How can I build my own MV-ELC Luminescent Marquee Replacement?

I have been fixing up a Neo Geo 6-Slot cabinet. There really wasn't a lot of work to be done. I had to install the monitor, rebuild the power supply, and install the 6-Slot PCB. Thanks to Briggs and <a href="http://www.hardmvs.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hardmvs.com/</a>it wasn't very difficult.

One of the things that I received with the cabinet was a MV-ELA circuit board. You can see a picture of one at <a href="http://www.hardmvs.com/html/marquee.htm" target="_blank">http://www.hardmvs.com/html/marquee.htm</a>. I am wondering what I can do with it. It would be nice if I could find a couple of MV-ELC panels (and the connections for them), but it seems that they are pretty rare.

I was wondering if anyone could help me learn how this MV-ELA board works and perhaps help me build some sort of lighting system for my cabinet. I would even be happy if each mini-marquee had a LED behind it (in addition to the main flourescent bulb) that lit up when that cart was selected.

I found some information about the MV-ELA board in the 4-Slot PDF manual. Output pins 1-6 are labeled EL1-PWR through EL6-PWR. Would it be as simple as just hooking up a light bulb (or LED) to EL1-PWR and GROUND? What kind of voltage comes through EL1-PWR? It doesn't seem like it would be AC.

Anyway, if anyone can point me to more information about this, or if you can offer some assistance, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

[ November 19, 2002: Message edited by: Flavor ]</p>

Ummmm, what happened to the 2 other posts that were here? Toddy replied and I replied to his post. Am I missing something.

Anyway, Toddy, I was wondering what you know about the inputs to the MV-ELA board. The PDF I have shows it has a +5VDC input, but you said it was +12. Do you think the PDF is wrong? I'll test it tonight.

Then, there's a clock, a ground, and 5 "D" inputs. What are these "ELA D0" through "ELA D4"? Maybe I could just demultiplex them to get a single output for each mini-marquee.

Any thoughts?

Yeah some posts have dissapeared, on other threads to. Whats going on ?
Thought the ELA had a 12 volt supply, will check this.

[ November 19, 2002: Message edited by: ttooddddyy ]</p>

In the past, I've had at least 2 of my posts disappear before. I assumed that I had said something wrong, but this time, that's not the case.

I had changed my profile to say "Minnesota" instead of the previous "Midwest", and that changed back to "Midwest" too. It seems like they restored a recent backup or somehow the recent changes to the database got lost.

Whatever. That's not really my concern, though. If you can tell my about how that MV-ELA board works, I'd be happy. I'll run some tests tonight, myself. I think it'd be fun to have some sort of indicator as to what game was currently selected.

I have always assumed it was 12 volts, will check it out. It could well be running off the 5 volt rail.

Shouldnt make assumptions I guess.

Well, I did a little testing.

On the input of the ELA board, it seems to have a +5VDC and a ground (straight from the power supply). The rest of the pins come from the PCB. One seemed to be a clock (like the PDF said) and I couldn't figure out the rest during my limited testing.

On the output side of the ELA board, it seemed that there were (at least) 6 outputs that coincided with the 6 Slots. The pin that matches up with the currently playing game got (what seemed to be) 165VAC while the other 5 pins got 115VAC. I assume that this is so all 6 lights are always on, but the current game's marquee is brighter.

That's about all I came up with. Does that seem to make sense? Can you tell me anything more?

Can you re-post the info about those outputs? I think that you mentioned the Hz and V of the signals.

Thanks!

I scoped the ELA outputs to the lumi panels, it was approx 100 volts pk-pk at a frequency of 3.6 Khz. This was with faulty panels, there would be more of a load with working panels, so maybe the ac voltage would be lower in that case.

Actually, a good EL panel will take up less load. The black holes are burns where the panel shorts through.

Some electronic pamagzines sell such panels as electroluminescent panels. Those might do the trick.

If you want to do individual light bulbs or something, disable the high voltage and run the bugffered 74174 outputs to drive relays or transisteors to drive relays, then there ya go

Ahhh, yeah. It took me a while (and took some help from a couple co-workers), but now I think I understand exactlly what you're talking about. I haven't done any digital logic stuff in quite a while.

It seems that the inputs must get latched when the "clock" (brown ELA input wire) signal strobes. Then, they must get decoded into 6 separate signals (one for each mini-marquee).

I forgot how that latching worked, but now I think I get why that "clock" signal is there.

Anyway, I think I might build a small board (or wire into the current board) to just run some LEDs. I'll put a red LED right behind the number that's just above each mini-marquee.

Do you think that'll work? Am I on the right track?

If I get it working, I'll try to take some pictures/video of it working.

Thanks for the help!

I got it working!!!

You know how each mini-marquee has a number (1-6) above it? Well, now each number has a red LED behind it.

I still plan to get some pictures (and hopefully video) of it working. If anyone is interested in how I did it, I can post some instructions, too.