Restoration questions

[Uncle Monkey]

So....I'm almost finished with my MAME cab, and I'm interested in a new project maybe, but I have no clue how the old machines work. So basically I'm wondering, what would it take to build a machine from a JAMMA PCB board?

[matsadona]

If you have the PCB, you will need:

* some wires (just search Ebay for JAMMA harness)
* buttons and joysticks
* a 15kHz monitor (an ordinary TV can be used)
* power supply (+5V, +12V and sometimes you also need -5V, once again Ebay is your friend)
* 8Ohm speaker(s)

The rest is optional like coin door, wood, paint, t-mold and all that other stuff that makes a great cabinet.

[opt2not]

* a 15kHz monitor (an ordinary TV can be used)
* power supply (+5V, +12V and sometimes you also need -5V, once again Ebay is your friend)
* 8Ohm speaker(s)

An ordinary TV cannot be used, unless you have a converter wired-in to change the 15khz video signal coming off your jamma PCB to 31khz which what TVs and LCD Monitors use.

For power, you'll need more than just a switching power supply, and this will vary depending on what monitor you're going to use. If you're going with a real arcade monitor, you'll need a isolated power block that will distribute power to the monitor and switching PS.

Take a look at these two links for basic info on wiring up Jamma:

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/acwiring.html

http://www.therealbobroberts.net/jh.html

[matsadona]

An ordinary TV cannot be used, unless you have a converter wired-in to change the 15khz video signal coming off your jamma PCB to 31khz which what TVs and LCD Monitors use.

With ordinary TV I was referring to an old CRT TV as an option to more expensive ”arcade monitors” assuming that you would like to have a CRT screen for this kind of project, not any LCD. Maybe I should have stated that more precisely.

If you live in the US and can’t find any SCART/RGB equipped TV you need a RGB to Composite converter as well. I tend to forget that since I live in Europe.

The “arcade monitors” requires transformers etc as you say but doesn’t require anything that converts the video signal.

[matsadona]

I have done this kind of project a while ago, and it is partly documented in a separate thread here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=105790.0

And the parts I used is basically what I listed before:

* an old 14” CRT TV
* a jamma harness
* a joystick and some buttons
* an arcade PSU
* two 4 Ohm speakers wired in series