New to the hobby

[Cereth]

Absolutely second the Brook Universal PCB. I have 6 myself. Also agreed on the Net City style cabs, I think I have a NAOMI Universal to part with but a lot of my wheels are busted. Haven't gotten replacements sourced for them yet

 

[adgenet]

Another vote recommending the Brook UFB. I use them in my sticks and they work great. Easy to work with for wiring as well.

A quick question regarding transformers. I hooked up that gigantic voltage regulator, and it seems to want to stick out a solid 96.5V (I was hoping for 100V). There is no external adjuster and I didn't feel like touching the pots on the controller pcb (there are two and I don't know what each is supposed to do).
Question is, is 96V too low?

 

[Kaede]

do you really must have a step down converter for a candy or vewlix?


with this and the Brook costs keep adding up

 

[thomas3184]

do you really must have a step down converter for a candy or vewlix?


with this and the Brook costs keep adding up

If you get a vewlix and keep the stock psu then you really do need that stepdown, should only be about $35 though. Yeah the hobby ain’t cheap if you want it all haha.

 

[Cereth]

Seconding the stepdown. I haven't had that problem for a long time and it all crept up on me at an inopportune time.

Also I forgot to post these .-.

This was my amateur job at putting JAMMA+JVS into a Vewlix. I have now years later actually tidied up the wiring and it's not bad I guess. Everything works. I'm sure there's cleaner solutions out there.

 

[adgenet]

That looks pretty good Cereth. I might go the same route and roll my own solution when the time arises.
Also for those who might be interested, I managed to get in touch with somebody at the manufacturer of that AVR and they eventually told me that VR1 is for adjusting output, and VR2 is for adjusting sensitivity (They mentioned to not adjust VR2 too much as it will lead to hunting and unstable output).
Highly recommend these Matsunaga SVC series AVRs if you want rock solid stable output regardless of input voltage fluctuations. Should in theory work perfectly for whatever power supplies I might come across and keep everything safe and in spec.

 

[jassin000]

Please everyone just a word of warning here...

IF you convert a Vewlix over to JAMMA via rewire method (a perfectly fine thing to do IMO) DO NOT CUT or otherwise damage ANY original cables without checking its VALUE first!
Some of these harnesses are worth a pile of cash from Taito direct, and us unmodified Vewlix owners want/need them.

costs keep adding up

You should really think about how much you'll play on this fancy new setup vs how much its going to cost.
Yes of course I think its worth it, but I'm not going to lie to you and say I didn't spend a shit load of cash on these things.

You also have some hidden costs, like sometimes you'll get a cab with no locks in it and you want some...
Then you realize Taito charges something like 25$ for a complete 1153 lock/key combo (and you still don't get the tangs with that).

Tangs not included

A cab takes at minimum 4 locks (if you use metric bolts/nuts to close the lower back hatch), so 100$ or 125$ with all 5 proper.

No real Vewlix cab is going to come with a two player panel installed.
Most want them, so if that's you... About 250~450$...

Depending on if you want the official wire harness included, or just the plate/overlay/bracket (always buy the sticks/buttons separately from Focusattack).

Then maybe you want some Taito stools to go with the cab?
That will run ya 160$ a stool, but oh no you can't buy just two...
You must order 8 minimum (but they may allow 4 if you beg them and order a lot of other shit at the same time).

It just so happens I'm looking for two more stools myself so I'm considering a group buy from Taito direct if anyone is interested PM me.

Arcade hobby is an expensive hobby, and IMO not for most people, no sugar coating that one.

 

[Cereth]

Thanks, that's really informative. I keep forgetting some of those parts pricing because I haven't made the effort to do orders directly myself yet. People have been asking a lot about Vewlix panel prices and I've been shitty trying to respond.

Also yeah don't cut shit PLEASE! That's one thing I avoid if I have to mod something in. I went so far as to put that PC power supply in so I wouldn't have to hit anything else. I was dumber back then so I could probably have made something to interface now, but yeah just in general, leave shit intact.

 

[Hatsune Mike]

For the curious, the word "tang" is a bit of a fun translation party.

English "tongue" --> Japanese "tanngu" タング --> English transliterated "tang". Once that third started showing up in manuals with games, I'm sure the word started to stick with operators and importers. Hence, "tang" refers to the lock set tongues, instead of the sugary beverage.

 

[Kaede]

Does anybody have any recommendations for a step-down converter? There are very few which support 100v.

