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I've spun off a separate thread for the Raspberry Pi based "Billboard Commander" project
Sega Versus Billboard Commander

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Also Some information about the billboard that I don't think I've mentioned here before. It seems to have been a joint project with Sega and Tecmo.

Some Versus City cabs were actually branded Tecmo instead of Sega:
600x450-2017033100143.jpg


If you're wondering the "ただ今勝ち抜き中!" text says "Now Winning!" So the idea is that the display would show "P1 or "P2" on both sides to denote the player currently in the lead.
 

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if anyone is interested in getting some original Versus City Billboard hardware. I asked Yaton to look for some and he finally found it!

He posted 3 up for sale and I bought 2 of them:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-V...%3A45e58ba01600a99b8382487efff5b9c3%7Ciid%3A1

s-l1600.jpg



This is the older board rev from an original Versus City cabinet. the one board can control 2 Billboard displays. this is pretty much everything except for the displays themselves. He has those for sale in a separate listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-s...291604?hash=item48a5bd4b94:g:69kAAOSwSrNaJsDj


the other two boards, on is a 15V PSU (for the 7-segment displays) the other is a switching module for the winner Lamps.


So if you're interested in acquiring this hardware there is 1 board left in the auction link above. This is the only time I've ever seen these boards available for sale since I started researching this stuff years ago.
 
good to see he pull through for you. I too have ask him for it. I'm just waiting for him to get the rest of my order ready. To bad he only has 1 helper to test and clean
 
Once I get this in I'd like to do some comparisons with your Billboard PCB to see what some of the functional differences are and then I can send it back to you. I feel bad with how long I've had that thing.
 
That's ok. I still have another 4 cabs to clean up. I'm just glad someone got some use out of it.
 
I got the PCBs in!

vs_pcbs.jpg


For anyone that is interested here are some good photos of the front and back of the PCB:
vs_pcb_top.jpg


for those components that are difficult to read:
DA3= DAN403 | 538
DA4= DAN403 | 538
PC3= NEC Japan | PS2501-4 | ND529
PC4= NEC Japan | PS2501-4 | ND529
IC7= HD74HC4040P | 5C46

There is a dump of that eprom earlier in this thread. the Sega Custom looks to be an I/O chip that is also used on the ST-V
as for the GAL. I wouldn't mind loaning it to someone who is able to dump it.
 

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got some bits of info about Versus City billboard protocol.
summary it is:
00 - 7F - Normal mode, various characters display, bit 6 - player side, bit 5 - digit #, bits 0-4 - character code (1F = all segs off)
80 - 8F - Dot control, bits 0-3 controls each of 4x dots, 0 - On, 1 - Off
90 - 9F - Winner Lamp control, bit 3 - player side, bits 0-2 light type: 0 - On, 1 - slow blinking, 2 - medium blinking, 3 - fast blinking, 4 - 2x blinks, 5 - 3x blinks, 6 - 4x blinks, 7 - Off
A0 - AF - Advertise mode, bit 3 - player side, bits 0-2 - animation type (8 in total)
B0 - EF - Segment control mode, bits 4-6 select player/digit (3 - PL1 Digit1, 4 - PL1 Digit2, 5 - PL2 Digit1, 6 - PL2 Digit2), bit 3 - seg light 0 - On 1 - Off, bits 0-2 - seg number (starting from top segment and counting clockwise, central seg is 6, dot is 7)
F0 - FF - test / adevrtise control, bit 3 - player side, bits 0-2: 0 - test pattern1, 1 - test pattern2, 2 - display "versus city", 3-7 - stop animation display (either Ax or Fx)

let me know if you need some more details
 
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yeah, it was kind of burred in a lot of other text.

Are you working more on de-compiling/emulating the billboard units? I would be interested to know more about how the internal code is structured

One thing I was having trouble with is getting the timing exactly right on the winner lamp blink patterns and animations/text scrolls. Especially since it seems like sometimes the first "Frame" of these patterns is shorter and not consistent in length.
 
Are you working more on de-compiling/emulating the billboard units? I would be interested to know more about how the internal code is structured
no, it came not from disassembly. but iirc there is usual switch/case-like code for different incoming commands.
don't know about flashing timings.
 
Hello @twistedsymphony,

Thank you for all this work, it gave me a lot of ideas to use

For our event (HFS V Vierzon) we tried Virtua Tennis 2 for a tournament on a new versus city.
I tested to connect the billboard but it does not work.

I used a Sega JVS to Jamma Rev B as the one below.
I put the jumper in position B and I made a cable of the JST NH 14 pins to the connector AMP UP 10 pins blue.

