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TechnoFreek

Different strokes I suppose.
I think the shifted buttons work neatly. Also allows access to the mame menus. And pressing the cab service button opens the service menu.

Removing the locks and replacing with physical buttons would be a no no for me!

CiDeRmAn

Yeah, well the locks just unscrew and can be replaced later if you are forced, by some black swan event, to sell your cab to make it stock original again.
As they are tucked away beneath the CP they can't be seen (hence "hidden" ) and the machine still looks fine.

Andrew76

TechnoFreek wrote: »

Different strokes I suppose.
I think the shifted buttons work neatly. Also allows access to the mame menus. And pressing the cab service button opens the service menu.

Removing the locks and replacing with physical buttons would be a no no for me!

Back when I had a mame pc and jtag inside the cab I used mini buttons in the locks to power on each machine (mini button wired to the player 1 Home button in the case of the jtag). Same as how Steve_SI did it. Still used the jpac shift func for coining up/exiting games etc. Worked very well. The only issue was the right hand side of the cp was a bit loose without the lock, didn't effect gameplay, just irritating.

Gone back to PCBs, 1p cp and locks in, rock solid.

Dr Bob

Dr Bob wrote: »

...I've just found out that the holes from the CP are slightly smaller than the new buttons..disaster!
going to try and pick up a hole saw tommorrow )I have a few but all the wrong size..

I've had this problem before. Don't use a hole saw on an already cut hole. Without a pilot hole to pivot around your saw will jump all over the place and butcher your cut.

If you can, borrow a straight-bladed cone cutter drillbit to widen out the existing hole, or if your panel is wood or plastic you can get a dowel or a bit of a brush handle or the like and tape some medium grit sand paper around it so it fits snugly into the hole. Then use centripetal force to swing the panel around on it and gradually widen out your holes using the sandpaper.

Take it easy, do it gradually, and have a button handy to check the fit as you go, and remember to point it slightly upwards so it doesn't fly off the handle (literally) and skull someone.

o1s1n

Ack! Planned on selling my Neo Geo AES lot this morning, has always worked great - worked great when I tested it last week.

Booted it up this morning, issue after issue after issue

Graphical glitches, no sound, games crashing, a weird letterbox format appearing sometimes, absolute madness. No pattern to it either. I've never seen anything like it.

Tried cleaning everything but no joy. Have some rubbing alcohol on the way in the post just to be sure. I've a feeling a pin or a trace somewhere on the MVS converter has gone bad.

You think things are safe in storage but they're slowly dying

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I've had this problem before. Don't use a hole saw on an already cut hole. Without a pilot hole to pivot around your saw will jump all over the place and butcher your cut.

If you can, borrow a straight-bladed cone cutter drillbit to widen out the existing hole, or if your panel is wood or plastic you can get a dowel or a bit of a brush handle or the like and tape some medium grit sand paper around it so it fits snugly into the hole. Then use centripetal force to swing the panel around on it and gradually widen out your holes using the sandpaper.

Take it easy, do it gradually, and have a button handy to check the fit as you go, and remember to point it slightly upwards so it doesn't fly off the handle (literally) and skull someone.

It can be done,
If you get the hole saw that fits the current hole. (Not the spade type)
The n get your larger hole saw and put the small one inside of it and tape it on.
Then off you go.the smaller one acts as the pilot.
Ive done it 1000's of times when I used to do electrical panels for work.

The Last Bandit

Ben's building a bartop using a CRT & NeoGeo board, might of interest to some folks here.

CiDeRmAn

Right, got my hidden buttons all wired in, a quick trip to the Mame config menu and we're done.
Lovely!
No more explaining to people how to enter credits or exit a game, perfeck!

Dr Bob

Deleted User wrote: »

I've had this problem before. Don't use a hole saw on an already cut hole. Without a pilot hole to pivot around your saw will jump all over the place and butcher your cut.

If you can, borrow a straight-bladed cone cutter drillbit to widen out the existing hole, or if your panel is wood or plastic you can get a dowel or a bit of a brush handle or the like and tape some medium grit sand paper around it so it fits snugly into the hole. Then use centripetal force to swing the panel around on it and gradually widen out your holes using the sandpaper.

