Centipede Buzz

Yes I do have a 19-in-1 horizontal jamma pcb that I could try. Also another switcher. Good to know that you have some NOS Pokeys too...

Thanks.
Actually that switcher looks like a Peter Chou. Worth keeping and using if it works. You do not want to use any Chinese switchers because when they fail they'll dump 6-12v on the 5v rail and fry your pcb bad. Better off capping it and keeping it, all the suzo happ clones of the Peter Chou are out of stock everywhere and Peter Chou no longer makes those switchers. Peter Chous and Suzo happs are made in Taiwan not China. Only switchers you should use are suzo happ or Peter Chou.
 
I wouldn't touch the pokey. I bet his pcb is actually 100% fine. That weird JAMMA audio amp is definitely doing it.

That isn't hackery, that's a full triple bypass!!! Holy gut job, someone said fuck this arII then ripped out the whole power assembly, ar2, and wiring harness out and said aright CHAMMA TIME! Then back to centipede! This is beyond ass backwards! I was afraid when he mentioned JAMMA this would be exactly the case. For this case, be happy with the hum unless like 87 t-66 says you want to source all the original parts and put them back in. Those adapters are meant for test benches! The pcb is also on the wrong side of the cabinet 😂😂

I spit my drink out when I read that. Thanks for the laugh. :ROFLMAO:

I swapped in a 19-in-1 jamma pcb (thanks @andrewb) and no more buzzing sound.
 
I spit my drink out when I read that. Thanks for the laugh. :ROFLMAO:

I swapped in a 19-in-1 jamma pcb (thanks @andrewb) and no more buzzing sound.
1759970992025.jpeg
Alright I've got my pitchfork loaded in the Corolla, which Klov member sold you this game like this? Gonna have to pull up like Zaxxon on these bitches!
 
Those adapters are meant for test benches!

These adapters haven't been in stock at Arcadeshop for quite some time.

I'm not sure where to take this now. I suppose it comes down to more hacking ... or a full ($) restore.
 
These adapters haven't been in stock at Arcadeshop for quite some time.

I'm not sure where to take this now. I suppose it comes down to more hacking ... or a full ($) restore.
Personally I'd just turn down the volume to lessen the buzz and live with it. Those adapters were never meant to go inside a real cabinet it's for people who have a test bench, you setup your bench for Jamma and use adapters for each board instead of a custom harness for each. Whoever did that to your machine created so much work for themselves for nothing, AR2's are so simple there's no reason not to fix them. They took 1 step forward 20 steps back, threw away the baby with the bath water, and shot themselves in the foot with this "fix". I've seen people do this before for other games, don't know why people do this but they do. On paper changing everything out in the power section seems like a good idea to ensure reliability but in practice you'll find out it'll never work as well as the original stuff. The only easy fix I can think of for your game would be to take a MISTER FPGA with a jamma adapter, set it for analog video out, set it to autoboot centipede, set your buttons, and don't tell anyone it's not original hardware ;) If that 19-1 jamma board is working fine directly plugged in the jamma harness the mister will too and the mister can perfectly play centipede like real hardware. You can make a mister jamma setup for cheaper than you can buy one, you need a bare de-10 nano or clone can cost about 100$ and a mister jamma adapter which is also 100$. Your trackball is already likely usb hooked up the mister will definitely work with it
 
what are the numbers off that amp chip? if it is the chip i suspect those caps look undersized for its use.
 
