JAMMA: school me pls.

vintagegamer

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Now that I have the video working on my Lucky and Wild, it's time that I get some help in learning the ways of the JAMMA.

I need tips on how to troubleshoot the board from this game. What cracks me up is even though this was supposed to be an 'advancement' in gaming, I don't feel like there was much advancement in troubleshooting these boards for people.. ie, there's no LEDs to tell you if the game's getting power, there's a place on the board for a reset button but one's not installed, etc.

I've attached pics of the board(s), and what I currently have on the screen. I am now awaiting further instructions :D
 

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From what I have learned in the past year, The only thing jamma made easier is swapping boards from cab to cab. That is if everything is working. If you plug another jamma board in this cab does it work fine. If so the problem is with your board and not with anything in the cab.

allen
 
From what I have learned in the past year, The only thing jamma made easier is swapping boards from cab to cab. That is if everything is working. If you plug another jamma board in this cab does it work fine. If so the problem is with your board and not with anything in the cab.

allen

Thanks Allen, this is my first JAMMA so it's the only board I currently have. Do they all have that adapter board mo-bob thing on the end like this one does?
 
Check your +12,+5,-5 and ground From the pic I would guess you have a board problem Jamma does make it easier to check power and ground they are all the same.
 
Check your +12,+5,-5 and ground From the pic I would guess you have a board problem Jamma does make it easier to check power and ground they are all the same.


My voltage from the PS to the connector all checks out, but the connector has some burn from an issue before I got the game. That's where my hangup is. I was thinking if I could get a new one of those EMI-PC connectors (the board on the end that has the edge connectors on it), I could take that burn mess out of the equation completely and see if the board is damaged or not.
 
Other than checking on the board side . I'm not sure what you can do.
You could track down someone with that game working.

Would help I think.
 
Other than checking on the board side . I'm not sure what you can do.
You could track down someone with that game working.

Would help I think.


The pin that got burned needs to be resoldered on the "component side" of the board, but I don't know if that's enough to be preventing the game from powering up or not. I don't see any burn on the boards themselves, but I do know that a component could have gotten damaged and you'd never be able to tell visibly.
 
The pin that got burned needs to be resoldered on the "component side" of the board, but I don't know if that's enough to be preventing the game from powering up or not. I don't see any burn on the boards themselves, but I do know that a component could have gotten damaged and you'd never be able to tell visibly.

You might be able to solder a jumper wire from the board to the back side of the harness.
 
One of the best tools for testing JAMMA hanesses I've found is from Yaton. I bought mine on Ebay, but here is the description: (link).

If you don't have a second JAMMA board, just put a wanted message or look in the for sale section. There is almost always somebody selling a working $10 JAMMA board.

ken
 
Check and test all the fuses in the cab. I have a JAMMA cab that had the monitor powering up, but no input from the game pcb. Thought it was the board but it was just a blown fuse going from the JAMMA harness to the iso or switcher. I forget which. Replaced the fuse, everything was fine!
 
OK, well that is a Jamma board but the adaptor card on the end allows it to plug into a Namco System 2 harness. Where is the burn't connector?
 
Check and test all the fuses in the cab. I have a JAMMA cab that had the monitor powering up, but no input from the game pcb. Thought it was the board but it was just a blown fuse going from the JAMMA harness to the iso or switcher. I forget which. Replaced the fuse, everything was fine!

So far I've only found one fuse, it was a slo blow mounted to the back of the game (and I have replaced that one). I have to go back and look at the schematic (now that I have it) to see if I missed any other fuses.
 
OK, well that is a Jamma board but the adaptor card on the end allows it to plug into a Namco System 2 harness.


Aha, that helps to understand all this a little better. Thank you!


Where's the burnt connector?

It's at the base of that adapter card. I know that in a prior conversation you mentioned replacing one of the pins at minimum, but I have not yet been able to locate replacement connectors OR pins for it. I did notice last night however that the ground pin on the adapter card (the one that burned) had a chewed up end where it was soldered to the card. The solder also looked more like a concrete or floury composition rather than what normal solder looks like. I desoldered and resoldered the connector last night, and also reflowed the other 8 pins, but I have not yet tried it back in the game again (ran out of time).
 
If it's Jamma... why do you need the extra "adapter" PCB? What needs "adapting"?
If you don't need it, remove it and test the PCB with a direct connection to the JAMMA harness.
 
If it's Jamma... why do you need the extra "adapter" PCB? What needs "adapting"?
If you don't need it, remove it and test the PCB with a direct connection to the JAMMA harness.

I am still learning about JAMMA myself, so I'm not sure why it is needed. I am not aware of any other connector in the game that matches the one on the board.
 
I'm thinking I'm going to take the path fibronacci did- I have some dead Atari power supplies at the house with 9-pin connectors on them. If their pin width matches the one that's on that adapter board, I think I can pull the original connector and put one of those Atari molex connectors on there. Then I'd just need to find the other end to splice into the existing harness.
 
If it's Jamma... why do you need the extra "adapter" PCB? What needs "adapting"?
If you don't need it, remove it and test the PCB with a direct connection to the JAMMA harness.


Because Jamma is no longer Jamma. Years ago companies started adding things that wouldn't fit in the standard Jamma wiring such as more buttons than Jamma has room for or stereo sound. This trend continued into 3D rendered graphics, oddball controllers (49 way controllers), and extra players (Jamma only has room for 2). Many modern boards have a Jamma connector but it is not enough to power on or play the game and additional boards/wiring is needed. This is what VG is playing with. It is a Namco System 2 boardset - officially Jamma but not completely compatible with Jamma. It requires the extra connectors and the cabinet is not "Jamma ready" (meaning he can't simply plug in another Jamma board).
 
OK...that makes sense. I was thinking that hooking up with the minimal amount of stuff would perhaps get an image. Then you add connections and eventually find the one that was causing the issue. I totally get that it would not necessarily be playable at that point but his screen image looked like there was no program logic being kicked off... no video being generated. If something critical was missing because ONLY the basic JAMMA harness was hooked up I can see where that would potentially have the same effect.
 
Well I'm currently at a dead-stop with this project.. I don't know how to get the pins out of the connectors (I'm guessing there's some specific tool for their product to be able to do this).

I also still have found no luck finding replacements for the connector in my online searches. I found a connector in my scrap pile that is the same basic size and dimension, and has the male pins in it, but once again I have no way to get the pins out to do the swap. I keep catching myself saying:

"ooooooooooooooooooooooooh I don'tevenknowwhatI'mDOINGherewe'rewastingourtime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -Luke, ESB..

yoda_luke.jpg
 
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