Console --> Arcade monitor adapter (AVAILABLE, see 1st post)

[neorichieb1971]

Just bad timing on the arrival of it really. By the time I get home the last thing I want to do is get my knees dirty in freezing cold temperatures in the garage to test it. I'd rather wait.

[ckong]

I received mine today also. This really is a very nice little and sturdy PCB, very solid, and well designed. Great soldering also.

All in all a piece of craftmanship, that's why it is a pity some caps might not be up to their specs. Will replace them a soon as I get the good caps, and then this piece of art will be top notch.

Great work Viletim.

[brentsg]

Anyone know of:

-A controller of choice to hack for Saturn and Xbox 360...
-A Japanese 21 pin RGB cable for Xbox 360

Thanks.

Brent

[neorichieb1971]

Is anyone going to test?

Brent, the original pad should be fine for Saturn. I think one of the joysticks is fine too.

As for 360, I don't know. The console came out with HD in mind, i've never heard of a JP21 cable, although there is no reason a SCART cable cannot be modified.

[drunkninja24]

Anyone know of:

-A controller of choice to hack for Saturn and Xbox 360...
-A Japanese 21 pin RGB cable for Xbox 360

Thanks.

Brent

For Saturn, I'd get one of these controllers: http://slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagra ... agram1.jpg very easy to hack since the only solder point you have to grind anything away for is the start button. For 360, either get the standard Madcatz wired controller ( http://slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagra ... agram3.jpg ) or a Fightpad. Both are easy to solder (main plus to the fightpad is that there's no fiddling with resistors or anything to get the triggers to work, all the buttons are digital).

Haven't got mine yet, but it should be here before long. Too bad the seller I bought my PS2 SCART cable from screwed up and sent me a Saturn SCART cable instead, though that's not horrible, I was gonna get that next anyway, but I set up my whole cab with PS1 controllers with the plan to just use converters, and I don't have my PS1/2-Saturn covnerters yet

[antron]

Anyone know of:
-A Japanese 21 pin RGB cable for Xbox 360

why Japanese?

[s8n]

hi all , how is the Brightness Black Level adjusted ? ......if i turn the POT with a screwdriver the Black Level stays the same , if im correct i need to use the Test Points how is this all done ?

s8n

[neorichieb1971]

Turn up the brightness on the cab itself?

[s8n]

hiya neorichieb1971 , na i mean on Viletims Console Adapter ..............theres a Brightness Black Level POT and test points on the Adapter.....i want to adjust it but dont know how. I got this with the adapter aswell , i think im supposed to use it on the test points.

[shmup-o]

Can anyone point me to a shop or ebay seller who has quality PS1/2/3 or Dreamcast scart cables? Or at least point me to a pic of official PAL PS1/2/3 scart cables?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[neorichieb1971]

The official scart cables are grey.

This one is on ebay - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0375807241

If your in the States, you can buy scart leads from www.amazon.co.uk

However, they only have 3rd party ones.

[shmup-o]

The official scart cables are grey.

This one is on ebay - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0375807241

If your in the States, you can buy scart leads from http://www.amazon.co.uk

However, they only have 3rd party ones.

Thanks man!

[brentsg]

Anyone know of:
-A Japanese 21 pin RGB cable for Xbox 360

why Japanese?

All my existing RGB cables are JPN21 so I'd prefer to keep it all the same when possible. I assume there's a dip switch to change when moving to SCART.

Edit: Just got mine today. It's got 2 separate sockets so it wouldn't much matter.

[slap_fight]

i've been away so i've only just got mine and have yet to try it.

...so what _is_ the loose white component that comes with the device as shown in the photo above??

[Biohazard53]

got mine on saturday tested it last night with my dreamcast works awesome!, waiting on my other SCART cables so I can use it with some other systems. oh and I accidently threw away that loose white componenet hope I didnt need it.

[s8n]

this is from a email chat with viletim i had about 2 days ago , it should clear up what the white thing is we are wondering about.

"That 5W resistor that came with the adapter is to connect across your +5v rail and ground. This is only for people who have a power supply that isn't stable without the load of an arcade board."

hope that helps


btw to people who have tested the Console Adapter , have you tried adjusting the Brightness Black Level POT yet ? does it work or stay the same ?

s8n

[shmup-o]

this is from a email chat with viletim i had about 2 days ago , it should clear up what the white thing is we are wondering about.

"That 5W resistor that came with the adapter is to connect across your +5v rail and ground. This is only for people who have a power supply that isn't stable without the load of an arcade board."

hope that helps


btw to people who have tested the Console Adapter , have you tried adjusting the Brightness Black Level POT yet ? does it work or stay the same ?

s8n

I'm not the most hardware oriented person around, so I'll ask the question - most cabs with factory wiring should be stable w/o a board, correct?