Personally I'd just turn down the volume to lessen the buzz and live with it. Those adapters were never meant to go inside a real cabinet it's for people who have a test bench, you setup your bench for Jamma and use adapters for each board instead of a custom harness for each. Whoever did that to your machine created so much work for themselves for nothing, AR2's are so simple there's no reason not to fix them. They took 1 step forward 20 steps back, threw away the baby with the bath water, and shot themselves in the foot with this "fix". I've seen people do this before for other games, don't know why people do this but they do. On paper changing everything out in the power section seems like a good idea to ensure reliability but in practice you'll find out it'll never work as well as the original stuff. The only easy fix I can think of for your game would be to take a MISTER FPGA with a jamma adapter, set it for analog video out, set it to autoboot centipede, set your buttons, and don't tell anyone it's not original hardware ;) If that 19-1 jamma board is working fine directly plugged in the jamma harness the mister will too and the mister can perfectly play centipede like real hardware. You can make a mister jamma setup for cheaper than you can buy one, you need a bare de-10 nano or clone can cost about 100$ and a mister jamma adapter which is also 100$. Your trackball is already likely usb hooked up the mister will definitely work with it

Interesting.

At one point I thought about setting it up with a millipede pcb and multipede but that's gotten very expensive these days (and the colors are off too). I imagine Mister fpga could play Centipede, Millipede, Super Breakout, Arkanoid and more on the Centipede cabinet if set up the way you suggest. And thanks for that suggestion BTW. I will look into this.
 
Personally I'd just turn down the volume to lessen the buzz and live with it. Those adapters were never meant to go inside a real cabinet it's for people who have a test bench, you setup your bench for Jamma and use adapters for each board instead of a custom harness for each. Whoever did that to your machine created so much work for themselves for nothing, AR2's are so simple there's no reason not to fix them. They took 1 step forward 20 steps back, threw away the baby with the bath water, and shot themselves in the foot with this "fix". I've seen people do this before for other games, don't know why people do this but they do. On paper changing everything out in the power section seems like a good idea to ensure reliability but in practice you'll find out it'll never work as well as the original stuff. The only easy fix I can think of for your game would be to take a MISTER FPGA with a jamma adapter, set it for analog video out, set it to autoboot centipede, set your buttons, and don't tell anyone it's not original hardware ;) If that 19-1 jamma board is working fine directly plugged in the jamma harness the mister will too and the mister can perfectly play centipede like real hardware. You can make a mister jamma setup for cheaper than you can buy one, you need a bare de-10 nano or clone can cost about 100$ and a mister jamma adapter which is also 100$. Your trackball is already likely usb hooked up the mister will definitely work with it

Re: the de-10 nano and mister Jamma adapter ... where can I find these?
 
Those are the items, I recommend buying a regular setup mister and learning how it works on a tv. After you set it up and familiarize yourself with it you can pull the mister apart and connect it to the JAMMA adapter. I don't think mister has millipede yet but you'll get so much other stuff you won't care and eventually I'm sure millipede will come to the mister. Do a little research into them, they're very cool and capable devices and so easy to setup with the update all script literally downloads every arcade game right to your mister
 
what are the numbers off that amp chip? if it is the chip i suspect those caps look undersized for its use.

I just took a picture so you can see more clearly.
 

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Those are the items, I recommend buying a regular setup mister and learning how it works on a tv. After you set it up and familiarize yourself with it you can pull the mister apart and connect it to the JAMMA adapter. I don't think mister has millipede yet but you'll get so much other stuff you won't care and eventually I'm sure millipede will come to the mister. Do a little research into them, they're very cool and capable devices and so easy to setup with the update all script literally downloads every arcade game right to your mister
Sweet. Thanks Mattspad. I assume the link you sent me was the regular Mister?
 
Sweet. Thanks Mattspad. I assume the link you sent me was the regular Mister?
Yeah that first one I sent you is a ready to go mister for hooking up to a tv or pvm etc. Any Xbox controller can connect right to it. I suggest that system so you can familiarize yourself with how the thing works. It's pretty cheap overall for all the pieces and the terasic de-10nano which is the main pcb can be taken out of that little system and put on that JAMMA adapter I linked. You can buy a bare mister with no gpio or case but if you've never had a mister before it'd be pretty hard to setup and familiarize yourself that way. The bare misters cost 99-125$ but to get the case, the gpio, ram upgrade, 32gb sd with Mr fusion already installed, and a power supply it's a killer deal to buy the prebuilt one on aliexpress and I've been very happy with them. All you need is an hdmi cord, keyboard, and an Xbox controller and you can use it on a tv. Anyways if you need any help with it feel free to ask I'd love to see how it comes out!
 
