Coin Door Wiring to I-Pac

[David]

Hello,

Got some Noob questions for you seasoned M.A.M.E. Veterans.

How do you wire the Coin Door lights etc.. to an I-Pac?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!

[JustMichael]

Do not wire coin door lights to the IPAC.  I believe the lights would draw more current that your keyboard port can provide (possibly damaging your motherboard).  First check to see what voltage your coin door lights are, you can wire 6V bulbs to the 5V pc power supply or 14V bulbs to the 12V pc power supply by using a Y adapter (you will need to run wires from the coin door lights to the correct wires on the Y).  Please don't chop onto the existing pc wire harness, you may need those connections in the future.  Instead of that, you could get an AC-to-DC adapter of the correct voltage and wire your coin door lights to it (this is what I did).

One a 2 slot coin door, there are two switches on the backside near the bottom.  You wire these up just like the buttons and josticks on your control panel.  You may need .250" quick disconnects instead of the .187" ones used for buttons and joysticks.

[LakeShark]

Wire the coin switches just as you would a regular push-button.   The coin slots use a similar microswitch just with a different actuator.

Regarding the lights, you probably don't want to draw power from your I-PAC as the lights probably draw more current than your kbd port will be happy sourcing.  A better bet would be to use one of the drive power cables or a separate wall wart power supply.  Check the bulbs in your coin door.  Mine (Happs coin door) are rated for 6V and I'm supplying 5V to them.  Try to get close to the rated voltage without exceeding it.

I made a cable that connects to a drive power cable and used the 5v line + gnd (pins 1 & 2).

For a pinout of the power connector see:
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/pc/pcpsu_connector.html

-LakeShark

[David]

Thanks for the great information!