My solution to the spinner problem

[dos]

There are some really great games out there that either require or play best with a spinner, but I avoided them for a long time. I thought about building a spinner panel, but changing panels to play a small handful of games is pretty annoying, and considering my horizontal JAMMA setup right now is a supergun it would be double annoying playing outside of a cab. Regardless, I kept my eye out for spinners and when a set of Seimitsu LS-29s appeared on YAJ with a Capcom spinner I/O, I grabbed it:

Auction Photo

I cleaned them up and verified they worked with my Arkanoid PCB and Arcaniac JAMMA adapter, then I started looking around for some way to make using them pleasant. I spotted my old Saturn Virtua Stick and became enlightened, as the complete plans for what I was about to do emerged in my brain fully formed.

The thing already had some holes in it from a LS-56 install, and I hadn't used it in years because who wants to play arcade ports on the Saturn in 202X.

Originally I planned to be as lazy as possible and leave in the original buttons, but I ended up taking them out and boring out the holes to the correct 30mm size so I could have non-crap buttons and caps over the unused stuff. I'm not even sure any spinner games use all 3 buttons but it's the JAMMA standard so why not. Yellow button is staRt. Electrical tape is for covering holes, so it will look fully sick under the blue and purple mood lighting I don't have. I experimented with putting the buttons on the bottom row, as this stick had a weird design and that row is the one that lines up neatly with the lever, but went with the top row because it felt better when using it in my lap.

Wired everything up to a 10 pin AMP-UP male pin connector (same as used on Astro City kick harness wiring). I planned to use the panel mount feature of the connector as designed, but the case was too thick and it wouldn't lock in place securely enough to provide decent strain relief, so I improvised by spreading out the panel locking "wings" and drilling 2mm holes in them, then using M2 screws and nuts to bolt it to the case. Now it's "good enough"

I came up with a standardized pinout (numbers follow TE's designation for this connector type):

1. Button 1 - Blue
2. Button 2 - Green
3. Button 3 - Orange
4. Start - Grey
5. Button GND - Black
6. Spinner 5V - Red
7. Spinner Left - Yellow
8. Spinner Right - Violet
9. N/C (really should have put coin here, and probably will)
10. Spinner GND - Black

Armed with this I can slap a 10 pin AMP UP connector on anything spinner compatible and play it with the controller. For reference, here is the pinout of the Molex KK 396 (yes I know it's actually Molex SPOX but nobody uses that weirdness and KK 396 works fine) header on the Taito and Seimitsu spinners:

1. Right
2. 5V
3. GND
4. Left

Now I can add a connector to the Arkanoid to JAMMA adapter:

I used a JST XH connector to tap the buttons and grounds for them from the vias on the adapter (thanks for including these Arcaniac). The wires are connected to the rear of the connector with Mini-PV contacts and then soldered. This sort of nonstandard use is the only time I think anyone should solder crimp contacts. The connector is held to the board with 3M's most brutally sticky variant of VHB tape, forged by Satan himself. I don't know the part number, I borrowed it from work. I also added some crappy knockoff Molex KK 254 headers for the spinner section because I ordered the version of this adapter with the screw terminals, thinking I would add JST NH headers myself. Surprise! NH and XH connectors are too wide for both players to fit and the only thing I had that worked are the Cholexes.

Pinout for the spinner headers:

1. 5V
2. GND
3. Right
4. Left
5. N/C

Now I can build a detachable harness for this adapter:

And a cable to connect to the controller:

So now I can play Arkanoid sideways on my horizontal setup, but that's dumb. I need to be able to swap it to the cab with minimum effort. I will use the Astro City's fully populated kick harness connector, and run the cable out the control panel lock hole with a zip tie through the smaller hole for strain relief:

The hole is too small to fit the connector through, so I had to feed the crimped contacts in and then attach them on the other side:

Now we need another cable to go to the adapter:

*click*

変身!

Thanks for coming to my powerpoint. I'll probably update this when I add support for the Capcom I/O.

 

[clam_wattson]

I have an original Arkanoid as well (untested) and have been thinking for ages about how I might set it up for play. The thing I got stuck on was being able to determine a suitable spinner that output a similar number of pulses per revolution to the OEM Arkanoid spinner. It seems that most (all?) spinners are geared to adjust the rate of rotation of the encoder wheel and that different games expect different PPRs. A mismatched spinner might result in too high or too low sensitivity. How have you found the Seimitsu part for Arkanoid gameplay? Also this is probably another remedial question, but what's the purpose of Capcom spinner I/O for this setup? Did it just happen to come with the auction and you don't need it for the final configuration you've shared for playing Arkanoid? Is it useful for certain JVS games?

 

[dos]

The Seimitsu spinner appears to be a clone of the Taito one, but I'm not 100% sure it is exact when it comes to feel as I don't own the Taito. To me it feels "just right" for Arkanoid, the sensitivity is perfect. The Taito spinner does seem to be more common, so unless you're specifically seeking out the Seimitsus you will probably end up with one. Everything in my original post can apply to the Taito one as well.

