Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: scoodidabop on October 08, 2014, 07:59:47 pm
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Hey guys! So I'm connecting an Xbox to an arcade monitor in this old Pit Fighter cabinet. The previous owner replaced the chassis so I have no idea what kind of chassis this is (pics below). Anyway the game in the cab was pit fighter and when hooked up via jamma to that game board the monitor looked great. I had to do a little edge convergence but the monitor is bright and crisp so I thought things were smooth sailing. The obvious choice for connecting my Xbox to this monitor was the Ultimarc adapter.
So I bought it and was really happy with the shipping (2 days!) and build quality. Here it is connected to my monitor:
(http://i.imgur.com/NhD0YpIl.jpg)
There seems to be an issue though: there are diagonal lines, running from the top left to bottom right, jumping all over the screen all the time. It's really bothersome.
(http://i.imgur.com/HX0dAQKl.jpg)
Visible here on the 'R' in the background
(http://i.imgur.com/H1LTozxl.jpg)
Video of the lines. A little hard to see due to clashing refresh rates of course, but this gives you an idea of the movement and intensity of the lines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxnBUG3PBrE&list=UUHfHSWH1Rbpu91Erf1Mov-Q (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxnBUG3PBrE&list=UUHfHSWH1Rbpu91Erf1Mov-Q)
Now here's my monitor chassis. The tube itself says 'Zenith' on it.
(http://i.imgur.com/Qouo60Dl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/H1xCgxSl.jpg)
Power supply/transformer for monitor:
(http://i.imgur.com/y33MA3ul.jpg)
Andy over at Ultimarc said it might be a grounding issue, so I added another ground wire from the 'GND' terminal on the adapter to the monitor chassis, then tried it on the power supply. A small difference in brightness occurred but the lines remained. Any ideas guys? Thanks in advance! The adapter is a great product by I'm dangerously close to pulling this dang monitor out and sticking a new CRT TV in the cabinet. I did this on my last 3 builds and it worked great via XBox>component video but I was hoping to make use of this perfectly good monitor.
EDIT: I'd be glad to take any additional photos or provide pertinent tech info if you need it.
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Try swapping out the Switching PS with another one. Or at least mount it away from the Transformer. My UVC has the same issue and it seems that the older PS' tend to feed "dirty power" to it, causing wave interference with the video sync.
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look at the front of the power supply,
are common and earth(FG) linked?
if they are then remove the link,if they are not then install a link between them
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look at the front of the power supply,
are common and earth(FG) linked?
if they are then remove the link,if they are not then install a link between them
They were not linked. Linking them didn't change anything.
Try swapping out the Switching PS with another one. Or at least mount it away from the Transformer. My UVC has the same issue and it seems that the older PS' tend to feed "dirty power" to it, causing wave interference with the video sync.
I don't have a spare at the moment. Tried moving it away from the transformer but there was no change. The Pit Fighter board that came with the cab works just fine via jamma to the monitor with no interference or image problems so I guess the PS is fine? I'm pretty stumped here.
So Ultimarc suggested further grounding the Xbox to the cabinet, which I tried and it didn't work. I'm about ready to give up on this thing and just go with a TV. The Ultimarc hardware is great but I think there's some compatibility issue happening here... I don't know.
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I don't have a spare at the moment. Tried moving it away from the transformer but there was no change. The Pit Fighter board that came with the cab works just fine via jamma to the monitor with no interference or image problems so I guess the PS is fine? I'm pretty stumped here.
Honestly, before throwing in the towel, try another PS. Just because the Pit Fighter board is working fine, doesn't mean the Ultimarc devices will be the same. Some older boards (not including Williams hardware) have higher tolerances to power being fed to them. This may not be the case with new hardware.
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Well now that I've really focused and refined the picture there's some burn-in that's bugging me (classic 'insert coin' burn in). So I pulled the monitor. Like I mentioned before the chassis is brand new so that's a good part to keep or sell on. Now the problem becomes finding something that'll fit in this cabinet! On other CRT builds I've been able to sneak in a nice 27" CRT TV with no issue but when I tried to put one in this cabinet it was slightly too big! By like 1/4"! Soooo close. It's a shame too since this thing has a great picture. Going xbox>component cables really looks great on these early 2000s model CRT TVs so now I just have to find one that'll actually fit. It's harder thank you'd think!