#TFT update is like 90% ready

[boojangs]

To date, I have published 1,100,858 words for wenclair. I'm so proud of myself for that, it's been insane for sure.

[ladystylestores]

Realme Band Review – GSMArena.com news

Realme made its debut just two years ago in May 2018 with the Realme 1. In the short time since, the company has launched over two dozen smartphones and expanded its business in over 25 markets across the globe.

Realme offers great value for money smartphones across different segments, but the company is also quickly expanding its ecosystem. It launched its first true wireless earphones last December and in March its first fitness tracker, dubbed Realme Band.

Priced at the super aggresive INR1,499 ($20/€18), the Realme Band comes with a decent set of features including 24-hour heart rate monitoring, IP68 dust and water resistance and a USB-A connector for hassle-free charging. I used the Realme Band for more than two months and I’m ready to give you a rundown of its real-life performance.

Realme Band specifications

Display: 0.96″, 160×80 pixel color screen

Straps: Detachable TPU straps, 16 mm width, 152-227 mm adjustable length

Features: Real-time heart rate monitor, IP68 rating, USB-A connector, Sleep Tracking, Sports Tracking, Step Counter, Smart Notifications, Idle Alert, Drink Reminder

Sports Modes: Run, Walk, Bike, Hiking, Fitness, Climbing, Spinning, Yoga and Cricket

Sensors: PPG optical heart rate sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, Rotor Vibration Motor

Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, Compatible with Android 5.0+

Battery: 90 mAh

Colors: Black, Green, and Yellow

Dimensions: 19.6 x 11.9 x 240 mm

Weight: 20 grams

Design

The Realme Band has a sleek, clean design. Its body is made of plastic and has subtle curves, which allow it to fit nicely on your wrist. The smartband comes with detachable straps made of TPU, that are 16mm wide and have an adjustable length of 152-227mm.

The TPU straps are soft and feel comfortable. I wore the Realme Band for almost an entire day every day for over two months and it didn’t cause any discomfort. At 20 grams, the Realme Band is very lightweight and it’s easy to forget that you are wearing it. In fact, there were times I didn’t feel the Realme Band on my wrist and had to look to make sure it didn’t fell off.

Removing the strap from the top reveals the USB-A connector on the main module, which comes in a single gray color. But you get three options for the straps – Black, Green, and Yellow.

The main module has a PPG optical heart rate sensor on its back and there’s a circular capacitive button below the display that lets you operate the Realme Band.

Realme Band comes with detachable TPU straps

A single tap on the button lets you navigate through the menu, which includes heart rate monitor, alarm, daily step count, regulatory details about the Realme Band as well as three of the nine sports modes set by default – Yoga, Cricket and Run. A long-press on the button for two seconds lets you check your daily step count data, manually measure heart rate, turn on the sports modes, and enable/disable alarms.

The Realme Band is IP68 certified, meaning it’s protected against dirt, dust and sand, and you don’t have to take it off your wrist when going in the shower. You can also wear it while swimming, but the smartband doesn’t track swimming so you won’t get any data about your performance.

Display

The Realme Band sports a 0.96″ TFT screen of 160×80 pixel resolution, which is capable of displaying 65,000 colors and up to 64 letters on one page. The smartband supports five watch faces and more will be added with future updates. You can choose the watch face you like from the Realme Link app, which we’ll examine in detail in the Software section.

The default watch face displays time, daily step count, and a Bluetooth connection icon. It also shows the battery level of the Realme Band, but I’d have preferred battery percentage instead since I always had to open the Realme Link app to check the exact charge left in the cell.

None of the watch faces display the battery percentage right now, so that’s something Realme can perhaps look to add through a software update.

Moreover, I’d have also liked to have customization options for the watch faces to see different information on the screen, like date or the daily average heart rate.

Realme Band currently supports five watch faces

The Realme Band doesn’t have a touch screen, so you have to use the circular capacitive button placed below the display to operate the smartband.

A touch display would’ve made operating the Realme Band far easier since its button doesn’t support swipe gestures which makes navigation quite a chore. And it’s more annoying because there’s no way to go back to the previous page without having to cycle through all the pages again, which is time-consuming.

The screen itself looks good indoors, but outside, it has very poor visibility. Even after covering the display with the hand and setting the brightness to the maximum level, it was quite difficult to see the on-screen content. This might be a deal-breaker since the Realme Band is a fitness tracker meant to be worn outdoors when exercising, and a screen with poor outdoor visibility defeats its purpose.

Adjust display brightness from the Realme Link app

All the information on the screen is displayed in portrait mode but you can also switch to landscape using the Screen Rotation option in the Realme Link app. I wonder why would someone want to use the landscape mode since it makes for very weird experience and the notifications get trimmed sometimes so you don’t get to see all the information.