[antron]

I'm not the most hardware oriented person around, so I'll ask the question - most cabs with factory wiring should be stable w/o a board, correct?

no, it only pertains to the model/condition of the power supply in the cab. some need to be fully loaded to output proper voltages. in other words it expects a something to draw as much power as a real game PCB does. that white thing is a power resistor, it will waste more power to get the supply to a proper load.

[neorichieb1971]

I Don't think I got any white bits. If I did I probably threw them away as well. I looked for the 2 PCB's and got them out of the packaging, it looked like there were only crumpled up paper in there apart from that.

I tried my adapter today (1 of them) and it works exceptionally well. The contrast knob was turned right down at first which gave a black picture, turned it up and was looking at some sparkly RGB graphics.. More sparkly than I have ever seen on the AWSD so far. Sound was crisp although I had to drown out the humming by turning the volume down on the adapter and up and on the cab.

The AWSD displays a very crisp 2D image with very distinct scan lines, colours are vibrant and crisp.

So going back to the point above.. I have an AWSD (played consoles on that beforehand with no probs). The other 2 cabs are New Astro's. If I'm likely to encounter the "no PCB load" problem on them I'd like to know.

Overall 9.8/10... Good job Tim.

edit - I didn't need to touch the brightness on mine, it was perfect so left it.

[slap_fight]

alright.

had a quick go tonight... here's my findings.

1/ has nothing to do with the adapter, but it looks like my SFC is playing up again, i thought i had plugged the adapter in wrong or something, but it turns out that it's my console!

2/ tried the megadrive instead. nice picture. good sound. i'm experiencing some picture flicker across the screen, which seems to be in time to the bass of the music, i dunno if i am imagining this, but the flicker does occur frequently. is this where i should try the white 5V thingy??

3/ yes, the brightness knob and the volume knob both work.

here's a photo of my megadrive running on the E2.

[neorichieb1971]

Try turning the volume knob down on the adapter, and turning the volume up on the cabinet.

[Drunkenietzschigo]

Hello,
just dropping by to say I sent an e-mail yesterday also to order one of these! (from belgium)
They look really good !
Let me know by PM if you did not get it

thanks,
Drk

[slap_fight]

does this thread seem a bit quiet or is it just me? did many people get one of these in the end?

[viletim]

Sound was crisp although I had to drown out the humming by turning the volume down on the adapter and up and on the cab.

Turn volume up on the cab? Is there a built in amplifier? or is this just a rheostat in series with the speaker?

...so what _is_ the loose white component that comes with the device as shown in the photo above??

It's a power resistor. It's intended to be a simple dummy load for the power supply.

Sometimes older switching power supplies have trouble keeping regulation without a load on the +5V line. For these situations you will need to connect a power resistor (supplied) between the +5V line and ground to act as a dummy load. This resistor will get hot so should be connected directly to the power supply, away from stray fingers.

2/ tried the megadrive instead. nice picture. good sound. i'm experiencing some picture flicker across the screen, which seems to be in time to the bass of the music, i dunno if i am imagining this, but the flicker does occur frequently. is this where i should try the white 5V thingy??

Does the problem go away if you turn the volume down? If so, the problem is likely that you have a power supply which needs a load to regulate properly. Try connecting the power resistor to the green terminal block between the terminals marked '5V' and 'GND'. The other posibility is that the power wires for the +12v lines (which the adapter runs from) are too thin, causing a voltage drop to occur.

If the problem does is not dependent on the sound volume then it's likely related to the sync...

[neorichieb1971]

Turn volume up on the cab? Is there a built in amplifier? or is this just a rheostat in series with the speaker?

The Atomiswave AWSD has 3 volume controls built into the cabinet. There is also a monaural/stereo switch.

If you use the stereo side, it sources a signal from a specific Taito type amplifier which I bought seperately a few months ago, you connect CPS2 and other such things into the Taito amp. It has phono inputs on it and its geared specifically for the AWSD. In this mode, 2 of the volume knobs are for left and right volume control for that specific amp. The 3rd volume knob acts as a master volume controller.

When the mono side of the switch is activated, the master control volume knob is used on its own, using the jamma harness as its source of signal.

[drunkninja24]

does this thread seem a bit quiet or is it just me? did many people get one of these in the end?

I'm still waiting on mine to arrive

[neorichieb1971]

Not everyone wants to get on their hands and knees to try this thing straight away. It took me a bit of time to get the enthusiasm.

I can't fault the unit. The PS2/1 games I tried looked better than PCB's on the AWSD. I'm wondering why.

[emphatic]

The PS2/1 games I tried looked better than PCB's on the AWSD. I'm wondering why.

My guess, the harsh scanlines that the Wei Ya screen offer are more prominent in 240p than in 480i? Or did you run 240p games as well (cutting my theory in pieces)?

[borg07of09]

[/quote]

is the 5w resistor polarity based? or can i place it any way on the +5V and ground on the terminal block?

thanks for the assistance in advance.

btw, i received mines and the picture looks good to my eyes.

[antron]

there is no polarity