Adding two more buttons to Astro City cab!

[skykid]

Hey there boys n boys, long time no speak!

I just got an Astro City cab that arrived today, and have a query.

The guy sent me a 2p 6 button cab that's only wired for 4 buttons on each side. It's useless trying to speak to him about it - language barrier - but when trying to ask him how to get two more buttons wired up he keeps talking something about the cab only being 4 button as standard and needing to change the CPU? I'm pretty sure it's nothing to do with the CPU is it?

As I know you can have a cab with a JAMMA loom already wired for 6 buttons (as my Egret 2 is in the UK and small VGA monitored cab I had made up here) or I need to wire a kick harness to the JAMMA connector pinout?

The reason I'm asking is twofold: One, it's been years since I dabbled in the technical side of cab operation and can't remember jack ****, and two I'm planning to set up an RPi project inside the cab and want to have 6 buttons accessible for all the relevant games.

Thanks much for your help folks!

[yosai]

Looks like you need to upgrade the CPU.

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http://www.cgcc.ca/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29788

there is probably something similar on this board.

search CP2 kick harness wiring.

[Rossyra]

Download more ram.

[cools]

Isnt there a special kick harness connector on an Astro?

[nem]

Yes, it's in yosai's spoiler link.

http://www.cgcc.ca/forums/viewtopic.php ... 30#p259047

[skykid]

Not needing a CPU upgrade then.

So what am I doing again? Buying the Atlas Adapter for $35 bucks seems to be most straightforward. It say it works with Pandora's Box multisystems so is it fair to assume it will work the same way with an RPi?

[yosai]

Hold tight.

Look at the CP and button wiring. Probably best upload some photos.

Do you have the connector on the right? (not the empty 4 pin one) If so. Is it connected to any buttons? What is the other end connected to?

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This may also help

https://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?t=36775

[skykid]

I'm 100% sure that slot is empty. I can take pics tomorrow if necessary but I remember that's the first thing I noticed when inspecting under the CP.

[charlie chong]

until you know exactly how the pi is going to interface with the cab then it is going to be hard to guide you exactly anyway.

[skykid]

For the Pi I saw a guy on YouTube who said he got a perfect setup using a JPAC and Lakka OS (apparently Retropi has fewer lo res display options).

His video is here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uKYFKjiO6bc


His list of items to get the setup going are as follows:

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The only devices used in this setup is:
* The arcade cabinet itself, in my case a Sega New Astro City
* Raspberry Pi 3
* HDMI to VGA converter. You can get them from eBay, when you search for one, find one that explicitly states it supports the Raspberry Pi 2/3 as not all of them do even though they look identical on the outside!
* J-Pac, more info available at http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html - this board has a Jamma edge connector for your arcade machine. It converts arcade button presses/joysticks directions into USB keyboard button presses, and will also take a 240p VGA input signal and map it correctly so it works on a standard arcade cabinet.
* Audio amplifier able to drive at least 8ohm speakers as required by the JAMMA standard as the J-Pac only provides screw terminals for amplified audio, but has no amplifier itself.
* You obviously also need all the extras to power the devices and may need additional wiring for buttons, audio etc.

His vid isn't the newest so I have no idea if there's a newer, better or simpler way to set it up, but his result seems good.

[charlie chong]

i think there is a pi 2 jamma thingy available nowadays from arcade forge but if you are going to use that guys setup then it should just be a case of running the 4 extra wires from the j pac straight up to the buttons or through the kick harness connector. i would just run the wires straight up to the buttons myself but a lot of people like the wiring as tidy as possible in the cab. there is a guy who does ready made cab ready jamma pi on jamma + that might even be easier/less hassle if you've not got a pi or the bits already

[skykid]

Ok thanks Charlie!

Yes I've got the Pi already and been figuring it out for some time, but running wires direct from the JPAC to the buttons was kind of what I figured.

This guy in the link I posted claims to have a perfect result on the Astro using his setup, but it was posted a while back. Would you recommend this Pi2 JAMMA adaptor over the JPAC and VGA adaptor? Does it have the same result (I'm sort of assuming all the monitor syncing etc is handled by the Pi OS, in this case, Lakka).

And for PCB's it's just a kick harness right, nothing more required.

[charlie chong]

you'd have to find out/google other peoples opinions on the pi 2 jamma as i have no experience but it is plug n play as far as i can tell.. arcade forge provide a image to stick on the memory stick to make the pi work with the cab and then you stick teh romz on i guess. yeah with pcbs such as cps1/2 its just the kick harness you need. i'd imagine most people here would make sure they used the same type of plug for both the pcbs they are using and the pi or whatever so they could just plug n play in the cp and keep it non messy

[skykid]

Ok thanks for that, I'm going to have a Google about and try to figure out the pros n cons of the different RPi -> JAMMA devices.

[chunksin]

Check out our DIY effort over on UKVAC: http://www.ukvac.com/forum/diy-pi2jpac- ... page1.html

[skykid]

Check out our DIY effort over on UKVAC: http://www.ukvac.com/forum/diy-pi2jpac- ... page1.html

Interested to see, but I haven't got an account. Any other info somewhere?

[cools]

Wtf UKVAC has gone private for viewing?

[Rossyra]

Wtf UKVAC has gone private for viewing?

No? Have you been banned?

It does look like that thread is in one of the member boards.

[cools]

Nah, just haven't visited in forever so no cookies set. It used to be view anything as guest except the sales section iirc.

[Daniel B.]

following along