11-28-2023, 04:54 AM (This post was last modified: 03-06-2024, 02:51 PM by Um Jamma Yammy.)
Despite the title, it's actually the dedicated Tekken 5 (No idea what the official Namco Assembly is called), which had later a conversion kit for Soul Calibur 3 (I read that it could also be purchased up front from factory as such) but nothing to go back to an OLD game like Soul Calibur 2!
Wired for JAMMA, it's very similar in looks to the Sega Naomi Universal Cabinet and Sega New Net City. Height adjustable, wide panel for two players. Height is either sitting or standing position.
Here is the cab as it was originally loaded,
And a standing shot (blurred due to being in someone's house),
And a view where it currently sits, of all the base internals,
The two things right away, is we will require a monitor for it. The Namco System 246 shown, is not coming with it.
Here are some details for the CP since we got that in this weekend:
The panel has knockouts to make it 6 button but since this is straight up the Soul Calibur 2 machine, we're not going to knock those out. Plenty of other stuff exists already for 6 and 8 button titles.
Serenative getting an order going for controls here . . 3D players going to be eating good he says ! Nooo doubt !
Sounds like we may have someone in the area where the rest of the cab currently sits and can bring it down. We have the card reader and monitor bezel. Natively uses a flat tube. Looking at the bezel here, Wess and I noticed something interesting.. Nice fit huh..?
Yeah, the usual. Can't know anything without hard data, like having the cab here and pulling that tube to investigate in person but this is not a bad starting point!
Modify for RGB depending on which chassis we have here, and if not suitable, these pop up for free all the time in various models of this size.
Yes, dedicated Soul Calibur 2 but also just good 3D 4 Button dedicated cab. A lot we can do here, so.. Let's see where this thing goes!
12-02-2023, 05:47 PM (This post was last modified: 12-02-2023, 05:55 PM by Um Jamma Yammy.)
We've got a basket for the monitor ordered thanks to the Patreon! The two on the left are 25" Universal frames, the one on the right is a 27". The 27" is the one we're going to be working with. I can't imagine the size of the box this thing is going to come in..
Here are some more pictures of the cab base interior to share,
And how the bolts for the monitor frame sit,
Here is one of the possible donors, which is listed as having the BA6 chassis which does component, has it on board and does look fantastic.
That'll work well with the current retail PS2s we use for things like Soul Calibur 2 and when we upgrade to a System 246. Going from RGB to Component wouldn't be bad at all! So we also have further options from there on out.
To note when looking at any 27" Trinitrons, the BA5 can be modified for RGB, the BA6 can not.
Attached the Sony Trinitron KV-27FS120 Service Manual, Sony Trinitron KV-27FS120 Operating Instructions and Sony BA-6 Chassis Training Manual.
12-10-2023, 11:38 PM (This post was last modified: 12-12-2023, 06:51 PM by Um Jamma Yammy.)
Monitor frame arrived!
We got a NEOTEC NT-500DXP7 monitor frame! Bought as a "Universal Wells Gardener Style 27" Monitor Frame" and ID'd from the following tags,
Attached the manual for the monitor though it says nothing about the frame, just has some chassis schematics and mentions a Tube Manufacturer for DXP7 model. From what I found, the tube that was in this was also a 27" flat tube with a digital chassis that was also a multi-sync.
During KITHMAS-Eve, I got the monitor frame assembled. Not going to load the tube until the cab arrives, just to not have to stow an open frame CRT (nowhere to store that) but we're all set for it!
Another big milestone, we got in the levers and buttons! As mentioned in an earlier post, rocking the following:
Crown CWL-309MJ-KMS-ST35 Levers
Crown/Samducksa SDB-202 MX 30MM Screw In Buttons
Wired in EIE I/O and testing it out on the PS246,
The controls are fantastic. The spacing of the buttons and sticks are PERFECT, you can both sit side by side, directly facing forward, nobody at an angle. This thing is STURDY too. Considering how the monitor sat so much lower and was still great, I can't even imagine getting this thing loaded onto the cab.
This thing saw a LOT of play. Just as it is.
