First project

[Jake]

Hey everybody.  I've been reading the forums here for a few weeks now and finally got started on my very first arcade cabinet. 

I bought this SFA2 generic JAMMA cabinet last weekend for 350.  I did some research, went to see the cab and felt that 350 was a fair price.  It looked to be in pretty good shape and the monitor worked.  I considered replacing the monitor with a PC monitor until I got to measure it.  Well, they don't make 25" PC CRTs and I also found out about the J-PAC, so I'm going to try and salvage it.  The monitor has a little burn in of the SFA2 logo and when it's on it's fuzzy and has the telltale jail bars.  Now I'm going to need a Cap kit but I can't tell what kind of monitor this is.  I did a search for the numbers on the tube and it looks like a Zenith.  I'm still not sure what kind of board it's on.

Before I get too much more in depth, I need to say that I have never done any kind of wiring or electrical work.  I can build a computer and take one apart but that's pretty much plug'n play these days.  I don't have any special tools so I'm going to need to get some.

This is what I had in mind for the PC https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=4173785&WishListTitle=arcadepc

So my first step would be getting the monitor working.  If someone recognizes the hardware please let me know.

[Donkey_Kong]

Well the cab looks great for that price. Bummer on the monitor burn though. Please keep the pics coming as your project progresses. We likes the eye candy!!



OH: Welcome to BYOAC.

[greaser]

Don't recommend the rosewill power supply. Had one that came in a case and it was total shite. Would only power on about 3% of the time on a good day. Plenty of PWs in that same price range or even a few bucks more.

[Jake]

Can anybody identify these numbered objects and tell me what they're used for?

[fjl]

I only know number 2. It's a transformer. It's to step down or step up voltage. From the looks of it, its powering #3 and perhaps #1.

[paigeoliver]

#1 is the AC line filter.

#2 Is the isolation transformer.

#3 is the power supply.

As far as identifying your monitor you are photographing the wrong stuff. We don't need to see what kind of tube it has, we need to see the circuit board of the monitor, and in particular any numbers or stickers on them. It looks like a Wells Gardner monitor to me, but I know my 19" monitors a lot better than my 25" ones. Matter of fact, it looks like the kind of monitor you have is silk screened on the lower left hand of the monitor circuit board. Don't feel bad though, when I got my first monitor my first thought was identifying it by the tube.

Also, your monitor is working, it just needs a little work. Often you can adjust out a lot of monitor problems, although with the exact age of your machine I suspect the monitor has never had a cap kit done and that will take care of most of the problem.

Finally, your cabinet SHOULD be able to just barely squeeze in a 27" monitor, and those are pretty common in VGA format. But I would just use the one you have.

A little monitor burn is no big deal and really doesn't detract from the arcade experience, since the arcade experience usually had burned in monitors.

[Jake]

Thanks for the help guys.

I emailed Joey at jomac.net and he says it's a standard 26" KTM-26 Kortek chassis CGA only 110V and offered to service it but is it really worth it to send all the way to Australia?

[Chris G]

Not sure where you live, but I can't imagine it being worth the cost/risk of shipping it to have it serviced...

BTW - there was a tiny bit of burn-in on the WG monitor I bought and it's either gone away somehow or I just don't even notice it...

Chris

[Jake]

Yes that would be way more expensive than I'm willing to pay.  Luckily, I found an arcade repair shop here in town. (I live in Gainesville, FL)  I'm going to take the chassis to them for a hands on diagnostic.

The monitor's burn in isn't noticeable when it's on and the camera really brought it out more than just looking at it.  One thing about this monitor though is that it's absolutely filthy.  I mean, I've worked on car engines that had less shmutz than this thing. 

[Chris G]

I was concerned about the 15-20 years worth of grime on mine too so I called a couple local repair shops.  They almost laughed at me, like "so what?"  The impression I was left with was that unless you really know what you're doing, chances are you can do more harm than good trying to clean it, and if it's working fine, then why bother?  So far the house hasn't burned down...

[FrizzleFried]

It is easy to clean a chassis...remove it (after SAFELY discharging) and wash it in the dishwasher...no soap.  After it is completed,  put it in the oven at 200 degrees for about 10-15 minutes...

[Jake]

I had no idea you could put electronic equipment in the dishwasher.

