Planning to 60-1 my Centipede...pointers needed ahead of time.

jehuie

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Planning to 60-1 my Centipede...pointers needed ahead of time.

So I've got this dead Centipede and would like to play all the vertical trackball games on it. I have a 60-1 jamma card I'm planning to put in and will eventually upgrade to a jamma programmable one of some sort.

Anyway, I bought a switching power supply and a jamma harness with the connectors on it. A few questions about the proper approach before I start tearing into it and do it wrong:

1) Should I use the switcher or just wire it up to the existing PS since it seems to be working fine?

2) I was thinking of leaving the old wiring in place to make it easy to switch back. But if I do so, do I need to purchase new molex connectors for everything so I can plug directly into the one on the monitor, control panel etc.? If I do that I'm basically wasting the connectors pre-wired onto the harness. I would need to clip them off. Or should I just plug each connector individually to every button on the control panel?

3) I'm assuming I will lose the light-up feature of the start buttons right? Is there a cool way around that that retains the lights and flashing capabilities?

4) Any other good idea or tips that I should consider first?

Thanks guys!
 
When I did my Pac-Man conversion, I bought a switcher to power the board and used a JAMMA harness. However, I kept all of the original wiring in place, and still use it to power my monitor and light fixture. I just plugged my switcher into the outlet in the power supply. To kill the power on both at once, I have to actually pull the cord (because the PS outlet is always live), but all my games are on a surge protector anyway and I turn them on and off by its switch. I don't think I'll ever convert it back and sell it, but it would be easy to do if I had to.
 
I have a Centipede 60 in 1. I bought it as a black Jamma cab with Raiden 2 in it.

1. Mine had a switcher already in it.

2. My wiring was hacked to shit already.

3. I put a 220 ohm resistor on the start buttons to step down the voltage. They dont flash though.

4. No tips really.
 

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Put in a fresh switching PS and a fresh wiring harness, it will actually make it easier to switch stuff around later on and you won't have to cut any wires.
The resistor thing will work with the led buttons, if you connect directly to 5v, they will POP!
Get the 6 pin trackball harness, so you can plug the trackball directly to the PCB and not have to use player 2 edge connector inputs.
Will your old Atari trackball work with a multiboard? Not sure about this, I think a few wires just need to be moved but many feel that old trackballs won't work and you must have a new one with "red" boards.
Centipede plays fine on the multi but the sounds in Millipede are so far off, I just can't stand playing it at all. I love Millipede, I have it running perfectly in mame.
Good luck!
 
Thanks guys. Some good info in there. I think Radio Shack only carries 1/4 watt and 1/2 watt resistors. Is that big enough or should I make a Fry's run for something larger?
 
Got it all working but still don't know what size resistor to get so I guess I'll just go buy a big ol' honkin' one just to be safe.

And I need to get a trackball with the red optic boards. Someone figured out how to use the green boards but apparently it's a huge big secret on how to do it.
 
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