Getting into the supergun trend..tell me what do i need

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Tue May 31, 2005 5:03 am

TOpic says all..a list of steps and websites(for pcbs) would be nice..Im planning to look for something simple and plugs and play for my tv

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:16 am

Wow what a brief question.

Are you building a supergun? Or want to buy one?

Before you start building one you will require a few tools if you don't have them already.

Wire crimps
Soldering iron
Solder
Drill and bits
A decent table top with lots of light
A third hand.

Lots of patience.

Parts you need.

Jamma Harness
Project box of some description (I bought mine from radio shack for about $8)
Joystick connectors (DB15 male's are Neo geo compatible)
RCA jacks
Attenuators (to make speaker output compatible with TV/amp)
Resistors
Potentiometers (RGB levels, volume control)
3 way switch's (if you want certain buttons to have different functions)
Buttons (service mode, test mode)
PSU (external or internal)
RGB Decoder (might not be necessary if you live in Europe/Australia).

http://chadsarcade.co.uk/oldsite/Superg ... nIndex.htm
http://www.digitpress.com/archives/arc00093.htm
http://www.himuragames.com/
http://www.jammaboards.com/
http://rgvac.978.org/layout/
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... tId=127987
http://www.highway.net.au/parts/converters/2005.html

They are some of the resources I use.

www.partsexpress.com have the DB15's, RCA jacks and stuff like that.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:37 am

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl ... r=091-1208

If you want to use Neo geo AV output you need ES11 from here -

http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p112.htm

And connect the wires like this -

http://www.gamesx.com/avpinouts/neoav.htm

That is what I did. Then I bought a Neo Geo scart lead from Matt on this forum and connected it up to -

http://www.highway.net.au/parts/converters/2005.html

Transcoder does not pass sound though so I used the RCA's from the link above to send component video input into the TV.

Its all good stuff man.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:40 am

This is my Supergun -

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:47 am

The box is 10-12" long, 4" high, about 6 in depth.

The PSU is housed inside.

Supports neo geo joysticks.

Stereo mono operation.

The buttons on top are for service and test.

Unit has power switch.

Jamma harness is quite long as you can see.

RGB potentiometers for variable color adjustment.

The DIN 5 is not in use. I origonally planned to use a jameco external PSU. After some consideration and lots of delays I stopped the project and sent it to norton at the neo-geo.com forums to finish it off. He found a PSU which fit snugly inside.

The DIN 8 is configured for use with a Neo Scart lead. Couping the lead with the component transcoder gives 100% PCB compatibility. I did however find that the transcoder does not work on my HDTV very well, it decides to set the screen black for a second about every 15-30 seconds.. I have not found out the reason for this.. Picture is unbelievable though.. Better than my cabs even

. It does work on my 21" though and its great.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:52 am

Good info and pictures!

I totally forgot about service & test buttons.
I'm thinking of using DIN-5 for power input also with an external PSU...

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:55 am

Jameco SC200 does not output -5V, just take that into consideration.

I would say that you would only encounter problems with approx 15% of boards and in most cases it used for on board amplifiers. I think Double Dragon is one such game where without the -5V, you will not hear music in the game.

A PC or dedicated arcade PSU is more suitable for the job, but they are very ugly and big.

Like this one -

You could use a bigger box I guess. Better to be inside than out imo.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue May 31, 2005 7:17 am

I do actually have an arcade PSU that I bought today. I'm a bit confused about how to go about wiring it up, just getting the AC current into it (say using a plain old 120 V AC cable like a Saturn AC cable with one end cut off)

Since my PSU has +5V, GND, GND, +12V, -5V, Field Ground, AC 1, AC 2.

My AC cable has two leads, do I just use one of either AC 1/2 plus FG, or both into AC 1 and AC 2? Or am I supposed ot use GND instead of FG?

edit: ....and we've almost completely hijacked PPPP's thread...

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 31, 2005 8:15 am

Consult the supplier.

Inside my cabs the PSU is wired from the 3 pin input on the outside, but hows it wired I don't know.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 31, 2005 8:21 am

Ive been told you can use a PC power lead.

Cut one end off (opposite of wall outlet obviously)

AC1 and 2 are the bottom pins from the wall, Ground is obviously the other.. this should work. 1 and 2 should be switchable.

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Tue May 31, 2005 10:25 am

iatneH wrote:I do actually have an arcade PSU that I bought today. I'm a bit confused about how to go about wiring it up, just getting the AC current into it (say using a plain old 120 V AC cable like a Saturn AC cable with one end cut off)

Since my PSU has +5V, GND, GND, +12V, -5V, Field Ground, AC 1, AC 2.

My AC cable has two leads, do I just use one of either AC 1/2 plus FG, or both into AC 1 and AC 2? Or am I supposed ot use GND instead of FG?

edit: ....and we've almost completely hijacked PPPP's thread...