Speaking of notifications, the Realme Band comes with a feature called Smart Notifications which alerts you of incoming calls, SMS, and notifications from other apps installed on your smartphone with a vibration. We’ll get into its details in the Features and Performance section.

There’s also a Raise To Wake Up feature, which uses the 3-axis accelerometer to let you turn on the screen of the Realme Band by lifting your wrist to check the time, daily steps, and notifications. It also works when the Sports Mode is enabled.

You can enable and disable the Raise To Wake Up feature or set it to automatically turn on at a set time everyday through the Realme Link app.

Raise To Wake Up worked reliably, but the screen took longer at times to turn on.

You can customize the start and end time for Raise To Wake Up from Realme Link app

Software

The Realme Band relies on the Realme Link app which is currently only available for Android devices. To control the Realme Band using the app, you need to create an account first. You can sign up either with your mobile phone number or email address.

You can sign up with the Realme Link app using either mobile phone number or email

After creating the account, follow the instructions on the Realme Link app to pair the Realme Band with your device. Once connected, you’ll see the Realme Band photo on the homescreen, clicking on which will sync the data from the smartband and you’ll see the smartband’s battery level and an overview of your daily steps, sleep, heart rate, and sports records. You can sync the smartband manually as well with a swipe down gesture.

Realme Band pairing process

Up top is the gear icon that lets you access all the settings for the Realme Band, which include watch face, notifications for calls, SMS and apps, alarm, DND mode, daily goals, and more. You can check out the screenshots below to get a better idea.

Realme Band settings in Realme Link app

The Realme Link app has a clean and simple UI, but the data synchronization isn’t consistent. Sometimes it syncs in a jiffy and sometimes it takes a lot of time. The app picked up a few updates since launch, but it still needs some polishing.

Moreover, when you pair the smartband with a new device, the settings from your previous device aren’t carried over, meaning you’ll have to set up alarms, DND and drink reminder on the new device again. We hope Realme fixes this soon.

Plus, allowing the Realme Band to sync with the connected device automatically at a regular interval will be a good idea since you won’t have to open the Realme Link app just to sync the data.

The company rolled out a software update for the Realme Band last month which brought along the weather function and the ability to make the phone connected to the smartband ring so you can find it if you misplace it. Yet our unit didn’t receive it at the time of writing this.

Features and Performance

The Realme Band comes with heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, step counter and nine sports modes, which include Run, Walk, Bike, Hiking, Fitness, Climbing, Spinning, Yoga and Cricket – the last one developed specially for India.

Other highlights include Idle Alert, Drink Reminder, and Smart Notifications.

Heart Rate Monitoring

Let’s talk about heart-rate monitoring first. The Realme Band uses a PPG optical heart rate sensor that flashes a green-colored light on your skin, which is reflected and read by the sensor to measure the heartbeats.

PPG optical heart rate sensor on Realme Band

The Realme Band measures heart rate automatically every five minutes, which is taxing on the battery, but you have the option to disable it and only manually check your pulse when you want. What is missing is a third option with a custom interval, so that the smartband only measures heart rate automatically during a specific period to help save battery.

Realme Band has two heart rate monitoring options – Auto and Manual

To manually check your heart rate, you’ll have to navigate to the Heart rate page on the Realme Band and long-press the capacitive button. The smartband takes longer than usual to measure the heartbeat sometimes, but not long enough to be a deal-breaker.

It’s also worth mentioning that Realme Band comes with wear detection, meaning the smartband will not measure the heart rate if you aren’t wearing it and will flash a message saying “Put band on”. Nice.

You can find all your heart rate data in the Realme Link app. You can also set a maximum heart rate value from the app, exceeding which while doing sports will trigger an alarm.

Heart Rate data and maximum heart rate value

Sleep Tracking

The Realme Band comes with automatic Sleep Tracking which is commonplace on fitness trackers and smartwatches. The sleep data is presented in a graphical form in the Realme Link app and it tells you when you fell asleep and when you woke up. The total sleep hours are then broken down to Deep Sleep and Light Sleep. The bar graph also tells you if you were awake at night, but it doesn’t reveal at what time and for how long.

Sleep data along with sleep heart rate

The Realme Band measures the heart rate as well when you are sleeping. Surprisingly, it also tracked daytime sleep, but that only happened a couple of times.

That said, sleep tracking on Realme Band is buggy. Instead of recording the time when you actually woke up, it records the time when you get up from the bed.

Besides, the smartband also recorded sleep data when I wasn’t wearing it. Perhaps Realme should use wear detection for sleep monitoring which it clearly isn’t right now.

Moreover, there were several instances of Realme Band thinking I was asleep when I was actually awake and moving.

Sports Tracking

The Realme Band has nine sports modes – Run, Walk, Bike, Hiking, Fitness, Climbing, Spinning, Yoga and Cricket, which is developed specially for India.

