anybody here hook a console to an arcade cab? help!!!

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon May 12, 2008 2:41 am

hoping someone here can help me with this. i'm hooking up a dreamcast to my arcade cabinet and i'm having a problem getting the controls to work with my dreamcast. basically, the chain is this:

control panel-->j-pac-->psx control adaptor-->total control plus--> dreamcast

i've done troubleshooting on every step in the chain, and i'm convinced that the psx adaptor is messed up somehow. the only way i could figure to troubleshoot this thing is to plug the psx adaptor into my ps2 with the jpac attached to it, then use a piece of wire to jump from ground to the jamma finger to simulate button presses. the jpac test light lights up, indicating that its getting power from the ps2, but the ps2 wont come off the "controller has been unplugged, plug it back in dummy" message. can anybody confirm that the ps2 will recognize the psx adaptor as a controller if you plug it in, or offer any advice otherwise to get this thing working? i'd hate to have to send this thing all the way back to the uk, but it looks like that might be the only solution.

stuntman · Post by **stuntman** » Mon May 12, 2008 3:35 am

Is that the PSX controller adapter from Ultimarc? If so, it doesn't work with the Total Control Plus. You need a different adapter, which looks the same but is wired differently...

Link: Dreamcast Adapter

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon May 12, 2008 4:28 am

oh damn it all.....that stupid thing is like $70 with the exchange rate right now.

but thank you for your help, this totally solves my problem. i just assumed the psx adaptor was just a mini playstation pcb, hence the need for the total control plus adaptors. oh well. thats what i get for assuming.

stuntman · Post by **stuntman** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:58 am

Dreamcast pads can be picked up cheaply. Perhaps you should try hacking one, then you won't need to use adapters.

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon May 12, 2008 1:25 pm

To see if the psx adapter is working, plug a regular PC keyboard into it and see if you can control your playstation.

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon May 12, 2008 4:55 pm

got the psx adaptor working. dont know how/why, but now it's working. thanks guys!

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:25 pm

brokenhalo wrote:got the psx adaptor working. dont know how/why, but now it's working. thanks guys!

I have problems with mine from time to time. Start gets pressed on its own. The biggest problem is when the joystick input gets stuck in some direction. Happens the most with Player 2. Andy sent me another one but it has the same problems. He can't reproduce it, but has been trying.

Please let me know if you see this. He offered to refund me, shipping and all, but I am hoping he will solve this eventually.

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Mon May 12, 2008 6:37 pm

antron wrote:
brokenhalo wrote:got the psx adaptor working. dont know how/why, but now it's working. thanks guys!
I have problems with mine from time to time. Start gets pressed on its own. The biggest problem is when the joystick input gets stuck in some direction. Happens the most with Player 2. Andy sent me another one but it has the same problems. He can't reproduce it, but has been trying.

Please let me know if you see this. He offered to refund me, shipping and all, but I am hoping he will solve this eventually.

Interestingly, I've seen this behavior too, but it was with an j-pac to a linux box. But now that I think about it, I've seen it with a PS2 also; maybe it isn't the adapters that are the problem...

antron · Post by **antron** » Mon May 12, 2008 6:55 pm

zakk wrote:
antron wrote:
brokenhalo wrote:got the psx adaptor working. dont know how/why, but now it's working. thanks guys!
I have problems with mine from time to time. Start gets pressed on its own. The biggest problem is when the joystick input gets stuck in some direction. Happens the most with Player 2. Andy sent me another one but it has the same problems. He can't reproduce it, but has been trying.

Please let me know if you see this. He offered to refund me, shipping and all, but I am hoping he will solve this eventually.
Interestingly, I've seen this behavior too, but it was with an j-pac to a linux box. But now that I think about it, I've seen it with a PS2 also; maybe it isn't the adapters that are the problem...

I can see it with a real keyboard sending the keypresses. The Jpac isn't the problem.

stuntman · Post by **stuntman** » Mon May 12, 2008 8:36 pm

I had the same problem with my first PSX adapter (slim PS2 and Jpac). Games kept pausing/unpausing rapidly as if the Start button was being pressed. Andy sent a replacement and that works fine.

