How to power this. And powering a MAME cabinet.

[TJCOMBO]

I got a hold of an old MK/KI cabinet with some of the inside wiring missing.  I am transforming it into a MAME cabinet.  Here is the wiring to the coin door operation.  I would like to light up the coin door lights for a more presentable, authentic look.  Is there some way to power this thing without buying the original power supply?  I do know the coin door operation is Dixie-Narco.

What do most people do for MAME cabinets with regards to powering all the components?  A power strip inside the cabinet with cords plugged in?  I am a little unfamiliar with how power supplies work in arcade cabinets - were the old games custom wired and powered while some of the newer games use some universal powering method?

[matsadona]

It isn't any rocket sience to power some coind door light bulbs. They are usually 12V, but could be 5V. You need to figure that out first and what wires to connect. Regardless you would have both 12V and 5V at the standard PC power supply, so you wouldn't need any additional power.

[PL1]

What do most people do for MAME cabinets with regards to powering all the components?  A power strip inside the cabinet with cords plugged in?

Lots of people use a "smart strip" like this one to provide power to your computer, monitor, and anything else that you'd normally plug into a wall socket.

It looks like a regular power strip, but when you turn on the device plugged into the "control outlet"--usually your computer-- the smart strip senses the load and applies power to the rest of the outlets.  When you shut down your computer, the smart strip removes power to the other outlets.


Scott

[MonMotha]

Midway liked to use 6.3V lamps in the coin doors from that era.  Should be the yellow and yellow/white stripe wires on that connector.  They actually had a dedicated winding on the "power pack" main transformer (that also served as the monitor iso and handled step up/down if needed) on some models, such as MK2.

You can run it off the 5V from your PC, but the lamps will be a bit dim (probably fine).  I replaced them with 14V lamps and run them off the 12V switching supply I have in mine (which is just an old ATX supply) with similar effect.

As for power, I just have a standard power strip bolted to the bottom.  Not my ideal solution, but it works well in this case.  I wired the existing top switch inline to easily turn the cabinet on/off.  I don't generally have a PC in it, and when I do, I have the PC set up to be fine with being hard-powered, so that works well.

[dzorbas]

I replaced the bulbs in my coin door with 5V LEDs that I grabbed from ebay for a couple of bucks and powered them of my PC. I bought strings of LEDs and did the same for my marquee lights. Some guys don't like them because they are a little too bright but I can live with them. Works great and they switch on and off with the PC. For general power I use a regular power bar. I have the PC, monitor and speakers plugged into it. I wired up the PC power switch to the coin reject button and set the PC to sleep or come out of sleep when you hit the button. I generally leave the speakers powered on but have easy access to the control module if I want to power them down. The monitor goes into sleep mode when not in use so I just leave it alone.

I have thought about using the power strip like others have suggested but my cab works pretty well the way it is right now. 

Dino Z.

[mcseforsale]

Build yer own.  I copied it from Yaksplat's idea.  Here's a link to my build thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=117977.msg1267034#msg1267034

AJ

[TJCOMBO]

I am still very new to this and my electrical wiring experience is limited, but you have to start somewhere. :shrug: Ended up reading the manual online, didn't think about that.  It all came together and makes sense.  MonMotha, yes, you were correct.  I assume I would just run a 18 ga wire from that first pin -5VA on that connector in the pic to a +5VA pin on the molex connector of the computer PSU.  Is that right?

Powerstrip seems like a great solution.

It would be nice to wire the ON/OFF switch on top of the cabinet to a power strip or to the computer and plug the computer

[matsadona]

I assume I would just run a 18 ga wire from that first pin -5VA on that connector in the pic to a +5VA pin on the molex connector of the computer PSU.

That would give you 10 volts. Not a good idea if you have a 5V bulb... Or maybe I just got you wrong in some way.

[yaksplat]

Build yer own.  I copied it from Yaksplat's idea.  Here's a link to my build thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=117977.msg1267034#msg1267034

AJ

I approve of this

http://yaksplat.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/wiring-up-the-main-power-switch/
http://yaksplat.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/main-power-switch-wiring-part-2/
http://yaksplat.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/wiring-in-the-relay/