my Official Samtron 6" monitor conversion kit FS thread

[PrairieDillo]

my Official Samtron 6" monitor conversion kit FS thread

Sorry for the multiple threads but I needed an official FS thread also.
I decided to go ahead and start taking orders for kits to be put together next week. I'll a handful for parts kits and/or drop in boards till my new order of LM1881N chips come in.

I've ordered 20 more but have about 5 for kits I can start shipping as soon as next week.
built to order drop in boards will come from these first 5 kits.

1) parts kit. I think i'm in the neighborhood of $15
You will get a link to an online PDF for instructions.

You'll need your own wires. I don't want to bother with guessing how you'll mount everything and where for lengths etc.

2) SORRY I'm Cancelling the drop in boards.

3) finished monitors $80 . It's a big hassle to deal with timeline and they don't always respond to emails. These monitors will have a header to take a 10 pin connector like one off your standard JAMMA game. It also will have leads for the +5V, +12V and ground. These will be put back into the original cardboard enclosures they came in. (handle w/ care)

*EDIT* I have to appologize. One of the monitors so far is un-repairable by me. My cost change reflects the fact that my cost per unit from my order went up. I may only have 2 total for sale now. Still need to test the last two monitors.

Right now I will not be shipping these and will probably have 3 or 4 FS for pickup at CAX or earlier if you are local. I am trying to order more but have a few in hand that I'll finish converting before CAX.

PM for official orders. I'll have a ship out list and confirm Monday/Tuesday when kits are ready.

*UPDATE 6-28*
I have put together a handful of kits for the first confirmed guys (I had about 8 chips already in hand.) Waiting on my sync chips for the next batch.

These are the parts from the top row going across.

* a 2 pin header for use for power
* a 10 pin header.156 pins for video in. (similar to a WG K7000 chassis)
* a LM1881N video sync seperator (8 pin)
* a 74LS04 inverter (14 pin)
* a 14 pin dual wipe socket
* a 8 pin dual wipe socket
* a 10 pin header for connecting the sync wires to the monitor chassis
* two .1 uF ceramic capacitors
* a 620 Ohm 1/4 watt resistor (pink)
* a 680K Ohm 1/4 watt resistor
* a small project PCB board
* a 20K contrast pot

STATUS SECTION updated 7/18

CONFIRMED:
shilmover (shipped)
Arcadenut (shipped)
dethfactor (shipped)
davek (delivered)

WAIT LIST:
oppolo (pm sent)
alejandromad (pm sent)
Tito (shipped)
jeffsgames (shipped)
cnlmoore (paid)
rikitheshadow (pm sent)
Liteyear98 (shipped)
gregbl (shipped)
mrbill08 (shipped)

 

[kjeffery]

Make a mobile mini cabinet for one, so you can take it on the fly and test jamma pcbs

 

[PrairieDillo]

like this?
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=188757

 

[kjeffery]

like this?
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=188757

Thats kool, but a replica mini cabinet would be kooler

 

[PrairieDillo]

making it top heavy would leave it unplayable.
I have a tentative scaled design but again weight is an issue.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Order status 6-25

of the kits I can ship next week.

my first 5 are snapped up and confirmed.

I am holding 3 kits to finish converting the monitors I have in hand. I'm looking into getting more monitors for those that want completed ones.

I have another 20 sync chips coming in and will be building them into kits also. LMK if you would like to be on the wait list.

 

[shilmover]

PM sent......

 

[PrairieDillo]

Appologies - I had to adjust my cost for finished monitors cause I ended not being able to fix the broken one so price each per monitor was adjusted accordingly.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Two of these finished monitors are for sale at CAX. It's back down to $80 now. I worked things out with Timeline.

I was able to confirm my order with Timeline. I'll a bunch of them coming in next week. I won't sell drop in boards now. I'll just sell finished monitors cause it makes no sense to me to install the board to test it and then to pull it out to send to someone.

After CAX I'll probably be able to ship my second batch of kits and then work on more converted finished and tested monitors.

I'll offer them $100 shipped but need time to build them.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Parts are in!!!

I got in 12 more monitors and sync splitter chips for 20 kits.
This gives me chips for 8 more kits to sell off and 12 full monitors I can convert for others... unless some are broken.

Kits again are $15 but I am still working on shots and instructions. They won't be overly written cause my particular build is very tight on soldering and you need to find your own wire. Kits are for those guys that have the skills but don't want to chase parts.

Full monitors (tested and converted samtron) Colors will be tuned via SF2 color bars and screen resolution. $100 shipped. This also includes me sorting through the batch of monitors for posible broken monitors in shipping. The cost includes the shrinkage of broken goods from Timeline... it can be the bad with them. 4 monitors broke free from the card board casing on this shipment and need to be tested.

 

[groffdaddy]

I got in 12 more monitors and sync splitter chips for 20 kits.
This gives me chips for 8 more kits to sell off and 12 full monitors I can convert for others... unless some are broken.

Kits again are $15 but I am still working on shots and instructions. They won't be overly written cause my particular build is very tight on soldering and you need to find your own wire. Kits are for those guys that have the skills but don't want to chase parts.

Full monitors (tested and converted samtron) Colors will be tuned via SF2 color bars and screen resolution. $100 shipped. This also includes me sorting through the batch of monitors for posible broken monitors in shipping. The cost includes the shrinkage of broken goods from Timeline... it can be the bad with them. 4 monitors broke free from the card board casing on this shipment and need to be tested.

