Can I just wire into a fingerboard?

[Vigo]

Ok, I want to finally get around to maming my machine. I will be using swappable control panels through an ipac and an arcadeVGA. I also want to preserve my cabinet as-is, and be able to turn it back into it's original form with ease. I want to be able to plug in the jamma board to play the original arcade game with the original control panel whenever I want.

So my plan is to keep the existing jamma harness, and to wire my arcadeVGA to a fingerboard VIA a breakout cable. I also want to wire the sound outputs using a powered computer speaker board into the fingerboard so it runs through the arcade speakers.

Then I plan to bypass the controls from the jamma harness, and wire directly from the ipac to the control panels I put in using spliced parallel ports. The coin door will be wired from the ipac into the fingerboard though.

Does this idea work? Have I thought this through enough?

My concerns are:
1) I probably forgot some critical thing that will make this idea not work at all

2) Will running a computer speaker board to the fingerboard work, especially since the one I am planning to use was made for 2.5 in speakers, and I have a 4 in and 6 in speaker in my cabinet. I don't think I can get any "boom" into the sound.

3) What about marquee lighting that is run through the jamma harness...can i still make it work, or do I need to mount a second flourescent light for when I use the mame part of my cab?

Any input is appreciated! Thanks

[BobA]

Since you are keeping the cabinet intact why not use a jpac and the arcadevga board.   Jpac plugs right in instead of using a finger board and an ipac.

[Vigo]

for a couple reasons,

first, I owned my ipac even before I had my cabinet, and I want to avoid buying anything else since I am broke.

Second, it is a four player cab, and I have an ipac4, so running my controls in just a jpac would mean that I would have to splice into my original (and hard to find) Trog harness. I want to keep my original harness for just use with my trog machine, and be able to put my original control panel in at any point for using only when I am playing Trog. (the harness has a quick disconnect built into it.) I want to be able to put in my custom swappable control panels for playing mame.

Does that make since or am I missing something? I am under the impression that the controls have to be part of the harness for the jpac.

[CheffoJeffo]

I'm with BobA -- sell your IPac4 and get a JPac and IPac2. If your cab is JAMMA, then you shouldn't need to hack your harness at all (or at least not more than you are already proposing).

Cheers

[Vigo]

I'm with BobA -- sell your IPac4 and get a JPac and IPac2. If your cab is JAMMA, then you shouldn't need to hack your harness at all (or at least not more than you are already proposing).

Cheers

I am going with ipac so I don't have to hack into my harness...I want custom controls, and I am capable of doing my own wiring to a fingerboard so I can just plug in to the existing harness.

[CheffoJeffo]

I am going with ipac so I don't have to hack into my harness...I want custom controls, and I am capable of doing my own wiring to a fingerboard so I can just plug in to the existing harness.

OK ... I guess I just don't get it ... aren't your P1/P2 controls already connected to the JAMMA harness ?

What custom controls are you talking about that aren't handled by a JPac/IPac2, but are handled by an IPac4 ?

It's not a matter of your ability, I am just confused as to why you would choose what you have as I don't see an advantage (other than you don't want to buy new stuff ... that I get). Maybe I am not understanding how you plan to connect/disconnect your panels ...

EDIT: Nevermind ... since you're swapping panels, you're disconnecting controls from the harness anyway ... my bad ... carry on.

Cheers.

[Vigo]

I realize I'm not being very clear about what I mean, I apologize.

My plan is to soldier all my connections from my computer to a fingerboard like the one pictured on the top of this image.


I have a arcadeVGA and a breakout cable that I would wire to this fingerboard to run the video, as well as a the audio out from an amplified speaker using the method from oscar controls to run the audio


Then, all I would have to do to get my mame to run is to unplug the harness from my Trog PCB, plug in into the fingerboard, disconnect the trog control panel from the harness, and plug a new control panel into the ipac.

This way, I could run my ipac4 so I could have a deluxe 4 player control panel setup, and not have to run a jpac.

It would save me money if I can keep from buying a jpac, so I am trying to figure out if my fingerboard idea will work or not.

thanks

[CheffoJeffo]

disconnect the trog control panel from the harness, and plug a new control panel into the ipac.

Yep, that was the piece I was missing ... makes sense to me now.

Cheers.