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Fri May 23, 2008 12:36 am

guess what? i'm having that goofy problem where player 2 side just locks up. happens about 3 or 4 minutes into playing, usually the player gets stuck moving in one direction. turning off the ps2 fixes the problem and then a few minutes later....same problem. i'm going to shoot andy an e-mail about it now.

just out of curiosity, has anyone had any problems with the dreamcast control adaptor? mine hasn't come in yet, but it would be my luck that i'd get a screwy one of them too.

fuko · Post by **fuko** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:31 am

yes and yes

I have a PSX adapter that periodically locks up the player 2 controls. Happens once in a while, and reset clears it until the next time. Fortunately I don't play with two ppl very often, so I've learned to live with it.

I also had issues with the Dreamcast adapter. Note, as pointed out above, this is a completely different adapter! They look the same, but the Dreamcast adaptor says "for Dreamcast only." Very important. Anyway, it never worked properly, so I sent it back to Andy and am waiting for a replacement.

D · Post by D » Tue May 27, 2008 9:11 am

5 wires to get video
2 more for audio
the controls take a bit more wires. 11 for 6 button control.
People should break out the soldering iron, there ain't nothing to it!

stuntman · Post by **stuntman** » Tue May 27, 2008 12:59 pm

D wrote:the controls take a bit more wires. 11 for 6 button control.
People should break out the soldering iron, there ain't nothing to it!

I agree. I did buy adapters for Playstation and Dreamcast, but since then I've hacked pads for a Saturn and Xbox360. Done right, it's the most reliable solution.

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Tue May 27, 2008 7:00 pm

fuko wrote:yes and yes

I have a PSX adapter that periodically locks up the player 2 controls. Happens once in a while, and reset clears it until the next time. Fortunately I don't play with two ppl very often, so I've learned to live with it.

I also had issues with the Dreamcast adapter. Note, as pointed out above, this is a completely different adapter! They look the same, but the Dreamcast adaptor says "for Dreamcast only." Very important. Anyway, it never worked properly, so I sent it back to Andy and am waiting for a replacement.

just out of curiousity, how long does it take for your psx adaptor to lock up? i can get mine to lock up consistently within about 20 seconds just by doing circles with the joystick. also, are you using it withe fat ps2, or the slimline?

D wrote:5 wires to get video
2 more for audio
the controls take a bit more wires. 11 for 6 button control.
People should break out the soldering iron, there ain't nothing to it!

i am pretty handy with that sort of thing, but my primary mission with this (my only) cabinet was to keep everything as original as possible so that i could easily swap out consoles or pcbs. and making project boxes for controller hacks would still cost as much or more than the ultimarc adaptors.

D · Post by D » Wed May 28, 2008 12:33 pm

stuntman wrote:
D wrote:the controls take a bit more wires. 11 for 6 button control.
People should break out the soldering iron, there ain't nothing to it!
I agree. I did buy adapters for Playstation and Dreamcast, but since then I've hacked pads for a Saturn and Xbox360. Done right, it's the most reliable solution.

I have never said this, but suspected this much. You see when you diy, you know where to look, if you buy an adapter and something doesn't work, you'll just have to accept it. And my solution is to just make a jamma to RGB scart adapter. Now with this you can hook up every console ever made. The controls would have to be hacked for almost every console.

Code: Select all

and making project boxes for controller hacks would still cost as much or more than the ultimarc adaptors.

It wouldn't cost more, but it would be a hassle and take up more space, but at the same time provide you with more freedom, you can map it the way you like.

fuko · Post by **fuko** » Wed May 28, 2008 3:10 pm

brokenhalo wrote:just out of curiousity, how long does it take for your psx adaptor to lock up? i can get mine to lock up consistently within about 20 seconds just by doing circles with the joystick.

Happens within about 20 seconds of gameplay. If it hasn't locked up by that point it probably won't during that session.

brokenhalo wrote:also, are you using it withe fat ps2, or the slimline

fat. I tried hooking it up to my slim and it just doesn't work. Player 1 controls never respond.