 

[jassin000]

I got this 500watt from Amazon (its good for two Vewlix cabs at the same time, but not three).
I modified it for ground/3-prong (super easy to do) with some washers and by shaving down the left hand blade of this adapter.

Remove the top cover before removing this screw!

Washers close the gap flush to the body of the step down so it can be secured with the screw again.

 

[Kaede]

YES!, I was going to post the link for that exact same transformer

so a 500w will do for 2 cabs, it should work the same for a blast right? do I need to add just a power strip or splitter?

 

[jassin000]

Well hold on a sec... I said 500w for two Vewlix (modern LCD) cabs...
Blast City uses a CRT, CRT needs way more juice to be happy (and its from the mid 90s).

I'd splurge and get the 1000w if I was going to do to Blasts.
Yup I use a normal simple/dumb power strip down stream of the step down (that's why I needed my 3-prong adapter).
A fancy modern/smart power strip might not like 100v difference if its made for USA market?

 

[Hatsune Mike]

You do not need a 100V step-down converter to run a Sega Blast City, or virtually any of these cabinets. The Blast was even marketed in the United States as Sega Bass Fishing, and I don't think it had a change to the power supply or monitor chassis to accomodate the slight power difference.

The power consumption differences between CRT-based cabinets, and the first few generations of LCD-based cabinets (E.G. Vewlix) are exaggerated. ArcadeOtaku calims the The Taito Vewlix is rated at 230W, while the Sega Blast City is rated around 216W, according to the American Sega Bass Fishing manual. In fact, the Vewlix manual claims a rating up to 4.28A, but I think that is a maximum rating, and not an expected consumption under typical load.

 

[jassin000]

Just to further expand a little on this... You don't actually need a step down to run a Taito Vewlix either.
But the reason why I tell people that you do? Because of the Wei Ya power supply Taito used in the Vewlix!
If you run the Wei Ya without a step down, its 12v line will fluxuate wildly and DESTROY PCBS!

However if you have a Vewlix with a FastIO/X setup (X, X2, X3 etc) you don't have a Wei Ya (or even if you do have one installed you can disconnect it as its not needed).
A Vewlix configured for JAMMA or JVS is going to have/need that Wei Ya, and thus need a step down.

 

[Kaede]

i'm getting a blast and a vewlix together, looks like I made the right decision I don't want to be heavily modifiing these cabs just yet. I'll be using the blast for the mvs,naomi and cps systems. I'll use the vewlix for the modern stuff like ps4, pc and later maybe if I ever get type x.

I figured most people here use step downs just to be safe. I've a few Japanese consoles, I've run them through the outlet without any step-downs transformers with no problem so far.

 

[jassin000]

I'll be using the blast for the mvs,naomi and cps systems. I'll use the vewlix for the modern stuff like ps4, pc and later maybe if I ever get type x.

If I could make a slight adjustment/recommendation...

Use the Blast City for MVS, CP Systems and basically anything JAMMA/15khz.
But use the Vewlix for Naomi, console and PC, basically anything JVS/31khz+.

Sure Blast City has that nice Tri-sync, and I know tons of people are going to disagree with me on this but I've gotta call it like I see it...
Naomi looks better on the Vewlix LCD, sorry hard core CRT fans but that is my honest opinion.

JAMMA however, yea nothing is going to top a CRT in terms of that classic scanlined look.

 

[Kaede]

I'll be using the blast for the mvs,naomi and cps systems. I'll use the vewlix for the modern stuff like ps4, pc and later maybe if I ever get type x.

If I could make a slight adjustment/recommendation...
Use the Blast City for MVS, CP Systems and basically anything JAMMA/15khz.
But use the Vewlix for Naomi, console and PC, basically anything JVS/31khz+.

Sure Blast City has that nice Tri-sync, and I know tons of people are going to disagree with me on this but I've gotta call it like I see it...
Naomi looks better on the Vewlix LCD, sorry hard core CRT fans but that is my honest opinion.

JAMMA however, yea nothing is going to top a CRT in terms of that classic scanlined look.

since the option is there I don't see why not try it out eventually, I agree when it comes to 3D graphics there's nothing better than a LCD.

 

[RealMFnG]

Welcome aboard brutha. Where in the Bay Area are you located?

 

[Kaede]

I don't think this question is directed at me but i'm going to answer anyway since I've made this my own thread lool.

I used to live in the bay area, in watsonville to be exact but not anymore I moved to chicago 10 years ago

I have another question if anyone could answer how am I supposed to connect an HDMi cable to the vewlix?