You can turn on these sports modes manually from the Realme Band. It can store a minimum of one and a maximum of three sports modes. Out of the box, you get Yoga, Cricket and Run, but you can select your favorite modes as well as the order in which they appear on the smartband by heading to the Sport Mode menu in the Realme Link app. There’s also a Sport Record section in the Realme Link app where you get an overview of your sports activities.

Default Sports Modes • Total available Sports Modes • Sports Records

The Run, Walk and Hiking modes count the number of steps, pace, distance, duration, heart rate and calories burned, whereas Bike, Fitness, Spinning, Yoga and Cricket skip the steps, pace and distance. The Climbing mode, on the other hand, only skips distance recording.

The Realme Band is probably the first fitness band to feature a dedicated Cricket mode and since it was hyped a lot by Realme, I was quite curious to see how Realme provided data for the three main activities in the game of Cricket – Batting, Bowling, and Fielding. But there’s nothing special about the Cricket Mode since it only tells you about the heart rate and calories burned while playing cricket; similar to Bike, Fitness, Spinning, and Yoga modes.

Run • Walk • Bike • Hiking • Fitness • Climbing • Spinning • Yoga • Cricket

Maybe Realme can add support for steps, pace, and distance recording to the Cricket Mode to make it more useful.

Steps data

Talking about the step counter’s accuracy, it’s not entirely perfect, like many other fitness bands. The smartband counted some extra steps, but it should still give you a fair idea of how much you walked and can work for monitoring progress.

Idle Alert and Drink Reminder

The Realme Band comes with Idle Alert and Drink Reminder – the former reminds you to move and take a walk if you sit for too long in one place, and the latter reminds you to drink water at regular intervals.

You can turn on both features from the Realme Link app. Idle Alert will ask you to “Do some exercise!” between 9 AM to 6 PM if you sit too long, but the Drink Reminder feature offers more granular control.

Idle Alert can be enabled from the Realme Link app

It lets you select the Get up Time and Bed Time and the days of the week when you want to be reminded to drink water. You get to select the notification interval as well, which includes six options – 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours, and 2.5 hours.

Drink Reminder settings

The Drink Reminder works well, but Realme could have made the Idle Alert more useful by gathering sedentary data about the users and presenting it in a way the heart rate and sleep information is shown in the Realme Link app.

Smart Notifications

Smart Notifications alerts you of incoming calls, SMS, and notifications from other apps installed on their smartphones with a vibration. You can head over to the Settings menu of the Realme Band in the Realme Link app and click on the toggle button in front of the Incoming Call option to enable/disable incoming call notifications.

You can reject the incoming calls from the Realme Band with a long-press on the capacitive button.

To turn on SMS and app notifications, you can head to the Message Notification menu in the Realme Link app and enable notifications on a per-app basis.

Incoming Call alert • App Notification alerts

The Realme Band displays notifications on the screen along with the icons of the corresponding apps, but this doesn’t work with many apps – even popular ones like Gmail and Instagram. This sometimes makes it difficult to ascertain which app sent the notification.

Besides, the notification content is often truncated and when you receive multiple notifications, you can only see the latest one with no way to check the previous ones.

Realme really needs to improve the Smart Notifications feature, and in its current state, the Realme Band constanly makes you reach for your phone, without letting you screen notifications and only taking care of important ones.

Battery life

The Realme Band packs a 90 mAh battery which Realme says can offer six days of autonomy with heart rate monitoring turned on, and nine days without it.

In my testing, the Realme Band lasted seven days on an average with 24×7 heart rate monitoring and a barrage of notifications throughout the day (read: 100+), which consume additional power because the smartband vibrates when you receive them.

However, the usage didn’t include any workouts, so those who’ll use the Realme Band for activity tracking with 24×7 heart rate monitoring will get less endurance.

That said, the sports modes don’t work when the battery drops below 20%, but step counter and heart rate monitor do. And once the battery dips below 10%, the Realme Band only shows the time on the screen and you have to charge the smartband to use other functions.

The Realme Band comes with a USB-A connector for hassle-free charging. This is easily one of the best features of the smartband since you don’t need any additional cables to juice up the battery – simply remove the strap from the top side of the display and insert the USB-A connector into a USB-A port.

This is very convenient because you can not only charge the Realme Band using your phone’s adapter but also through your laptop or power bank. And if your smartphone supports reverse wired charging, you can use a USB OTG adapter to charge the Realme Band with your smartphone. I wish more smartbands come with USB-A or USB-C connectors.

The Realme Band took around 1 hour 30 minutes to charge from 10% to 100%, and when it’s charging, the red-colored indicator above the screen lights up but you don’t get any notification from the Realme Link app when the battery is fully charged.

Competition

With a price tag of INR1,499 ($20/€18) in India, the Realme Band competes directly with the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 and Mi Band 3i priced at INR1,599 ($21/€20) and INR1,299 ($17/€16), respectively.

