Best Jamma PCB to Ms. Pac Man adapter

Highway90

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Jamma PCB to Ms. Pac man adapter which is best ?

I want to use my 60-in-1 PCB in my Ms. Pacman, minimal install effort, and I want to use the player 1 and 2 START buttons as player 1 shooter buttons.

1) The Real Bob Robert $50.00
http://www.therealbobroberts.net/adaptors.html

2) Lizard Lick $24.95
http://www.lizardlick.com/pages/boards.shtml

3) Y-Plus Technologies, China
$12.99
http://www.arcademvs.com/ARCADE_ACESSERIOR.htm

4) Jamma boards
$19.95
http://www.jammaboards.com/store/jamma-pcb-to-pacman-cabinet-adapter/prod_273.html

5) TWOBITS.com
$39
http://www.twobits.com/jampac/
 

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I installed a JammaBoards one last week in a pac mini in five minutes and it worked perfect. I chose this adapter because it allows you to use player 1 & 2 start buttons as the fire/jump buttons so you do not have to alter the control panel.
 
I installed a JammaBoards one last week in a pac mini in five minutes and it worked perfect. I chose this adapter because it allows you to use player 1 & 2 start buttons as the fire/jump buttons so you do not have to alter the control panel.

Hey Bob,

Did you wire the multigame directly to power via the molex, did you wire the power to the adapter via the soldering eyelets or did you wire up the molex adapter on the converter (along with the grounds that need soldering)?
 
I have used the Lizard Lick adapter and the Jamma Boards adapter with a switcher, highly recommend the latter. Only downside is you still have to tap it into a ground or your CP wont work. Your tapping into a 120 source for the switcher anyway, so whats one more tap?

EDIT: Check my YouTube channel linked below, youll find one demonstrating the Multicade PCB in my Ms. Pac-Man cabinet, using the Jamma Boards adapter and switcher.
 
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The only adaptor you linked to/showed a picture of that does what you want is the JammaBoards one. It lets you put a JAMMA board into a Ms.Pac cab. However you still need to feed it with a switcher supply feeding +5, +12, -5.

The other adaptors are the reverse -- they let you plug a Pac/Ms.Pac board into a JAMMA wired cabinet.

Y-Plus does have the correct one you're looking for at $12.99:
http://www.arcademvs.com/ARCADE_ACESSERIOR.htm

Jamma PCB to Pac Men/Mr Pac Cabinet Adapter
This adapter will enable Jamma PCB to work in a Pac Men/Mr Pac 44 pins Cabinet
(your Jamma PCB need external power supply)

Product No. B-05 US$12.99/ea

The JB one has more options to map buttons differently, and therefore costs more. It probably is a bit better made than the YPlus -- There have been lots of complaints about their jamma switchers and the like.
 
Because the original power supply in the cabinet puts out 7 volts. A standard JAMMA PCB runs on 5 volts. Theres other differences as well, but I'm not the expert on what they are.

The only adapter I know of that does not require a switcher is the more expensive Lizard Lick adapter (and not, not the one you have mentioned, the one thats $60). Some people have had good luck with these, and some have had issues. Mine would reset every time the washer or dryer would kick on, so I switched to the Jamma boards adapter and tapped a switcher in the 120 lines near the AC Filter, been running smooth since.
 
Pac-Man/Ms.Pacman's put out 7 and 14 volts *AC* directly from a step-down transformer with no rectification to DC. Even if a Jamma board could handle 7 vs. 5 and 14 vs. 12, the AC voltage will ruin the boards that are expecting DC.

Pac, Ms.Pac, Galaxian all had on-board diode rectifiers and DC power regulating transistors, filter capacitors and heatsinks -- all things that later were part of separate boards that were seen in Galaga, RallyX and of course most other classic games.

Only in the mid-80's did things fully switch to using computer-style switch mode power supplies to give a cleaner voltage. (Though the longevity of most power sections and linear transformers from the old bally games show they were designed pretty well for the time with limited part counts).

Since the JAMMA standard came about in the mid 80's as well, the standard was to use +5/+12 DC voltage from switchers. Therefore putting them into these older games require the correct voltage source, unless it has it's own AC/DC converter on the adaptor.
 
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I think I'm going to wait for the Revision B Lizard Lick Jamma PCB to Pac Cabinet Adapter. Chad said they are just waiting on some out of stock parts to come in to finish them up. This revision will fix the power issue some people experienced, as well as adding a feature where you can use the P1 and P2 start buttons as fire buttons without dealing with wiring.
 
I use this in my Ms.Pac:
llj2pac.jpg


No modifications to anything in the cab at all.
 
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