Has anyone ever built an arcade test station?

[TheBman80]

If anyone has ever built one have any pictures and maybe a description on how it was built or even web pages on the subject I would like to see it. I was thinking about this today and if I'm really going to get into this hobby it might be a good investment to troubleshoot boards. I was also thinking were could you get a small vector monitor to build a vector test rig I have seen it done with an oscilloscope before. Maybe you could use a Vectrex that had serious cosmetic issues to its case but that’s just B&W vector games. Is there a small color vector monitor out there like the size of a Vectrex? I would basically like to design a duel unit vector one side regular arcade monitor on the other oh and same question for the regular arcade monitor were could you source one the size of a Vectrex screen? Trying to get as compact as possible but with still enough viewing room to see the screen really well. I once saw a real Atari Vector test station go up for sale on eBay but it was too far away to pick up and I think the bidding was starting over $500 but I would have bought it if I had the cash.

[+remowilliams]

I built myself a JAMMA bench test unit quite some time ago. Sticks, buttons, speakers, power supply, and JAMMA harness with external video hookup to a monitor. It made messing around with boards far less annoying then trying them out in a full cabinet.

[TheBman80]

Yeah that’s exactly why I want to make one you can always make adapters for a game to convert them to JAMMA so wiring the test station to be JAMMA would be the best option. What kind of monitor do you use in it? I have seen LCD's and regular arcade type monitors used.

[MattG/Snyper2099]

I have a test rig at my office. It has a jamma harness hacked to hell with connections for pacman, galaga, and many other common arcade PCB's. In my opinion a 13 inch electrahome G07 is the perfect test rig monitor. If you need help hooking it up, shoot me a PM.

[+remowilliams]

Yeah that’s exactly why I want to make one you can always make adapters for a game to convert them to JAMMA so wiring the test station to be JAMMA would be the best option. What kind of monitor do you use in it? I have seen LCD's and regular arcade type monitors used.

I used a Sony industrial RBG/multi monitor, or one of the Commodore 1084s via RGB input. Both worked very nicely

[Cassidy Nolen]

Piece of plywood with an iso tranformer, speaker and a few microswitches wired to a plug for monitor and a JAMMA board and switching power supply. Basically a gutted JAMMA cab on a 8x10 inch board packed both sides with eletronics and a handle to hang it on. Works great for diagnostics on monitors (use the test pattern on the PCB) or power supplies. Using a Soul Edge board because its small and I don't care what happens to it. Honestly, I leave most board repairs to the pros. Not worth my time as I am not that good at chip level diagnostics.

 

I will agree the 13 inch G07 is a great choice. I think there was a 13 inch color vector in Tempest or Space Duel cocktails. Remember that uses a 63 V isolation transformer, not a 120 like rasters. If you need that iso board, I think I have a spare one.

 

Portability was my main concern as most work was done in the "field".

 

C

[chadtower]

That 13" vector monitor is HARD to find. He'd be better off adapting a vectrex, at least for b/w games.

[TheBman80]

That 13" vector monitor is HARD to find. He'd be better off adapting a vectrex, at least for b/w games.

 

Yeah that’s what I was thinking I never heard of anyone doing it before though. Like I said above if one could be found that was beat to hell and back case wise but still worked it would be no good as a collector item and perfect for a test rig monitor.