Both smartbands promise up to 20-day battery endurance and are water-resistant up to 50 meters. The Mi Band 3 and 3i also pack touch-based OLED displays, but unlike the Realme Band that sports a color screen, these have monochrome panels.

Xiaomi Mi Band 3 • Xiaomi Mi Band 3i

The Mi Band 3i doesn’t come with a heart rate sensor, but the Mi Band 3 does. Neither of them has a USB-A connector like the Realme Band, meaning you have to deal with a proprietary adaptor.

However, if you are willing to spend a little more, you can buy the Honor Band 5i priced at INR1,799 ($24/€22), the Huawei Band 4 priced at INR1,999 ($26/€24), or Xiaomi’s Mi Smart Band 4 that costs INR2,299 ($30/€28).

Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 4 • Huawei Band 4 • Honor Band 5i

The Huawei Band 4 is water-resistant up to 50 meters and comes with a color touch display, heart rate sensor, music control, and a USB-A connector. The Honor Band 5i also packs these features, but for INR200 less you get SpO2 monitor that measures blood oxygen saturation levels.

The Mi Smart Band 4, on the other hand, packs a full-touch color AMOLED display and can track swimming, which is something the Realme Band cannot do. Besides, it comes with music and volume controls and you can use a picture from your phone’s gallery as the smartband’s watch face.

However, it doesn’t come with the USB-A connector for direct charging. You can head this way to read our Mi Smart Band 4 review to learn more about it.

The Realme Band currently only works with Android devices, but the fitness trackers from Xiaomi, Huawei and Honor mentioned above are also compatible with iOS devices, so that’s another thing to consider before making a purchase decision.

Verdict

The Realme Band comes with enticing features like IP68 dust and water resistance, heart rate monitoring, and a USB-A connector. But the smartband’s display has poor outdoor visibility and sleep tracking and step counting functions are also less than stellar at the moment. The much-hyped Cricket Mode isn’t anything special either.

So is the Realme Band worth buying? Well, the Realme Band is a first-gen product and the Chinese phone maker has done a decent job with it. Of course, the sleep tracking and step counting features are buggy right now, but that’s something Realme can fix with a software update.

If you are looking for an affordable fitness tracker and want the convenience of charging through the USB-A connector, then go for the Realme Band. But if you can let go of that convenience and are willing to extend your budget, then there are other options.

Pros

IP68 rating

Heart rate monitoring

USB-A connector

Lightweight

Cons

Display has poor outdoor visibility

Sleep Tracker and Step Counter are buggy

Notifications need improvement

Realme Link app needs polishing

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[robertkstone]

2017 Jaguar F-Pace Long-Term Verdict

We fell in love with the sporty style and sharp handling of Jaguar’s F-Pace at our 2017 SUV of the Year competition, but a starchy ride and polarizing interior torpedoed it from the top spot. Still, we had to know what a yearlong jag with this all-new Jag would be like. Could we deal with the stiff suspenders? And what of the whispers of questionable reliability? Thirteen months of “loanership” later, we have plenty of miles and, oddly, some feelz (as the kids say).

As I live only 3 miles from work and travel regularly, I cannot take credit for all 22,431 miles we racked up. It took an army of commuting colleagues and long-distance haulers to spin the odometer, from social media editor Carol Ngo, to photographers Jade Nelson and Robin Trajano, to online pros Colin Woodard and Erika Pizano.

Everyone raved at the F-Pace’s curb appeal. “Beautiful design and everyday usability,” Instagrammer-in-chief Ngo noted.

I too liked how it looked from the beginning all the way to the day we handed the keys back. This is pretty rare, as I normally go blind to my long-termer after a two- to three-month honeymoon. But even to my jaundiced eyes, the F-Pace looks as fresh as ever. Taut, muscular, well-proportioned, and perfectly sized for my ’hood and lifestyle.

As Carol notes, the flexibility of this two-row, midsize SUV is compelling. Surfing is my regular thing, and fitting 6-foot boards in bags with either the 60- or the 40-side seat folded down was never an issue. The optional heavy-duty rubber mats in the cargo area and footwells were also a godsend for containing sand and moisture.

Our F-Pace even does a pretty good job as an impromptu shelter, associate online editor Woodard noted: “When we forgot our tent on a camping trip with features editor Scott Evans and his wife, my wife and I spent the weekend sleeping in the F-Pace. It wasn’t the Four Seasons, but we actually slept pretty well. We even had a good view of the stars thanks to the panoramic moonroof.”

For me, the drive was like a broken-in pair of jeans by the end of our loan, but only in “light load” mode, with 9 pounds of air pressure removed from each tire. At factory specs, the F-Pace’s ride crashes over the line of acceptably stiff. If you’re going to live with this vehicle in an area with especially bad pavement (hello, Detroit), consider avoiding it entirely—or swapping to a tire and wheel combination that gives you more bump-soaking sidewall.