And the impossible has happened..! This all started with a stomach ache inducing hunt (especially the thought of never getting one of these) for the SC2 CPO.
So far the only photo I can find of an old NOS CPO is this,
And sadly the only person who got one (most likely that one) had scanned it, done restoration of it (looks to be just some color correction but could of been more) and that's it. Private collection, not available.
In this hunt found some cool stuff, so you have the overlay shown above. Then there is a decal kit. It really took a lot of digging to find, but found a picture of a cab using the entire decal kit that went along with it!
You can see the circle upper side art and the big side art down at the bottom. I've seen people stick the circular one on the control panel like this, to fill the big empty ocean area on a Dynamo Showcase (The actual "Showcase", it's a Band-Aid situation lol)
Nice move. That big open area is kinda lame left empty.. With those images, among some others to try and figure out the best details we could , enlisted some help of a very talented local artist, the guy who actually did my Egret II and NEO 29 arcade sticks, to re-create this freaking CPO for us.. Only with ours, we have a special little addition! Unoriginal and better, the Araiguma way, we're rocking the Soul Calibur II logo right in the bottom center of the panel!
I got some dimensions together, along with the print area for the shop who is going to run us the CPO on polycarbonate coated 3M air-egress vinyl (stuff on the Dynamo HS-1 (currently CE all over it), and then the full panel dimensions so he could take a photo of it, and do all his awesome magic and actually scale the thing to know where to place the logo!
And then he took the full panel face dimensions so he could take a photo of another panel, and do all his awesome magic and actually scale the thing down to know where everything needed to go!
So this is a rough idea of what our panel will look like:
Right now the plan is to use button 3 and 6 knockouts so we have some different layout options. We've got a box of button hole plugs that came with some other cabs to use.
Soul Calibur 2
Tekken Tag
Tekken
As for the instruction space between the two memory card readers, that is something he is open to the in the future, a scan is best but could re-draw the entire thing if we had a good enough image. Emailed to inquire on the size of the Japanese ones, thinking we can throw that there in the mean time.
And this is where things currently are! Need to get the marquee ordered next, but not till the CPO order goes through.
Here is for reference, a couple of the original advertisements for this machine:
Also attached, the Tekken 5 Cabinet Adjustment Manual
Alright, the marquee has been ordered. We got a hook up on the Soul Calibur II marquee for this cab:
I do not have the files or I'd share them here and say take it to your favorite translite print shop but yeah.. Lots of people online selling this marquee, you can contact and ask for this size,
The factory dimensions are: 28.75" x 9"
Had a look at first up for our donor CRT, and see this nice impact there?
What has that done? This! Your first thought may be, oh it needs degaussed. But this is not quite that.
So what's happened here? I can only guess at this point but it looks like the magnets fell off the back of the tube.
Using a magnetic change holder for an old car (strong enough to reach that part of the tube, sliding from all the way at the rear forward)
Well it seems that the magnets they glue on the backs of these tubes fell off!! You can see what also looks to be yolk separation causing the bowing there on the upper left hand side. Once we get the case open, I would assume we'll find them hanging out somewhere in the bottom of the case..
If you check the service manual, attached in post #2 titled: Sony Trinitron KV-27FS120 Service Manual.pdf and navigate to page 13, you can see the following:
Lines up with our color purity issues perfectly and the evidence of a hard impact at some point, the evidence at this time strongly points to the magnets being knocked off. Will post pics of em when we find em!
Though before messing with that, there is a lot that can be done in the service menu!!
So this is done by
In an earlier post we identified that this Chassis is a BA-6 as marked on the rear of the TV. Looking that up, or in the manual you can see it clearly states it's a "one chip" digital system. So what I said in the first post, no RGB mod. Though, we have component input and I don't think anyone will visually be able to tell the difference.
That said, pulling up the service menu, at the bottom there you see the "M65582AMF-102FP". That's our "one chip" that is our signal processing and microcontroller that handles everything. Attached, is a datasheet for this IC.