In this cable I took the data of the JVS to jamma on the connector JST pin 4 to 11 and the GND pin 12 that I sent on the blue connector in pin 1 to 8 for data and 10 for GND

Is it also necessary to send the + 5v in the blue connector that goes the billboard?

Sega-io-838-13683-93-pcb.jpg
 
In this cable I took the data of the JVS to jamma on the connector JST pin 4 to 11 and the GND pin 12 that I sent on the blue connector in pin 1 to 8 for data and 10 for GND

Is it also necessary to send the + 5v in the blue connector that goes the billboard?
You're using the correct IO and you have the IO jumper set correctly.
There are 3 additional things you should be checking
1. The Jumper on the back of the display. There should be a jumper on the back of the display PCB, set it to [2-3] to put the display into "read mode" where it takes commands from the game board. I explained this here: VS Billboard Output from Sega ST-V/Model 2/Model 3/NAOMI

2. Most games require you enable billboard output in the options menu, I don't remember if Virtua Tennis 2 is one of those games, but definitely go into game-test mode and check to see if there is a setting, and doing a billboard output test here is a good easy way to test if things are working.

3. Double check the Wiring
If items 1 and 2 are done then it's probably a wiring issue. I have never been able to find a manual for the New Versus City (if you have a manual, some high res scans of the wiring diagrams and billboard pages would be great!) but there is some wiring information in the JVS IO manual on page 29 here: https://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/images/9/97/SEGA_cabinet_JVS_conversion_manual_.pdf

Make sure you're also setting the "P1 Bit" pin to ground (pins 1 and 2 on the back of the billboard display). I would recommend using a multi meter and confirming continuity and correct pin ordering between the Sega JVS IO and the Billboard display.

The input connector on the back of the billboard display should be getting +5V on one of the pins, but this DOES NOT necessarily come from the JVS IO, it might be coming from the cab itself (it does on some other cabs, not sure on New Versus City). The remaining pins are the 8 data pins, the P1 Bit pin and a ground pin which should all have continuity to your Sega JVS IO.
 
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I think you're confused, blast city does not use the same management card for the billboard than versus city.

We have the versus city and the new versus city. The interior is the same, only the screens change.

Both use this card for the billboard:

index.php


For blastcity is that:

index.php


The versus city uses a 10 pins blue connector that is mounted on a panel at the bottom.

You see the pinout of page 68 in D1 on those manual : https://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/images/5/56/Sega_Versus_City_Manual.pdf

That corresponds also to the manual that you give me for JVS IO on page 29 here: wiki.arcadeotaku.com/images/9/…VS_conversion_manual_.pdf


So I think I have to connect the + 5V as I thought

Are you my reasoning?
 
versus city and the new versus city
Billboard equipment is COMPLETELY different between versus city and new versus city. At this point I own equipment from all 3 cabs. PN on the NVC billboard module is different than Blast City but they're nearly identical in function

the information I have in my post above is for New Versus city, which is more similar to Blast City than it is old Versus City (re-read the post, I originally referenced Blast but then realized that it didn't use the same io so I modified my post accordingly, you must have read it before the edit).

If your New Versus city uses the older style larger billboard equipment similar to the old Versus city then someone modified your cab and swapped in non-original parts.

I would recommend you start by confirming continuity between the JVS IO and the billboard module to make sure it's actually wired in. Most of the rest of it should be the same but on an (old) Versus city control board I believe Dip 8 has the same function as the jumper.
 
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For reference here is what the NVC Billboard display backs should look like:

P1 side:
nvc_master.jpg

P2 side:
nvc_slave.jpg


Notice that the P1 side is nearly identical to Blast City's module, except it has an extra output connector. This connector goes over to the P2 side, which is a stripped down version of the module that can only be controlled by the P1 side display.
 
It's Alive!!!


I'm very Happy, for this to work, you need to connect the 5V between the I / O and the billboard plus the data

In game:

 
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I've received parts to create a new connector for CN3 for the Versus City 838-11855 board. According to the schematic there are only 14 connections, 4 of them on the 12 position connector connect to the winners lamps, and on the 18 position connector I don't understand the power distribution.

Any chance I could get a diagram as clean and neat as your filter boards for the Versus billboard? I think that would greatly help me!
 
Any chance I could get a diagram as clean and neat as your filter boards for the Versus billboard? I think that would greatly help me!
it takes quite a bit of time to make those, and it's not really necessary for the billboard PCB since it's fully documented on page 67 here: https://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/images/5/56/Sega_Versus_City_Manual.pdf

the only reason I made those for model 2/3 is because there was no single document with all of the pins for all of the connectors documented, it had to be pieced together from various diagrams across half a dozen different manuals
 
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