In fact the thing is so fussy that I'll probably take the advice being given here and make an all in one adapter. The only reason I didn't jump on that before was I had read that the video levels would be unacceptably low without a signal booster, and the Ultimarc video cable had that built in with the sync chip.

D · Post by D » Wed May 28, 2008 5:06 pm

fuko wrote:The only reason I didn't jump on that before was I had read that the video levels would be unacceptably low without a signal booster, and the Ultimarc video cable had that built in with the sync chip.

I never understood that. You might have to increase the contrast and brightness a bit on the monitor in your cab. Big deal! you'll have to allign it anyway as most pcb's/consoles have different resolutions anyways. it even depends which games on a console.
Go ahead, life a little. You'll learn yourself about jamma and stuff and when you're stuck, you fire up shmups forum. We'll sort you out!
[If I don't react, pm me the thread and I'll respond there.]

antron · Post by **antron** » Wed May 28, 2008 5:42 pm

on my monitor (whatever nanao comes in an Egret 29) I cannot adjust enought to get a great image with a PS2. PS1 and Saturn are fine.

I didn't think ultimarc had an amp built into the sync circuit (mine doesn't) The website shows that option as just the amp bundled with the video cable, or you can use a newer J-Pac with the amp. mine is the older one however.

antron · Post by **antron** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 8:58 pm

brokenhalo wrote: i'm going to shoot andy an e-mail about it now.

what did he say?

bitkid · Post by **bitkid** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:11 pm

Do you need some kind of video converter to hook a PS2 or a Dreamcast up to an arcade monitor?

Hewitson · Post by **Hewitson** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:29 pm

bitkid wrote:Do you need some kind of video converter to hook a PS2 or a Dreamcast up to an arcade monitor?

No, just an RGB SCART cable.

antron · Post by **antron** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:36 pm

Hewitson wrote:
bitkid wrote:Do you need some kind of video converter to hook a PS2 or a Dreamcast up to an arcade monitor?
No, just an RGB SCART cable.

for ps2 that's only true if your monitor can use composite video in place of composite sync

Hewitson · Post by **Hewitson** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:45 pm

Eh? The PS2 outputs RGB.

antron · Post by **antron** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:56 pm

Hewitson wrote:Eh? The PS2 outputs RGB.

but no composite sync. SCART TVs get it from the composite video with a sync separator chip, just like ultimarc's PS2 video cable does.

Hewitson · Post by **Hewitson** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:17 pm

Its very easy to build a simple sync seperator circuit. However I didn't realise SCART TV's have one of these built in, I mean the SCART standard includes sync for a reason.. I wonder why it isn't used?

antron · Post by **antron** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:25 pm

Hewitson wrote:Its very easy to build a simple sync seperator circuit. However I didn't realise SCART TV's have one of these built in, I mean the SCART standard includes sync for a reason.. I wonder why it isn't used?

some consoles apparently do, like the ones made Sega.

Which SCART pin does the sync go to if present? I tried to look that up once and it wasn't clear to me.

Also which SCART are we talking about, Euro or Jap?

Hewitson · Post by **Hewitson** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:58 pm

Pin 19 IIRC. There is only one SCART. Japanese RGB uses same plug but it is not SCART.

antron · Post by **antron** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:11 pm

Hewitson wrote:Pin 19 IIRC. There is only one SCART. Japanese RGB uses same plug but it is not SCART.

20 is Video or Sync input
19 is Video or Sync output

I really don't understand how both Video and Sync could be provided to any device at the same time. I wish I had paid attention when I cannibalized a Saturn SCART cable to solder to a JAMMA connector. For some reason both Video and Sync wires are present from the Saturn.

Hewitson · Post by **Hewitson** » Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:42 am

antron wrote:I really don't understand how both Video and Sync could be provided to any device at the same time. I wish I had paid attention when I cannibalized a Saturn SCART cable to solder to a JAMMA connector. For some reason both Video and Sync wires are present from the Saturn.

That pin is for either composite video or composite sync. In the case composite video is passed through it the TV must strip the sync from the signal which is why it contains the circuit we have been talking about.