Power Instinct edge connector: JAMMA? orly?

[aclbandit]

I just got my Power Instinct board in the mail today (this thing is HUGE, holy crap!), and wanted to play.

First thing I noticed: edge connector is labelled "JAMMA." Second thing: there's no key hole on pin 7, so it doesn't seem very "JAMMA" to me.

I removed the key from my JAMMA harness and plugged it in anyway, and it didn't do anything, but the BOARD (not my speakers) made a buzzing sound, so I powered off the machine as fast as I could. Hopefully that short time didn't hurt anything.

I read on someone's selling thread here that this board has NeoGeo pinout as opposed to regular JAMMA; KLOV says it's a "unique" pinout.

So, I have three different sources saying three different things about the pinout.

Help me make this thing work. I have a CPS-2 cab that has a standard JAMMA harness (sans audio pins), and a NeoGeo cab that also has standard JAMMA sans audio pins (it's one of the super-old one-slot cabs that has stereo audio from a different port on the board (i.e., NOT receiving its audio from the main JAMMA harness)).

If I need a Neo-to-JAMMA converter, one will actually be coming with the four-slot Neo board I'm picking up next week, so that won't be a problem if that's all it is.

Thanks, folks!

 

[Murray]

http://www.crazykong.com/pins/Powerinstinct.pin.txt ?

As for the weird buzzing / misconnect, I've done that with a board or two because one side of my cab's edge connector is broken and there's no key in it. I have yet to damage something because of it.

 

[aclbandit]

http://www.crazykong.com/pins/Powerinstinct.pin.txt ?

As for the weird buzzing / misconnect, I've done that with a board or two because one side of my cab's edge connector is broken and there's no key in it. I have yet to damage something because of it.

Okay, that's really odd. The diagram you linked shows it as basically straight-up JAMMA (WITH key), save for the addition of an audio ground pin just below the speaker pin (which doesn't necessarily exist, according to http://chrisevans3d.com/hardware/xbox/jamma_pinout.gif, and which my cab doesn't have either). Could it be as simple as adding an audio ground wire? Would that even matter if I don't have sound hooked to it?

 

[aclbandit]

Here's my edge connector, just to be totally clear about what I mean when I say it doesn't have a key:

 

[aclbandit]

AHA! Tried cleaning the JAMMA edge connector like I do my NES cartridges, and I got it to boot. The buzzing also stopped.

Trouble is, while the foreground characters are fine, the background colors are all wrong, and I don't know why. Any tips?
Pics of weird color follow; you can click 'em for a higher-resolution view.

 

[norton9478]

Yours is a boot

 

[aclbandit]

Yours is a boot

Definitely possible. I can post pics of the board to see what you folks think; they'll be incoming in the next couple of minutes.

 

[aclbandit]

Entire board:


Upper right hand corner (same orientation as first pic):


Bottom right hand corner (again, same orientation):


Raised chip along left side:


Let me know what you folks think.

 

[aclbandit]

May have answered my own question.

http://www.crazykong.com/pcbs/P - S/PowerInstinct1A.pcb.html

looks EXACTLY like mine. The other revision of the Power Instinct board also doesn't have a key hole.

Unless someone has a good reason for otherwise, I'll claim "NO BOOT" on this one.

EDIT: however, I still need to make it work right. Based on the board's curvature, seems they packed it a little TOO tight and it's bent a little bit. I'll leave it to flatten out, and probably try to reflow solder points that relate to color and graphics (assuming I can find those specifically. If not, I'll just melt 'em all).

Any other suggestions besides?

 

[Xian Xi]

Reseat all sub pcbs and socketed chips. And I dont mean push them in I mean take them out and reseat them.

 

[norton9478]

Huh, the atlus chips suggest otherwise.

Does it have any atlus screen printed on the PCB?

My pcb has a key connector.

 

[aclbandit]

Reseat all sub pcbs and socketed chips. And I dont mean push them in I mean take them out and reseat them.

Thanks for the suggestion, XX. As "no shit" as it might sound, I hadn't actually tried that.

Sadly, the status is still the same. There's not a single socketed chip on the thing as far as I can tell, but I did remove and reseat both subPCBs. I powered on, but there's no change.

EDIT: well, there IS that thing in the middle that looks socketed, but to my (untrained) eyes, it looks like the processor, so I shan't mess with it unless it's necessary and I have instruction.

 

[aclbandit]

Huh, the atlus chips suggest otherwise.

Does it have any atlus screen printed on the PCB?

My pcb has a key connector.

See the second pic -- it says (ATLUS) POWER INSTINCT, so if that answers your question...?

Also, the key "connector" is the weird thing -- all the JAMMA boards I have so far have a "hole" there, not a pin connector. But, based on the CrazyKong board pics, both the ones they have up there don't have the "hole", but rather the "connector pin that doesn't do anything apparently."

 

[norton9478]

See the second pic -- it says (ATLUS) POWER INSTINCT, so if that answers your question...?

Also, the key "connector" is the weird thing -- all the JAMMA boards I have so far have a "hole" there, not a pin connector. But, based on the CrazyKong board pics, both the ones they have up there don't have the "hole", but rather the "connector pin that doesn't do anything apparently."

I don't think the second pic was up when I made the post.

It is very interesting, and looks like it was at least official. But outside of the label markings, it has all the traits of a boot. No Jamma Key, stacked daugherboards, large footprint.

Perhaps Atlus farmed some of the work out to an operation that made boots?

Very interesting.

 

[aclbandit]

I don't think the second pic was up when I made the post.

It is very interesting, and looks like it was at least official. But outside of the label markings, it has all the traits of a boot. No Jamma Key, stacked daugherboards, large footprint.

Perhaps Atlus farmed some of the work out to an operation that made boots?

Very interesting.

You definitely have a point. Based on the only two images of the board I've found, though, it's legit (albeit weird).

I'll be redoing solder joints tomorrow-ish, maybe tonight. Hopefully I can fix it, but the seller on eBay was quite amicable and said he'd take it back if I can't get it going.

 

[norton9478]

how much did you pay?

Seems like every time I sell mine, i miss it. Then I go on ebay and boards are like $50/ea.

 

[aclbandit]

how much did you pay?

Seems like every time I sell mine, i miss it. Then I go on ebay and boards are like $50/ea.

Got it for something like $35 shipped. Not too bad, then, I guess?

 

[aclbandit]

Got it for something like $35 shipped. Not too bad, then, I guess?

Or, at least, wouldn't have been a bad price if I'd been able to make it work.

Reflowed a number of the solder joints, but seems like it works even less now. I've sent a message to the seller requesting a partial refund (since the price for shipping both ways is about the same as the board, and with a partial refund the seller still makes a little money and I'm not out as much).

If all that goes well, the board is free to anyone who wants it, just pay shipping. It'll be 'AS-IS' since it's totally busted.

I'll let you know.

 

[Xian Xi]

Your board is a little weird with the pinout. Jamma 10 is connected to ground for some strange reason when it should be speaker +.

 

[aclbandit]

Your board is a little weird with the pinout. Jamma 10 is connected to ground for some strange reason when it should be speaker +.

Don't think that would make the board do what it was doing, though -- working fine except for background color problems.

Also, it doesn't even work that much anymore. I have no idea. The seller refunded my money, though, so no loss I suppose.

Free to anyone who wants it. It's broken, I don't want it, I'm a student and I don't have the time to try and mess with it. Just pay shipping and it's yours.