Wire broke off on cab, need to add credit button...

SixWayShot

New member
Joined
May 27, 2010
Messages
16
Reaction score
0
Location
Florida
Wire broke off on cab, need to add credit button...

Hey, everyone. I'm a fairly new arcade enthusiast, but I've been a video game fan/collector all my life. I just got into the arcade hobby this summer when I bought a Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo machine off of Craigslist. It's an awesome machine, apparently converted from a Marvel Super Heroes machine. It's kinda odd that the seller stuck a Puzzle Fighter board and marquee into a MSH cab, but I'm not complaining.

I've run into a snag, however.

See, I bought one of those CPS2 18-in-1 boards online, because I wanted to make full use of the cabinet. That, and 18 games for the price seemed like a good deal, even if it is a partial bootleg (The games themselves are identical). On this particular board, you need to add a credit to change games. I was doing this manually, by pressing down on a red wire on the coin door mechanism. It was a red wire that went in between the two coin mechs, and pressing it registered a credit. Granted, that was sort of stupid of me to do that and not expect something to break, but I don't exactly know what I'm doing when it comes to the actual hardware of the machine.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, the red wire broke off of the P1 coin mech. Now, I can't add credits at all, even on a legit board (My SPF2T). I'd like to either fix the machine so that it can accept credits again, or I'd like to add a credit button. Preferably, I'd like to add a credit button. I've been to a few other sites, and while they've been helpful, I just don't want to screw up. I don't really know too much about the hardware of an arcade machine, at least, not enough to know what to do in this situation.

I know I could just add a coin button by wiring a button to the coin 1 wire on the JAMMA harness, and one to the ground, but that's not really an option for me, as the JAMMA harness is tied down pretty good, so that you can move it around to swap boards, but that's it. I can't literally take it out, because I'd have to pretty much rip it out of the cab.

So, uh, how do I go about adding a credit button to my machine? Anyone got a step-by-step process or something like that?

Takin' this one day at a time...
 
Anyway, a few weeks ago, the red wire broke off of the P1 coin mech. Now, I can't add credits at all, even on a legit board (My SPF2T). I'd like to either fix the machine so that it can accept credits again, or I'd like to add a credit button. Preferably, I'd like to add a credit button.

How about a pic of this broken wire?
Logical answer would be to repair the broken wire........

A credit button can be added right to the existing credit switch, but we kinda need to see what you are working with.
 
Here's a couple of pictures of the wire that's broken off, as well as a pic of the full cab for the hell of it. I can't get a picture of the actual JAMMA harness right now, though. The harness itself is tied down pretty well, though. Any attempts to add a credit button via the harness will involve ripping the harness from the machine, literally. I'd like to see if there's a way to fix the wire or add a credit button without going into the harness if possible.

Sorry about the quality of the photos. They were taken with my Blackberry, and that's the only camera I have available at the moment.
 

Attachments

  • Wire 1.jpg
    Wire 1.jpg
    88.8 KB · Views: 26
  • Wire Light.jpg
    Wire Light.jpg
    90.4 KB · Views: 24
  • Puzzle FighterMSH.jpg
    Puzzle FighterMSH.jpg
    88.7 KB · Views: 23
Any reasons why you can't just resolder the wire?

Credit inputs work by grounding the credit line from the Jamma harness through a switch. Even if you don't know which wire to connect to in the bundle, it's a simple matter to find what color wire lines up with the Jamma credit pin, and follow it back to the coin door bundle. That'll connect to the "NO" terminal on the switch, and of course, the "COM" terminal will be attached to ground. Adding a credit button is as simple as wiring a pushbutton up to momentarily connect these two.

Of course, most newer games can be set to Free Play.

-Ian
 
The red wire in the photos WAS soldered to the coin switches. One end is soldered to the left switch (the P2 coin mech), one end was soldered to right one (The P1), but it broke off. There's a black wire on the bottom of both mechs, which I assume is the ground for each button, as it's daisy-chained with both coin mechs and the lights for the coin receptors. But the only other wire down there is the red one that bridges the two switches. There's a yellow wire as well, but that's going into the lights for the coin receptors. I guess my only option is to re-solder the thing back on, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. I just don't have too much experience with soldering.

And, while I can set most boards to Free Play (Which I do for my SPF2T board), my main concern is with my CPS2 18-in-1 board. I bought it to use with my machine, as I've got a 6-button setup. With this particular board, you need to add a credit to switch games. There is no option for free play.
 
Well, that red wire has to go somewhere besides to both switches. Somehow the harness connects to that credit switch. Look at the coin switches. They have three terminals. One is labelled "COM", and this is connected to ground, and is likely your black wire. The other two are labelled "NO" and "NC", which stands for "Normally Open" and "Normally Closed" respectively. Ignore the "NC" terminal, it's not used in this application. The "NO" terminal of the switch connecte to the Credit 1 input on the Jamma board. Usually, the left switch is wired to Credit 1, and the right switch is wired to Credit 2, but some games are set up so both switches are paralleled and connected both to Credit 1. Either way, it doesn't matter.

Somehow, that Credit 1 wire from the Jamma connector needs to connect to the NO terminal on the coin switch. Follow the wire from the Jamma connector up to the coin door. It probably just broke somewhere near the hinge, or got snagged on something and broke off. Just hook it back up. If it's too short, then solder a scrap of wire to the two switches and then connect that to the wire from the harness. If you can't solder, then learn. If you don't want to learn, then just twist the wires together and tape them up. This isn't critical, and there is no voltage on these signal wires. For connecting to the coin switches, either solder the wire on, or crimp it into a quick-disconnect terminal and plug it onto the switch, or even bare the wire and wind it tightly around the terminal. Aligator clips also work.

-Ian
 
Back
Top Bottom