Input Signal Voltage on WG 4600

[GamingGreg]

Does anyone know what the input signal voltage is on a Wells-Gardner 4600 arcade monitor?

I bought an old Defender cabinet recently (had been converted into ThunderJaws), that has an old Wells-Gardner 4600 arcade monitor in it.  I also bought an ArcadeVGA and Video amp from Ultimarc, before I knew what monitor I had.  It mentioned on the Ultimarc site that "Some monitors (not Hantarex or Wells-Gardner) need a 5 volt video RGB signal".  Does anyone know if this is true of the older WG monitors as well? (The monitor manual doesn't say what it needs.)  However, it was also connected and working with the ThunderJaws game PCB in the cabinet, which I'm assuming was probably outputing a 5 volt signal.

Can anyone tell me if I need that video amp or not?

Also, I'm not sure if I need H and V sync to be separate or not.  It appears that I don't since the two sync wires from the gameboard were spliced together and then sent to the monitor as one.  Does anyone know for sure on that?

[GamingGreg]

It seems like no one knows the answer to my above question, so I'll ask a related one.

Does anyone know how to determine the signal voltage output on a game PCB?   I can set my ThunderJaws board in diagnostic mode and output a mostly white screen.  I believe with a white signal, the signal might be "mostly" near the peak, so if I use standard voltmeter and measure DC voltage, will it register somewhere near 1 or 5 volts?  Would that work?

I've installed a cap kit and my monitor is mostly working now, and I'm getting close to hooking it up to my ArcadeVGA card.  I'm just trying to determine if I need my video amp or not.

[rampy]

What andy said is mostly true --> *most* WG monitors can accept between 1 volt and 5 volt signal and adapt to it.

I had an ancient WG that would take 1 volt but would be dimmer than i'd like, and useing a video amp + ArcadeVGa card made for a brighter display.

If you bought it. Use it.  It can't hurt.

You could also try it once without the amp, and if it is perfectly bright save the amp for another project (or sell it on the buy/sell/trade board, here)...

So in short... (no pun intended) it shouldn't matter.  Try it both ways, or use the video amp anyways...

Know what I mean?

Rampy

In short the only consequence of hooking up a 1volt source (arcadeVGA) to a monitor that expects 5volts is that the display will either be super dim, or not come up.  So go for it!

[rampy]

regarding:

Also, I'm not sure if I need H and V sync to be separate or not.  It appears that I don't since the two sync wires from the gameboard were spliced together and then sent to the monitor as one.  Does anyone know for sure on that?

Most WG monitors will take composite negative sync to either just -H or just -V terminal... sometimes you need to bridge the H and V on some picky monitors...  fWIW the video amp only outputs composite sync so if you use the video amp the sync wires will already be combined.

The fact that the original board combined the sync is a good indication that, it's how your monitor likes it =)  So combine those syncs! =P

Rampy