My SNK Neo 50 Restoration project

rikitheshadow

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Donor 2011
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Just purchased a SNK Neo 50 cabinet from a church on craigslist. Don't ask me how this thing made it over to america, but it certainly is a japanese style cabinet. The only two things missing to it is the bench and game board. Little beat up around the edges, but I plan on restoring it from top to bottom. New paint, new decals, new electronics, and new controls except for maybe the 50" rear projection screen unless it needs to be.

Here's a picture of the original. Of course a typical white paint color along side a metal cabinet.
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What I plan to do is sand down the wooden parts on the screen cab section and strip the paint on the metal control deck and go with a classic Red paint used on most of the American wooden cabinets.

I started to tear up the control panel, which of course will be revamped. Somehow this had a 7 button interface for each player........which doesn't make sense as MVS multi slot systems only used 4 buttons per player, and then 2 game selection buttons. I think they had something else in this....
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Funny the coin acceptor was originally designed for Yen, but someone slipped a US quarter coin comparitor in it lolz.
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Interesting little item that was inside the control cabinet. All the harness leads met and passed through this little thing and on top there was two molex connectors of different sizes that were just tied into each other. Upon removing the harness I discovered the molex connectors were connected to a few specific leads. One connected to both the Left and Right audio channels. And the other was connected to the Game Selection buttons. Obviously something to swap between a multi slot MVS pinout or a typical JAMMA pinout.
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Right now I'm awaiting game components. I ordered a 4 Slot MVS and a game cart from Coinopexpress............in Hong Kong.................first and last time I will deal with them.
Otherwise I've already received my new MVS harness ordered from Ebay. Right now I need to get some testing done on the screen to ensure color quality and if any repairs are needed.

I'll will keep this thread up to date when I make any big changes.
 
Images Continued

Didn't notice the image cap on each post. LoL



Some components, electrical, and harness leads. The original plug cord was 2 prong, no ground, but the whole cabinet was tied together piece by piece like the whole thing wasn't made out of metal................so I'm adding a 3 pronged 14 guage cord I bought from Home Depot to ensure the safety of me and my electronic goodies.
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I'll need to redo some logos on the sides of the cabinet if i get around to re-painting.
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Peek from the back inside the control cabinet.
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Continued....

Picture of the old harness which had a good number of molex connectors seperating the whole cabinet piece by piece. I intend to clip all those molex connectors off and re-use them on the new harness with some simple patching.
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nice. don't ever deal with coinopexpress again, super inflated pricing, shipping, crappy communication. even ebay is better than them lol.

i would head to the neo geo forums asap for help on the obscure stuff, but i am sure some of those guys are over here as well. mvs carts can be found here, there, ebay for cheap generally.

also the 7 button layout. is more common than you think... for candy cab owners (sega astro city, etc). top four is a traditional neo layout, but it also accommodates a street fighter 6 button layout, as well as jamma etc.

good luck with the beast!
 
nice. don't ever deal with coinopexpress again, super inflated pricing, shipping, crappy communication. even ebay is better than them lol.

Yes they are! I would of settled for the cost of the parts, but they charge way too much for shipping and %4.9 upcharge for purchases done with paypal. Redicilous! On top of that the communication.....yes......I feel ya.

At that time I couldn't find a MVS 4 Slot board on Ebay, now there is like 4 being sold from a guy in Mexico with at least one cart. Only $30 more than what Coinopexpress is charging.....not including shipping.......
 
I have yet to receive any updates on my purchase from CoinopExpress. I made it abundantly clear to "Kate" (if thats her real name) in an email that I will be requesting a refund immediately if the item still has not been shipped in the next 2 days. And I will be pulling the Paypal Solution Team in on this to settle my little dispute.

I don't have time for their little games!
 
probably fake chat names. resign on it will be dick, and then jane lol.

in all seriousness, a lot of people have done business with them, heard mixed. i highly doubt you will get ripped off, however i would never order from them. i've heard a lot of the stuff they sell is not in stock....and is "located" after you buy it.

but with something as common as mvs, there should be zero delays. keep bugging them, and don't let off.
 
Oh I WON'T, I come from a family of people who expect that any issue like this is a get it done or GTFO and give me my money back type of people. Me mothra certainly doesn't take any BS excuses, and I won't either.

Sadly there are no cheap multi slot MVS's on Ebay right now besides a 2-Slotter for $199, which is still kinda expensive for my tastes, but HEY least it would be cheaper for shipping than ordering from a BS company in Hong Kong. Seriously if this deal goes through...what the hey, but if i get a refund i'll be expecting a lower bill on my credit and I'll have to search for an alternative.

