It's crazy-ass project time once again...

[OldRover]

Yeah... time for another crazy-ass project idea of mine. It's not directly PCE-related so I figured I'd put it here for everyone to laugh at.

So the idea is to take an arcade PCB and turn it into a console. Sure, people have done this with the MVS time and time again, but not me... and I'm not converting an MVS either. For this, I'm going to use a converted suicide board... Mitchell/Capcom's "Poker Ladies". Why? Coz I love that game.

So I've got the plan already... I will use a rigged Delta DPS-160QB A power supply which was pulled out of a broken PC that magically appeared in my mother-in-law's car one evening. Hopefully the power supply still works, as it's tiny and will work great for this.

/plcp001.jpg

Using this site as a general wiring guide, I've partially prepared the PSU for the project. I will pick up a switch today that I can attach between a ground wire and the green wire to signal the mofo to turn on. For load, I have a 12V DC fan, as pictured above. The site gives the details for adding a power LED with a 330 ohm resistor between the gray and a black wire... that will be the "power on" indicator.

The PCB requires a -5V input. Well, this PSU only has -12V. So, I can likely deploy a 7905 regulator and make sure that sucka's heatsinked properly. However, thesteve and bust3r seem to be in disagreement as to the amount of amperage the -5V source requires... thesteve says that this power supply's 100mA is adequate, but bust3r says that the PCB should be given at least 500mA. Well, fortunately, it just so happens that I have another small power supply (though not quite as small) kicking around here that has -12V at 500mA, just in case this doesn't work.

For video signal, the PCB outputs 15kHz CGA. BlueBMW is going to supply me with one of these so the machine can put out a VGA signal. He says that the board he has doesn't have a power supply. Well, that's ok, I should be able to use this existing power supply to run that too.

The fun part... the controls. The documentation is a bit wishy-washy as to the wiring matrix, but I'll get that figured out eventually. The other fun part is the casing itself. bust3r suggests that the PCB is about 12x16 inches. Finding ready-made plastic cases that large is a nightmare, and having one custom-made is out of the question. So what else can I use? ...how about wood! I'm damn good with woodcrafting, and since arcade cabs are wood already, the PCB will feel right at home.

Back to the controller temporarily. I want to make this seem like a real console, so the controller will be independent of the console and will plug into it like any other console does it. I haven't decided on a plug interface just yet though. There are eight main buttons, plus the coin sense... I do believe that I will put them all on the controller.

So yeah... that's the rough plan. So... crazy or not?

[Bernie]

How in the hell do you find time to do all this, help run a store, raise kids, AND code games???  lol

[OldRover]

I do this kind of stuff on insomnia nights, when one of the kids is up all night.

[Frank_fjs]

Why not just use a Vogetek supergun? They only cost around $30 and provide power, video, audio and inputs.

[Tatsujin]

i did my first arcade console system back in 1996

[OldRover]

Why not just use a Vogetek supergun? They only cost around $30 and provide power, video, audio and inputs.

First of all, that takes most of the fun out of it. Second of all, it's JAMMA, and this PCB isn't.

[PCEngineHell]

This has been done before, but just in case you were wondering, older ATX and AT power supplies put out -5 volts. If you decided to go with one though you'd need to try to make sure to get at least a minimum of .5amps. If the board is large it may even need more then that.For wiring up controllers and all you can use DB15 ports and get a hold of a DB15 Game/midi port cable to hack apart.

[BigusSchmuck]

Did some digging for you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817129006
I'm not what the wattage you need, but for $30 you can't go wrong.

[OldRover]

Cool, thanks for all the info y'all.

If the Delta power supply isn't enough, I do have a Dell NPS-210AB C here as well that puts out -12V at 500mA that I could limit to -5V with the 7905. Of course, finding a supply that puts out -5V would be preferable, but I don't really trust older supplies. If I have stuff already that will work, I'd prefer to use that instead... not that I'm opposed to buying more stuff for this or anything.

[OldRover]

Charles pointed me to a power supply company that makes new supplies that directly supply -5V but he says that they are flaky so it'd be a real crap shoot. Also, the PSUs are a bit big and I might have to put it in an external casing... which would be ugly but functional.

[OldRover]

http://na.suzohapp.com/powersupplies/80021000.htm

That's the power supply I need.

[Charles MacDonald]

It doesn't do -12V though?

[OldRover]

I don't need -12V, just -5V. Was gonna step down the power from a -12V supply, but if I can get -5V natively, then that's the preferred method. Looked into inverters, but didn't find any rated for 500mA... best I could find was 100mA. Figured I'd just use an inverter on the standby line, which is 5V at 500mA.

[kazekirifx]

Are you gonna make a custom case with the Poker Ladies logo and artwork?

[Tatsujin]

I don't need -12V, just -5V. Was gonna step down the power from a -12V supply, but if I can get -5V natively, then that's the preferred method. Looked into inverters, but didn't find any rated for 500mA... best I could find was 100mA. Figured I'd just use an inverter on the standby line, which is 5V at 500mA.

There are some simple to use switching converters from national ect.
They do the same as a 7905 but with like a 90% plus efficiency factor.
So not much heat there at 500mA. Used them in the past.

