A bit of (Vewlix Dia) blue for the lads...

[geotrig]

fantastic details as always Franco ,great read

[ChrisBEANS]

Brilliant, thanks!! I’ll do some research and then I’ll almost certainly end up messaging for advice again anyway

[emphatic]

Nice cabinets! Your work and the documentation of it is - you're spoling us with threads like this.

[bloodhokuto]

This thread is a great read!

Love the colour scheme on the Diamond Blue.

I got a Chewlix for my Bro in Law and am doing little bits here and there, but nothing like this!

[wonderbanana]

So glad you made this thread! Awesome work so far! How are you connecting the consoles to the monitors?

[FrancoB]

I'm happy to oblige

Console wise, everything I'm planning on using currently connects via HDMI. If I just had the one cab and was keeping everything inside then I might use a USB/HDMI KVM switch for video and controls but as I'll be swapping consoles and hardware between cabs I'm just going to manually plug things in when I swap over.

[Pete]

Are the screens using LED for the backlights or are they old school flo tube?

[wonderbanana]

I'm happy to oblige

Console wise, everything I'm planning on using currently connects via HDMI. If I just had the one cab and was keeping everything inside then I might use a USB/HDMI KVM switch for video and controls but as I'll be swapping consoles and hardware between cabs I'm just going to manually plug things in when I swap over.

Do your monitors have hdmi input then? Mine only accepts DVI and VGA I think.

[FrancoB]

Are the screens using LED for the backlights or are they old school flo tube?

I know the older Fs etc used CCFL but I'm not sure on these, I didn't need to strip mine down that far. Anyone?

I'm happy to oblige

Console wise, everything I'm planning on using currently connects via HDMI. If I just had the one cab and was keeping everything inside then I might use a USB/HDMI KVM switch for video and controls but as I'll be swapping consoles and hardware between cabs I'm just going to manually plug things in when I swap over.

Do your monitors have hdmi input then? Mine only accepts DVI and VGA I think.

DVI>HDMI cable

[wonderbanana]

Ta! Did you order a panel from Raf?

[nem]

I know the older Fs etc used CCFL but I'm not sure on these, I didn't need to strip mine down that far. Anyone?

I'm sure they have LEDs.

[wonderbanana]

Taps fingers waiting for an update…

[FrancoB]

Sorry dudes, I didn't see your replies.

Ta! Did you order a panel from Raf?

I didn't mate.

I know the older Fs etc used CCFL but I'm not sure on these, I didn't need to strip mine down that far. Anyone?

I'm sure they have LEDs.

Thanks nem, good to know.

Taps fingers waiting for an update…

You need to be careful if you poke a bear

I've got a few more things done (as you well know ) I just need to try and find some time to get everything uploaded etc.

[FrancoB]

Apologies for the delay in updates. Any free time I've had has been (trying) to work on things but I thought I should try and get something uploaded at least before I forget what I've done. I'll not stick everything in this post as it will take too long.

The next thing I worked on wasn't really planned but it's something that came about as I was working on things. I've got both cabs running off an Airlink UK-JA0750 and I had the power leads running as so:



The problem with this is that every time I pulled the cabs out to work on the power cables would pull forward. When I went to push the cabs back the wires would get caught under the wheels and it was a ball ache fiddling with them the whole time. I thought about mounting the stepdown on the wall between the cabs but I didn't really fancy doing that. Another issue I found during working on the cabs is that I couldn't fit the smallest PC I have inside the Vewlixs. This meant I would have to get a smaller PC or run it external and have more wires running behind the cabs which I really didn't fancy. So, rather than using less wires, I bought a crap load more



And ended up doing this:



I added a 3m secton of 100x50mm Univolt trunking and bought various gang accessory boxes and plugs & media modules. The idea being that I could use the trunking as essentially a power strip with some mutimedia IO functionality. My desk and gaming rig is on the other side of the room so I figured I could also put the second PC under my desk and run all of the cabling through the trunking. That would save having PCs in or next to the cabinets.

The cab nearest the wall has a NEMA 5-15P US power socket (that JP JIS C 8303 plugs fit just fine), two USB ports that are connected to 10m USB repeater cables, a HDMI socket with a 10m cable attached and a Cat6 RJ45 socket. I had to learn to wire RJ45 sockets with was fun and I added a ~10m cable to this too.



