Got an arcade cabinet, need assistance

Cyber-Mav · 29 Sep 2021 at 20:12

so got a hold of this cabinet today from a relative. its not been used for over 2 years so was a bit dirty but cleaned up well. i dont have the key for the back side so cant get to the hardware thats running in it yet. if someone knows what sort of key i can get or if it can be picked etc?
what i do gather when powering it on its running x86 hardware and has a 160gb IDE hard drive.
wiring of the controllers looks to be a mess but dunno. need to get a keyboard onto it so got to open it up and check for usb port. maybe make an extension by drilling holes in the back and mounting the usb ports on the cabinet itself.

check the pics:

will be an interesting project for me to mess with. im interested to know how the controllers connect to the pc inside it. usb? or something else?

Ravenger · 30 Sep 2021 at 08:49

The controls will probably connect to a USB keyboard encoder.

Not sure about the lock - will probably be fairly easy to pick though.

Cyber-Mav · 30 Sep 2021 at 15:31

got past the lock easily. looks like someone hacked an actual dell keyboard and used its controller to do the job lol. its a P4 3ghz with 1.5gb ram. 32bit win7. gonna need more power in this the crappy ati firegl 3100 card it came with cant even do full dx9 stuff so had to ditch it for a nvidia 310.
will do more faffing with this.

Ravenger · 30 Sep 2021 at 16:55

That's quite an old machine!
I've got a slightly newer macine in my full-size cab - A Q8400 on an nForce motherboard, 4GB RAM and a GTX450, running a shelled Windows XP so it boots seamlessly into the UI (using Mala with a skin I designed). It runs the far majority of games that I want to play
I also compiled my own MAME executable without the nag screens.

Cyber-Mav · 30 Sep 2021 at 19:40

some more pics of the insides.
the bios cpu code says its a p4 517. once i get my ssd in it with 64bit win7 will do more snooping around for full spec and see what the mobo can take cpu wise.

Cyber-Mav · 1 Oct 2021 at 15:15

The keyboard encoder seems to have limitations when both players play some keys dont get picked up.
Need to find something better

Chaos · 1 Oct 2021 at 19:12

Cyber-Mav said:
The keyboard encoder seems to have limitations when both players play some keys dont get picked up.
Need to find something better

Ultimarc sell various controller interfaces.

https://www.ultimarc.com

Kreeeee · 1 Oct 2021 at 19:35

Cyber-Mav said:
The keyboard encoder seems to have limitations when both players play some keys dont get picked up.
Need to find something better

On modern PCs I like to padhack 360 controllers.

Cyber-Mav · 2 Oct 2021 at 00:07

iv read that for lowest lag an arduino ATmega32U4 micro can be used. anyone go any experience with it?

the cpu in the cabinet was a pentium 4 531. 3ghz 1mb cache single core 90nm job. iv flashed the board bios to latest version and spent £3.25p for a pentium D 925 which is dual core 3ghz 65nm job with 4mb cache so should be a lot better and going by hp support site is the highest cpu the board will take. will see how it is when it arrives
ram i upped from 1.5gb to 4gb today.

got to sort the controllers out though. 2 players is crap since button presses are missed and just doesnt control properly.

Phunky · 2 Oct 2021 at 19:27

You can pickup zero delay usb encoders for £10 on the rainforest, just hook one to each joystick.

If you get hold of a Raspberry Pi 3/4 it’ll handle everything up to Dreamcast and just stick something like batocera on it.

Cyber-Mav · 2 Oct 2021 at 23:00

iv been looking at the zero delay encoders but after spending some time reading up of arcade forums it seems they are very bad. its either ipac or arduino according to the arcade forums.
iv got an arduino on order now a leonardo so will see how things go.
windows based emulators are a lot more advanced than whats on the pi so going to stick to windows. i will look out for some small itx board parts if they come by cheap.

Ravenger · 3 Oct 2021 at 19:18

I bought a zero-delay encoder for my new Tron Joystick add-on for my arcade cab. Seems to work ok, but it emulates direct input windows analog joystick, so there may not be enough inputs on it for a two joystick setup.