The 340-horsepower V-6 took a second to spin up, but once underway it was always ready to punch holes in traffic, with a satisfyingly hollow growl. I spent the first 5,000 miles driving around in Normal mode and most of the rest of the time in ECO, which limbers up throttle response and aims for the most efficient gearing. Mother Earth–loving chill-out modes like this usually come at the expense of immediacy, but Jaguar’s ECO mode is one of the best. It didn’t turn the F-Pace into a penalty box in exchange for fair fuel economy. The 35t powertrain struck quite a nice balance, so it’s a shame the engine is an orphan, launched in year one as a stopgap ahead of the turbo four-cylinder gas and diesel options (a 380-hp version of the engine remains available, however).

All 2016 and newer Jaguar vehicles come with “EliteCare,” which is a limited warranty covering five years or 60,000 miles, complimentary scheduled maintenance, roadside assistance, and updates to the infotainment system (which are regular). Jaguar claims EliteCare is best in class, and a quick check of the competition reveals that to be true, sorta. Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz offer fewer years and/or miles on their warranties. The only one that matches Jaguar (and betters, with an additional 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty) is Genesis—but it does not currently have a CUV that rivals F-Pace.

The only mechanical issue we had with our vehicle was the combined ignition and auto stop/start gremlin, which was covered for free under EliteCare. While in for that service, we requested a four-wheel alignment that cost $99.00.

At the very tail end of our loan, our F-Pace did start to creak a bit coming in and out of driveways and over speedbumps, similar to the way our long-term BMW M3 did. I didn’t get a chance to have the dealer check out the problem to see if it was pieces and parts of the interior rubbing or the dust-in-the-door-seals issue we discovered in our BMW. That will unfortunately remain a question, but for the record, our F-Pace never left us stranded or completely failed to start, and none of the major systems threw error codes or warning lights. For at least one of the aforementioned road warriors, this wasn’t enough.

“I’m torn on the F-Pace,” Woodard said. “It sounded great, the V-6 made plenty of power, and it ended up being surprisingly fun to drive. It was also a practical daily driver, offering plenty of room for four adults, a week’s worth of groceries, and with the rear seats down, two bicycles. On the other hand, it had way too many electrical issues for a new car. From the infotainment system regularly glitching to the rearview camera occasionally not coming on when I put the car in reverse and all the surprise shutdowns, there was just too much that kept going wrong. Jaguar has some work to do before I’d feel comfortable recommending the F-Pace to a friend or family member.”

I can recommend an F-Pace, new or off-lease, provided interested parties are fully informed of the issues we had. Part of this is because of a new wrinkle to my loanership experience this time around: I discovered the extremely helpful world of online forums. After publication of our F-Pace intro, Greg Craig, an owner of the more powerful F-Pace S, reached out with the helpful suggestion to reduce my tire pressures and to consult the community at fpaceforum.com if I ever needed assistance. And so I did, about random topics including the stop/start issue, updates to the ICTP system, and creaks at 22,000 miles. The ability to compare notes and seek advice from a community was helpful and reassuring.

As my time with the orphan F-Pace 35t drew to a close, I found myself oddly sad about its departure. I’m normally an “on-to-the-next” kinda guy, but this Jaguar had character rare in modern cars, beauty and athleticism I never tired of, and flaws that weren’t deal breakers.

Read more about our long-term 2017 Jaguar F-Pace:

Arrival

Update 1: Baseline Testing

Update 2: How to Improve Ride Quality

Update 3: Coconut Juice Eco Mode

Update 4: Ride Quality and Key Fob Foibles

Update 5: Auto Stop/Start/Restart Part 1

Update 6: Auto Stop/Start/Restart Part 2

Our Car SERVICE LIFE 10 mo / 15,592 mi BASE PRICE $57,295 OPTIONS Technology pkg ($3,200: touch-screen infotainment, navigation, 60GB hard drive, CD/DVD player, 3G WiFi w/3 mo free data, TFT/LCD instrument panel, Meridian 825W audio w/17 speakers); Comfort and Convenience pkg ($1,800: ventilated front seats, heated rear seats w/pwr recline, remote 2nd row release, gesture tailgate release); metallic paint ($550); 20″ Blade wheels ($500); Rubber mats/cargo nets ($407), Activity key ($400), Gloss black roof rails ($350); Wheel locks ($191); Car care kit ($50) PRICE AS TESTED $64,743 AVG ECON/CO2 20.6 mpg / 0.94 lb/mi PROBLEM AREAS Auto stop/start MAINTENANCE COST $99 alignment NORMAL-WEAR COST $0 3-YEAR RESIDUAL VALUE* $52,500 (81%) RECALLS None *IntelliChoice data; assumes 42,000 miles at the end of 3-years

