Mr SaLTy's Arcade
Power
 
 
 


Noise Filter
The power cord that went to the wall was attached to this power/noise filter and ran out the back of the cabinet to a wall outlet. I de-soldered these wires and soldered on a new power cord that was only about a foot long. This would plug into a power strip that I installed into the cabinet that would provide power to all the components in the cabinet.

Original Defender transformer
Original Defender power transformer

To provide the monitor and the marquee light with the correct power, I used the existing AC power transformer in the original Defender cabinet. This way I didn't have to worry about figuring out what kind of voltages etc. were needed for them, and I could use the original wire harnesses. This wooden board originally had the William's power board attached to it that converted the AC power the proper DC voltages that the game needed. I never had that board because of the conversion to Ghosts 'n Goblins. I cut some of the left end of the board off so it would take up less room in the cabinet.

Switches
I bought a power strip that had an on/off switch with it and opened it up and removed the switch. I then lengthened the wires that went to the switch so I could mount the switch next to the cabinet power switch. This power strip would provide a place to plug in everything in the cabinet and I would then only have one power cord coming out the back of the cabinet.

Power components
I mounted the PC power supply to the board that the transformer was on and then mounted the board to the bottom of the cabinet. Everything was then plugged into the power strip. By plugging the subwoofer system into the power strip, I could leave the power on the subwoofer on at all times and just turn it on by turning on the power strip.

PC power switch
Front panel buttons
I made a small bracket that was mounted under the front edge of the cabinet under the coin door that has the PC power switch and the PC reset buttons. There are also buttons for TAB, ~, MAME reset and PAUSE on this bracket.

The cabinet is now powered on like this:

First turn on the power strip. Then hit the PC power button to start the PC. It will boot and start the MAME frontend ArcadeOS. ArcadeOS will beep 3 times when it is loaded and its OK to power on the monitor. Then I hit the original cabinet power switch and the monitor and marquee lights are turned on. Then play games 'til the wee hours. :)

 
© 2003 Craig Dudle, All rights reserved.