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Month: May 2020

Python: Getting page title

# Get the HTML page content
from urllib import request
html = request.urlopen("https://silveiraneto.net").read()

# Get the title tag
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
title = BeautifulSoup(html, 'html.parser').find('title')

print(title.string)

This uses the XML/HTML library BeautifulSoup . This could also be done using regex but playing with HTML and regex is usually a bad idea.

Mortal Kombat Arcade Cabinet from Arcade1UP – Part 4: Sound and lights

Check out the all parts of the Mortal Kombat Arcade Cabinet from Arcade1UP serie:

Sound

The great ETA PRIME’s ‪Arcade1UP Raspberry Pi Install Tutorial – RetroPie in an Arcade1UP video tutorial uses an amplifier and speakers. That’s a great solution and probably what you need. As I said before a lot of the decisions I’ve made were based of things I already had around at home.

For instance, I had an Cyber Acoustics CA-3602FFP 2.1 Speaker Sound System with Subwoofer and Control Pod around without use after I upgraded some equipment100. I’m not going to disagree with anyone who says this is a total overkill for this project. This has a lot of power and a subwoofer. It greatly exceeds the sound needs for old arcades games. However, it was literally accumulating dust in a corner.

Cyber Acoustics CA-3602FFP 2.1 Speaker Sound System with Subwoofer and Control Pod

This thing also have this little control pod that is just perfect for this project. It controls the volume using a knob. I absolutely love control knobs. I could write a whole post about knobs. It has a round blue led which goes well with the whole arcade theme. On top of all that, the control pod also has a control for bass, an on/off switch, an auxiliary input and a phone output.

Volume control

Because the wires fit in the gap between the panels no drilling was necessary. Inside the cabinet I just put the subwoofer an the two speakers. I used a double-sided mounting tape to put it in place.

The little blue circle light.

For the sound input I used the sound output from the control board. That is already converting the HDMI sound output. Another solution would be to plug it directly into the Raspberry PI and configure it to output the sound there instead of sending it via HDMI.

Control board to speakers

Lights

The last thing I added was just some LED strip lights in the back of the machine. It’s just some led multicolor strip lights that I bough a while ago for around 5 bucks. I just let it set to red because it goes well with the vinyl strip it came with.

Really ties the room together.

That’s probably the simplest and cheapest of all the modifications but really adds some ambiance around the cabinet.

Because the lights and everything else are in the same power strip that is behind the same Amazon Smart Plug when I say “alexa turn the arcade on” everything lights up with a lot of colors.

Conclusion

This has been a long and fun project. I have been incrementallychanging parts and adding modifications. It’s slow and it’s not a single weekend project. It’s good to spend time on each iteration and getting a felling of what needs to be improved. There is still some room for a few more lights and maybe a beer holder. Other than that the next changes should be on software.

Mortal Kombat Arcade Cabinet from Arcade1UP – Part 3: More buttons

Check out the all parts of the Mortal Kombat Arcade Cabinet from Arcade1UP serie:

I decided to add a second control deck to this cabinet using the wood panel that already came with the original machine. My initial plan was to add 4 more buttons so each player would have 2 extra buttons for games that requires a lot of buttons.

Prototyping

Before committing to a layout and irreversible woodworking I build a crude but functional prototype out of cardboard.

Cardboard prototype

The prototype was important to realize this was not the layout I wanted. I wanted more buttons. The original control deck has 7 buttons for each of the 2 players. Usually this would be enough but you have to use one of them to the start button and another for coin button. You also need a special button to exit the emulator. That’s 3 out of 7 buttons. Only 4 left for the core gameplay itself. Because this machine should be generic for many types of games I decided to add 3 more buttons for each player so each player has a total of 10 buttons.

The cardboard prototype is an optional step but it was easy and quick to do, it’s fully functional, and provided me some insights for the next steps. I used a piece of cardboard and put the panel J to trace a copy over it using a pencil. Then I cut the cardboard using a craft knife and also cut holes for the buttons. I installed it i the buttons, put the cardboard in the same place of the Panel J, put the wires, and configured the software. I could use the machine like this for some weeks before I moved to the next phase.

Layout

I don’t have a lot of experience with wood so this was my attempt. I had this piece of black coated plywood (45.72 x 17.78 cm ~ 18 x 7 inches) and I wanted to put 6 arcade buttons on it.

46 cm x 18 cm (18 inches x 7 inches)

First I needed a layout for the buttons. By using the prototype for a while I wanted the buttons in the middle of the panel. Some margin from the sides. Some space in the middle for some future project. The method I used to make the lines using a mechanical paper and a rule is the following:

  • First, I measure the number I want on one side. Here, I wanted a straight line in the middle of the panel. I get the height of the panel (7 inches ~ 17.78 cm) divide it by 2 (3 ½ inches ~ 8.89 cm) and mark it down using a mechanical pencil.
  • Second, I do the same thing in the opposite side of the panel.
  • Third, I trace a line between those two points. As I don’t have a rule long enough for this line I used a metal tape measure. Any long straight object will do.
Because I was using a tape measure I used tape to fix it on both side before making the line.

Now repeating this process I got a perpendicular line in the middle of the panel. Then other 2 lines each 1 each away from the border.

Then I did moved another 1 inch to mark where the first button was going to be. This way the first button center is 2 inches away from the border. From this center I moved 2 more inches to find the next center. And then did the same for third center. I repeated the same process for the second player.

I happen to have this circles template that is very handy here. The circle I need is 1 â…› ” (2.8575 cm) and I could use the template to test if the button fits before committing to the whole size. It fits perfectly. This is the same whole size for the other buttons in this Arcade1Up.

Using red graphite and the circles template I made the circles where the buttons would be. This step is not really necessary but I wanted to be sure this looks okay before doing the holes.

Woodworking

I put a old piece of wood bellow the panel I’m going to drill. This way when I go over the panel I will not hit the table. I’m using a 1 â…› ” spade drill from this drill bit set and a Black & Decker LD120VA drill.

Point of no return on this project.
Oh, there is a lot of sawdust. Better do this outside.
6 buttons. 6 holes.

On one side the wholes where clean but in the other side there were these ugly “exit wounds”. As I said, I don’t have a lot of experience with wood. Fortunately this board is the same both sides and I could just clean the side that was supposed to be hidden and use as a front panel.

How could I have avoided this?

Buttons

Buttons installation is just like it was on part 2. In total I could use all the buttons that came with the kit.

6 more buttons

They are close enough from the control board so the wires can reach the connectors. Here I’m glad I did the cardboard prototype because I knew I didn’t need to extend these wires.

No cable management.

As far as configurations go it is the same as in part 2. These buttons behave just like any of the other buttons. For the Raspberry PI this is a computer with two USB joysticks plugged on it. Each with 10 buttons and the directional which is the same as another 4 buttons.

Everything lit.

Conclusion

Now this machine has two joysticks and 20 buttons and 2 joysticks. That is enough to play all the games I want. On the next part of this tutorial I will show how to add better sound and even more lights.