2017 Jaguar F-Pace 35t R Sport POWERTRAIN/CHASSIS DRIVETRAIN LAYOUT Front-engine, AWD ENGINE TYPE Supercharged 90-deg V-6, alum block/heads VALVETRAIN DOHC, 4 valves/cyl DISPLACEMENT 182.8 cu in/2,995 cc COMPRESSION RATIO 10.5:1 POWER (SAE NET) 340 hp @ 6,500 rpm TORQUE (SAE NET) 332 lb-ft @ 4,500 rpm REDLINE 6,500 rpm WEIGHT TO POWER 13.0 lb/hp TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic AXLE/FINAL-DRIVE RATIO 3.73:1/2.49:1 SUSPENSION, FRONT; REAR Control arms, coil springs, anti-roll bar; multilink, coil springs, anti-roll bar STEERING RATIO 15.1:1 TURNS LOCK-TO-LOCK 2.5 BRAKES, F; R 13.8-in vented disc; 12.8-in vented disc, ABS WHEELS 8.5 x 20-in cast aluminum TIRES 255/50R20 109W (M+S) Goodyear Eagle F1 AT SUV 4×4 DIMENSIONS WHEELBASE 113.1 in TRACK, F/R 64.6/65.1 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 186.3 x 76.2 x 65.0 in GROUND CLEARANCE 8.4 in APPRCH/DEPART ANGLE 25.5/25.7 deg TURNING CIRCLE 38.9 ft CURB WEIGHT 4,416 lb WEIGHT DIST, F/R 51/49% TOWING CAPACITY 5,290 lb SEATING CAPACITY 5 HEADROOM, F/R 37.8/37.5 in LEGROOM, F/R 40.3/37.2 in SHOULDER ROOM, F/R 57.7/55.8 in CARGO VOLUME BEH F/R 63.5/33.5 cu ft TEST DATA ACCELERATION TO MPH 0-30 1.8 sec 0-40 2.8 0-50 4.0 0-60 5.2 0-70 6.7 0-80 8.5 0-90 10.6 0-100 13.4 PASSING, 45-65 MPH 2.6 QUARTER MILE 13.8 sec @ 101.0 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 116 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.83 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 26.8 sec @ 0.67 g (avg) TOP-GEAR REVS @ 60 MPH 1,700 rpm CONSUMER INFO BASE PRICE $57,295 PRICE AS TESTED $64,743 STABILITY/TRACTION CONTROL Yes/Yes AIRBAGS 6: Dual front, front side, f/r head BASIC WARRANTY 5 yrs/60,000 miles POWERTRAIN WARRANTY 5 yrs/60,000 miles ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE 5 yrs/60,000 miles FUEL CAPACITY 16.6 gal REAL MPG, CITY/HWY/COMB 16.2/25.4/19.3 mpg EPA CITY/HWY/COMB ECON 18/23/20 mpg ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY 187/147 kW-hrs/100 miles CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB 0.97 lb/mile RECOMMENDED FUEL Unleaded premium

IFTTT

[hanahaki-dot-com]

Arcade Bartop with Raspberry Pi & RetroPie DIY tutorial (with pictures) - Part 1 of 6 - Introduction

Owning a "coin-op", or to better say an arcade gaming cabinet, has always been one of my biggest dreams since I was a kid. Unfortunately, they take up a lot of space in a typical house and they're also rather expensive: on top of that, they are usually limited to a single game (or a given set of games), which is far from ideal for a home-entertainment scenario. Starting from the late '90s, the MAME project (Multiple-Arcade-Machine-Emulator) and the subsequent release of small single-board computers such as the NUC and the Raspberry PI paved the way to fix most of these issues - yet only for the few heroes brave (and capable) enough to build their own Arcade Cabinet and equip it with the required amount of hardware, software and ROMs to make everything work: those who couldn't do that had to lower their standards down to a standard PC with a couple of joysticks/joypads. They could still feel the joy of playing countless retro-games on a single machine, yet they won't have the chance to revive the cabinet look & feel like the former ones. For countless years I was one of them - until the day I decided I would also try to design and build my own Arcade Bartop! This post is the first part of an extensive tutorial containing all the required instructions on how to do that - together with a lot of pictures, graphics and photos explaining and documenting the task. I would have liked to condense everything into a single article, but considering the huge amount of info and photos I had to put up to decently explain all the required steps I eventually had to split the tutorial into six parts. Part 1 of 6: Introduction & Raw Materials Part 2 of 6: Tools, Design & Prototype Part 3 of 6: Building the Cabinet Part 4 of 6: Painting & T-Molding Part 5 of 6: Installing the Hardware Part 6 of 6: Configuring the Software (Raspberry PI & Retropie) Check out all the pictures of the Arcade Bartop (all those used in this tutorial + more) on my Arcade Bartop album on Flickr.com.