Something to note about tuning. In our case, tuning this sitting here on the floor is not a good idea. There is going to be a difference in appearance for sitting 4-5 ft away and 1ft away from the display. So we're going to want this display mounted up in the cab before doing anything there.
Next step will case removal, pulling all the boards, mounting the tube, and figuring out where to stick the BA-6 chassis. Which I would say we can really be in luck here because going from the BA-5 to a BA-6 they really cut back on the boards!
Referencing the BA-6 Training Manual again in Post #2, page 7:
Something else nice this system does, is remembers it's last state on power up. Though for how long is unknown to me. I'm turning it on now, unplugging and going to plug it back in tomorrow and see if comes back on after a good 24 hours. This is important because the monitor will power up as soon as the cab power switch is flipped.
I do see that it's got an EEPROM (IC002) stores up to 99 entries worth of errors! Page 40 of the BA-6 Training Manual details how to access this history. This might also be storing the last known power state.. Just tested this after 24 hours and.. It recorded the state!
Know what else? We got the new machine loaded and it's in route!
I did noticed the monitor exterior bezel is missing the cool NAMCO decal, so I found one of those and got it ordered.
Next post we're really going to dive in deep on this thing!
You might notice the monitor frame sitting in there kind of strangely. And this is another point of discussion with something first good to note. This 27" monitor frame, when we had sitting in just resting in it's position you see above, we attempted to put the back shell of the cab on and... It smacked the rear of the frame.
We had thought the frame was too long. But today I was looking at something else and got curious. I looked at the monitor frame and thought.. Oh.. Looked over at the rear panel.. We totally had it upside down!! So the monitor frame clears fine, showing here:
I wanted to note this, since I prolly won't be the only one who makes this mistake but we got that sorted!
Next up issue. The reason the frame is just sort of oddly resting there, is due to the fact.. We're missing a bracket. This cab may take all US/Imperial Standard hardware, but it's monitor does not mount directly to the "Dog Ears" of the monitor frame like most other cabs in this country.
Normally on US made cabs, at least wood ones to my limited knowledge (by way of only what I've seen) this would be a completely flat area, with the center cut out, of wood, and you bolt the frame to this, in the spots marked in pink.
This cab however requires the following, and I've nabbed this perfect photo from a video of a guy putting an LCD in this cab, so you can see the brackets:
Goldish in color, are the alodine (or whatever brand of the same chemical) coated brackets we need to mount ours. Looking at crap loads of monitors online, I saw that this wasn't some specific thing to this cab. Matching them up visually from low-rez photos, so some holes may need to become slotted for minor adjustment being that everyone's tolerances are different but check these out for reference:
I reached out to a lot of different operators to see if anyone had these. The previous owner has no clue what he did with the old frame, said it was warped and no idea. So we'll see who can come up with what, but this really eased my mind in terms of how difficult this part would be to find!
With all that said, the CPO will be here tomorrow and we get to go back into more artwork reproduction talk!! Only with a Soul Calibur 2 twist!
First off the card reader decals. We're having these re-done but in blue instead of red:
Then doing the Namco logo up here but in Blue,
From this pic we were finally able to find some more stuff we're missing:
The left door is for a bill acceptor, and the center is the card reader dispenser. Ours are also bare so we're recreating these, again in blue instead of red.
We know what the card dispenser says from this image:
The bill changer is a tougher one.. Just google 'Tekken 5 Dedicated Arcade Machine (Or Cab)' and see for yourself how many variations you're going to get.
This is the closest I can find so far, but has a sticker over the factory one,
This for example, doesn't even have the 3 door option! I say option, but due to an extreme lack of documentation, we have zero evidence in reality of how any of this was handled.
But a great example!
If you look at the arcade flyer in a previous post, you wont see any decals at all. Which makes sense, you would most likely have a decal kit. Just due to the versatile nature of this business.
So those are the next bits of decals being done.
Going to start prepping the control panel tonight. Have a crap load of hardware ordered because we're missing 80% of the bolts and the other 20% are suuuuper rusty.
Excited for the next update on this one! Things starting to fall into place!