I've finally broken down the entire cabinet and the CP is in excellent condition.  If I wanted to keep a street fighter theme, I wouldn't change this at all.  Since I won't be keeping the SF theme will I need to pull this sticker off or would another sticker go on top of it with no problem?  I guess I could ask the same question about the bezel.

[Chris G]

I had no idea you could put electronic equipment in the dishwasher.

I believe he's just talking about the metal frame (chassis), not the electronics.  Please don't kill yourself or your monitor! 

Since I won't be keeping the SF theme will I need to pull this sticker off or would another sticker go on top of it with no problem?  I guess I could ask the same question about the bezel.

If you don't want to build your own CP and donate the SF to someone else, then yes, you could probably make it work either way... although i don't think "sticker" is the word you're looking for.   

 
Chris

[Jake]

Sticker = Overlay and if it's anything like what was stuck on the side then it's going to be a pain to get off.  Even with goo gone it took me a good 45 minutes to scrape it up.  I chose the SF cabinet specifically for the 6 buttons.  I could have got a sweet Neo-Geo cabinet but I don't have ready access to the tools it would take to add more buttons. 

[4Aaron GE]

Well, I don't know if you can make any use of this, but I found this ages ago while researching button layouts.  I don't know if it actually came from Capcom or not, but it appears to be a variation of the button overlay that you have right now.  The differences that I can see from your pic are the "n" from punch is different, and the overlay around the stick has been rotated 90 degrees.

[fjl]

I had no idea you could put electronic equipment in the dishwasher.

I believe he's just talking about the metal frame (chassis), not the electronics.  Please don't kill yourself or your monitor! 

Actually you could put electronic equipment in water and come out relatively safe including the electronic equipment. Of couse I highly recommend you don't. While most components on a circuit board are water tight, some may have cardboard or other material that will ruin if it gets wet. Plus things like transformers can retain water in the windings causing problems when you turn it on. In case you get any electronic equipment wet, be sure to let it sit in the hot sun and allow it to dry completely before powering it up again. But like I said, for the most part electronics are pretty safe if they get wet. Of course they must be completely discharged of all and any voltages before ever getting wet.

[Jake]

I've moved on to taking the board off of the monitor  (or is it the other way around?).  I went to discharge it and followed all the steps but I was expecting to hear a pop or some kind of noise to let me know it was discharged.   I'm using a plastic fork and some dental floss so I'm not sure why it's not working.  jk

[Chris G]

Actually you could put electronic equipment in water and come out relatively safe including the electronic equipment. Of couse I highly recommend you don't. While most components on a circuit board are water tight, some may have cardboard or other material that will ruin if it gets wet. Plus things like transformers can retain water in the windings causing problems when you turn it on. In case you get any electronic equipment wet, be sure to let it sit in the hot sun and allow it to dry completely before powering it up again. But like I said, for the most part electronics are pretty safe if they get wet. Of course they must be completely discharged of all and any voltages before ever getting wet.

Getting something wet and putting something in the dishwasher are two totally different things.   

[paigeoliver]

I don't have a dishwasher but I have taken multiple game and monitor PCBs into the shower to clean them off. Always let them dry for a week afterwards, never had a single problem doing that.

[Jake]

I was browsing the forums today looking for what the plastic strip that lines the edges of the cabinet is called and came across this site http://www.t-molding.com.  I was wonder, where do you guys find t- molding?  I have to replace a couple areas but if I find that this stuff is pretty cheap, I might just redo the whole cabinet.

[Knievel]

You've already found the best place for t-mold, and it is cheap.

Nice cabinet BTW. 

[Jake]

Hey guys, I have a question about the picture I posted above. The one that's numbered.    My question is about #3 the power supply.  If you can tell, it seems that most of the wires going into this are hooked into the jamma harness and since I'm no longer using jamma I was wondering if I really even needed the powersupply at all.  There was a wire hooked into one of the COM slots that looked like a ground wire from the monitor.  I'm also using the ArcadeVGA from ultimarc so I don't think I need anything connected to the monitor from there anymore either.  So what do you guys think?  Just ditch the powersupply? 

[Crax]

What are you doing with the SFA2 board and harness?  I may be interested in purchasing them if you aren't using them.