also placed the foam in a slightly different position to ensure it was the foam making contact with the monitor and not the metal of the bracket.

An unexpected bonus of the monitor that I picked up is that around the backside it has a thin metal frame. I was able to place it in such a way that the brackets only apply pressure to that metal frame, which eliminated any chance of pressure spots on the screen.

Once everything was lined up I lifted the now much lighter monitor assembly and loosely attached to the main structure.

One nice thing about these Chewlix units is that they have a lot of adjustability. I was able to move the monitor around a bit to get the best possible fit, and tomorrow I will be adjusting the bottom metal sheet between the speakers to close the gap between them and the monitor.

Once all that was done I hooked it up to my SNES Classic and flipped it on.

The whole thing looks fantastic and I am incredibly happy with the progress so far on this project.

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Costs:

LG 32QK500 = $350 CAD
Sponge Neoprene Stripping W/Adhesive 3/8in Wide X 1/8in Thick X 50ft Long = $16 CAD

Total = $366 CAD

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[TheTrainGoes]

Part 8 - Side panel painting and reassembly

This is a big update! And completes the hardest and most time consuming part of the project for me.

When I originally got this Chewlix it had white trim pieces. This is in-line with the Vewlix L units, but I always had a soft spot for the dark grey that could be found on the Vewlix Diamond Black units. On the flip side, I preferred the marquee and control panel of the Vewlix L units over the white and metal look of the Vewlix Diamond Black. There was only one option, and it was to do a custom job.

There were three major options that I was looking into for this:
1 - Painting
2 - Vinyl wrapping
3 - Replacing with new parts

Replacing with new parts was the easiest solution. Throw enough money at a problem and it usually goes away. There is an eBay seller in France that has a good selection of parts, but never seemed to have a full set of the dark grey parts I was looking for. All in I expected it would cost somewhere in the area of $400 Canadian dollars to get a new set of trim pieces, and I expected I would be able to sell the current white ones locally to recoup some of those funds.

Vinyl wrapping felt like a decent middle-ground. I have worked with vinyl before, and most of the shapes were not complex at all. I grabbed a cheap roll of black gloss vinyl from Amazon to test out with and was decently impressed with the results. Try as I did however, I was not able to get a good wrap on the control panel trim pieces due to the angles and complexity of the shape. I was also running into issues of not being able to find a good dark metallic grey vinyl. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place, but outside of of expensive wraps designed for cars, I was not able to find much in the normal consumer range. I found a really nice forged carbon vinyl, but with the amount of stretching needed for the control panel edges it did not feel like a good idea in the end. Cost wise I would have estimated it at close to $200 Canadian dollars for a fancy vinyl wrap, and maybe $100 Canadian dollars for a basic glossy black wrap. For those keeping track that is about half to a quarter of panel replacement not factoring in original panel sale.

In last place we had painting. I have never had good luck with painting, mostly due to lack of time and patients. The more I dove into the painting side however, the better it started to look. There were two main sub-options here. I could get the painting done at an auto-shop, or do it myself. I got a few quotes of around $500 Canadian dollars to have it done locally (most shops would not even take it on). From a rough calculation I figured I could go it myself for under $100 Canadian dollars in spray paint.

So here we went!

I landed on Rustolium Carbon Mist for the main panel colour, covered in a Rustolium 2x clear gloss finish. For the metal pieces, I went with Rustolium Dark Steel, covered in the same Rustolium 2x clear gloss finish. Both paints were in the metallics line.

The first panel got botched horribly and I needed to strip it and start again. I spent a long time researching the proper process to prep and paint the parts and this is what I landed on:
1 - Wash parts with soapy water and dry. This is to remove grease and oil
2 - Lightly sand with 320 grit sandpaper. This is to make a rough surface for the paint
3 - Wipe down with isopropyl alcohol using a new microfibre cloth. This removes any bits of dust and debris (you can also use a tac cloth here but I didn’t have any)
4 - Light coat of paint
5 - 3 min drying time
6 - Light coat of paint
7 - 3 min drying time
8 - Light coat of paint
9 - 3 min drying time
10 - Heavier coat of paint (still light passes, no direct spraying in spots)
11 - 30 min drying time
12 - Light coat of gloss
13 - 3 min drying time
14 - Light coat of gloss
15 - 3 min drying time
16 - Light coat of gloss
17 - 3 min drying time
18 - Heavier coat of gloss (still light passes, no direct spraying in spots)
19 - 7 day drying time!

After the parts were finished painting I left them for 24 hours to harden, and then moved the into a location in the garage where they could cure. Based on the label for the paint, 7 days of curing time looked to be more than enough for the paint and gloss. There things sat for the next week, until today!

This coincided with reassembly day, so the parts came up to my office, got a quick wipe down with a microfibre cloth, the edges were all blacked out with a permanent marker, and everything was reinstalled.
The reinstall process was nothing exciting, just an exercise in patients as you make fine adjustments in the panel pieces.

The results are in my mind fantastic. This was exactly what I saw in my head when I started this project. There are a few little spots here and there, and one of the panels was in not fantastic shape before painting when closely inspected (looks like factory issues as the original paint was over the issues).

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Costs:

Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic Spray Paint In Carbon Mist = $15 CAD
Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic Spray Paint In Carbon Mist = $15 CAD
Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic Spray Paint In Carbon Mist = $15 CAD
Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic Spray Paint In Dark Steel = $15 CAD
Rust-Oleum 2x Gloss = $12 CAD
Rust-Oleum 2x Gloss = $12 CAD

Total = $84 CAD

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[TheTrainGoes]

Part 9 - Illuminated move strip and wiring

The illuminated move strip has eluded me for a while now. For the first few weeks I have played around with different configurations of LEDs, every time getting the spotlight effect when turned on though the diffusion layer and glass.