From what I can tell, the Mister is a cost effective modern brain for many vintage cabs. And I'm going to get one to learn more about these. I know purists would prefer everything running on original hardware and I respect that. I'm not quite as fussy myself but even when I do use a new brain (Jrok, Bitkit, 60-in-1, mame, etc) it's still nice to have the original pcb present in the cab if possible.

Centipedes aren't very flexible (beyond being Centipedes) in that there aren't many vertical trackball games to begin with. I had forgotten about that when I was posting above about playing Arkanoid, etc. on a Centipede. I did see some mention of rotating horizontal arcade cores on the mister but it seems less than ideal even when possible. Too bad there's no Millipede yet for Mister. I see there is a Super Breakout core but it doesn't appear to support trackballs/spinners (mice). No bowling cores. The Github for the Centipede core states "Not sure the colors are quite right".

So it seems even with the mister it would just be used to replace the original Centipede PCB (at this time) and then wait for more support down the road. Not a bad option. But I'm pitting this against just letting the Centipede be a Centipede...
 
From what I can tell, the Mister is a cost effective modern brain for many vintage cabs. And I'm going to get one to learn more about these. I know purists would prefer everything running on original hardware and I respect that. I'm not quite as fussy myself but even when I do use a new brain (Jrok, Bitkit, 60-in-1, mame, etc) it's still nice to have the original pcb present in the cab if possible.

Centipedes aren't very flexible (beyond being Centipedes) in that there aren't many vertical trackball games to begin with. I had forgotten about that when I was posting above about playing Arkanoid, etc. on a Centipede. I did see some mention of rotating horizontal arcade cores on the mister but it seems less than ideal even when possible. Too bad there's no Millipede yet for Mister. I see there is a Super Breakout core but it doesn't appear to support trackballs/spinners (mice). No bowling cores. The Github for the Centipede core states "Not sure the colors are quite right".

So it seems even with the mister it would just be used to replace the original Centipede PCB (at this time) and then wait for more support down the road. Not a bad option. But I'm pitting this against just letting the Centipede be a Centipede...
As far as I see it you have three options 4 if you include gasoline but let's not go there. First option is to embrace the chaos of the cabinet, in this scenario you put the mister in which would be your cheapest option to solve the hum and give the machine some more functionality. Second option is to just be happy with it how it is, if you can live with the hum then just leave it it's your cheapest option. Third option is shoveling cash money into a fireplace, you can source all the original power supply parts, and wiring harness and properly correct the machine. If it were me I'd probably go the route of option one or two but everyone must go on their own path in life.
 
As far as I see it you have three options 4 if you include gasoline but let's not go there. First option is to embrace the chaos of the cabinet, in this scenario you put the mister in which would be your cheapest option to solve the hum and give the machine some more functionality. Second option is to just be happy with it how it is, if you can live with the hum then just leave it it's your cheapest option. Third option is shoveling cash money into a fireplace, you can source all the original power supply parts, and wiring harness and properly correct the machine. If it were me I'd probably go the route of option one or two but everyone must go on their own path in life.

Gasoline is not an option. :LOL:

I like the idea of option 1 which would get it going without the buzz without breaking the bank. And the Mister community will likely grow to add more vertical trackball arcade cores down the road.

Despite how it comes across in the video, the buzzing is very loud and way too distracting to put up with. So I'm not interested in option 2. :sick:

But option 3 (restoring to original) is something I will likely do in the background. I'll get a Mister to get the game operational without buzzing and then slowly work towards having the original hardware over time. At some point I would have the option of pulling the Mister for use in another project. Might be difficult to do by then if it's working great and playing multiple games.

I appreciate the feedback.
 
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