Take it easy, do it gradually, and have a button handy to check the fit as you go, and remember to point it slightly upwards so it doesn't fly off the handle (literally) and skull someone.

cheers
tbh I've ended up recutting a new control panel from scratch (the original was too warped/rotted and the buttons were the last straw!). downside is cutting that many holes in a smallish mdf are a nightmare.
I was orginally going for 2x6 buttons plus two 2 start buttons and one misc/coin/shift button (at least until I work out how to rig up the coin slot to the ipac. Its doable without being cramped , but its damn hard to cut!
cant drill now (kids are asleep) but I have until tommorrow to decide whether I need to lose 2 buttons each side (2x4) instead.
The fact that I'm doing it from scratch means I'm going to need to get some sort of overlay printed up, and then try and get some perspex cut to go over that..

TechnoFreek

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Right, got my hidden buttons all wired in, a quick trip to the Mame config menu and we're done.
Lovely!
No more explaining to people how to enter credits or exit a game, perfeck!

What settings you making in the mame config menu cidey?

CiDeRmAn

TechnoFreek wrote: »

What settings you making in the mame config menu cidey?

Just making player 1 coin and exit respond to the keypresses, as programmed into the Jpac, at buttons 7&8.

The button in the left hand lock enters credits, the one in the right exits.

The Last Bandit

o1s1n wrote: »

Ack! Planned on selling my Neo Geo AES lot this morning, has always worked great - worked great when I tested it last week.

Booted it up this morning, issue after issue after issue

Graphical glitches, no sound, games crashing, a weird letterbox format appearing sometimes, absolute madness. No pattern to it either. I've never seen anything like it.

Tried cleaning everything but no joy. Have some rubbing alcohol on the way in the post just to be sure. I've a feeling a pin or a trace somewhere on the MVS converter has gone bad.

You think things are safe in storage but they're slowly dying

Is it working ok with AES carts ?

o1s1n

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Is it working ok with AES carts ?

Don't have any at the moment I would say it is though. Trying to get my hands on a cart to test it out.

Was reading up on that MVS converter on neo-geo.com and a few other guys seemed to have similar issues.

CiDeRmAn

Just spent 2 and a half hours wrestling with Hyperspin.
I wanted to set it up so my 8th button, the right side hidden one, exited emulators and menus alike.
It was not easy, installing Autohotkey, editing and compiling AHK scripts, fixing broken ones but reinstalling Autohotkey.
Still, in the end it all worked out, I seem to have cracked it and can enter credits and exit games with the big boys now.

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Just spent 2 and a half hours wrestling with Hyperspin.
I wanted to set it up so my 8th button, the right side hidden one, exited emulators and menus alike.
It was not easy, installing Autohotkey, editing and compiling AHK scripts, fixing broken ones but reinstalling Autohotkey.
Still, in the end it all worked out, I seem to have cracked it and can enter credits and exit games with the big boys now.

1p start followed by 2p start functions as a shifted exit key with a *pac product by default though, why go to all the extra hassle?

CiDeRmAn

I just wanted it mounted to a single button, no need for shifted keypresses, and with a little work I've cracked it.
Come and see the cab at the Beers!

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I just wanted it mounted to a single button, no need for shifted keypresses, and with a little work I've cracked it.
Come and see the cab at the Beers!

But given the existing Jamma loom takes care of buttons 1 through 4 for both players, both coin registers and both start buttons & the Jpac you're using gives you a further 5 buttons per player...was it not just a matter of adding in your new button & assigning it a function just as you would a button on a keyboard? Why the needs for scripts etc?

TechnoFreek

EnterNow wrote: »

But given the existing Jamma loom takes care of buttons 1 through 4 for both players, both coin registers and both start buttons & the Jpac you're using gives you a further 5 buttons per player...was it not just a matter of adding in your new button & assigning it a function just as you would a button on a keyboard? Why the needs for scripts etc?

Yeah. If you programmed button 8 on the jpac to equal keyboard escape should that not be it. Both mame and hyperspin have Esc key automatically set as exit

unky chop chop

So I got a snow brothers PCB today and it kept coming up with some ROM error.
I applied my troubleshooting of pressing down on every chip and it shot to life:)

Anyway got me thinking of how to repair these yolks as I really don't have a breeze.
Any good guides out there?, or has anyone any experience.I can't solder for the life of me, and all this business of resoldering/reflowing joints would result in the PCB bursting into flames for me.
I just kinda want to know the logic behind the the whole thing and how you would fix them/pinpoint bogey chips if you know what you are at

CiDeRmAn

TechnoFreek wrote: »

Yeah. If you programmed button 8 on the jpac to equal keyboard escape should that not be it. Both mame and hyperspin have Esc key automatically set as exit

If only it was so easy.

