[Framemeister] RGB, SCART and JAMMA. So confused!

[Vans]

Hello everyone!

So I've been a lifelong SNK fan (born in the 90's) and have spent many years studying all the NeoGeo fighting games.

Even though I have an AES, I can't really afford the games since I'm in college and all, so I decided to get myself a beautiful MVS in order to finally have this collection the way it was meant to be.

So after spending some time reading about the different boards, I think I managed to track down the "best" slot-1 board for cheap, this beauty right here (model 1F):



And I also happened to get a Framemeister for Christmas.

So after reading some more, I can supposedly hook up the RGB signal from the JAMMA harness to the Framemeister through the RGB-21 port, but I'm confused as to how to actually do it.

I've read that hooking up a SCART-wired signal through the Framemeister could basically fry the device (and that would make me extremely sad I think). So I'm trying to be cautious here.

What's the best way to hook this up? Do I still need to get myself a video encoder such as the JROK and make a supergun build with it or is there some sort of schematic/guide I should be looking at?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I got even more confused when I saw the wiki info since there's only information for the XRGB-3 and it's sometimes labeled as "RGB through supergun". :/

[ryu]

you could try buying/making a jamma to jp21 cable

jp21 is very much like scart, just with a different pinout. just google "jp21 pinout" and you'll see

btw are you sure mvs will work with the framemeister on your display? these things aren't plug'n'play unfortunately

[fagin]

There is no reason why an MVS will not work with the Framemeister.

[ryu]

There is no reason why an MVS will not work with the Framemeister.

so they fixed these issues earlier xrgb units had with certain hardware (afc setting)?

[fagin]

Console based hardware, yes.

[Fudoh]

I have a consolized MVS hooked up to my Mini. Works flawlessly.

You don't really need a supergun if the MVS is the only Jamma board you want to use - especially since your MVS board has controller ports alreary. What you need is a power supply to your MVS board and a RGBs/Audio breakout from your MVS's jamma connector.

Jamma RGB levels are too high to be fed directly to consumer hardware like the Mini. You need to dampen the signals by adding resistors in the RGB lines.

You can either built a Jamma to Scart or JP21 cable if you want to use another adapter, or you can build a Jamma to MiniDin cable if you want to the connect to the Mini directly.

[Fudoh]

btw are you sure mvs will work with the framemeister on your display?

it should work. The 59.15Hz output of the MVS won't be totally smooth like 59.94Hz from other systems, but it should work.

[Vans]

^ Wait, so does that mean I will need to adjust some of the video sync settings? Will I be missing out on anything if I end up doing it this way?

So if I understand correctly (and this is just going by the schematics I've found online, haven't really found anything on JAMMA -> RGB21 maybe my google-fu is lacking).

http://www.arcadetreasure.com/techinfo/techinfo.htm (JAMMA standard)
http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id= ... ese_rgb-21 (RGB21 pin explanation)

I should wire up the respective R,G,B and sync signals to the pins on the RGB21 (where sync is pin #9) using resistors on all of them except for sync and then wire up the RGBS ground signals to any ground on the harness?

[Fudoh]

using resistors on all of them except for sync

you can add a resistor to the sync line as well. Probably doesn't hurt. If you do it from scratch, use variable resistors (potis) instead. This way you can adjust the brightness and the color balance to your liking on the "live feed".

[Grambo]

I've read that hooking up a SCART-wired signal through the Framemeister could basically fry the device (and that would make me extremely sad I think). So I'm trying to be cautious here.

I imagine these stories of frying a Framemeister have something to do with the ability to physically plug a EU SCART device into the JP21, feeding +5VDC to ground.

^ Wait, so does that mean I will need to adjust some of the video sync settings? Will I be missing out on anything if I end up doing it this way?

The MVS works great with the Framemeister. It displays the strange frequency quite well, with the exception of scanlines... the Framemeister sees the MVS at 241p instead of 240p. Just change your V_WIDTH to 33 instead of 32 and it resolves the issue.
It looks like this if you don't change the V_WIDTH



I personally only used 75ohm resistors on my MV1C's Red, Green and Blue and do not have any components on my sync line. It's been working flawlessly and I'm quite happy with the color balance. I certainly don't feel like I'm "missing out" in any way

I should wire up the respective R,G,B and sync signals to the pins on the RGB21 (where sync is pin #9) using resistors on all of them except for sync and then wire up the RGBS ground signals to any ground on the harness?

Yep!

If I might offer a suggestion, I would make the MVS output EU SCART (where sync is pin #20) and get a EU SCART to XRGB Mini adapter, especially if you own (or intend on owning) other RGB consoles. (http://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/euro ... -sale.html)
If you go the route of JAMMA to SCART, make sure you do some research on speaker level and line level audio.

Nothing really uses JP21 and by avoiding JP21 altogether it keeps everything a bit simpler and more uniform.