The ipac is the best solution and is really easy to setup - I've got a j-pac in my arcade cab, only because initially it shipped with a 60-in-1 jamma board, so it made the wiring much easier just to plug in the jamma harness and then wire up the extra buttons separately, but the functionality is basically the same (except for a few additional jamma bits). To be honest, if I knew how easy it was to wire up I'd have bought a cheaper ipac and rewired it.

Cyber-Mav · 4 Oct 2021 at 10:01

iv got an arduino board on order so will give that a shot. seems to be a fair few guides and sketches going around on what to run on it.

Cyber-Mav · 4 Oct 2021 at 18:12

Changed cpu today. Gone from p4 531 to pentium d 925. Massive difference. Cant believe how much faster it is in even general stuff.

Cyber-Mav · 19 Oct 2021 at 11:00

this is sorted now. adruinos being used for the joystick and buttons. no more wiring mess and most of all both players can press as many buttons as they want simultaneously without issues.
table has some spare space on it so maybe make a bigger cab to use all the space in future.

Deleted member 77746 · 19 Oct 2021 at 11:05

But does it work?

Cyber-Mav · 21 Oct 2021 at 19:05

Lol yes its working great. Some extra buttons arrived now so need to drill some holes in the back to fit them.

Cyber-Mav · 26 Mar 2022 at 08:08

Got buttons fitted. Also put in a old gt730 gfx card. Now using bgfx effects in mame for that crt look. Very good now.

NickK · 26 Mar 2022 at 08:43

Just adding based on our conversation w.r.t. to sound. Sorry if this reads a little grouchy - I need more coffee.

The sound system you have there is made up of:
* AC-AC step down transformer (you've said this gets a hot which is not a good sign)
* On board it has a AC to DC linear supply - you have what looks to be a full wave rectifier (the for diodes) and the larger capacitor.
* mono input then out to two 4ohm 5W speakers.
* The amp device is under the heatsink
* what looks like tone controls and possibly a mute button?

You could improve it but it's the start of a rabbit hole, some of the issues:
* speakers are in a cabinet that doesn't have tuning - and the fan port is acting like a port.
* mono - so I assume that the sound is jacked into the motherboard stereo jack socket? Are the amp speakers wired in series and the system is mono?

Improving the sound? Here some ideas
* speaker positioning - front facing best, sides perhaps, or if at the back then switching the fan and the other speaker so they're equidistant to the player at the back.
* cab tuning would be a nightmare - the design and materials plus the need to be fire safe (wood!) means no lining with carpet etc to damp it.
* speakers - 4ohm 5W.. hmm no idea of how good they are. You could change these out to something a little more able. Doesn't need to be OTT but you can pick up some drivers <£10 each that are branded and have a data sheet. A "full range" speaker is what you'd want here.
* amp source - that's currently the mother board - you could use a 2nd hand PCI card with digital outs?
* STEREO amp rather than mono. It seems that you're driving two speakers - are these in series? (ie 4+4=8 ohm amp output)
* amp itself - I gave you links for class A/B and analogue in class D modules that would work but you'd need sort out power. If you have a PCI card with a digital out you could use a power DAC (DAC and amp in one chip) and improve the sound. If you're sticking with 4ohm, then ensure the amp can drive 4ohm and the 0.1%THD value is a good 10W/ch.
* amp power - switching PC SMPS are noisy, although not "noise" it will make sounds less clear.. You could stick with a linear PSU or use a wall wart as long as it can provide the required current.

Class A/B is simpler, quieter but runs hot and less power efficient. You should ensure that the amp can run 4 ohms.
Class D is complex, noiser but is more power efficient and runs cooler. You MUST ensure that the amp is designed for 4ohm.

Cyber-Mav · 27 Mar 2022 at 19:21

Thanks for the reply forgot about this thread lol. Im not sure i can do much speaker wise with this bartop but im looking to go bigger in which case i will make sure the speakers are front facing this time.