Electrocoin Elite

[mr_ppp]

Hi guys,

Finally as part of operation 'cheer myself up' I've decided to make a start on tidying up the Elite cab that Julian very graciously sold me prior to the last Unigame meetup.

Such a difference in appearance when stripped! Wiring isn't coming out as I don't want to risk damage to it!

I'm always one for originality but with bits flaking off I've decided it really needs work to make it top notch again

The cab has a fair amount of metal which sadly is rusting in places with the paint bubbling badly where its got underneath. I'm most likely going to be dealing with this by getting the parts powder coated. I'm going to leave the control panel as is because its in pretty good condition still and I don't want to do it for the sake of it.

There was a lot of retro dirt and grime inside, surprising how many cloths I managed to get through!

Much cleaner, forgot to take before and after so heres clean on left and possibly the cleanest part I had to clean on the right, rest was a lot darker!

It has also started to flake more on the screen printed monitor glass which I've been given some good advice on how to preserve (Thanks guys!)

Still got the monitor to sort which I hope to have done in the next month or so

I'd also like to have the US250 psu checked over before I put it all back together and start using Jamma boards for the first time

Big thanks again to Rich (Strykr) for the coin mech and creditboard, have had it working great before stripping it back out

 

[strykr]

About time you got back on this Phil, look forward to seeing the results

 

[mr_ppp]

Quick update time

No powder coating done yet as money is a little tight however in the meantime I've been creating new looms to interface with the existing wiring of the cab.

A while back I bought a massive loom from various arcade/fruit machines from an ebay seller as I had spotted a lot of connectors I could make use of and of course the wiring itself

First off is this nice loom to connect the stereo speakers to a sound amp/stereo pcb connector

IMG_20141017_205009 by mr_ppp, on Flickr

Still amazed EC had the foresight to wire the speakers to a 6 pin connector to allow stereo sound, obviously the jamma connection hooks into both but with this loom I can now connect up any external device be it PC, phone or even certain Konami stereo pcbs

IMG_20141017_205053 by mr_ppp, on Flickr

In situ, you can see how nicely it now joins together and the only tools I needed to move pins and cables on the new connectors was a pair of needle nose pliers and a screwdriver - amazing what you can achieve when your determined!

Will update with further pics soon but I've also created a loom to power the coin mech, wired in the coin lamp to the mech correctly and also replaced the front credit plate thanks to silverfox for that and the 6 pin connector

I've also been making up looms to connect to the control panels original connectors and hook up to other equipment neatly, no chopping or changing of cables going on here!!! Ultimately I want to hook up the USB Xbox arcade stick pcbs I have with a neat and tidy plug and play loom, I've already modified the motioninjoy drivers so mame can recognise the connection without any issue all I have left on that is to solder a couple of wires back onto the pcb that came loose with my rough handling...

Mr Silverfox is also looking to kindly cut a replacement monitor mounting board for me to replace the missing one and also get some pics of the rear so I can see what I need to do to replace the large gaping hole the cab currently has back there

Epping pens are ordered to sort the flaking on the glass and stop that getting worse

Its all coming together bit by bit

Once done this cab will be as close to original as I can get it but with the added bonus of also having on offer stereo sound on capable pcbs and also swapping neatly out for a small pc I acquired from work which is tiny and fits into the base for mame shenanigans as well and of course once I have the monitor mounting board I will be looking to get a 20" monitor fitted and the US250 PSU back in and running.

I also at some point at the end will be looking towards the possiblility of a real Arcadia setup to swap in as well for ultimate configurability

Watch this space!

 

[mr_ppp]

So..... apologies all for the lack of updates again. A serious lack of money had put a lot of things on hold, slowly getting better but had to part with a few pcbs just to keep us going and the bailiffs away!

So far the cab is still in need of powder coating, rear door and a proper screen but since last time I've made another loom (I love loom) to hook into where the Hanty 250 sat and got it running off a good beefy pc psu. I found out my old pc psu was pushing out 13 volts so makes me think that ultimately killed my supergun!!

Its now in the pile for the scrap! I've got a switcher and ISO transformer on the way for a more permament solution.

So heres the result of the recent work!

Really pleased that at last I can play games - just need that screen sorted and I'll be on the home straight

Went through my pcbs to test and found out that the speakers are actually only wired upto the left speaker when Jamma is in use - right side is hooked into jamma pin 11 (Neo-Geo?) I've found that this causes problems when using certain boards (Growl is one) with some doody loud feedback so to resolve guess what I did? Yes! Another loom! This one plugs into the speaker loom from the board, ditches the pin 11 config and also allows injection of sound to the right speaker if you have another hookup. In Growls case this means no more feedback and I can also hook the right speaker to the boards native extra connector, sadly no stereo sound just dual mono but sounds much better.

Couple of question I wanted to pose were these

Is it safe to hook 2 8 ohm speakers upto a jamma board or is it best to leave as is with one? I noted in the TMNT manual that it shows 2 8ohm speakers hooked up as long as the psu is 2A and only 1A needed if one speaker.

Probably a question for Mr D as it was his cab but is there an easy way to know if these sticks are short throw? I suspect they are but without comparing with anything I can't be certain.

 

[niknak]

from the picture they look like long throw, but are missing the dust washers they usually come with, short throw reds have very minimal movement and don't use dust washers, they have a risen beveled edge that fits through the hole.. shorts usually press on the microswitch contacts as soon as you move them in a direction.
You can modify long throw into short throw by adjusting the angle of the microswitchs but it makes them feel a bit clunky.

hope that helps.

niknak2015-03-05 14:05:33

 

[mr_ppp]

from the picture they look like long throw, but are missing the dust washers they usually come with, short throw reds have very minimal movement and don't use dust washers, they have a risen beveled edge that fits through the hole.. shorts usually press on the microswitch contacts as soon as you move them in a direction.
You can modify long throw into short throw by adjusting the angle of the microswitchs but it makes them feel a bit clunky.

hope that helps.

Cheers bud, I feel you are correct as looking at the cpo it does appear to have the remains of wear in the shape of dust washers

Joysticks themselves do seem to move a little bit before hitting the switches