I'm just about done with the desk I've been building. The only thing left to do is putting a couple of coats of paint on it.

I ended up making the desktop itself out of MDF since it is stable, flat, and heavy. I routed some nice edges on the desktop but I've been having trouble painting the routed edges because they're so porous. I found a recipe online for a sealer made from 4 parts water and 1 part wood glue which should fix that problem. I'll try that out tonight.

I'll post pictures as soon as I get the desk done (hopefully this week).

I've been looking into a new feature for my DVR PC: Boxee. Boxee is basically a media client which makes it very easy to watch streaming media (pandora, youtube, hulu, etc.). I've been jealous of my Linux and Apple-wielding brethren, as they've had Boxee support for some time now. But the Boxee folks have finally put out a public alpha for Windows. It's a little buggy (it is an alpha after all), but I've been playing with it and it has lots of potential. I think I'll definitely be installing it on my DVR PC once it becomes a bit more stable.

I even found a forum posting about how to use a Hauppage IR remote to control it (which is what I currently use to control GBPVR).

Also, I think Netlfix and Boxee are working together to create a Boxee app to allow viewing Netflix streaming content, which I'm really psyched about.

Right now I'm building a desk for my wife and I decided to undertake turning my own legs for the project. I didn't really want to purchase a lathe (and learn how to use it), so I found a technique which uses a clever jig plus a plunge router to do simple turnings. The idea came from the book Router Magic by Bill Hylton.

The way it works is you create a box with an open top and holes drilled in each end such that you can suspend a blank in the jig and allow it to turn freely. Then you create a sled that attaches to the base of your router. This sled then slides back and forth along the length of the blank. You just turn the blank by hand as you slide the router back and forth. I used a dish cutting bit in the router and it did an excellent job. Just a slight bit of sanding was necessary after turning the legs.

Here are some pictures:

It's been a year since my last entry. Wow. Time flies. The other day I decided to ressureect my PVR machine. Around a year ago the web site I use to get TV listings for my PVR software (GBPVR) stopped offering free TV listings, and so rather than having to pay a monthly fee to get my TV listings, I decided to shutdown the machine. Fast forward a bit and now there is a free way to grab listings from the Yahoo! website and convert to the TV XML format. So I spent the better part of a weekend installing new software and a bit of new hardware. Here's what I did in slightly more detail:

1. I also use this machine as a file server so I updated it with my latest mp3 collections and got my external backup drive synced up with it.
2. Fixed color issues with video playback. For the longest time I've had issues where video playback outside of GBPVR had incorrect colors and was basically unwatchable. After a bit of Google-Fu I went into the nVidia control panel and reset the gamma slider in the overlay menu, and that seems to have fixed the issue.
3. Installed a new wireless network card and external antenna. I'm using an MSI 802.11g card plus a D-link external antenna which drastically improved my network throughput.
4. Installed GBPVR 1.2.13
5. Setup Yahoo! XML TV grabber
6. Ran ChangeDatabase utility (included with GBPVR) to convert from my ver old version of database to the new system GBPVR uses. This fixed an issue with the "Search Guide" feature where it never found results.
7. Installed latest stable build of Comskip, for commercial tagging in recorded TV
8. Installed Weather plugin
9. Installed Cinema Listing plugin
10. Installed Netflix Watch Now plugin. This thing rocks!

Now my PVR machine is running like a champ! The bugginess in GBPVR and its plugins is gone now. Occasionally before GBPVR would get super slow (maybe a memory leak?) and I'd be forced to reboot the PC. I haven't seen that problem so far. Also, the DVD player is much more usable and smooth. And the Netflix Watch Now plugin allows me to watch Netflix instant movies on my TV without going through the Netflix website!

I've had a busy summer at work so I haven't been able to work on projects, but all of that is starting to slow down so I've started spending time in the shop again. The first order of business is to clean up the shop and do some improvements to it.

I've got a long list of improvments I want to do, everything from new table saw jigs, to exterior paint, adding a portable spray booth, etc. But the very first thing on the list is to get a better stereo setup so I can listen to tunes while I work.

Long ago when I was in high school I had a spare car stereo lying around and decided to turn it into a small bookshelf stereo for my room. I did it and it worked, but at some point I set it aside and forgot about it at my parents house for many years. When I went home for Christmas I spotted it up in a closet and decided to take it with me.

So a few weekends ago I decided to resurrect the stereo for use in the shop. The stereo was pretty impressive considering I built it in high school with almost no knowledge of electronics. I even built my own power supply for it (which is something I probably wouldn't even take on today). I took it apart and after cleaning up some loose connections I plugged it in and it actually worked! I still upgraded some of the components, such as before I had the speakers attached to the car stereo with some crappy spade connector, so I added some spring terminals for the speaker wires.

When I used to use the stereo it would sometimes cut out for a few seconds every now and then when it had been running for a while. At the time I didn't have the technical expertise to figure out what was wrong. But with my knowledge now I know that that sounds like a thermal issue. So I took a look at the power supply I built so long ago and sure enough the 7812 voltage regulator was burning hot. So I made the guess that it was overheating and the built-in thermal protection was kicking in cutting off the voltage output. I attached a heatsink to the 7812 and viola, I haven't had it cut out yet.

The only thing that didn't survive in the stereo is an old Sony FM modulator that I used to add an audio input (so I could tie in a CD player or mp3 player). It finally modulated it's last audio and it seems dead now, so I'm going to by an FM transmitter for my iPod and we'll be good to go.

After a long delay I finally put the last nails in the coffin of the arcade project. It's finally done!!!

Here are some pics of the final assembly stages including the back of the marquee box, the bezel, the "flippy" access door, and the marquee lit from behind. Soon I'll be posting some pictures of the arcade with the TV installed and maybe even playing a game or two. Enjoy!

This weekend I finished up staining and polyurethaning the remaining arcade pieces. I'll spare everyone the boring pictures since it's just a bunch strips of stained plywood.

My dog decided to help out by chewing on one of the pieces just as I was about to put on the first coat of polyurethane. It ended up being repairable but I was still pretty pissed.

Later tonight I'm going to start mounting the pieces.

I'm still alive, and I have even been working on the arcade (albeit slowly). The only thing left to do on the arcade is making and mounting the bezel, and mounting the marquee. This weekend I got all of the pieces cut for both of these things. Next up I need to stain and polyurethane the pieces (they're all birch plywood). After that I just need to mount everything and then I'm finally done!

We just got a dog about 2 weeks ago. We found her at the Georgetown Animal Shelter, and we think she's a 1 year old lab.

And she's why I'm not done with the arcade yet (or at least that's who I'm going to blame it on). I have gotten a little bit further on the arcade. This week I finished adding supports to the arcade so that it doesn't rock as much while you're playing. I also finished the back panels which slide into slots I routed in the arcade to cover up the innards of the arcade in the back.

The stained glass marquee is done and being shipped to me soon. Here's a picture.

I finished up the T-moulding and I think it looks pretty good. Here's a picture.

I also got the first light gun hooked up. I'm not very impressed with its accuracy but it could also be the old TV I'm using...

I've started working on the T-moulding now. It's surpisingly easy stuff to work with and it really gives the arcade a nice look. It probably shouldn't take me more than another night or two to get the rest of the T-moulding knocked out.

I finally finished up the wiring. I also installed a new video card, MAME, GameEx, and several emulators on the PC that will be running the arcade. I may have to make one minor change to the wiring, but for the most part it is working great. Here are several pics. One is of the control panels fully installed. There is another couple of pics which show the wiring for the top and bottom tier. The wiring is definitely not as nice looking as some of the other arcade cabinets I've seen, but it works and that's what counts. Also notice in the pic of the top tier that there are connectors which connect the top to the bottom tier. This is so the top tier can be easily disconnected and a new tier added (perhaps one with positional guns or steering wheels).

Last night I finished up the wiring on both control panel tiers. I even hooked it all up to my laptop and it worked on the first try. I though for sure that I would have missed a connection somewhere (there's over 150 different connections). I guess I lucked out for once.

The only thing left to do in the wiring category is to clean it all up with a large pile of zip ties. Right now it looks like a rat's nest of wires. I'm hoping to knock that out tonight. I'll post some pics when it's done.

Still working on the wiring in the arcade. The only things left to do are create the connectors for the spinner interface and clean up the wiring with zip ties. I'll post some pics as soon as I'm done.

In the meantime, the stained glass marquee is being built. Here's a picture. The picture shows the glass pieces taped in place and without any back-lighting.

It's been over a month since my last post, and I'm still not done with the arcade. The holidays and various other things have slowed me down a bit. I've been working on getting all of the buttons and other controls wired up. This has turned out to be alot more time consuming than I thought. But I'm almost done with it.

As soon as that is done I'll be able to actually hookup the PC and the TV and test everything out. Joy! The remainder of the work will then be mostly cosmetic.

Oh, I almost forgot: I completed the design for the stained glass marquee (both the layout and the colors and styles for the pieces of glass), so it is being worked on right now.

I've been slowly assembling the arcade now. So far I have the sides and front door attached. I've still got quite a bit to do but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Anyway, here are some pictures of my progress. The first one is the stand for the TV; it's ugly but it can support alot of wait and it keeps the TV at the correct angle. The second one is an inside view of the front door, showing the hinges and the back side of the coin door. The last pic is of the entire arcade.

I finally got a Wii! I always said that I would never wait in line before a store opened to purchase anything, but I went against my morals on Sunday.

The night before Black Friday I went to several Gamestops and found the one with the shortest line. I had read in their ads that each Gamestop would have a limited number of Wii's. The store opened at 7AM and I got there about 3:45AM. I was number 10 in line. At about 6AM the store manager showed up and notified everyone that there were only 6 Wii's.

I went back home after this and started doing some internet research. I found a site which had some info on shipment rumors. From this I found out that Best Buy, Target, Circuit City and Toys R Us were "relaunching" the Wii on the morning of Dec. 3rd. A friend and I got up bright and early at 4:30AM and headed over to Best Buy and we were first in line! At around 5:45 some store employees showed up and notified us that the internet rumors were wrong and that they didn't have any Wii's. Luckily I had planned out our foray in an area that had a Best Buy, Target, and a Circuit City in a one mile radius.

We headed towards the Target and saw that there wasn't a soul around so we went to grab some coffee. We got back about 10 minutes later to discover that there were 15 people in line ahead of us. Word to the wise: Get in line as soon as possible. So about 6AM we got in line. At 7AM they came out and gave everyone tickets for the 17 Wii's that they had in stock. I got ticket number 12! At that point they let us all sit inside the air lock to the store. You wouldn't believe how good it feels to sit in a warm place with a magic ticket that entitles you to a Wii. At 8AM they let us inside and we all bought our Wii's. They even had extra Wiimotes, nunchucks, and copies of most games in stock. So I got a wiimote, a nunchuck, and a copy of Zelda. I had heard that extra controllers were in short supply and I wanted to be able to play Wii Sports with my wife.

Now after having played with the Wii for a day, it was worth the trouble. It is just as cool as advertised and works beautifully. My wife isn't really into games very much and she likes it alot (especially Bowling).

I'll have another posting on my progress on the arcade soon.

I've finally completed putting the polyurethane on the sides, front, and second control panel tier. Below are some pictures of the completed pieces. The first is of the control panel (minus the T-moulding), and the second is of the sides and front pieces.

The next things on the agenda are to create a platform to position the TV at the correct height and angle. After that I need to attach the side panels and the front piece.

The compressor and spray gun arrived and I've put the first two coats of polyurethane on the arcade pieces. At least so far, I LOVE the spray gun. It's faster and it puts a better coat on than using a brush. I have to say this may have removed my distaste for finishing since now I don't have to worry as much about marring the surface with an errant brush mark. It seems like with a brush no matter how hard you try you'll mess up one of the coats of polyurethane; with the spray gun it's much less error prone. I'm trying to reserve judgment until I'm done (in case the final coats don't look as good or something), but so far I'm very impressed.

I don't have any pictures since I don't think they'd show much visible difference from the last ones.