The Capcom spinner I/O is for interfacing spinners with certain CPS2 games that use them. It goes between your JAMMA harness and the CPS2 board and the spinners connect to the JST NH header on the I/O. I am not sure why Capcom went that route of a somewhat complex custom board. On an original Akranoid cabinet, the spinner interface is just part of the (non JAMMA) harness. On the later Taito F3 it is the same for spinner games, you just wire it directly to the JAMMA harness (or use a simple passthrough) tapping 5V and GND, with the spinner pulses going to the left and right direction inputs. In my case it came with the auction, but I intend to use it to play the CPS2 spinner games with my controller. It is not needed for any other non-CPS2 spinner games as far as I know.

 

[twistedsymphony]

he thing I got stuck on was being able to determine a suitable spinner that output a similar number of pulses per revolution to the OEM Arkanoid spinner. It seems that most (all?) spinners are geared to adjust the rate of rotation of the encoder wheel and that different games expect different PPRs.

Nearly all original Arcade Spinners made after 1985 have the correct number of PPR for the original Arkanoid, and use the exact same gearing. This include both variants of the 4-Gear Taito Spinner, The Ghox Spinner, the normal Capcom Spinners, the Capcom Push Spinners, the Semitsu LS-29 Spinners, the Sega 4-gear spinners the, Happ 4-Gear Spinners, and the dozens of 4-gear knock-offs. Spinner design was honestly pretty well standardized about the same time JAMMA became a thing.

The only spinners that will cause issues are the "new" junk marketed towards emulation use (which have PPRs all over the place, unclear technical information, and AFAIK NONE of them have the right pulse rate for ANY game), and the really old early 80s, stuff that just used 1 big wheel with no gears.

The Capcom spinner I/O is for interfacing spinners with certain CPS2 games that use them. It goes between your JAMMA harness and the CPS2 board and the spinners connect to the JST NH header on the I/O. I am not sure why Capcom went that route of a somewhat complex custom board.

The polling rate of the IO on a CPS2 isn't fast enough to count the pulses coming off of a spinner and decode them in software. so the board essentially does that in hardware and then converts it to joystick taps. The board you've got was designed for Puzz Loop 2. The only other CPS2 spinner game is ECO Fighters, but it uses a push spinner (like Forgotten Worlds) and has a different interface board since it's wired differently. Though that Puzz-Loop 2 IO board can really be utilized to allow a Spinner to be used on any 2-way JAMMA game (like spinner controls for Puzzle Bobble or Space Invaders).

For others that are interested: there was a similar board that SNK made for MVS and Brizzo made a version of that board: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/using-spinner-to-play-ng-jamma-games.3602/
the circuit is nearly identical to the CPS2 spinner board.

 

[dos]

The polling rate of the IO on a CPS2 isn't fast enough to count the pulses coming off of a spinner and decode them in software. so the board essentially does that in hardware and then converts it to joystick taps. The board you've got was designed for Puzz Loop 2. The only other CPS2 spinner game is ECO Fighters, but it uses a push spinner (like Forgotten Worlds) and has a different interface board since it's wired differently. Though that Puzz-Loop 2 IO board can really be utilized to allow a Spinner to be used on any 2-way JAMMA game (like spinner controls for Puzzle Bobble or Space Invaders).

For others that are interested: there was a similar board that SNK made for MVS and Brizzo made a version of that board: https://www.arcade-projects.com/threads/using-spinner-to-play-ng-jamma-games.3602/
the circuit is nearly identical to the CPS2 spinner board.

Damn, good to know. Had no idea ECO Fighters had a totally different I/O board.

EDIT: @twistedsymphony do you have photos of the "normal Capcom Spinners" and "Sega 4-gear spinners"? Don't think I've ever seen these.

 

[twistedsymphony]

do you have photos of the "normal Capcom Spinners" and "Sega 4-gear spinners"? Don't think I've ever seen these.

I do have some crappy ones I can post up later. the Capcom ones usually have a "B" on the knob as they were primarily used by "Block Block" (which BTW used an older revision of your Puzz Loop 2 interface board). the Sega ones were primarily used by Riddle of Pythagoras. Both are similar in design to the LS-29s

 

[twistedsymphony]

Here's the Standard Capcom Spinner (with the Block-Block art)


Here's the 4-Gear Sega Spinner (I believe from Riddle of Pythagoras):


For reference I also have a spreadsheet where I've captured all known arcade spinners and their PPRs as well as all games that support spinners and 2-way games that could potentially support them with an adapter board like Brizzo's or your CPS2 board:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gSfIBCuo3xa7w6aFPNppbBAyCY7t1yNRw81gx5Dp9Jk/edit?usp=sharing

 

[dos]

Come to think of it, I have seen that Sega spinner but assumed it was some cap for a Taito spinner or something. Capcom one is new to me and I kinda want one. Spreadsheet is badass, thanks for the great resource!

 

[twistedsymphony]

Come to think of it, I have seen that Sega spinner but assumed it was some cap for a Taito spinner or something.

I thought the same thing unless I saw it from the side and realized it was a unique design.

Spreadsheet is badass, thanks for the great resource!

Thanks, it still needs some work, but I've been using it as a place to put every new thing I learn.