The other cab has the same setup but I also added a AC voltmeter to display the AC output from the stepdown. I can't do anything to adjust the output but it's nice to keep an eye on what's being output. So far I've noticed it range from 103-107V.



Next to the cabs I've got a B&O MX4200 setup for consoles/MiSTer so I've added a UK plug to this with a power switch and another Cat 6 RJ45.




Couple of pics during wiring:








Couple bonus pics of trimming the ends of the trunking facia with the use of a printed template:






Cable management/routing/handing during all of this was 'fun'. I added a partition to the trunking to keep the 100v and 230v wires away from the data cables which are in the top section. I added labels to the cables so I knew what I needed to plug in where when I got to the PCs at the other end. I'll try and get a picture/video of where the wiring goes to later.

The trunking cover fits on pretty tightly and isn't designed to be put on/off and I was quite concerned about things not working after fitting the trunking so I was really diligent on testing all of the USB, HDMI and ethernet connections all the way through wiring so I could be confident everything would work when I fitted the fascia. Now, I tested all of this using a laptop and everything worked fine and so I finished off the routing under my desks and fitted the covers. When I plugged everything into my main gaming rig I found one of the Brook UFBs wouldn't be recognised properly I had to do a load of troubleshooting at both ends of the cables to find out what I feared the most and that one of the USB repeaters was now not working properly I ordered a different type of USB repeater extension cable from Amazon and painstakingly replaced that one cable from the whole cable run which was a massive pain. This then worked fine but then one of the other extensions started playing up I then had to do exactly the same thing again! Touch wood though, after changing the repeaters to another brand (Amazon basics, believe it or not) they've worked just fine.

This is how the wiring then looks when hooked up to PC:



I've aligned the sockets to be in the centre of the cabs so that even when I pull them far out the cables then trail between the wheels when pushed back.

As the power/IO bar is low I've used 90 degree cables and/or connectors to allow the cabs to be pushed up close to the wall. Not pictured (I'll add later) is a strip/bar I've screwed to the floor to a) stop the cabs being pushed back too far and b) align them perfectly.


That's it for this part of the update. I've got loads more of (hopefully more interesting ) stuff to add....hopefully soon!

[SuperPang]

That’s mad. I love it.

[ChrisBEANS]

This is fricking immaculate!!!

Great stuff!!

[Pete]

Great job but maybe I'm just getting old or foreshadowing...but I prefer my power sockets half way up the wall

[FrancoB]

That’s mad. I love it.

This is fricking immaculate!!!

Great stuff!!

Cheers mt8s. Took forever to do as I kept having to wait for parts to arrive and then replacement parts to replace the faulty ones. I forgot to mention that one of the HDMI modules was borked too and I had to get another sent out. It's all been worth it now though.

Great job but maybe I'm just getting old or foreshadowing...but I prefer my power sockets half way up the wall

Do you forsee an issue?

I was originally in two minds about whether to put the sockets further up the wall. In the end I decided against it. My office is about 3.6m long on that wall and I would have to have bought another 3m length to extend the trunking along the rest of the wall. As it is the 3m length just falls nicely behind part of my desk and lets me run the cables in/out of the trunking:





If I had mounted the trunking further up the wall I would also have had cables trailing up to the trunking and then down to the cabs which would have looked a bit fugly. I have also since ran some vertical trunking from the sockets behind the cabs and if the horizontal trunking was further up the wall I would have needed to cross through that too. The one positive of mounting the trunking on the wall is that I wouldn't have needed the 90 connectors/cables but to be honest I would probably have ended up using them anyway for neatness.

It probably wouldn't get signed off by a sparky as I believe new sockets do need to be higher up the wall but I've done it to suit me and I have no plans on moving house again.

[Neo Gold]

Superb work here Franco!.. A real Pro job.
Meticulous in your work.. I like that

[nem]

That's awesome.

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Also, I'm just going to remind everyone that if you're not using the Wei-Ya JVS PSU and you have a Vewlix that's not a F(C), there's literally one PSU that needs to be replaced to make the cab 100-230V compatible. Not only that, but the replacement Mean Well (LPS-75-12) is a drop-in replacement.

In this case Franco has a Lindbergh PSU instead of the Wei-Ya, but unfortunately that one is also 100VAC, so he doesn't have an option. However, if he had replaced the Wei-Ya with a Mean Well QP-150-3A...