Could anyone help? What does this mean?

[samat2001]

Hi guys

I've been looking for a fully-made cab and came across www.candy-cabs.com - I know they're a bit expensive but they're everything I'm looking for, plus they're based in the UK.  The only bad thing is that for legal reasons, they don't connect the coin mech up (though there is one in there), and there's a credit button instead.  I would have thought that I'd just need to disconnect the button and connect the coinmech, but I got this reply from him:

'the coin mech is fully functioning but you won’t be able to simply connect it to the PC without purchasing a windows based i/o card. This is not trivial unless you fully understand how coin mechs work. You’ll also need to make a custom wiring loom to achieve this. '

Does anyone know that this means?  What's a i/o card exactly?

[grantspain]

i/o card is an input/output card(like an i-pac),the thing is if you have a credit button that means you must something like an i-pac already so all you would require is a credit board and some wiring modification(depends on the coin mech as well)
i have worked on those cyberview fobt cabs,they are a good little cab and this company looks like they have done a good job with them

[fjl]

Is the IO card really neccessary? I would think the same as Samat that you can simply connect the P1 coin button up to the coin mech. That coin mech works just like a button doesn't it? If so, then I don't see why you couldn't simply connect the jumpers to it and have it work.

[Disturbed013]

I would third that motion.

Sounds like for legal reasons they are not going to tell you "oh yeah, just add a couple wires..."  but if there is a credit button there, the said "custom wiring loom" could be as simple as two wires and some 3-way connectors.  As far as I/O, they mention that they do custom interface stuff, so they could be using some proprietary i/o (doubtful) but if their credit button works, the coin switch would too.  Coin door lights is a different issue, although also easily solved.

[bfauska]

They say the Coin-Mech model number on one of the pages, so you could check to make sure it is a basic switch, I think some of the newer mechs use more complicated circuitry.  The also spec ipac keyboard encoders, so provided it is a switch then hookup is real simple.

They look like a reasonable deal for a real clean cabinet fully functional w/ a newish computer, at least the upgraded version.

I am curios about the legality of their business though, not that I think they are out to be thieves, but they are selling the machine pre-configured to run MAME and MameWah.  While they may have gotten permission to sell a cabinet with MameWah, I am sure that the MAMEDevs didn't give permission for MAME.  It's too bad really because it would be hard to sell to the masses if it didn't work upon delivery, but allowing MAME machines to be bought and sold makes it hard to stand by the stated purpose of MAME development.

[grantspain]

the coin mech will be an electronic,probably a c120 or sr3