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly does this board do? I think I have one of those monitors.

 

[SuperSprint]

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly does this board do? I think I have one of those monitors.

Converts the input signals.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/minimon/Samtron_5inch_CGA_to_Arcade.txt

 

[groffdaddy]

Converts the input signals.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/minimon/Samtron_5inch_CGA_to_Arcade.txt

Thank You sir!

 

[Arcadenut]

Just wanted to say thanks for putting this kit together. I will be building mine this weekend if time allows.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Tips till I get instructions together

I'm still working on basic instructions cause there is a good guide already @
http://arcade.oxidy.com/info.asp?key=CGA2RGB

We just used a different SYNC splitter.

CDJump already did a drawing of the circut using the chip that I provide in this kit.
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=26513&d=1266279290

My particular build is all-on-one board, with a connector on the bottom to plug right on top of the 10 pin header on the board. You don't have to follow my build cause it's hard actually. You can run wires from the 10 pin connector to your circut and mount your board somewhere else. Here's a good shot of my build, including the wiring for RGB and Power. I also try to get wires going through the PCB to hold the 10 pin header on the bottom of it. Soldering it to the small copper pads insn't very structural and it'll rip those things right off the PCB if that's the only thing holding it to the PCB, when you stick this board onto the monitor chassis.

Link to higher res shot (you can zoom in)
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IvkAotgvFvaroLVls1WDLw?feat=directlink

Wires exiting the monitor:

Top of the board

Link to higher res shot (you can zoom in)
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dyOO9o1vZnDppZEtq05-Og?feat=directlink

Bottom of the board

Link to higher res shot (you can zoom in)
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/A9UgES70DdIf32fVErLvwQ?feat=directlink

Give yourself an hour to two on building this for the first time. It all depends on how well you understand the circut and are good at bending wires, cutting leads to hook everything up.
I hope this helps!

 

[timiskander]

picasaweb says...
Oops... there's nothing to see here. Either you do not have access to these photos, or they don't exist at this web address. Please contact the owner directly to gain access.

 

[PrairieDillo]

picasaweb says...
Oops... there's nothing to see here. Either you do not have access to these photos, or they don't exist at this web address. Please contact the owner directly to gain access.

Was playing with the properties... try it again.

video added of one I tuned up:

I have to admit that these are not the brightest monitors. If you are in a bright room they look a little washed out. They do work great as bench test monitors and could be used in some very cool projects. I just have not seen anyone do anything arcade related yet othen than use them as a bench test monitor.

 

[Liteyear98]

Someone take a look....

I looked at the diagram cdjump put up and it makes sense, but I started thinking about the method of sending signal to the board since Pariried1ll0 indicated the 10 pin connector was weak on the board. I think I will just run wire from my board to the chassis to be on the safe side.

I made this diagram to make sense of cdjump's and Prairied1ll0's efforts. I know there are people out there a little more clueless and maybe this will help them head in the right direction.

I did see a diode symbol on the cdjump diagram. Does anyone know if that's needed? I assume no, since it works without it???

If this is useful I will continue to refine it, either way it's good enough for me to use.

I uploaded this to Picasa as well - it might be a better viewable picture.
https://picasaweb.google.com/michael.james.blackburn/SAMTRON5MonitorConversion#5630718447519441730

Let me know your thoughts....

 

[PrairieDillo]

I looked at the diagram cdjump put up and it makes sense, but I started thinking about the method of sending signal to the board since Pariried1ll0 indicated the 10 pin connector was weak on the board. I think I will just run wire from my board to the chassis to be on the safe side.

I made this diagram to make sense of cdjump's and Prairied1ll0's efforts. I know there are people out there a little more clueless and maybe this will help them head in the right direction.

I did see a diode symbol on the cdjump diagram. Does anyone know if that's needed? I assume no, since it works without it???

If this is useful I will continue to refine it, either way it's good enough for me to use.

I uploaded this to Picasa as well - it might be a better viewable picture.
https://picasaweb.google.com/michael.james.blackburn/SAMTRON5MonitorConversion#5630718447519441730

Let me know your thoughts....

Very nice

I think that once you put wires through the PCB and onto that 10 pin header on the bottom in my design, it anchors it enough. I've put on and pulled off the plug in PCB a few times afterwards and never had a problem. This isn't something you'll keep on moving around once you've converted your monitor anyways.

I also moved the status section to the OP and just updated it with everything going out today.

 

[Arcadenut]

I looked at the diagram cdjump put up and it makes sense, but I started thinking about the method of sending signal to the board since Pariried1ll0 indicated the 10 pin connector was weak on the board. I think I will just run wire from my board to the chassis to be on the safe side.

I made this diagram to make sense of cdjump's and Prairied1ll0's efforts. I know there are people out there a little more clueless and maybe this will help them head in the right direction.

I did see a diode symbol on the cdjump diagram. Does anyone know if that's needed? I assume no, since it works without it???

If this is useful I will continue to refine it, either way it's good enough for me to use.

I uploaded this to Picasa as well - it might be a better viewable picture.
https://picasaweb.google.com/michael.james.blackburn/SAMTRON5MonitorConversion#5630718447519441730

Let me know your thoughts....

Thanks for that image. It will help me finish up mine. When I'm done I will have pictures and a description on how to build one as well. Can never have too much information on something like this