Original Project Thread: https://www.aussiearcade.com/topic/56317-generic-aussie-cab-restore/
I picked this cab up from a Tip Shop a few weeks ago now when I was dumping a load of waste. I couldn’t believe it was there and it seemed no one else wanted it. I was hoping it was working but they would not let me test it so I bargained them down to $70.00 citing the potential cost of repairing monitors etc. So I it home anyway to rescue it!
I am told by ex operators that this type was typically a card machine frequently seen in pubs but someone in the past had converted it.
The locks had no keys so I had to drill them out.
Once I got it open I sadly discovered that the 19″ tube had been broken at the back and was not salvageable.
The upside was the discovery of a 1942 PCB. I have no way to test it but still a nice find.
I’m not sure I’m keeping this cab as I simply do not have the room so I might re-sell it after I’ve reconditioned it as much as I can with spare parts.
First was stripping it down. I took all the metal parts out such as the hinged monitor door, control panel, bolts, rear handles, hinge and any outward facing bolts.
A quick wipe down and vacuum got rid of all the old dust, debris and cobwebs from a long storaged machine.
I threw the old monitor, yoke and chassis away as effectively useless for me.
Stripped monitor door and control panel.
A light sand of all steel components with fine grit sandpaper and then 3 coats of satin black spraypaint to bring the components back to new. I also sprayed all of the bolts so that they blend into the black timber panelling.
The monitor plexi was held onto the door with double-sided tape which I had to carefully separate so that I did no damage or scratches.
Once separated I then had to remove the tape from both parts. The rainbow colour on the plexi has been sprayed on from the back so I had to ensure that I removed the residue without lifting the paint which was successful. I’ll put it back together using new double-sided tape once it’s all done.
The control panel was fitted with a single player setup. A black MCA joystick, 2 player buttons, Player 1 Start, Player 2 Start buttons and a small single button to the right. I suspect that this had been rigged as a credit insert button as it looks to me it had been sitting in someones home for years and there was no coin mech installed anywhere.
The MCA was rat shit, so I’ve replaced it with a spare (I have about 14 of them). Unfortunately I don’t have any black ones so I’m using a single yellow I had that matches the yellow in the panel.
All of the buttons I’ll reuse as they are all fine including the micro-switches. The credit button however will need to be replaced as the top has snapped off. I’ll need to try and source one as I’ve never seen one of these before and I don’t want to drill a bigger hole.
You can see the restored top unit below.
I spent some time wiring up a new power supply, jamma harness and 60-1 board. I decided to use the 60-1 as this cab was a vertical cab and the bezel and monitor shroud were being re-used.
I’m a real weenie when it comes to electricity so was concerned about wiring mains 240 power to the arcade power supply but 2 You Tube video instructions later and I re-wired a std power plug into the arcade power supply within 5 mins. Hooked up the Jamma harness to 5volt, 12volt and ground points on it and test-fired the arrangement. The power supply, board and monitor all turned on, the board initialised and after the 60 second startup (why so damn long?) I had the iCade menu displaying and running.
I tidied up all the wiring and used cable ties to neaten it all up. It always surprised me how much room there is in an arcade cab. Really the monitor takes up most of the room.
I’ve gone with an LCD as it’s the easiest for me to mount although I do have several spare 19″ crt PC monitors hanging around if I feel the need to change it to a CRT look.
I ended up modifying the monitor frame to accommodate the LCD. I also created a new internal bezel to suit using 3 ply and sprayed it black to blend it.
Once bolted together the monitor sits nice and flush to the front door.
I’m creating an instruction card to suit the unpainted space left in the exterior bezel that will fit flush. Unfortunately my colour printer is almost dead so I need to wait till after eater to print it at work before I can remount the exterior bezel. I’ll update this thread once done.
Thanks to www.aussiearcade.com members Homepin and DavidAVD knowledge and part I’ve also mounted a volume control onto the rear of the cab. This is wired in between the Jamma harness speaker output and the speaker inside the cab. I’ve re-used the single speaker that was already in the cab and mounted the control knob into a std button hole that a previous owner had drilled into the back. It’s come up pretty nice and fits really well.
The back of the cab also had a large square cut-out that gave access to the old monitor yoke but there was no cover. I bought a grill piece, sprayed it black and mounted it. It looks pretty good.
Front View minus exterior Bezel
Now with bezel, instruction card I created and running Time Pilot!
Not long after I completed this restore I ended up swapping it for a really nice 7 drive Thecus NAS which I still have as a backup to my XPenology headless server that I’m running.