So I started working on some of the decals myself! Wanted to try and get as close as I could but in blue to match all the other SC2 blue. Here is a mockup of how it might look like a previous panel mockup but added the card reader decals:
Got the files ready to cut, these won't need to go to a print shop like the CPO for the decals.
A nice action shot of the printing:
And the cutting process!
Now on to the card dispenser.. It normally says Tekken as you can see in the last post.. I'm changing that shit you already know
After this is the missing Namco logo. Going with a darker blue, that is the majority of the marquee to match like this, doing a mockup on the cab as it sits now to get an idea of it
Can't currently print this one due to lack of the clear transfer sticker paper stuff for vinyl. But in the works!!
The next thing to make is a Soul Calibur 2 version of this instruction strip for Tekken 5. This is like the highest resolution pic of it I can find, and part of it is torn off but it's a good reference point..
We were talking about it on Discord, Vic is going to take a shot at it, then I think I would be tasked with all the text, with Serenative figuring out what all it should be saying. That said, Serenative just bought us the JDM SC2 kit right there!! I was looking at this to scoop it for a couple weeks now but I am so fucking broke.. He's like, yo send me a link. Copped it.. DUDE SERIOUSLY THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN!
So we're going to have the sick ass topper on there! Little mockup of that,
My original idea was to scan that instruction sheet, do a new background, and change it to English. So now, all this stuff is going to be scanned in, and I'll upload it all raw as it is for anyone to download once it all comes in. I'll make our version (English stuff) available also for download.
As for the general instructions decal, the fitting dimensions for the strip, leaving 1/4" on either side between the card readers, is:
18" Width x 3-1/4" Height
If anyone wants to print their own of the 3 decals that are done now, I can share these since I made these ones, kinda doubt it but hey here they are. If you wanted them for Tekken, you can always change the blue to red and update all the fonts to those of your liking.
Update tiiiiiiiiiiime! I've been super busy.. But here we go!
Got the CPO in and the panel work all done. Took a shit load of hammering a cloth wrapped wood block to get the warping out of it, which was really apparent once getting the old CPO off. Also got the knockouts done so we could change the button arrangement and have other options if we ever wanted.
Next up was getting all the vinyl off the front kick plate, which was done by using a hair blow dryer and slowly peeling up while heating up the adhesive.
There is still some that needs to come up, but I've not been doing so hot so I had to kinda put a pause on the usual effort, but it's just a matter of removing coin doors to get the rest off.
Back on the topic of decals, I was finally able to solve what the one OEM decal would be over the bill acceptor door for purchasing cards!! So I got that done and had someone assemble the decal print sheet for me here:
And here it is with all the coin door decals, the card reader panel decals and the NAMCO logo on the outside frame,
Something else cool, I was able to get a hold of some scans, part of the kit that Serenative had donated for the cab, so this spot is next on the art creation list, the general instructions strip,
Someone had reached out and actually provided a scan of this one, part of the kit we were going to scan and make a localized version of it,
As for the general instructions decal, the fitting dimensions for the strip, leaving 1/4" on either side between the card readers, is:
18" Width x 3-1/4" Height
This is the OG US Soul Calibur 2 basic instruction sheet, 3 photos stitched together:
We're going to get this scanned this weekend. Right now we've been working with this one here,
This is the "Translation Copy" with has a loose translation that will have the text language of the one above, but we do have a full scan of the JPN SC2 Ver, here it is currently having all the Japanese removed,
If anyone wants to print their own of the 3 decals that are done now, I can share these since I made these ones, kinda doubt it but hey here they are. If you wanted them for Tekken, you can always change the blue to red and update all the fonts to those of your liking. I could really see this being useful for people keeping it Tekken, since sooooo many photos I saw didn't have any of these decals. Remember, these are not 1:1, just me having fun and doing my best to get it as close as possible. If you're looking for exact accuracy, hire an artist to recreate them and provide really good reference images and measurements
Sizing:
1P Card Reader Decals: 2-1/8" Width x 3" Height (Printing Size) 2P Card Reader Decals: 2-1/8" Width x 3" Height (Printing Size) Card Dispenser: 4" Width x 6" Height (Printing Size) Card Purchase: 4" Width x 6" Height (Printing Size) Namco Logo: 6" Width x 1-1/2" Height (Printing Size)
Note, the card purchase decal is spelled correctly in the uploaded link in the event you want the straight up SC2 version. Otherwise, just colorize it red, find a font you can match best and type it in how you want. The white area is where you write the card cost. The NAMCO logo is red you will notice. It was not printed, but cut from blue vinyl.
