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Internal fitout

Indoors, I started the process of fitting internal components (PSUs, PC, buttons) and wiring it all up.

View of underside, showing (from top-to-bottom left) cutouts for power switch, USB/ethernet and volume rocker. Inlet fan has a dust cover. Subwoofer cutout on right
The Zebsboard plunger. The USB/Ethernet connectors also visible to the right. Red cable is PC power switch running to a just-visible hole in top left of cab floor
Fitout in process - starting to see how little space I have to work with
Starting the button wiring
Side view
Slightly fuzzy view of button ground daisy-chain and wire braid ground loop. Volume rocker visible in bottom corner
First boot in the cab - and she works!
Test fit of playfield - somehow I screwed up the spacing of the supports and it won't fit properly. Sigh.

I use two latitudinal struts to support the playfield. Lots of other people have two longitudinal struts that run along the side of the cabinet, but I couldn't do that because the back of my playfield TV is not flat, but has a large protruding disc. So I measured the two horizontal struts to sit either side of it. Unfortunately, I discovered that once the rear apron is in place, I can't slide the monitor in without snagging it on the rear apron. So now I'm going to have to either a) move the near support strut closer to the front of the cab or b) cut a wedge out of the far edge of the near support strut, so that the monitor disc will fit in place. As I only have a massive hammer drill, I don't really want to be drilling more holes in the cab with sensitive PC equipment inside, and I really don't have the energy to disconnect everything and remove it, so I think I'll just take out the strut and shave off some edge.

I'm also wondering now whether I should make the rear apron longer and the front apron shorter - I think I'll have to play around with this and create two options in cardboard and see what looks and feels best.

Legs mounted. This angle shows the playfield misfit more clearly: the front should be set below the sides of the panel sides, not protruding. Wonky angle on plunger mounting looks worse here than in real life

The Pinscape solution to power recommends using a smart power strip, that will turn off all other sockets when it detects the PC turning off. Unfortunately these seem to be completely out of stock for UK plug styles and have been for the last 9 months. So I decided to mount the power strip to the rear of the cabinet, rather than inside it. This way, I can turn off individual plugs if I want to, and I also save considerable space inside the cabinet. This is such a good solution I'm surprised it's not part of the official build guide as an alternative to the in-cabinet position.

Power strip external mounting

I haven't yet finished the backbox rear panel. Partly, this is because I didn't quite cut this panel properly and it doesn't fit - I need to trim 3mm from each side - but my membership with Makerspace has lapsed and I don't have a jigsaw to do this at home. Also, as the backbox rear will ultimately be hidden (because it will be up against a wall) I'm not too bothered, though as it is now, I can see the small gaps between the backbox monitor and the backbox itself. Once a panel is in place, the gaps will be in shadow and so not half as noticeable.