Love your work
@twistedsymphony! But I'm a bit confused here
There is an Interface board which looks to be Universal, but then there are releases for specific multi kits - are both required or were the specific multi variants designed as standalone for testing and then merged into the main design?
Also the GitHub says that it works with Namco System 2 but your earlier post says that this won't be until v1.3 - can you confirm?
Edit: Sorry I just realised the specific multi variant ZIP files are the code bases for the different multi kits. Still want to check on the Namco S2
This is universal in sense that it's an open design that is flexible enough that for a lot of multis the design doesn't need to be changed for it to work and, any multi in development can easily add support for the selector design as-is. Like a "one-size fits all" t-shirt it will work in most cases but impossible to make it fit in every scenario.
there are essentially 3 parts to this setup
1. the Adafruit ESP32 Reverse TFT Feather PCB - this provides the CPU, the LCD, and the buttons this never changes and is the same for every multi
2. the software that I built that flashes into the ESP32 - this enables the Adafruit ESP32 Reverse TFT to function as a selector, this never changes and is the same for every multi, though being open source I expect new features and functionality to be added over time. For different multis we only need to setup new images and a configuration file to describe to the software how the multi works and what games are available.
3. the Interface PCB that I built (called the CAERFT and another variant called the AAERTF) this adapts the Adafruit board electrically to the multi. This is the least universal part of the system because I can't control how different multi developers decided to build their multi electrically. The CAERTF board is designed to connect to a 5V system and has a 10-pin connector with a specific pinout.
For the interface PCB I've used the CAERTF 10-pin setup for all of my multis and it's an open source design so anyone developing a new multi can easily add selector support by doing nothing else but adding a 10-pin header to their multi that matches this footprint (which I also provide).
I chose 10-pin IDC connector and 5V because 5V is the most common power setup on arcade PCBs and in researching harnesses I found that a 10-pin IDC is the cheapest and most widely available harness that people can buy off the shelf that isn't repurposed from something else (like USB or ethernet). So again trying to make this as widely usable as possible.
Apoc's System 18 and M92 multis used a unique 14-pin header and 3.3V power so as a result the CAERTF interface board design wouldn't plug into it. I was able to get it working with a really messy custom harness. But I took my open source interface board deisgn and modified it to match Apoc's 14-pin header. The result is that it uses the same Adafruit board, it uses the same software, but it has a custom IO board to make the wiring to Apoc's PCB perfectly clean.
As for DS's System 2, he's used the same 10-pin header that I designed the CAERTF interface board for. Unfortunately while he provides 5V power, the System 2 needs the outputs to only supply 3.3V so using the design as is would over-voltage the multi and cause damage. Again I was able to fix this cutting some traces and adding in a bodge wire on the CAERTF but that's not a very clean solution.
the V1.3 version of the CAERTF has some solderable jumpers to allow changing from a 5V or 3.3V configuration on both the input and out put of the board independently which fixes this issue and makes for a clean setup that is also backwards compatible with any multi that already worked with the existing CAERTF PCB design.
So yeah, the release pacages that you see on github are just the universal software for the ESP32 bundled with a configuration file and game images for the different multis, again to make this as easy as possible so all you have to do is download the zip and copy the files over to the ESP32 (just like a USB thumb drive). then plug it into your multi and you're done.... no software to modify, no configurations to tweak (unless you want to), just copy the files and start using it!