This is the color spec for the blue used on everything:
With who you take these to, they might have to change some sizing on the actual PNGs, not the image of the "canvas" or whatever else. But they are the exact ones we used to do this!
Also at the end of this build, all of the attachments relevant will be posted in one thing so you won't have to dig for anything. All the move strips will get uploaded in their own forms so people can do their own thing, own languages and whatnot with them too.
Next up... We unlocked a majorly needed, as you all know piece.. Not just those brackets, but sent the entire Sanwa frame we need!!!!!! Coach Konami has sent us this!!! Which will freakin' be here tomorrow! Next post to detail the tube install to the frame,
So there are two possibilities here. He cut the bracket, or it's two pieces' on the 29PF31. Here we have the frame from the 29E31S and these two pieces do not separate. Someone would have to compare and look at other frames to see if someone has some that come off. Someone said he had those exact brackets pictured above, said he would post pics but never did.
But the frame is here!! Pictured on the stairs because I was dissembling it to take a top piece and single side piece to the hardware store to collect up the rest of what we need! At least close to for today!!
Got to the hardware store, had to guess on the standoffs for the inside of the monitor but the rest I was able to figure out by bringing it in,
So the above, shown mounted below is the following sizes:
These should be installed always in the following order. Pictured below shows them not all bolted together to visually see the detail but it goes in this order:
Then quickly finger tight everything in to fit the rear, throw the back shell back on and see how it looks!
I also got some bolts for the rear frame brace holes,
Which all this is going to be detailed in it's own post. This is because the next step will be to fit the frame to the Tube to know how far spaced the side bars need to be. Once I have that figured out, I'm going to go back to the hardware store and buy some steel flat rods and make a rear brace, top brace and then do the bottom braces which will also hold the chassis. Super excited!
And, I wanted to wait to detail this but a System 256 is being donated!! So we're moving away from the PS246 soon! There is more to this, and I don't have confirmation on crediting donors right now with this one, plus it's also a whole separate post! And some seriously wild shit...
Frame has been worked out, @themisterfalcon from Birdland has been super helpful in sharing a lot of knowledge about stuff. Like when I mentioned the spacing of the "side bars", turns out you size them to fit the width you need for the chassis. Also no additional bracing is required.
So I've got those spaced correctly, and one issue we ran into was that the "dogears" on the tube were not compatible. They had to be modified by opening them up with a file so fit our bolts though. Nothing terrible, but we might run into mounting issues pretty slightly and will need to pull the monitor back out, frame back off and make adjustments and put it back in again.
Next up, with a consumer assembly, you have a really large chassis. Arcade chassis do one thing. Make video. They don't have audio sections, they don't have a tuner section, they don't have a crap ton of different input options, all this extra stuff a home user would need. Arcade chassis is purpose built to control a tube.
So what needs to be done is a few things. Figure out the size and position of the original chassis plate, what all can be removed for clearance, and what if anything needs to be relocated by lengthening cabling. Thankfully this BA-6 chassis combined like 5 boards, it's a lot less work.
So here was the chassis holder, clamped to a chair ready to be sawed down after all the measurements were marked (camera not really picking up the pencil marks here),
It was not as simple as a just cut in half thing, I had support I needed retained and a few other things like locking tabs, then had to like cut corners for specific clearance so here is a big pile to give an idea LOL
I forget what the hardware store called this stuff. I saw where this was used to mount rails for the big electric bay door opener here and thought, hey that might save me from having to borrow a drill.. Did some measuring and really lucked out.. So I got this bar, cut it in half, leaving some overhang (for a reason) and bolted it up, then made a cardboard template of the chassis plate and even added a wedge to show heights of certain components (no pics..) and eventually came up with this position,
So the way it will work in the end, the frame/tube will be loaded, then the chassis slides in from the side (because the entire back shell of the cab removes, so this is design specific to being able to side load it),
Take note of all that excess? That is an arm killer to use my hack saw with.. I dooo have the right blade, I'm just mad weak sometimes lmao but that's besides the point.. That is there, because templates or not, it's possible something might come up that I didn't account for. I might need to slide the chassis to one side or the other and I don't want to lose any under side support. Dude to the curvature of the tube, I might be able to say, fit the flyback if I slide the entire thing to the right.
