PC to Arcade Monitor problems

[shookow]

Highlights: DOS, ArcadeOS, AdvanceMENU, J-PAC, Inverted and unreadable video output.

I'm sure that this one has been beaten to death, but I can't seem to find any info.  

I'm trying to hook a PC to an Arcade cabinet using a J-PAC and an OEM ATI Rage 3D card.  I can get decent video in DOS, but it's upside down.  When I try to load ArcadeOS, Advancemenu, or DMAME directly, all Hell breaks loose and the screen is unreadable.  

Does anyone have a working config for this combination that I could adapt to my purposes?

[Superdude]

Could be an incompatable video card.  I would wait till Andy gets his new card this month.  Then it's plug N play with NO PROBLEMS.

[shookow]

I exchanged email with Andy (did I mention he is the nicest guy in the world and his products are awesome).  

He pointed out that the ArcadeOS problems were likely due to the 640x480 option in the arcadeos.cfg file.  He also pointed out that my OEM ATI Rage card was probably not going to work at 15Hz

Now, I'm trying to find out how I can flip the screen 180 degrees.  Does anyone know of what I should be looking for (no switch was evident, but what do I know)?  If I can't find a switch is it possible to rewire the monitor or is it safer to physically rotate the monitor?

[JMDickson]

  You should have a set of 4 wires - red, green, blue, yellow going from the chassis boad to the neck board.  Some chassis boards have two sets of pins where the wires are connected. To rotate 180, simply move the wires to the other set of pins.
  If you do not have the second set of pins, you can cut the wire harness in half(two wires on each side) and turn each half of the harness 180.  If you only want to flip the screen vertically, turn the yellow/green pair only.

[shookow]

Thanks.  I looked and I can see that there is a yellow/green pair and a red/blue pair plugged into the board.

Just to confirm what you said, I only need to switch the yellow/green connection.  Correct?  

Acknowleging complete responsibility for my own actions, I would appreciate any info on making this adjustment safely without discharging 20,000 volts into my body.  Obviously, I should unplug the machine.  Do I also need to discharge the monitor first?

Does anyone have a "avoiding electrical shock for dummies" version of how I discharge the monitor?

[JMDickson]

These wires will not be charged if the monitor is off  .

If the image is 'flipped' i.e. left is left, right is right, but up and down are wrong, then only flip the yellow, green.
If the image is 'rotated'  i.e. the monitor is upside down/left is right, right is left etc. then flip both pairs.

What you have is yellow/green will flip vert, red/blue will flip horiz, both with turn 180 degrees.

[shookow]

Good News (depending on your perspective) - I'm not dead!  

I switched the yellow and green wires and powered the cabinet up - the text was right-side-up, but still flipped left to right.  After I switched red for blue, the text displayed great.  Thanks again for all of your help.

My video card is an OEM ATI Rade 3D card from Compaq (did I mention that I hate Compaq?).  According to Andy, it's not likely to work @15Hz.  Now I'm just waiting for my Trident Blade from eBay.  

Just to wrap this thread up,  I found a nice site with config information for PC->Arcade Monitor at http://mame.how.to  This covers nearly step by step configuration of ArcadeOS and AdvanceMame.