The truth is I had no problems with Mame running through Hyperspin.
Mame is simply set up, and the button 8 on the Jpac is registered as v, so a quick trip to the in game config fixed it all up.
Whats more interesting is getting the likes of Kega Fusion set up.
There is no way to easily exit from the emu back to Hyperspin using the v key.
If you can reach esc you're laughing, but otherwise you're bunched.
So.
To fix this....
You can do one of several things.

One is to enter into the set up of the Jpac itself, you'll need to find a PS/2 keyboard, and alter the key register of the Button 8 input from "v" to "esc".
I don't have a PS/2 keyboard so that was out.

Two is to use the Autohotkey Hyperlaunch, config it to use the "v" button to initiate emu exit.
The cool thing about this option is that it then will automatically exit regardless of the emulator running, once they are using Hyperlaunch, so no need to worry about configuring the GB/C/A emu or the PC Engine one either.

So, that's how I spent my afternoon, and now I know a lot more about Autohotkey than I did this morning!
I had to download it and install it, the latest version is useless, there's an older one that's perfect, then I had to learn about editing the script and compiling!
What a blast!

Andrew76

unky chop chop wrote: »

So I got a snow brothers PCB today and it kept coming up with some ROM error.
I applied my troubleshooting of pressing down on every chip and it shot to life:)

Anyway got me thinking of how to repair these yolks as I really don't have a breeze.
Any good guides out there?, or has anyone any experience.I can't solder for the life of me, and all this business of resoldering/reflowing joints would result in the PCB bursting into flames for me.
I just kinda want to know the logic behind the the whole thing and how you would fix them/pinpoint bogey chips if you know what you are at

Have that board myself, quality game. Love the music in it too.

Have a read through the links on the following page to get an idea of the processes involved: http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Game_Board_Repair

You'll need to spend a few bob on some tools but more so have the time to learn what to be doing with them. You'd also want to get some cheap broken boards to practice on I'd imagine.

I wanted to get into PCB repairs myself but realistically I'll never have the time. If checking/adjusting voltages and reseating chips doesn't fix a problem then I'll just send them over to the UK. There's a chap on j+ called IronGiant who's supposed to be great at fixing boards.

Dr Bob

have a few pics/vid up tommorow , but finally have that cab working with a full control panel and MAME.Had to completely rewire the I-PAC as I made a mess of the button order but its working grand now.Have a (rough and makeshift)bezel as well.
Have mGalaxy working as a frontend and (thanks to the talk about it earlier) using shifted ipac buttons seems to work....
Still need to do a ton of cosmetic stuff (respray the cp and touch up edging etc) but at least I have something I can use now

Myrddin

Excellent, well done Bob & fair dues. Looking forward to seeing the vids!

Dr Bob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIoIpH-W3yY

have the coin slot hooked up now and working, unfortunately I lost my one and only 10p....:(

Optimus Prime

Dr Bob wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIoIpH-W3yY

have the coin slot hooked up now and working, unfortunately I lost my one and only 10p....:(

Ive about 200 10ps im planning on using in my space invaders cocktail. pm me your address and ill post you one tomorrow for free haha

MrVestek

Dr Bob wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIoIpH-W3yY

have the coin slot hooked up now and working, unfortunately I lost my one and only 10p....:(

Is there any way to reconfigure it to accept other currencies?

o1s1n

Coin mechs are based on the size of the coin rather than the currency/coin itself. So you can configure them to run from anything. Just have to adjust the mechanism until the desired coin goes the direction you want it to go

MrVestek

o1s1n wrote: »

Coin mechs are based on the size of the coin rather than the currency/coin itself. So you can configure them to run from anything. Just have to adjust the mechanism until the desired coin goes the direction you want it to go

Thought so!

CiDeRmAn

That leaves you with the other cabinet.
Is that going to be going up on the Marketplace soon?
I know Kerbdog was next in line if things with you had fallen through....

Myrddin

Well done Bob, excellent you've managed to restore the cab to a playable state. Hat firmly tipped :cool: