Problem Is it possible to mod a CRT to create a width control at the front of a cab?

[Darren]

My set up is a Pandora DX Saga Plus, modded with a VGA to Jamma jumper to give the proper sync timing (Was impossible before to maintain a consistent position) hooked up to a Hantarex 900e. After much tinkering to get the width right on the width coil (For some reason the ferrite core was almost completely out), I have the width perfect for the 384x224 output.
However, Pandoras by default stretch each game from the real resolution such as 256x224 to 384x224 resulting in fuzzy and distorted pixels. I can force the width and height to the real resolution through XML settings and config files, works on square pixels, however this ends up far from the 4:3 resolution to 8:7, nice and sharp, but every thin.
As the ferrite core is a bind to adjust, and to be honest, I think its stuck were it is now, I want to be able to control the width from the front of the cab with a potentiometer (Or a rotary switch to jump to preset widths), so that each game can have the width forced by the xml settings, but then stretched by hardware adjust to none square pixels to maintain sharpness.
Some solutions I have seen have a Jamma intermediate connection, but they seem to only affect position. Would this be possible and how?

 

[M K L]

You need the east west module which has a trimmer for horizontal size that you could move to wherever you want with wires.

 

[pubjoe]

A good option is to switch to a better emulation setup: Groovymame.

Groovymame can use a mode called Super-Resolution. It will scale games extra wide and output at a resolution like 2560x224. The CRT display will squeeze this resolution to fill the screen at 4:3. Bear with me, it's a great idea.

A horizontal pixel count that's beyond a CRT's TVL is not really meaningful. The difference between native resolution and super-resolution is completely indistinguishable. The phospors behind the screen are lit exactly the same either way.

Then you can use Mame's scaling options to squeeze or stretch this 2560-wide image to your liking in the settings menu. There are no scaling artifacts because the difference between, say 2000x224 and 2560x224 on a 15k CRT is arbitrary due to the TVL limit. This gives you perfect width control without having to touch a pot.

Using a Groovyarcade image is the easiest way to get started. You'll also benefit from better emulation, better timing and lower input delay. It's a huge upgrade from a Pandora in every way ...except ease of setup.

groovyarcade-2026.02-x86_64

groovyarcade-2026.02-x86_64

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