So the next step will be, get some help to lift this thing up, and mount it up in the cab, make sure I opened the tabs enough to allow us tolerance to slide back and forth to hit the standoffs here,
The objective of this sort of thing when you have to mod due to budget or whatever else your restriction is, is to mod the replaceable object, nothing else. So this means no drilling monitor frames, no altering the cab. Make brackets or adapters if anything. In this case, I modded this old tube's dogears and some internal plastic crap.
This way, the day this thing actually dies, which might not even happen for another 5 to 10 years, but then we'll be in a better position to get a purpose built assembly rather then a converted home use assembly.
So once the tube is mounted up in the cab, after a chance of it not lining up and mating properly and needing taken down a filed a little bit (it won't be much, if I didn't nail it the first time, there is a non zero chance I didn't get it), we can slide the chassis in and check it's fitment.
Once the chassis is fitted and if we need to make any adjustments, the tube will come out, adjustment will be made, and the hardware will be finalized. This includes cutting away excess metal, deburring anything that was drilled, keeping any cut edges rounded off, that sort of thing.
Then the entire monitor will go back in the cab, and get hooked up to the PS2 while we wait for the System 256, which again, really excited to detail!!!!!!!! But it's saved for another post! Here is the chassis, chilling, ready to be slide in once the tube is up to the cab.
Now, I'm going to be physically out of commission but I think if get three people over here and some beers, we might be able to get this all mounted up in the cab. If that's the case, this could be ready by this coming Saturday, though most likely the Saturday after. We'll see how this week goes.
Next post is going to detail the monitor loading, a brief explanation on any adjustments for fitment because that might be useful for someone who finds themselves in our position at this point. And then, of course, how everything will be wired to it which will include it's own wiring diagram since there are some specifics I'm going to want to put in place, like additional grounding.
I almost don't want to detail this stuff, but it might be one of those things that plants a seed on how AC stuff works, and grounding and whatnot. So that'll be in there once designed. Right now, the big thing that matters, is mechanically. Does everything get in.
If you have one of these cabs without a monitor, and you can just get an already loaded monitor to the right frame, well. There is other info here for you. Or if you want decals recreated. Something for everyone.
Monitor mounting. The control panel needs to be removed and the entire cab laid on the ground. The horrible act of trying to load one of these with the cab tilted forward to where the monitor was loading perpendicular to the wall. Don't do this. This is a nightmare.
Something else to note, this cab is height adjustable. MAKE SURE ALL THE STOP BOLTS ARE IN PLACE BEFORE TIPPING THIS THING. The mfer will adjust on you and smash some hands.
Laid a thick stack of moving blankets across the floor to lay the cab across
I also screwed a protector (bar of wood) to the control panel mounts as this thing was bent to shit when we got it. Possibly from someone laying the thing down to remove the monitor the first time, or just from the weight of the panel. Structurally it's not a great design.
Then the cab easily tips forward and can be made to lay parallel to the floor,
The cab still needs slid back so that two people can walk the monitor assembly over the top of the cab to get into position to lower it into place. Which we did! And it took a lot of pulling the monitor out, hammering and putting it back in because the plate the monitor mounts to like everything else, was super warped but we got it in!
Bolt everything, stood it back up..
Finally lit up the marquee too!
Here is everything almost together, just need to bolt up the control panel.. Right now we're running off the PS246.
The cab is fully wired and playable, so with my short term leave happening, I can at least know, Soul Calibur 2 is ready to go as it stands!
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but we got that sorted!
