Med-Res Test Board?

EagleTG

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Level42's thread inspired me.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good board to use when bench testing medium res monitors?

I'd love it to be a JAMMA board, but something that won't require me building a mad scientist's laboratory of wiring and pipettes would be nice.

This old thread was a bit inconclusive, but I love the idea of the Golden Tee board, as the older ones are a dime a dozen right now: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=69814

I also found this, but still seems to be mostly inconvenient boards that require drives... http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=43830

Any other suggestions? I didn't want to necro Mod's old post. I'd also like the board to be generally considered reliable and maybe even compact. Hard drive requirements would be a severe negative.
 
A signal generator can be purchased for roughly the same price as any med res Jamma board and it can do standard res, medium res, high res, and a few others. Why bother with anything else?
 
A signal generator can be purchased for roughly the same price as any med res Jamma board and it can do standard res, medium res, high res, and a few others. Why bother with anything else?

You can't play a signal generator. :D

You are right, it was something I was considering. I thought if I could find some obscure JAMMA board that was ridiculously common and cheap, maybe I could save a few bills on the tester. But I should just bite the bullet and buy the tester. :)
 
I've tried to find a cheap JAMMA pcb with med-res capability that doesn't require an HD for quite a while, but with no luck. My GT 99 PCB doesn't have med-res switchable.

So - I came across a Blitz 99 PCB for free (had an HD issue - but the test menu and monitor patterns still work). I mounted the PCB on the wall by my test bench with the HD connected and mounted under the bench. The PCB has a dip switch for either standard or medium resolution, and I can do a cross-hatch, color bars, etc. Someday I'll get the HD replaced (or go to CF) so I can actually see gameplay, but this has worked so far. I especially like it when doing U5000's, as I can test both the standard and medium resolution settings...
 
Ok, great info Mod, thanks. Was curious if the Blitz would boot to test without a drive, so that's awesome. Those are prevalent enough.
 
Ok, great info Mod, thanks. Was curious if the Blitz would boot to test without a drive, so that's awesome. Those are prevalent enough.

No, they WON'T boot without the drive, but the drive doesn't have to work apparently. If the drive isn't connected, it won't do anything. With the HD connected and the test dip switch off, it won't do anything but hang or reset. BUT - turn on the test dip switch, and it boots to the test menu and lets me run through the monitor tests....
 
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