arcade part replacement- what is this thing?

[darthbluntedone]

well i see you are in philly i live in new jersey! uhhh besides that do you have any arcades up there? what i did around here since i live by wildwood nj i went to the boardwalk (during the summer) went to a few arcades untill i could speak to a owner and i got the number of his arcade machine tech. he gladly told me well anyway since you live in philly try http://www.tntamusements.com/ they also sell parts call them ask if you could email them some pics maybe pick thier brains abit to see what the part is called and if they have a replacement tell them what monitor it is be serial # if you dont know where the number is it should be on either the kneck board (on the back of monitor is a circuit board) or it is on the tube of the monitor give them all the numbers off the back of it.
tell them exactly what is going on when you power up the machine as the more detail you give them the better the diag will be.

its like taking you car to be fixed dont just say to the tech "i not running right" that opens up a whole world of rip offs. detail of the problem is the key with any problem


you can see my mame machine here
showing screen saver demo mode

using trackball

playing house of the dead with light gun

demo mode better version

smash tv using tank style controls (actual arcade style)


this is just for fun! lol

[CRTGAMER]

Its like taking you car to be fixed dont just say to the tech "i not running right" that opens up a whole world of rip offs. detail of the problem is the key with any problem

I agree. If you have someone else charging to fix it, go in knowing exactly what the repair involves. This job shouldn't cost too much to repair if a matching potentiometer can be found. I suspect the specific electrical board from an old Arcade machine would cost a lot more.

You mentioned you are building this as a MAME cabinet. I'm not sure if you have already looked at going from VGA of your MAME PC setup to the arcade JAMMA video connection. Tricky and expensive. Another work around maybe switch out monitor to a Higher Resolution (and pretty low cost) CRT VGA monitor. The trick is modifying mounting area to fit the replacement monitor. LCD monitors are lighter but may not achieve same Retro image result. Either type computer monitor would be easier to wire up to your Mame PC setup. Great advantage is than you would have a sharper brighter higher resolution picture.

As far as making Arcade controls interface with computer, again tricky but one wire at a time going into a gutted USB Computer game controller. Just follow say the arcade up position to matching up contact on that gutted game pad circuit board.

Arcade controls wired to a PC keyboard circuit board is even better. Then you don't have to deal with drivers for different emulators. Again following traces on circuit board.
MAME default Keyboard Controls are:
CURSOR Keys - Movement
CTRL, ALT, SPACE, SHIFT - Fire Buttons

Something you build vs buying is a lot more satisfying.

I had the fortune of obtaining an original Zaxxon Arcade controller. Re-wired it to a PS2 Game Pad, PC Keyboard and Atari 2600. Jumper between systems using IDE connector. I cut up an Impact (remember those?) Printer Sound Box Housing to seal up bottom of exposed wiring.

Envy you tackling this, good luck, keep us posted on your endeavors.

[Niode]

I'd advise against wiring to a keyboard, since most keyboards can only accept a maximum of 3 inputs at once. Not very useful, especially if you want to make a 2 player cabinet. Get an ipac, it's a dedicated controller board for arcade controls. It doesn't suffer from the same problems that wiring to a keyboard suffers from (input delay, ghosting, no more than 3-4 inputs at once). Wiring to a keyboard is not an option, unless it's just a single player cabinet, even then I still would advise against it.

[darthbluntedone]

As far as making Arcade controls interface with computer, again tricky but one wire at a time going into a gutted USB Computer game controller. Just follow say the arcade up position to matching up contact on that gutted game pad circuit board.

yes i would go with a ipac

go here http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html it is the ipac i have in my machine and you can reprogram the control panel

and if you have any problems andy will help you out if you email him. very simple to install

i have to agree with niode about going with a ipac .

[nickfil]

darthbluntedone- i actually did get in touch with TNT arcade, and they told me they couldn't help me. They have no spares.

I e-mailed Wells Gardner about it- and i'm waiting to hear from them on monday. I also saw someone on ebay selling a wiring harness for WG monitor that looks like it has the same part i need. It was pretty cheap so i bid on it. I think it should be a pretty easy fix though. Desolder it from the board, and then swap in a new dial. It says that it is a 500 (omega l E). I assume i can walk into radioshack and walk out with a replacement dial. Soldering it in shouldn't be too hard. Becides, it isn't like i'm going to break it more than it already is.

One way or another I'm confident this'll get fixed.

The mame stuff is just an idle thought. I think if i do go mame it'll be only after i've experimented a bit with this arcade cab, and i'll probably build a new arcade cab for mame. Get away from the monitor, and slip into something smaller. An LCD probably. (i know- it burns your retro ears)

[Majors]

It says that it is a 500 (omega l E). I assume i can walk into radioshack and walk out with a replacement dial.

500 should be the potentiometer, aka "pot", rating. Good luck at RS. I have in the passed salvaged pots from other busted monitors, not always a perfect match, but good enough. If the replacement is too far off the ohms, I will move the other originals arround since they are more likely to be the same rating and use the new replacement for bightness or v-hold or anything that works better with the higher/lower rating.

Good luck.

[CRTGAMER]

I'd advise against wiring to a keyboard, since most keyboards can only accept a maximum of 3 inputs at once. Not very useful, especially if you want to make a 2 player cabinet. Get an ipac, it's a dedicated controller board for arcade controls. It doesn't suffer from the same problems that wiring to a keyboard suffers from (input delay, ghosting, no more than 3-4 inputs at once). Wiring to a keyboard is not an option, unless it's just a single player cabinet, even then I still would advise against it.

Niode is right. I wish I would have known about ipac when I set up my Zaxxon Arcade Controller through an older PC keyboard with the round PS2 connector. The ipac definitely looks the easier way to hookup with more button presses allowed at once. Still since it is only with only one Player involved, Zaxxon controller its working pretty well. With the older non-USB interface, more transparent to Emulators, especially in DOS box.