Dynamo HS-5 SF2CE Dedicated Build

[Jdurg]

So I'm building my SF2:CE Dynamo HS-5 cab from scratch, and have already ordered the CPO for that style cab.  Here's a shot of my "workbench".  


(I built that poker table from scratch shortly after buying my house 7 years ago.  Was the very first woodworking project I had ever taken on.  Came out nice!)

Was a bit nervous when I saw that the CPO was for original cabs only, but hoped for the best.  I found a Dynamo CP that had the proper holes cut already, and was the right size.  I bought it and it arrived today.  When I took it out and started peeling away the current artwork, I saw this!



The panel is indeed an original SF2:CE Panel!  So I know the art i ordered will work, and that this will fit into my plans for building the cabinet.  LOVE it when nice surprises like this show up.    I had a hunch when I bought it that this might be the case, as the CP is not an insert, nor is it the style of the standard "Universal CP" that was on the Dynamos.  So this is very likely from an original cab and the artwork on it is original.  Either that, or some owner removed everything down to bare metal, painted the cut-outs, and then applied the artwork on bare metal.  Doubt many arcade operators would spend the time to do that.

[John's Arcade]

That's awesome! CONGRATS!!

And, nice table.

[Jdurg]

Thanks John.  Yeah, the table was an idea I had in my head, but wasn't quite sure i could do.  Had never done any woodworking before and figured everybody has to start somewhere.  It wasn't that difficult, and works very well.  (I have poker night once a week and am in the hosting rotation).

The CP is proving to be quite a beast.  I can detect a good 3 different overlays on top of the original.  The Citri-Strip has also dissolved a paint film that was applied on top of the layers, but the layers themselves are still stuck on very hard.  I've got a bunch of acetone around, so tomorrow I'll drag this thing outside and then douse it with that to see what happens.  My end goal is to just get everything off.

BTW John, the Hyper Fighting cab you have, is that an HS-5 or a Z-Back?  If it's an HS-5, would you mind taking some measurements so I can reproduce the cab myself?

[Jdurg]

Wow.  These original CP Overlays were on tough.  I now realize that the original was three layers.  An adhesive white layer, the color middle layers, and a hard clear outer layers.  After much scraping, I'm down to the adhesive white layer.  23-year-old glue is VERY tough to get rid of.  It's been soaking in Citri-Strip and Goo-Gone for a good while.  Still have a lot to go.  Once it's clean, I'll hammer out the dented spots and fill out the screw holes that shouldn't be there.  Loving the journey so far.

[Jdurg]

Alright.  I've made some progress.  After much scraping and scrubbing and soaking, and finally with the help of some butane torches, I got all the old CP and crap off.  Put on some etching primer, satin black paint (thanks for the suggestion in all your videos John), and put the CP over.  Due to some dents and dings in the panel, there are some slight bubbles and whatnot in the overlay, but if these ever really get me down, I'll just get another one, take this overlay off, and try again.





Got the kick-harness made and wired up to the CP, and was also able to get the coin door wired up into a molex connector, and of course i had to try out the lighting as you can see in the photo here.  (should have turned the lights off before taking it).


Finally, today i got a Sanyo 25" TV for free off Craigslist.  Was quite a drive up to Westborough, MA, but it's worth it.  You can see the tube number below, as well as a photo of the pinouts on the neck, and the connector on the neckboard.  While the neck only uses 9 pins total, the board looks like it's a 12 pin board.







Now i need to spend time trying to find a chassis to use (hoping to use a WG k7000 series with a remote board) and a frame for this.  Getting exciting!!!!   

[Jdurg]

Figured I'd update this post with some more info.  I got my jamma harness completely wired and tested for continuity.  Also got my coin door wired up, the control panel wired up with a kick harness, the game pcb, marquee, bezel, etc.  Basically, i have a bunch of parts in place and am getting down to the point of only needing to build the cabinet itself.

Today, I got the monitor all wired up and turned it on for the first time.  It was made from a WG 25k7xxx chassis and frame I bought from folks on KLOV, and a tube i took from a 25" Sanyo TV i got for free on Craigslist.  Still riding that high from it successfully turning on and looking pretty good.

I'm now focusing heavily on the speakers.  I know that Jamma is a mono only setup with very rarely a game that gives stereo output on Jamma.  CPS2/CPS3 games all output unamplified, line-level signals through separate RCA connectors.  So I've been wondering how i can get this cabinet setup so that it will play mono jamma games through both the left and right speakers, and also be able to easily play stereo CPS2/CPS3 games.  I have two shielded, 8 ohm, 4 W speakers and yanked a 5 watt, 2-channel amplifier from a Logitech Z130 set of computer speakers.  I needed to figure out how to get this all together so I could make an easy swap on the pull-out drawer, and also not damage any components.

I found out that a Line Output Conditioner (LOC) will take the amplified jamma mono signal and convert it down to a line level signal that I can then feed into the amp.  The LOC arrived yesterday and is pretty simple.  Four wires coming in (which I will connect to the L/R +/- jamma connector by using a two pin molex connector for each speaker line), and two RCA jacks coming out along with gain control for each channel.

