Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Arcade cabinet hardware and accessories
Post Reply
User avatar
EveningCommuter
Please Continue...
Posts: 21
Joined: April 17th, 2017, 8:27 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
eBay: SuperGameStorePlus
Initials: EVN

Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by EveningCommuter »

Hello! As of recent I have made it a project to restore my Sega Aero City. I have been zapped by it a few times in the control panel area while playing. I have noticed I get zapped when I am grounded (playing barefoot on tile or wood flooring) and it is not enough to hurt, more or less a pinch. I inspected my JAMMA Harness and realized that there has been so much patch work done to it, in an attempt to prevent the cabinet from zapping me during play I taped of all the bare ends with electrical tape in hopes of that working, it did not. From my understanding it is the original harness with a kick for 6 players but do not know where to source a replacement.

I also noticed that I have the original power supply inside of my cabinet but it lets out a loud whine/mosquito sound while playing or while the monitor is off. More or less I want to replace a majority of the wiring so I can troubleshoot the monitor/grounding issues if possible due to the fact that my monitor has a slightly shaky image and flicker to it.

Anyone know where I should look or start?
User avatar
copados33
Please Continue...
Posts: 538
Joined: March 20th, 2013, 1:30 pm
Location: Uruguay South America
eBay: psycho-q

Re: Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by copados33 »

There is a bolt with a nut attached to a metal box on the underside of the cabinet (near the noise filter), all ground cables in the cabinet are attached to that screw, connect a cable from any screw under the control panel to the ground splice and you are set, no more zapping as long as you have a ground line in your home electrical installation, If not, bury a copper javelin in your backyard and route a cable from there to the outlet where you plug the cabinet.
User avatar
NoAffinity
Posts: 386
Joined: January 8th, 2017, 3:46 pm
Location: Escondido, CA, USA
eBay: noaffinity
Initials: CSG
Contact:

Re: Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by NoAffinity »

For the JAMMA harness you will need to build your own. Maybe you get lucky and find an original, but they are pretty much non-existent.

1) Buy a standard JAMMA extender harness
2) Cut the fingerboard end off of it or desolder the wires from it. About the same effort either way - desoldering each wire will take some time, stripping and tinning all the cut wires will take some time.
3) Desolder the existing cab harness from the fingerboard that plugs into the 36 pin connector next to the power switch (pull the harness out of the cab first, obviously :think: )
4) Use the pinout on the right side of page 28 of the manual, to resolder the correct wires on the 36-pin fingerboard: http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/images/e/e5 ... Manual.pdf

Take it from someone who had to buildtheir own JAMMA harness because their Aero cab came with a non-JAMMA mah jongg harness, it isn't too difficult if you have the pinout in front of you.

As for the shocks, in addition to the above, check for any wires that aren't connnected to anything and have exposed wiring potentially coming into contact with the cab. When I got my Neo 25, the coin switch wires were just dangling there in the cabinet. I kept getting shocked while reaching in to turn the power on and off, finally realized that was it and connected them up properly to the switch with no more shocks.

As for the power supply, first check your voltages and make sure they are all good, or adjust the pot in the power supply to get them good, and see if that does the trick. If not, it probably just needs a cap kit. Although a cap "kit" probably doesn't exist. You will probably need to document the caps and order them individually. The power supply is very easy to open.
User avatar
NoAffinity
Posts: 386
Joined: January 8th, 2017, 3:46 pm
Location: Escondido, CA, USA
eBay: noaffinity
Initials: CSG
Contact:

Re: Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by NoAffinity »

A couple other pieces of advice:

1) Get a JAMMA extender that only has the bare minimum wires pinned out that you need. Some of them have all pins populated, like the one I used cuz it was a spare I had lying around, and I have about 20 wires electric taped off and zip tied back. Would be cleaner without all those excess wires.
2) When your done soldering all the new connections, encase them with hot glue. You will have to double on ground and power leads on the 36-pin fingeboard, which could/will cause leads to lift if not fortified. I have (2) leads that lifted before I took this extra precautionary step. Fortunately, the leads run the entire width of the fingerboard, so just cut a few mm off, then resolder to the area that is still adequately in place.

Just a few learning snafu's on my part that can hopefully help you avoid the same pitfalls.
User avatar
EveningCommuter
Please Continue...
Posts: 21
Joined: April 17th, 2017, 8:27 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
eBay: SuperGameStorePlus
Initials: EVN

Re: Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by EveningCommuter »

@NoAffinity, I have someone isolated the issue of the whining and my screen being wavy/shaking to the power supply. It is in need of replacement or as you said a re-cap kit. I have looked around online and noticed that my power supply/connectors are of a molex pin type and not the fork type connectors as commonly used. I have linked below images of my PSU and Connectors. I just want to go ahead and replace the PSU all together but in order to preserve the connectors/PSU, I do not want to strip the original wires and replace the connectors but instead replace the whole section of wiring if that is even possible?

http://imgur.com/a/b1zL2
User avatar
nem
Needs a custom rank
Posts: 2768
Joined: August 17th, 2008, 6:59 pm
Location: Finland

Re: Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by nem »

Looks similar to JST's VH series:

http://www.jst-mfg.com/product/detail_e.php?series=262

Honestly, I wouldn't bother replacing the PSU. If you have the know how to do the cap kit, do it. Original Japanese spec PSUs are great quality, and better than most Chinese made crap these days.
User avatar
NoAffinity
Posts: 386
Joined: January 8th, 2017, 3:46 pm
Location: Escondido, CA, USA
eBay: noaffinity
Initials: CSG
Contact:

Re: Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by NoAffinity »

^^Yep, that's the Aero power supply. Identical to mine. I saw one for sale on ebay not too long ago, but the case had some pretty heavy corrosion. I would re-cap mine all day long if it needed it, before ever buying somebody else's corroded piece of junk. ;)

I opened mine up just to look inside, and from what I remember, there are 8-10 screws on the exterior of the case, but only 4-5 that truly have to be removed to open up the power supply. Within, there is not much to it. There are minimal caps, and it shouldn't be hard to ID them all and order replacements. :thumbupright:
User avatar
EveningCommuter
Please Continue...
Posts: 21
Joined: April 17th, 2017, 8:27 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
eBay: SuperGameStorePlus
Initials: EVN

Re: Aero City JAMMA Harness, PSU, and Power Supply?

Post by EveningCommuter »

Thanks for the info peeps. I am just going to go ahead and re-cap it. I will pull it out and identify all the caps and document everything, might even make a guide.

- Thank you!
Post Reply