A Couple Useful Test Devices

I was flipping through some photos I took recently and thought I could spend a few minutes showing off a couple test devices that I use to help figure out problems with my games. I have two devices that I put together that are useful in testing both PCB boards and monitors.

Jamma Conversion Test Board

The first test device I use on a regular basis is my Jamma Conversion Test Board. I wired up a short Jamma harness to a bunch of terminal strips mounted on a piece of plywood. I then take edge connectors of different lengths populated with wires that have spade connectors crimped to the ends of them. I then can hook these up to the terminal points on the jamma board, creating a make-shift jamma harness. This allows me to wire up any board that can be converted to jamma with the normal power requirements. Then I plug the harness of the board into my jamma cabinet. I used this board to test my Frogger PCB last week. It works great and is really handy to test several boards without their cabinets.

My Frogger PCB wired up to the Test Board for testing in my Jamma cabinet

Jamma Arcade Cabinet-In-A-Box

My other device is something I came up after the third or fourth time I pulled parts together to try to test a monitor. I used to test monitors by putting the monitor on a bar stool, pulling an arcade cabinet away from a wall, and hooking the monitor into the cabinet for a quick test. This was difficult and dangerous to do. It was too easy to damage something by dropping the monitor, messing up wiring, etc. I figured out that could assemble the core components of an arcade game: Power supply, isolation transformer, controls, speaker, and wiring into a box. Then all I would have to do is hook up a Jamma PCB with a good test pattern, and a monitor, and I would have a working arcade game. My first box was made out of an old wooden coin box from a poker cabinet. It was made up of pressboard and got wet one day, which ruined the wood. My currrent box is just made out of a plastic tote. It is much easier to lug around, and looks better too!

Old Arcade-in-a-box

Backside of the old Arcade-in-a-box

New rig, top view

Inside view of the new rig

Using the new rig to test out my Centipede monitor after a cap kit

Both of these devices have helped me quite a bit. They were both really easy to put together and I highly recommend building them yourself!