Quick word about cheap eBay JAMMA harnesses...

Scucci

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 6, 2003
Messages
4,497
Reaction score
94
Location
Nashville, Tennessee
I've had a Taito cab that was converted to JAMMA before I got it... inside was an absolute mess. While I was doing a round of eBay orders last week'sh I noticed some pretty cheap, fully loaded, harnesses from one seller. I picked a couple up to see how they were.
$(KGrHqJ,!q!E-w+GYe,MBP9hnKVI2!~~60_1.JPG

Harness on eBay.

All in all, I was pretty impressed with them... minus a goofy connector for the coin door and the wrong connector for my monitor on the video... all in all, pretty good harnesses. Even had everything bundled already (P1, P2, Video, Coindoor, Power). Plus the ground chain for the P1/P2 controls and all of their connections as well as pretty much every other connection already having connectors on them saved me a LOT of trouble.

When I got the harness there were a few bundles that were wired through other bundles (P1 connections wove through the video and power bundles)... I'm a little anal retentive so I had to redo those bundles so they were woven through each other... only took about 10 mins, no biggie.

After I re-bundled everything, I put it in to do a test run and just hooked up the video and power. Boards didn't come on... first thought was that I had screwed up the power connections on the power supply and maybe fried my boards. Double and triple checked everything... everything was right. I then checked the harness with my DMM to make sure the voltage was right... it was. Then I reconnected the harness to my boards and checked again. Voltage went down from 5.05V to 3.15V. I was try'ng to test everything with the Elevator Action boards that were in the cabinet... I hooked up some SFII:WW boards, still nothing... again, voltage dropped. Checked with a Crime City board and she fired right up.

I figured it was because there was just one ground and +5V line going to the power supply... even though they seemed like good, thick, wires... When I cut into the heatshrink at the harness end I saw the problem. The wires were thick, but was 95% plastic sleeve. The wire inside was tiny on both the ground and +5V lines. I added another wire to each for the power supply, and all was well. my boards fired right up after adding in another line... but still. Why put the effort into making such a nice harness and then go -that- cheap on the power lines? I'm sure they're actually meant for newer multi-cade boards, which I'm sure have MUCH less of a power draw that Taito stacks... but still.

Anywho, I lied... wasn't a quick word about the harnesses, was more of a rant.

Get them if you want, I probably will actually snag a couple more in the future... but be prepared to add in a couple of more wires to make the thing able to supply power to older, more power hungry, boards.

It doesn't look like much as I still have to secure a few wires, but it used to be a giant birdsness of wires in there, so I'm pretty happy with how it looks now... minus it needs a good vacuuming and general cleaning...
attachment.php
attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • IMG00267.jpg
    IMG00267.jpg
    31.9 KB · Views: 215
  • IMG00268.jpg
    IMG00268.jpg
    35.2 KB · Views: 207
Last edited:
Too funny. I just wired up my test bench with one of those. Had 5v at the PS but board wasn't powering on(Golden Tee). Cranked it up and board came on. Now I know what to do. Thanks for the rant.
 
I got one of those, no idea where from, but spent the time wiring it up in a cabinet, only to find the same problem, in the end I just pulled the harness and tossed it in a box, and used a harness from Twisted Quarter instead (which is what I normally do) but the other harness has daisy chain already for Grounds etc, so I was thinking it was going to be an easier job, I was wrong :(
 
Considering all you had to do to them, I would not have been impressed with them.

The 5 mins I -had- to send adding 2 wires more than made up for the extra costs and time spent adding connectors to the CP wiring. The rebundle'ng was just because I was being anal about how the wires were bundled. They looked fine to start off with, and with most other harnesses, it would've been something I'd've had to do anyways.

For the future, I'll know to just slap those two wires on there from the get-go. I checked the other harness I got from them and it is bundled neater... so I just picked the wrong one from a 50/50 shot... like normal.

With my new Galaxian boards that I got in, my Jr. Pac boards (that I have to find a cabinet for), the MW Stargate cabinet I've been sitting on a while, and my TMNT that needs to be reworked... I have to get at least 3 more of these. For the price, I wouldn't hesitate to buy more of them.

That said; if they would've just used good wires in the first place, they'd be a no-brainer.
 
Good to know. I have a buddy who is going to be wiring a cab for JAMMA soon. I'll advise him to spend money on a good one.
 
Back
Top Bottom