2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

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shaktazuki
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2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by shaktazuki »

Suppose you wanted to run 1 SF3S on 2 Astro cabs because you are too poor to buy a Versus City. How would you make that work?
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Celestein
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Celestein »

You need either a capcom VS cable(expensive) or for you/someone to make you something similar.

Essentially all you do is take your Jamma harness, and split the video signal and player 2 inputs from it(and split the sound if you want with an RCA splitter), and wire them into cab #2.

It's really simple, If you were building a new harness, all you'd have to do is make the 2p inputs extra long to reach, and at the end of the video signals, you could just expose more of the wire and wrap a new wire.

People who have done that though also have a lot of random issues with video from both monitors, cause you're actually splitting the signal strength itself.

A better long-term solution would be to wire your RGB inputs to DB-15 and put it into am external powered VGA splitter, and then expose the bare wires off the DB-15 again to connect to the monitors(unless they actually have VGA inputs).
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by shaktazuki »

Where can I find more info about the Vs. cable? If I make a mod, it has to be easily done and undone after the tourney is over so I can put the other cab's PCB back in.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Celestein »

http://www.arcadeshock.com/items/snk-ca ... detail.htm

I think I remember someone on these boards makes essentially the same thing much cheaper.
Last edited by Celestein on September 17th, 2009, 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by thegreathopper »

The cabs do not need to be altered so no problem on putting them back as single cabs, If you do a search on this forum you should find a post about linking cabs also with links to Sanwa and Semitsu who make and sell these cables.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Devil Soundwave »

Celestein wrote:I think I remember someone on these boards makes essentially the same thing much cheaper.
That would be me.

Image

However, the first harness dispatched (to Andy aka CPS2) is showing sync issues on P2 cab so I'll be looking at it again for him to see what we can do.

I'm very grateful for Celestein's first response above as it 100% confirms that the theory Andy and I where using to design/build the cable was correct, so that makes me feel better about the situation and makes me suspect the issue is perhaps with those specific monitors not liking the weaker signal rather than the harness itself being "faulty" as such.

Andy is sending me the harness back this week so I'll let you all know what my findings are, hopefully will get it sorted for him.. :)

If anyone has further suggestions they'd be appreciated.

R
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Celestein »

It's likely the particular monitors, the actual VS cabs probably have a signal amp on the chassis, which is why I recommended using an external VGA signal splitter, since it's the same functionally.

Though that adds another $100 to cost. Though if that cable you made doesn't work, an official one isn't either.

I'm getting a shipment of new astros in a couple week, I can check then and see if those monitors are just extra-picky.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Devil Soundwave »

Please do. I think Andy is connecting an Impress ansd an Astro, but both have the same monitor.

We'll need to look at some sort of signal amp perhaps, but I doubt that'd be cheap!
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by CPS2 »

Devil Soundwave wrote:Please do. I think Andy is connecting an Impress ansd an Astro, but both have the same monitor.

We'll need to look at some sort of signal amp perhaps, but I doubt that'd be cheap!
Both MS9s - not the rarest of chassis in Japan :lol:
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Devil Soundwave »

Seems that the harness itself "works" but we may need to amp the signals.

I'm looking at various integrated chip datasheets now (instead of working - hangover), but not found one I like the look of yet. :)
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by thegreathopper »

CPS2 wrote:
Devil Soundwave wrote:Please do. I think Andy is connecting an Impress ansd an Astro, but both have the same monitor.

We'll need to look at some sort of signal amp perhaps, but I doubt that'd be cheap!
Both MS9s - not the rarest of chassis in Japan :lol:
They do not come with the same monitor chassis unless the Impress has been swapped from the original.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by CPS2 »

thegreathopper wrote:
CPS2 wrote:
Devil Soundwave wrote:Please do. I think Andy is connecting an Impress ansd an Astro, but both have the same monitor.

We'll need to look at some sort of signal amp perhaps, but I doubt that'd be cheap!
Both MS9s - not the rarest of chassis in Japan :lol:
They do not come with the same monitor chassis unless the Impress has been swapped from the original.
They do now. Someone managed to break the original before me.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by shaktazuki »

D'oh! Maybe it would be easier to just run my darn tournament on my PS3.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by shaktazuki »

Another possible solution to the problem (no elbow room) presents itself - it has to be possible to make two Dreamcast controller ports to work with this cabinet, right?

... I guess not. Back to the signal splitter, then...
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Celestein »

shaktazuki wrote:Another possible solution to the problem (no elbow room) presents itself - it has to be possible to make two Dreamcast controller ports to work with this cabinet, right?

... I guess not. Back to the signal splitter, then...
Entirely possible.

You just need to wire all the arcade buttons to a dreamcast PCB, just like if you were building a stick.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

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shaktazuki
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by shaktazuki »

I don't get it - why would I want dreacast pcbs wired up to the arcade buttons? That would make the arcade CP dreamcast compatible - I could plug that into a dreamcast - but that's rather the opposite of what I want - to use the DC controllers on the arcade cab running a CPS3 system. DC controllers use a serial signal which means I can't wire the controllers up to the cabinet.
Last edited by shaktazuki on September 18th, 2009, 12:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by Celestein »

Making 2 dreamcast ports on the cabinet is essentially the same thing.
You still need to wire the controller pcbs to the jamma harness. You can add a port inbetween so you have plug and play compatibility.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by shaktazuki »

I guess I'm not exactly following what you're saying.

In order to use DC controllers on an arcade pcb, I do need the wires for the buttons to be directly connected to the jamma harness. But in doing that, I have to significantly modify the dc controllers by soldering in the connections to their pcbs since the DC controllers use serial data to communicate button / lever status to the DC, meaning even if I were to buy DC extension cables for the controller ports, I still couldn't use them to get the controllers to work with the pcb since the pcb doesn't use serial data but rather directly scans each button. In wiring up the jamma harness to the dc controller pcbs, I would essentially have to destroy my Agetec sticks which would be bad.
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Re: 2 Astro cabs, 1 pcb - how to make it work?

Post by tetsujin »

shaktazuki wrote:I guess I'm not exactly following what you're saying.

In order to use DC controllers on an arcade pcb, I do need the wires for the buttons to be directly connected to the jamma harness. But in doing that, I have to significantly modify the dc controllers by soldering in the connections to their pcbs since the DC controllers use serial data to communicate button / lever status to the DC, meaning even if I were to buy DC extension cables for the controller ports, I still couldn't use them to get the controllers to work with the pcb since the pcb doesn't use serial data but rather directly scans each button. In wiring up the jamma harness to the dc controller pcbs, I would essentially have to destroy my Agetec sticks which would be bad.
You would only use DC pad hack in a cab if you where using the Dreamcast as you game platform.

Maybe they ment using Street Fighter games on the Dreamcast and splitting the VGA signal and the using the pad hack to each cab but your right, DC hack wont wok to play CPS3 hardware :)
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