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Using Smash TV cabinet for a MAME system

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boerbiet:

Good day,

My vacation period is coming up and I decided I wanted to make myself an arcade cabinet. I've been drawing panels and have been thinking about how to construct it all, but then I came across a working Smash TV cabinet being sold for cheap (very rare to find something like that in my country as arcade machines are hard to find over here).

Up until now the idea was to construct my own control panel, wire two joysticks and six action buttons per stick to an I-PAC and connect this to a PC. Add a computer screen or television and voila.

However, if I were to purchase the Smash TV cabinet, I'd have a genuine arcade monitor and speakers. The system apparently runs on a JAMMA board and I could add a J-PAC and connect the controls, display and speakers via the J-PAC to the PC. This seems like an ideal situation. But now for the 'however' which made me join the forums and write this post.

When reading through the manual I saw the board supports four buttons per player. Can anyone confirm that a six button setup is not possible when using the Smash TV board with a J-PAC? I do realise I need to modify the control panel since it has four joysticks and two buttons on it now.

If the six button setup cannot be realised this way, I will have to go back to the I-PAC method of wiring the controls. However, can I still use the original display and speakers? Should I use an I-PAC for the controls and a J-PAC for the video and audio, or just an I-PAC and use some other method of connection video and audio?

So the gist of it all: Which connection methods should I use for controls, video and audio? Any help is appreciated.

Oh, and a side note, I wish to add a trackball too and eventually perhaps some guns. No idea of that matters for the above question, but I thought I'd mention it.

MaxVolume:


I'm confused... if you're MAMEing the cabinet, wouldn't you be removing the SMASH T.V. board?


CheffoJeffo:

The JPac can handle 8 buttons per player -- connections for buttons 4-8 connect directly to the JPac just like they would on the IPac.

Terrible thing to kill a working SmashTV.

 :'(

MaxVolume:


--- Quote from: CheffoJeffo on August 22, 2012, 03:21:39 pm ---The JPac can handle 8 buttons per player -- connections for buttons 4-8 connect directly to the JPac just like they would on the IPac.

Terrible thing to kill a working SmashTV.

 :'(

--- End quote ---

I agree, but the "board" he was referring to wasn't the J-Pac, it was the SMASH T.V. board, since the "manual" he referred to was the SMASH T.V. Operations Manual.

Again, the limitations of the original JAMMA board are irrelevant if you're replacing it with a PC.


CheffoJeffo:

Yes, the board would come out (to the OP: The JPac and your computer replace the SmashTV board), but the four existing buttons would be supported by the JPac through the JAMMA harness.

Any more buttons would have to be installed and then wired directly to the screw terminals on the JPac.



EDIT:Note that when I talk about the existing four buttons, on SmashTV they are wired to switches on the second joystick. You will have to remove the joystick and install buttons, then simply connect the existing wires to the buttons.


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