Introduction: Full-Size Cabinet vs Bartop Cabinet

As soon as I chose to build a gaming cabinet by myself, I was forced to choose between doing a Full-Size (aka Upright) or a Bartop (aka Countertop) cabinet. As clearly explained in this awesome Wikipedia page, the former are what we're used to see in a typical Arcade Gaming Hall: five-to-six feet (180/200 meters) tall, with the control panel set perpendicular to the monitor at slightly above waist level and the monitor itself at eye level, with the marquee above it - either matching the player's head level or encompassing it. Conversely, Countertop or Bartop cabinets are usually only large enough to house their monitors and control panels: they're called that way because they can be usually found on bars or tables in pubs and restaurants. Long story short, I went with the Bartop cabinet - I'll just call it Arcade Bartop from now on - for three main reasons: It's way cheaper in terms of required raw materials and tools. It's way easier to build,  as you won't have to do complex wood cuts. It's more practical, expecially if you want to make it fit into an average apartment: the full-size cabinet requires a fixed place and a certain amount of space, while the bartop can be easily moved, placed upon a table/desk/shelf and so on. For the above reasons, the guide you're about to read will explain how to build an Arcade Bartop. In case you want to build a full-size cabinet, you can check out this exceptional tutorial from ILikeToMakeStuff.com. Why Do it Yourself? In case you're asking why DIY in 2018 when you can just purchase a pre-made cabinet from a dedicated store such as GameRoomSolutions, ArcadeWorld or even eBay or Amazon, well... That's not as simple as you might initially think. First of all, you have to accept that given layout - which is a relevant aspect of the whole thing; you'll probably also have to bear with a sub-optimal software setup, since these pre-made cabinets are rarely equipped with a NUC or a Raspberry PI with an updated RetroPie - which is the only solution that gives you the chance to play virtually any retro-game ever made: MAME, NES, SNES, Genesis, PC Engine, NEO-GEO, Amiga, Laser Games such as Dragon's Lair and so on; last but not least... you'll definitely miss a lot of fun! And also the immeasurable gratification of looking something like this...

... knowing that you actually put that beast into life with your own hands. Needless to say, if you don't think that such feeling is not worth the hassle of having to draw, saw, cut, screw, sand, polish, paint (and many other heroic acts) for A LOT of hard-working hours, just spare yourself from the trouble and buy a pre-made, ready-to-play cabinet or bartop from one of the resellers above. I can personally guarrantee that you won't lose much in doing that: although it's true that doing it by yourself will cost a lot less in terms of raw materials, the required amount of work you'll need to invest will definitely square up. Which lead us to the following question... How much it will cost? The whole project will cost you about 230€ (approx. 265$) of raw materials and will give you a machine that can be compared to the GameRoomSolutions' Plug & Play Deluxe, which is currently being sold for 1099$ (approx.  945€): this basically mean that the DIY will cost roughly four times less (!) than going for the hassle-free purchase - as long as you'll have the required tools (see Part 2). That's not bad, as long as you're willing (and capable) to deal with it. If you're still reading I guess you are up for the task, hence... Enough with the talking and let's do this!

Raw Materials

Let's start with a comprehensive list of what you'll need in terms of raw materials (and the approximate price) to build the Arcade Bartop shown above. I also put some advices and considerations on the various pieces and a descriptive photo with some other comments that you could find useful to better understand the role of each one of them. Multi-layered Wood  - 2 square meters (50€ / 60$). You could also use Chipboard Wood instead for half the price, which is the wood type used by to build most pre-made cabinets... However, I strongly advise to go with the multi-layered, as it's stronger, lighter and won't have moistness issues.

These are the required raw wood panels - don't worry, I'll explain how to get/cut them later on. 19" TFT monitor (40€ / 50$). Don't spend much money on this... a used or refurbished one from eBay or Amazon Marketplace will be more than enough - as long as it works! You need to be sure that it will fit in the Bartop cabinet case, hence get one with a 420 mm max width and 340 mm max height rame (or less). Also, ensure that it supports a HDMI and/or DVI connector, otherwise you'll be forced to also buy a HDMI-to-VGA adapter (6€ / 8$) to make it work with the Raspberry PI output. I was lucky enough to find a refurbished NEC 19" EA193MI for 40€ on eBay, which has the perfect size (408 x 338 x 65 mm) and a DVI-in.

Here's the NEC EA193MI, the monitor that I used for this project. Needless to say, the base stand won't be needed and will be removed. USB Stereo Speakers (10€ / 12$) for the audio part.  For this project I picked the Trust Leto, but any other Speaker set will do as long as the speakers have a width, height and length size of 8 centimeters max: the Arvicka Speakers, the Myguru Stereo and many others around that size would also work.