On a side note my "storage" or my friend's man cave where this cabinet is stored had their power cut off by CenterPoint Energy last week on the exact same day I was going to check the screen's condition and picture quality.................lol......but they get their power back by Monday. They are renting, still haven't moved in yet, and somehow there was an issue with the original owner and the last lease holder......CenterPoint saw no bills being payed evidently and pulled the plug one fine evening when everyone was gone. Don't Ask.
 
That's awesome! Good luck on the restore, you can guarantee I'll be watching this! I didn't check yet, but I assume you are posting this thread over to the Neo-Geo.com forums too?
 
Looks like a great project, can't wait to see the end result. Sorry to hear about the issues you're having with your order, I'm sure there's a lot of people onthese forums which have Neo-Geo boards they could have sold you.
 
Right now Coinopexpress is telling me that my items are located in their Japan warehouse, and its be unable to ship since the earthquake issue. Of course, like most said they have their items located away from their actual offices. So I requested a refund, and should hopefully be seeing that soon.

I'll locate another MVS multi slot on the boards or Neogeo.com or what not. Plus I need to halt on this buying spree of mine........tax returns do things to ya
 
There are a couple cheaper multi-slots on Ebay (not mine) with audio issues. It's a gamble, but I think odds are good they are the "typical" MVS audio issues (look up MVS audio cap kit). Research and give it some thought.

This is a pretty cool project. Can't wait to see the end.
 

Oh, thought he might of sold those already, couldn't find em earlier. Maybe he just relisted, but dang he put it up for like 28 days?? Doesn't Ebay charge per the length of time? Sorry I'm a buyer, not a seller yet.

Since I got my refund back already......well it pinged on paypal, but not sure about my card atm. Maybe I should go for one of those. Salmart has already got me an MV-LED and harness on its way.
 
Question on the Projection TV

I found a site I could get repair kits from for projection televisions. Now the monitor in this cabinet is a Hitachi C50-15SN, and the site shows 2 different C50s, like 2000 and 5000. Would anyone know how to determine which one is mine? Its got convergence issues and I'm pretty sure the tube coolant needs to be replaced.

On a side note, would anyone know the best way to clean the screen, inside's layer? Someone before me attempted to clean it before and did a messy job.
 
Seems like a bit of an over kill by removing the original wire harness! its just a Neo-Geo don't forget that the test and service and audio wires are in different locations on the 4 slot neo geo jamma.
 
Progress Updates

I've got most of the harness setup and ready to go, at least with what is wired it will turn on and we'll see video and have sound, but I haven't wired any controls yet because I'm debating on using molex connects at the moment for that. Its enough that I have to solder one side on to the female side of the molex, but I have to solder on the male side PLUS the female pin connectors for the buttons' microswitches.

I've also done some testing on the older power supply. It meets my requirements, just needed some fine tuning to the +5v rail and all was good (rests at about 5.02, but will only settle at 4.99 if I move it any further). Saves me a whole $24 replacement PSU! I plugged it all in together and ran checks on all the power leads to ensure no voltage drops. My apartment's AC sits at about 123v.......lovely but not exponentally bad. I'll have to test my buddies garage/man cave's outlets to ensure a safe place to plug in! XD

My workbench, getting ready to solder some harness cables to a molex I saved from the last harness.

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The Power Fixture I fixed up with a 3 Prong Electrical cord

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Using Butt Splices for the power cables.

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Soldering and Heat Shrinking I/O cables such as the video harness pictured here.

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I set up all the cables without a game to test running voltages to ensure no drops over their length.

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More to come in the next post!
 
Pictures Continued

Bought this fairly nice Black and Decker drill bit (3/8) at Walmart real quick to drill through the remaining lock in the coin bank door. Took maybe about 5 minutes to get through it because it was one of those pesky rounded key type locks. After that I spent some time fishing a long philips screwdriver into the sides of the coin door and cabinet to get all the mounting brackets off. Then I continued to pull it out and decipher that dam mystery of cables that I pulled out the first day I started on the harness. Needed to determine the pinouts for the coin, counter, and lights.

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The side with this small PCB that broke the harness cables into another set of cables which led to the coin door and mech, while the lower 2 to the coin counter mounted on the side.

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Pictures of its entirety, scratched paint and all. Another item to chock up on my list of things to paint and rework.

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The odometer, i mean coin counter.

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The old beat up control cabinet which is going to take a quiet a bit to rework because all the damage to the control panel overlays and junk..................oye...........I don't exactly have the tools to make new metal panels for this thing, much less the plexi overlay for the middle panel.

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<-------My Feet------->


Well I've got a list of things I probably going to need to ask around about.

- How I should go reworking those control panel overlays (metal or plexi)
+I plan to replace the buttons with more of an american style concave button so fingers don't slip....hopefully they'll fit in what space is in the control panel.........

- How to go about repainting the wood surfaces on the screen cabinet (think its vinyl paint)

- How to go about repainting the metal surfaces on the control cabinet and marquee (no idea)
 
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