Wires, wires everywhere, and no labels!! (transformer woes....)

[Cuba]

I think ill start by explaining the situation.

I bought a junk cabinet from a friend. No monitor, crappy black paint job right over the original art (you can see underneath that it was once an NBA Jam machine), and a general mess inside.  It had at one pointed been converted into a Gauntlet Dark Legacy machine, or someone had attempted it anyway.

It did come with the gauntlet DL marquee, control panel and CP art.  Inside I found all the Gauntlet DL hardware; its missing a hard drive but ive already researched how to replace that.

Bought all this stuff for $40

Anyway, I wanted to test out, but quickly realize that the jamma harness didnt have its power hooked up. I soon found out why.

The tranformer is completely unlabeled, and if it werent for a few existing wires id have no idea what to do with it. Heres some pictures.







I was able to trace out some stuff. The AC comes in through the power cord and goes under the transformer. There it is passed through the line filter, with the hot wire going through a fuse first before doing so.

From the line filter, the black/yellow and the white/red feed up to the big molex. I then traced those wires all the way to the top, where I found a dpst switch which was serving as the main on/off.

The 2 wires from the switch run all the way back down to the molex. From there, one of the wires goes into a white wire which feeds directly into the right side of the transformer (you can see it in the 3rd pictures, it is the left most white wire).  The other wire from the switch goes into the molex, into a black wire which loops back into the molex, which leads to another black wire which leads back the molex AGAIN, which finally goes into a blue/black wire which goes into the transformer (it can be seen in the 3rd picture, it is the second from the right, you can also see the first loop im talking about).

Thats about all im sure of.  The yellow and white wire on the left side (which btw, has another fuse in line with them) appear to feed the lights for the coin door, which was the only thing that worked when I turned this sucker on.

2 of the 4 purple wires appear to feed back up to the light fixture, so im assuming those 4 are AC, but I have no idea as the light isnt working at the moment. the other 2 might have been for the monitor; I shall be tracing that out shortly.

The rest of the wires I have absolutely no clue about. I have 7 wires on the right side which go into the molex unaccounted for. Obviously there should be a +5v, a -5v, a +12v, and a neutral/ground. Colors go: white (line in AC), white, brown, black, red, blue/white, blue/brown, blue/black(other line AC) and blue/red.

I can only assume that this unit came from the original cabinet, probably NBA jam. The only markings on it are a sticker reading:
5610-13326-00
549-9309
115/230v 50/Hz

Someone have some thoughts?

[markrvp]

I can't offer any electrical advice, but I wouldn't drink too many more Coronas before you stick a screw driver in there 

[dabone]

Thats not a power supply, it's a ac transformer.

Some older games used linear power supplies and use a multitap ac transformer to drop the 120volts in into something easier to convert.

(Williams games, pacman, qbert, etc)




A standard arcade power supply looks like this.



This power supply takes 120v in and give you your +5 +12 -5 -12 for the game logic.



You can find the 120v out of the transformer, (usually on its own 2 pin connector), that will be what you plug your monitor in, (isolation transformer)



Later,
dabone

[Cuba]

So I need an actual power supply in order to get this working?

See, I did do some research into transformers: what are and how they work.  I understand why an isolation transformer would be needed to clean the electricity before being passed on to the components.  But most iso transformers are 1:1, correct? So if it passes 120v AC in through 2 wires, wouldnt it pass 120v AC back out through 2 wires?

I had guessed that this transformer did this, but then what were the rest of the wires for? Am I wrong in assuming that this unit will output DC lines also?

[Q*Bert_OP]

First of all... thats an isolation transformer.

Check to see if your cabinet has a power supply like the one above or a computer power supply.

The wires on a standard jamma harness are usually as follows:

black= ground
red= +5v (4 wires)
Blue or yellow= =12v
brown??? = -5v

I hope this helps.
 

[Cuba]

Im sure that this cabinet has no power supply. This is all that there is, thats kinda why I thought it was the power supply.  So I guess the best (and easiest) solution will be to scrap an old PSU from one of my many junk computers. Wiring that up shouldnt be a problem, ill just have to lookup how to make it turn on without a computer (i think it needs a load of a certain amount).  But what should I do about this transformer, its it still good for anything? I mean I can see where power enters it but I have no idea about which wire outputs what........

[Q*Bert_OP]

DON'T GET RID OF THAT TRANSFORMER!!!!!!!!!

The purpose of that transformer is to isolate the monitor's power from the rest of the power.

IT IS IN YOUR CABINET FOR YOUR SAFTEY AND THE MONITOR'S!!!
Get a real arcade power supply.

Here is a link to a good, basic power supply.
http://www.happcontrols.com/powersupplies/80006400.htm