[OldRover]

Did some more on this... built a prototype controller. It's ugly but should be functional... built out of a small project box and momentary buttons I picked up at Radio Shack. The box size is 4x2x1.125 inches.

/controllerprototype.jpg

The bottom row of buttons is A thru E. The red button on the face is Credit (insert coin). The left shoulder is Cancel, the right shoulder is Deal. There will also be a headphone jack on the bottom of the controller. The cable will come out of the controller between the shoulder buttons.

The controller won't use any kind of fancy circuitry or anything, so it is completely replaceable. All the buttons except Credit are to be wired all matrix-style.

[kazekirifx]

Now put an ashtray on top of it, and an ice cream vending machine in the room, and you will have your very own Japanese arcade!

[esteban]

Now put an ashtray on top of it, and an ice cream vending machine in the room, and you will have your very own Japanese arcade!

Hahhahahahhahaha. ;)

[OldRover]

Yeah... as interesting as a Japanese arcade sounds... no.

Anyway... the controller is mostly wired at this point.

/controller.jpg

Wasn't too hard... just had to pay attention to TEH MATRIX! Easy stuff.

The PCB itself showed up today.

/pcb.jpg

And got some new supplies as well.

/newparts1.jpg

15-pin compact D-subs for the controller plug and "port", power-on LED with resistors (couldn't get them in singles, so bought a set, fuckit), video conversion board courtesy of BlueBMW, hood for the controller plug, a 12V fan I dug out of my old supplies, a switching 1/8" stereo headphone jack, a 3/4" drill bit for drilling the hole for the power switch, rubber feet for the bottom of the casing, and hinges for the casing as well... since the casing will be made of wood.

I reckon the next step will be to finish the controller... wire up and insert the headphone jack. I have the controller cable en route right now... a 15-conductor black cable. I also ordered a 56 pin card edge connector.

The PCB itself is 11x15 inches... I'll leave an inch of space around each side to accommodate the casing supports, so the casing will be 13x17 inches in size. The casing will have a bottom panel, on which the PCB will be mounted to, and a top "box", to which everything else will be attached to. The bottom panel will have a front panel attached to it on the opposite side of the hinges... the controller port will be installed there. Since the video conversion board uses standard VGA ports, which are female, I will use the male compact d-sub as the controller port to avoid confusion. The video conversion board has an AC adapter port on it which gets in the way, so I will recess the card inside the casing to compensate. I will probably later run a cable out of the 12-pin VGA output header to a VGA-to-NTSC conversion board to allow the machine to be hooked up to other types of TVs.

The unit will have an internal speaker installed, though I'm not sure where I should mount it... was thinking of putting it on the top, but maybe it'd be more comfortable on the side or on the front panel where the controller port will be installed... one of those details that's up in the air right now.

[Drakon]

Most people just buy fingerboards and wire up a jamma adapter for the pcb.  Then they just plug the jamma end into a standard supergun.

[PCEngineHell]

Most people just buy fingerboards and wire up a jamma adapter for the pcb.  Then they just plug the jamma end into a standard supergun.

Thats not his goal though, he is wanting to consolize the board specifically in a enclosure, and the game seems to use a certain buttons only scheme anyway, so either way he would be stuck making a new controller, regardless of a supergun being used or not.

[Nando]

MOAR PICS - of sexy pixel ladies...HAHAHAH

[bust3dstr8]

Here are some tame pictures from the attract mode. 

[OldRover]

The card edge connector showed up today... got it partially wired. Video lines are in, plus some of the power and ground lines. I've doubled up these lines; for example, 55 and 56 are both GND and are on opposite sides of the connector, so I've wired them together with a medium-gauge lead wire.

The only line I dunno wtf it's for is line 8... the manual says it's "IN COUNTER" but I have no idea wtf that really means. Also line 34 is "COIN IN"... am I right in assuming that in order to trigger this, I temporarily GND it? Also, the controller wiring matrix shows 1P and 2P wired to each other, so it looks like the 1P and 2P lines can be jumped just like I've done with the power lines... and how convenient that they're right across the connector from each other.

[Drakon]

Oh okay I didn't know it uses a custom control layout.  Are you planning to find a connector for the board or just going to hard solder in everything to the connector?

Most people just buy fingerboards and wire up a jamma adapter for the pcb.  Then they just plug the jamma end into a standard supergun.

Thats not his goal though, he is wanting to consolize the board specifically in a enclosure, and the game seems to use a certain buttons only scheme anyway, so either way he would be stuck making a new controller, regardless of a supergun being used or not.

[OldRover]

Oh okay I didn't know it uses a custom control layout.  Are you planning to find a connector for the board or just going to hard solder in everything to the connector?

I'm only attaching the wires to the card edge connector that are actually used. There was a pre-wired connector that someone pointed out to me for like $10, but I'd hate to butcher that just for this.

[Drakon]

Guess it depends how rare the pcb is.

Oh okay I didn't know it uses a custom control layout.  Are you planning to find a connector for the board or just going to hard solder in everything to the connector?

I'm only attaching the wires to the card edge connector that are actually used. There was a pre-wired connector that someone pointed out to me for like $10, but I'd hate to butcher that just for this.

[SuperPlay]

I am beginning to like the crazy project :-)  Good luck .....