Finally realized that it was installed upside down! The silver boarder side needs to be pointing down.

Once I figures that out the 1/4” in extra height on the diffusion layer worked its magic and everything looked even with no spotlight effect.

A single strip of LEDs still made the light drop off a little on the top and bottom, so I ran three strips with a very small overlap and offset to ensure even illumination.

Thanks to the recommendation of another member, I picked up a cheap LED strip with dimmer module on Amazon. The colour of the LED was 6500k, which I found to be a little too blue for my liking. The included dimmer and power supply were well worth the price of the kit though. I was able to pick up a strip o 5000k LEDs on Amazon as well, and they produced the perfect colour of white to my eyes.

With a small section of soldered wire and heat shrink on the ends I made a little three section LED strip, and keep the original plug on the end for ease of access and convenient disconnection if I need to take the control panel off at all.

Wiring everything up was a long and fairly boring process. The original Chewlix had a metal plate (that I painted flat black) which contained the power button along with the test and service buttons. I removed the test as service as they would no longer be needed, and mounted the move strip dimmer potentiometer behind one of the other holes with the adjustment knob on the front. Where the test and server buttons were I routed my Raspberry Pi 4 power switch and fastened it with some heavy duty double sided tape.

In order to reach from the LED strip to the dimmer I made a quick wire extension from bits lying around and then hooked it all up.

The full wiring is not complete yet, but I was able to finally hook everything up and test it all out. Don't mind the over-exposed wiring shot, it is quite dark in there otherwise (may install another LED strip for easy viewing).

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Costs:

LE LED Strip Lights, 16.4ft 12V Dimmable Strip Lights, 6000K Daylight White, 300 Units 2835SMD LED Tape Light for Home, Non Waterproof, Power Adapter = $25 CAD
Signcomplex 16.4ft LED Flexible Strip Lights 300 Units SMD3528 LED Non-Waterproof 12V DC Led Tape Light for DIY Christmas Lights Party Kitchen Bedroom = $15 CAD

Total = $40 CAD

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[TheTrainGoes]

Part 10 - Fans

I was tempted to not do anything about the fans. This is no longer a commercial unit, it will not be on 24/7, and it produces significantly less heat without the stock 720p monitor in it.

For the sake of completeness I just couldn’t say no!

Since this no longer has an arcade power supply in it I either needed to run the fans off the power bar directly or though USB (which could also be done though the power bar). I have a set of AC Infinity fans on my desk that keep me cool during the working days, and they are very quiet (also USB).

After a bit of poking around I was able to find an AC Infinity 80mm and 120mm fan that both have speed controls as well as USB plugs. Ordered!

The configuration as they came would not work for me, as I don’t want to eat up two spots on the power bar with two separate USB power blocks, and I saw no need to buy a double USB power block. Since these come with a female USB port on them for daisy-chaining, there is no reason I cannot just cut them all up and make a new loom out of it!

Cut, strip, solder, heat shrink and then repeat quite a few times.

I built the loom such that There was a breakaway USB port for the fan where the monitor sits. This makes for easy access if I need to take the back panel off at all. I also moved some of the lengths around such that the control could be strapped to my ever growing control panel piece.

All of this connects with an Apple USB power block and we are in business!

Since it is only 5V with minimum amperage and two fans running off that single USB, they do not run at full speed. This is OK though as the main goal was to fill the void where the fans once were, and also offer a small bit of quiet airflow to the unit. These slow fans check both boxes so I am extremely happy with how it all turned out.

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Costs:

AC Infinity MULTIFAN S1, Quiet 80mm USB Fan for Receiver DVR Playstation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling = $21 CAD
AC Infinity MULTIFAN S3, Quiet 120mm USB Fan for Receiver DVR Playstation Xbox Computer Cabinet Cooling = $21 CAD

Total = $42 CAD

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[TheTrainGoes]

Part 11 - Intermission

This brings us up to where I am at right now on things.

I have thrown a few encoder board in and the original buttons to test everything out.

I have also put a KVM switch in to test everything out.

Here is a list of the things I still want to work on for this:

1 - Replace control panel. There is someone in Brazil that makes fantastic replacement control panels that I would like to get
2 - Replacement buttons and sticks. I am looking at the Samducksa 202's for this
3 - Get a set of stickers done up. Speaker stickers as well as the coin sticker
4 - Ashtrey type thing. I made a set of Taito coasters that should fill the gap nicely on this
5 - Coin slot mech. Wire a switch in does not need 12v to check coins
6 - Sub panel's for the Nintendo Switch + extra buttons
7 - Control panel wiring. Make a custom loom

[Rezwalker]

Ouin ouin ouin !!

Good Job so far
Im myself setting up a Chewlix at the moment
bought new in Montréal

you plan for Tate mode in the futur ?

[Mrhide]

Ouin ouin ouin !!

Good Job so far
Im myself setting up a Chewlix at the moment
bought new in Montréal

you plan for Tate mode in the futur ?

un autre?!?!@#

[decapattack]

Thanks for the breakdown! I too am in Ontario and looking to pick up a 2player chewlix. Any advice on where to look for them second hand? Basically i just browse facebook marketplace and kijiji. Would like to know what sites/groups/forums you browsed in order to discover your listing.