Test Rig 2.0

PrairieDillo

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Donor 2011, 2024
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years ago I had shelled out a JAMMA cab to build a MAME machine (data east 4P converted to Capcom fighter w/ a bad monitor) and I had thrown all of the inards into a box so about 3 years ago I mounted everything with a JROK video adaptor on to a piece of particle board in the efforts to consider building a supergun.

almost 2 years ago now Yellowdog had these nifty little 7" LCD RGB monitors on sale and I just had to get one for my test rig.

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=100481&highlight=panasonic+monitor

I quickly bolted on a left over cocktail CP and threw in some controls and boom, I had something I could quickly test with.

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This thing was pretty useful and very ghetto since it was all left over parts taped down and never really mounted right. I even put on a iso trany and ran long leads for video/monitor power.

It went with me on arcade trips to test boards and monitors and make "informed" decisions.
I even went down to last years Fresno fire sale and helped to test the stack of CPS2 boards and Pauls big box MVS carts quickly. I just loved this thing but never had time to really redo it.

A few months ago it took a dump and shorted out somewhere and I haven used it for a while.

Friday AM I got inspired cause I needed to test a monitor and didn't want to get the 25" propped up to test using one of my JAMMA cabs...

Test Rig needed a "proper" rebuild and a true boxed home... I'm between jobs so I didn't want to spend any money on this build. I also wanted to design as I went and see where I ended up. This shouldn't be too well thought out and just a simple tool. No one should be really playing on this thing anyways...

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I went with a similar 12x18" box with clearance for just the controls buttons and power inside. No funky angles etc like a good joystick CP...

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I used all available parts I had in hand from Test Rig 1.0 and a box of old harnesses/parts...
The only thing I purchased so far was the acrylic for the top to protect the monitor and make it look nice.

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more pics of my progress...

my rules were to attempt to buy nothing new for this thing if at all possible.

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retesting the monitor in case I shorted it when TR1.0 died...

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blocking out the back of the monitor mounting cavity.

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my Frankensteined "competition" joystick and Double Dragon laid out buttons.

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continued

finished monitor cavity with scrap materials

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how the monitor will rest

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more to come as I get back to it tonight...

a CPO even!
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My wife had some art paper for a bezel, but NO BLACK!!!

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continued 2

Cut the acrylic

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and a test fitting

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Monitor test with a PCB that was handy

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nothing else is wired up so far but i'm dead tired for the evening and tomorrows Father's Day!!!!
 
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Looking good. One thing I would recommend is to drill a hole near the Power Supply so that you can adjust the +5V without opening the box.

Boards will have different loads and you might have to adjust the +5V up or down to get the boards to work correctly.
 
nice call...

it would have been much easier before I put together the box... meh just another hole... I didn't think about how I'd cut a speaker hole also... hmmm

I'd love to do arcade style slits with a router in the form of a circle. LOL... kinda like a nintendo grill hole.
 
a couple more shots. One is with one of my favorite games.

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something special I did up a while ago and never used

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Very nice test rig. The LCD monitor I got had some bad surface mount pots I haven't had a chance to replace.

Have you thought about splicing the signal wires and having an RGB harness you can use to test monitors?
 
can we name it JammaBoy?

looks awesome, i should get my hands on one of those little lcd's lol. best part is it only cost your time other than the acrylic.
 
Very nice test rig. The LCD monitor I got had some bad surface mount pots I haven't had a chance to replace.

Have you thought about splicing the signal wires and having an RGB harness you can use to test monitors?

Yes I had originally done this but need to put the ISO tranny into this incarnation. I have that ready to go in. I just am not sure it I like my length for my RGB cable. I have it in some nice PC wire wrap.
 
Can you add a 4th button for games like D&D?

Yes I could but it would involve having a dedicated CPS2 kick harness and I don't want too many things dangling from this test rig. It's supposed to be small portable and just a test rig. It's not a mini arcade cab to play on. If that was the case I'd make it look like a countertop.

This is why it has monitor test cables dangling from the hole where the JAMMA harness is coming out of.
 
I just did a very similar build to this which helps me appreciate your test rig that much more. Very nice, it looks professional. Where in the world did you mount your ISO? And where is your JAMMA harness? What is nice about your LCD monitor is that it doesn't need a shielded ISO, which was a big problem for me to find in my build.
 
I put it inside, middle and on the right side.

I'm putting the speaker on the very bottom pointed at the user

The JAMMA harness exits out the top left side.
 
yeah it does... I was looking at the design of an old Mac classic for a tube based test rig also... Hmmmm
 
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