Pole Position / World Rally Conversion?

[sjlewis78]

Hi all,

First post here, but this is the place to be if you want expert opinions on conversions. I may be picking up a Pole Position cabinet that was converted to a World Rally this weekend. Now, I have fixed arcade machines and done MAME setups but not the kind of hybrid I was thinking of. Let me know what I need to know. I have a bucket of spare parts here and I think what I have should get me 90% of the way to running pole position 1 & 2 in this cabinet through mame.

1) Cabinet w nice art still, wheel, gas pedal, and shifter, presumably working.
2) Monitor has no neck glow. I will either repair the monitor or use one of my spare LCDs or find a screen. I am not worried about this part, repaired them before.
3) Brains - Old laptop or desktop (Have a few laying around that should be sufficient for MAME)
4) Software -  Just figured out how to use the high/low shifter toggle in MAME so should be easy enough
5) Controls... Now here is where I am confused... I got a box of parts from a friend who thought I could use this old stuff. He gave me an old i-pac and opti-pac. Will these be sufficient to run the wheel, pedals, and shifter micro switch. Will this work with the pole position type of wheel and pot on the pedal? These seem to be older models with PS2 ports and Serial Ports respectively. I have no issue splicing a serial cable to USB which I have plenty of.

Is the rest just wiring up the connectors and configuring? What am I missing here?

[PL1]

5) Controls... Now here is where I am confused... I got a box of parts from a friend who thought I could use this old stuff. He gave me an old i-pac and opti-pac. Will these be sufficient to run the wheel, pedals, and shifter micro switch. Will this work with the pole position type of wheel and pot on the pedal?

Welcome aboard, Sjlewis78.   

Sounds like you are dealing with three different types of inputs:

1. Microswitch (shifter, coin, start) - Use the I-Pac or a hybrid encoder like the U-HID Nano (see below)

2. Optical (360 degree steering wheel) - Use the Opti-Pac optical encoder or a hybrid encoder like the U-HID Nano

3. Potentiometer (pedal) - Use an analog encoder

Check out this part of the FAQ to figure out what voltages and how many inputs each control will need.


Scott

[sjlewis78]

Thanks for the simple explanation. So I will decide on buying a U-HID to have everything on 1 board or hackjoystick to wire up the pedal. Since I have the other parts for buttons and the wheel sitting here.

[sjlewis78]

So I did end up picking up this cabinet. Wow it was a mess so I just tore everything out. Had 3 power cords hacked into it, 2 broken marquee lights (one was actually a house light fixture) tons of rusted parts, no PP boards, converted to Jamma and the world rally board had suicided,no neck glow on the monitor, tube looks like it may have damage on the inside....so an emulation cabinet it is.

Hyperspin has always been my front end of choice.

I grabbed a u-HID as recommended. So far so good. I've successfully hooked up the wheel, shifter, admin buttons behind the coin door for escape, service and game menu. I did wire a start button as well but havent decided where to mount it. The pedal was converted to a microswitch so waiting on my purchase of one with the analog wiring.

Shoved a 21inch CRT computer monitor in there and it juuuuust fits.

Did some other cosmetics like marquee and bezel.

Still need to wire the coin mechs, coin lights, pedal, some more painting of rusty parts and external power button

When its done I'll add a write up w pictures.

[sjlewis78]

https://goo.gl/photos/hRSducLNbaBExG6M9

Pictures are too big so I started an album