The left speaker output from the Jamma Harness (which is the mono audio for games like SF2CE) will be connected to the amplifier via a Y-splitter RCA cable.  This way the signal will be provided to both the left and right channels on my amplifier.  If I'm playing a CPS2/CPS3 game, I will just unplug the splitter and plug the PCB's RCA connection directly to my amplifier, bypassing the LOC. 

The audio amp will then have a 9-pin molex connector between the 9 wires I'll solder onto the amp board where the volume pot used to be, and the lengths of cord used so i can mount the volume knob in an easy accessible area in the coin door opening.

For power, this will come from a 12V DC connection and ground connection from the power supply.  While the speakers came with an AC Adapter to convert AC to 10V DC, I don't see any issue in feeding it 12V DC since the amplifier chip itself (BT2025BH) is spec'd to run at 12 Volts. 

Currently, the only thing I need to do is get some RCA cables and figure out how to wire them into the audio amp, then I also need to get some more molex connectors to make all the connections I will need to make.  I'm hoping to get this done this weekend and test it all out by mounting the speakers to a scrap piece of board.

Below is a somewhat large sketch I drew up that details my plans.

[Jdurg]

Some further updates here.  I went and finally got the molex plug needed in order to hook-up the power supply to the Jamma harness.  Sadly, i totally messed up and accidentally switched the -5V and +12V lines on the Jamma Molex.  When i fired it up, i would hear crackling of sorts coming from the power supply.  I didn't realize that I had the two lines switched until I took a further look and realized i had the wrong pin in the wrong hole.   

I corrected it, and then when I turned the power on there was no longer that crackling sound.  Still, I was scared to death that I had fried my board before i even got to play it. 

to check, i went and temporarily connected a video signal to the monitor chassis.  Upon doing so, hitting power turned on the game and it was running great!  Well, almost.    The image is vertically reversed, so I'll need to switch around the yoke plugs to try and fix it.  Overall, the image quality is pretty nice.  I need to work on the sizes and positioning, but the colors all look sharp and solid.  i'm going to boot it up in test mode tomorrow to adjust the monitor to it's final level.  I'm too happy right now to continue, and plan on having some beer and beer + High Voltage electronics = nuh-uh.  Heh.

I also tested out my CP and every button works EXCEPT for the Player 1 Fierce punch.  i'm figuring it's just a connection issue, so I'll recrimp the molex pins and test for continuity at the board.  I'm hoping that the screw up with the -5V and +12V didn't totally fry the controls, but i figure if they did, none of the player controls would work.

I'll have the speakers hooked up tomorrow.


Game version.  I have flipped the image in Photoshop before uploading it.  i see that this is the earliest version of SF2CE for the USA.  I'll see about getting some EPROMS so that I can program the most up-to-date version once I figure out where the hell to buy EPROMs.



Nice Title Screen.


Blanka on Blanka action.

[Jdurg]

Alright, the bug hit me and I went back and worked on the project.  I switched the wires from the yoke (after cutting the connector in two) and flipped the closer-together-side.  Picture was now oriented perfectly.  Fired the game up and made some adjustments on the remote board and the brightness setting on the flyback.  Took the picture you see below.  I'm not sure if the orientation issue I see on the player health bars are from my camera/viewing angle, or to due with the yoke position.  I'm hoping that I don't have to adjust the yoke orientation as the yoke is attached to the TV tube I pulled this from.  I don't think the yoke assembly will easily come off. 

Regardless, I'm INCREDIBLY happy right now.  This is the first time I've ever seen an arcade game PCB in person, nor a CRT tube, nor a monitor chassis.  Yet as of right now, I have a fully working, and beautiful looking, 25" arcade monitor running.   

[Jdurg]

Another update.  After talking with Ian on the shout box, I figured I should post an audio file of what I'm hearing.  I had to take this from my iPhone as I have no microphone, and the noise from the fan and my refridgerator kind of overwhelm it, but after the loud clicking of me pressing the power button, you can hear the buzzing that I was chatting about before the fan kicks in and drowns it out.

I've uploaded the .m4a file here:  http://www.filedropper.com/201512122228321

[Jdurg]

Insomnia is a great thing to have when you're working on a project.  I got my speakers hooked up, and the diagram i put together earlier in the thread works great!  I got everything hooked up and got the volume pot attached to the service switch/test switch area behind the coin door.  It sounds great.  Right now, it's all hooked up in a test manner, and I'll permanently attach the LOC and amplifier to the drawer once the cabinet is ready to go together.  Not much tweaking left to do.  Will be picking up a new flyback as the buzzing in mine has me concerned, and I wonder if a new flyback will make the slight pincushion effect I'm seeing go away.  (As in, on all four sides, the image kind of curves in towards the center while the corners are where they should be on the screen.

It's nice having the game on in attract mode while I sit in the living room and watch TV and/or surf the web.  When I get MAME going on my computer, it sounds like i'm in an arcade.