A couple of Trust LETO boxes: I bought two sets of speakers because I built two cabinets, but you'll need only one. Raspberry PI 3 B (or B+) kit (40€ / 50$). Be sure to get a kit which includes the board together with a case, the heat sinks and a power supply: there's a lot of them on Amazon and eBay. The one I used here isn't available anymore, but this one from CanaKit is almost identical and has the same set of features.

Here's the Raspberry PI, already secluded in its case. The one I got also had a cooling fan on top of the two heat sinks... a nice add-on. MicroSD Card - 64GB (15€ / 20$). I got this one for my setup, but the Raspberry PI will accept anything else. You could also go for a 32GB and save some bucks here - it will still contain thousands of ROMs.

The Samsung EVO Plus is a class-10 MicroSD: it's 100Mb/s transfer rate will perform well with the Raspberry PI. T-Molding (15mm) - 5 meters (3€ / 3.5$ plus shipping). You'll probably have to buy this online, as few stores have it available. I got mine from arcadeworlduk.com and I'm very happy with the results, although it was quite difficult to put it on... as you'll see later on.

A couple Raspberry PI Arcade Joystick Kits (35€ / 40$). For this project I bought  two of these kits from Quimat which are a perfect fit, but any other kit will do - for example, this Gamelec kit will also work: just remember that the Raspberry PI will need two driver kits (the green circuit board), one for each joystick, hence you need to avoid the 2-kits that come with a single driver board (such as this one - just like the item description says).

The QUIMAT Arcade Joystick kits... at a rather advanced implementation stage. More on that later on! A power strip (5€ / 7$) and a IEC320 C14 power socket connector (5€ / 7$ including the 10A fuse) for the power part. Just get these stuff on Amazon without worrying too much for the size, as the cabinet will have enough space to host it. If you can, try to get both of them with an ON/OFF switch for increased security and versatility: I did that to be able to turn the Bartop ON and OFF from the inside and/or from the outside.

Each one of these will go within a cabinet to plug the Raspberry PI, the monitor and the (optional) LED bar. We'll see how to properly wire them later on. It's worth mentioning that the power part of this tutorial might need some adjustments, depending on the country you live in: what I bought and did below will work well for Italy and for most EU countries. A (optional) 50cm LED bar (3€ / 5$) and a AC/DC driver to power it (5€ / 7$ including the power plug). You'll only need these if you want to retro-illuminate the Bartop Marquee through a simple (and energy efficient) LED-based back-light mechanism. Once again I got everything from Amazon: the SODIAL led bar was ridiculously cheap, as well as the Liqoo 12W Led Driver that I used to power it: both of them performed greatly.

The LED driver DC cables go to the LED strip, while the AC ones go to a power socket through a plug. Water-based enamel (8€ / 10$ for a 5L can) and Primer for wood (8€ / 10$ for a 5L can). Within this project I went for a total-white cabinet and a black/white one: I managed to do both with a single Primer 5L can and two 5L enamel cans (one black and one white).

Primer on the left, black enamel on the right. I chose water-based paintings because they have low environmental impact and will perform well for this kind of work. A pack of (at least) 100 screws (6€ / 8$ for a 250-pack of 3.5x40mm size) to assemble the cabinet, plus 10-20 mini-screws (3€ / 4$) for the small parts - if you don't want to use the glue, see below - and also 4 VESA mount screws/bolts (M4) for the monitor (1.5€ / 2$). As for the VESA screws, they'll be most likely included in the monitor itself, yet you'll probably need them to be longer since you'll have to mount the monitor in a non-standard way: I used four M4x25mm for such task, as you'll see later on. I got the screws from Amazon and the rest from a local hardware store for few bucks.

A couple of hinges and magnet lockers for the openin/closing mechanism of the cabinet back-side opening (5-10$ total). If you sum all the listed prices, you'll end up with 230€ / 265$ - which is precisely what we said earlier.

Conclusion

That's about it for Part 1: throughout this post we got a good understanding of what an Arcade Bartop actually is and we went through the pros and cons of building it by ourselves: right after that, we put together a list of the required raw materials & components together with their price and some useful insights on how to properly choose and buy them. Let's now jump to the Part 2 of this tutorial, where we'll take a look of the required Tools, learn how to Design our project and build a full-scale, cardboard-based Prototype to check up the sizings & measurements before cutting the wood. If you have any question or want to leave your feedback, you're more than welcome to do that using the comment section below! Here are the links to the next parts of this guide: Part 1 of 6: Introduction & Raw Materials Part 2 of 6: Tools, Design & Prototype Part 3 of 6: Building the Cabinet Part 4 of 6: Painting & T-Molding Part 5 of 6: Installing the Hardware Part 6 of 6: Configuring the Software (Raspberry PI & Retropie) Check out all the pictures of the Arcade Bartop (all those used in this tutorial + more) on my Arcade Bartop album on Flickr.com.   Read the full article