AVGA to Arcade Monitor WITHOUT JPAC

[FrizzleFried]

OK...anyone have a suggestion on how to hook up an ArcadeVGA card to an Arcade Monitor WITHOUT a JPAC?   I have an IPAC coming soon...and I may have acquired an AracadeVGA card on the cheap.   I don't want to have to purchase a JPAC since I already have the IPAC...

[Kevin Mullins]

Just use a breakout cable. ( a standard vga cable with the end stripped off)

Locate the RED, GREEN, BLUE, SYNC, GROUND etc on the vga cable and then tie those directly into the monitor according to it's required pinout.

Since most arcade monitors require "composite" sync you would just tie the H and V sync from the vga cable together to the composite sync pin on the monitor.
And the rest are self explanitory, R, G, B, Ground.

[FrizzleFried]

Ah...that simple...nice.


Thanks!

[Frosty]

Yup, breakout cable works fine.  Or, go the other way: just connect a 15-pin D-sub connector to your RGB, sync and ground wires from the arcade monitor and connect to your VGA cable from the PC...

[ardarvin]

Or you can buy a video signal amplifier from ultimarc, which acts as a nice clean breakout.  Costs more, but having the proper +5V never hurt anyone.

Whatever option you use, you may need to play with the syncs. For instance, I use an ArcadeVGA with a G-07 monitor, which is SUPPOSED to have negative composite sync, but the only way I was able to successfully run the monitor was by seperating the syncs.

[FrizzleFried]

Strange ARDARVIN...both my G07's work fine with the AVGA out of the box.

One is an old January 1980 chassis that I capped myself and performed the sync mod to...prior to the sync mod I would get a nasty ass curl at the top of the screen.

The other chassis is dated January 1982 and it has had some work done to it on the back side of the board that i have read is from the factory and fixes whatever issue required the sync mod.   This chassis still needs to be capped but looks decent as-is.

[Kevin Mullins]

FrizzleFried.... do you have the first version ArcageVGA or the newer one that also does the vga output for pc monitors?

The first version ArcadeVGA output 5v for the purpose of strictly driving arcade monitors, so it didn't need the amplifier. I'm not sure what the newer one is putting out voltage wise.
Most of the people that seem to "need" the amplifier are not using the ArcadeVGA and are just using software like Powerstrip to modify the frequency of their current video card, which usually doesn't have quite enough power output to function to it's fullest potential on a regular arcade monitor.
Not all arcade monitors "require" the absolute 5v signal to operate, some just work better than others without it. But alot of Japanese models really could use it.

So it's kinda a trial and error to see if you really "need" to boost the signals.

[ardarvin]

The new version of ArcadeVGA uses 1V, not 5V. You are right, you don't "need" it probably fro a G07, but I bought it more for the breakout screws, and I just wanted things to be "proper". If you want to do things on the cheap, skip the amp.

Perhaps your ArcadeVGAs working with composite sync has to do with the old version of the card, or even drivers. I just know what worked for me. I bought my ArcadeVGA in December, so I'm assuming it's the newest driver/card.

[Grauwulf]

On a G07 you probably will not get a nice picture without a video amp. The monitor is expecting a 5v signal. I have attempted to run a few G07's without a video amp and always seem to have a problem getting the sync to lock in because of the low signal voltage. YMMV though. Any newer monitors like the Wells K7000 series seem to digest the 1v signals without any problem.