Is the three-prong outlet widely used in Canada? If so, better to use the three-prong (grounded) AC cord. Also, it would be wise to use an AC line filter and multiple fuses (for AC power, +5V and +12V). Otherwise, there is a higher chance of interference and damage to your arcade PSU and PCB from 'dirty' power, etc.

Here's a little diagram showing the Supergun's AC wire to arcade PSU path, hope it's clear enough:

Hot wire=Black, Neutral wire=White, Ground wire=Green (these are usual colors, but not always the same)

Hot --> 250V 3-5amp fuse+holder --> AC line filter-->on/off switch (rated 120V)-->AC 1 or 2
Neutral ------------------------------------> AC line filter--------------------------------------> AC 1 or 2
Ground-------------------------->Case of the AC line filter-->Case of the on/off switch-->FG/Earth Ground

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:21 pm

Argh.... more n00b questions from me...

This time it's about audio.

If I want to use a headphone jack and RCA outputs to a TV, is it safe to just wire them straight from the outputs of the JAMMA connector?

Also, I sort of planned a circuit switchable between JAMMA mono and NeoGeo stereo, but I didn't count on there being speaker+ and speaker- from JAMMA. What are these two lines for? I thought there would be just one line for mono..

mannerbot · Post by **mannerbot** » Tue May 31, 2005 6:25 pm

I'm assuming everyone that has replied to this topic has sufficient knowledge about superguns to start building their own, but since this is already turning into a great resource for aspiring supergun builders I figure I might as well just add this link: The Idiot's Guide to the Supergun. This information is maybe useless to those who have posted in this topic, but it should be helpful to many.

raiden · Post by **raiden** » Tue May 31, 2005 7:08 pm

If I want to use a headphone jack and RCA outputs to a TV, is it safe to just wire them straight from the outputs of the JAMMA connector?

you should make sure the PCB volume is turned way down before doing this. PCBs usually carry their own amp on board and are designed to be wired directly to speakers. Wiring them to a headphone shouldn´t be much of a problem, but wiring them to a TV could, because the TV has another amp inside trying to amplify an already amplified signal. With the volume turned down on the PCB (turning just the TV volume down won´t do) you can play the game without immediate damage to any component, but it´s said this way hurts the PCB´s amp in the long run. So it´s better to use separate speakers.

Also, I sort of planned a circuit switchable between JAMMA mono and NeoGeo stereo, but I didn't count on there being speaker+ and speaker- from JAMMA. What are these two lines for? I thought there would be just one line for mono..

If you wire directly to a speaker, you need + and - for the two wires leading to the speaker. If you wire to a TV, you can probably use common ground instead of -, and in some cases it´s necessary to do so to get any sound at all. You should NOT use common ground for wiring to a speaker, because the sound signal is so strong it would interfere with all other signals, causing picture distortions during explosions and this kind of thing.
However, to use NeoGeo stereo, you have to use common ground, because the - has been replaced by the 2nd stereo channel. So NeoGeo/MVS hardware should be used in conjunction with an amp, either an internal one of a TV set, or a regular, separate amp.

To make your supergun flexible for use with NeoGeo as well as regular PCBs, you will need some kind of switch setup, with the way you switch depending on the way you intend to wire audio.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 12:26 am

I am not sure about headphone sockets. Headphones are typcially stereo and Jamma is mono.

My supergun uses attenuators which restrict the amplified audio back down to line level which is perfect for TV's and receivers. It also means you can use RCA jacks.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:06 am

OK! Hopefully my last question, about audio attenuation!

I think I've finally got the NeoGeo stereo/JAMMA mono circuit figured out, except I still need to attenuate the outputs to line level (and do I need to do this for both JAMMA and NeoGeo?)

I read that all I'll need are some 1K and 10K ohm resistors, but none of the posts I read at the neo-geo.com tech boards were very specific about where to put them. Like, "Put a 1K and 10K between L and 10 and take the signal from the 1K" Like, am I supposed to connect L and 10 with resistors? That doesn't make sense at all since neither of those can be ground when using an MVS setup...

Wait, is this what it means (for JAMMA)?

```10K``````` 1K````````` speaker
L--\/\/\--10-------/\/\/------------|+```` |
|``````````````````````` | ````` |
|-------------------------------------| - ```` |

And then I can use the same kind of deal for MVS?

edit: if not too much to ask for, a schematic diagram for JAMMA and MVS attenuation circuits using these resistors would be great!

edit2: Never mind, using a more general search string found me the answer. This will work, right?

Except will use ground for NeoGeo and Speaker(-) for JAMMA...

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:13 am

Sorry it took me this long to find this thread

Yes, thats correct.