Naomi Setup with no cab

[sparksterz]

So I'm looking to try to get a working Naomi setup without a cab. I've been doing a lot of research into the specifics of the Naomi system. Without a lot of prior knowledge of JAMMA cabs and the specifics of wiring them I'm a bit confused on how to separate the system from the cab.

My goal is to get a working Naomi system that I could then later put into a cab. From what I can tell I need the Naomi motherboard, an I/O converter which I'll probably be looking for a Capcom as I'm not too interested in GD Rom games, and a power supply.

Then comes the part I start to get a bit confused about. Sound I can output to whatever as Naomi can do straight audio out or I can run it through the capcom converter and get it amped. Video can do either low res @ 15khz or high res at 31khz so I should be able to view that on a standard computer monitor once I account for the correct dip switch setting. What I don't quite understand is how to power the I/O converter. I won't have a cab, so the Jamma connector will be missing. I could grab an entire control panel I suppose but most cabinets will already have one and it would seem like a big expense just to have an entire spare panel around.

I'm not really interested in playing the Naomi system this way so if I can get a system together with a power supply that works and see that the game can boot that would be sufficient enough for me. Then once I know I have a working system finding a bare cabinet to put it in I'm hoping should be a cinch.

So out of all this I'm wondering
A. Is this something that'd would be worth while, or am I overlooking something
B. Can I actually boot the Naomi without a Jamma connection to a Capcom I/O
C. Where can I find a good JVS power supply.

Considering my relative noobish-ness I'd like to be able to eventually make a guide to help people who have no familiarity what so ever with setting up a cab. I'm familiar with a couple non-jamma cabs that I have and a Mame machine I've built, but unfortunately it leaves me a little confused as to how JVS converts to Jamma in a candy cab.

Thanks for any help you guys can give me!

 

[WupWuh]

A Naomi setup with no cab eh?



In all seriousness though, have you thought about running Naomi through a supergun?


Edit: If you just want to run Naomi carts and have a Capcom I/O you should not need a JVS power supply. If you did want to eventually get into GD-Rom, you could keep an eye out for one of those Sega Sun power supply units.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-arcade-power-supply-for-Naomi-system-2-Initial-D-3-Working-/221365631606?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338a6b7a76

 

[sparksterz]

A Naomi setup with no cab eh?

View attachment 11247

In all seriousness though, have you thought about running Naomi through a supergun?


Edit: If you just want to run Naomi carts and have a Capcom I/O you should not need a JVS power supply. If you did want to eventually get into GD-Rom, you could keep an eye out for one of those Sega Sun power supply units.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sega-arcade-power-supply-for-Naomi-system-2-Initial-D-3-Working-/221365631606?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item338a6b7a76

Lol...I was waiting for that. I know a lot of people just go the pad hack route and dump them in. While I could do that I'd still like to get the real arcade hardware. I am a bit confused however I thought the JVS power supply would be necessary to power the Naomi motherboard.

 

[Tyranix95]

Lol...I was waiting for that. I know a lot of people just go the pad hack route and dump them in. While I could do that I'd still like to get the real arcade hardware. I am a bit confused however I thought the JVS power supply would be necessary to power the Naomi motherboard.

No, you need it to power the Expansion board set up (aka the Net/Dimm & GD Rom set up).

A switcher will power a cart and mobo just fine.

Just keep an eye on the voltages, and make sure the power levels do not drift.

 

[sparksterz]

No, you need it to power the Expansion board set up (aka the Net/Dimm & GD Rom set up).

A switcher will power a cart and mobo just fine.

Just keep an eye on the voltages, and make sure the power levels do not drift.

Hmm, I see. I didn't realize the Capcom I/O converted to 3.3v for the Naomi (I just found it buried on the Sega-Naomi google cache forum). So in that case my power all comes through Jamma, and then I use the connecting cable from the Capcom I/O to the Naomi mainboard to power it?

 

[Tyranix95]

Capcom I/O can't generate enough power to sustain the Expansion board setup. That's why you need a SUN PSU.

Switcher powers the Capcom I/O, Sun Powers everything else.

 

[sparksterz]

Now things are making more sense. So I don't need a separate JVS power supply unless I want to run expansion boards. I should be able to use a switcher for the basic power of the cabinet in general. The harness of the cabinet hooks up to JAMMA, so my image and standard power would plug into that connector as well...It does sound like I'd need a supergun to feasibly do anything. Is there not an easy way to make a Boots/Doesn't boot Jamma test rig? If I plan on putting it in a cab anyway I don't really want to devote the funds/space to make an entire proper supergun.

My main concern is picking up the items I need and having no way to actually test them.

Edit: The more I think about it, If I don't already have a JAMMA compatible cabinet it sure sounds like I'm trying to do this backwards...Would you guys recommend doing it the other way around?

 

[Tyranix95]

A jamma test rig is equivalent to a super gun.

I have no idea what you my by "image and standard power."

A naomi mobo plays 2 types of games: Carts and Expansion board games. The expansion board games are in the form of GD-Roms, CF Drives, and Boot Roms. The expansion boards are called Net/Dimm boards (depending on if you have a Network port on it or not). In any event, a switcher can run a naomi/cart setup; however it can not run a naomi/expansion board setup. For that you need to add a SUN PSU. The SUN PSU can provide the additional power needed to run the expansion board setup, and then some.

 

[skate323k137]

A NAOMI cart setup can be played on a supergun with a capcom IO, using the capcom IO to power the NAOMI

Anything with a DIMM (GD-ROM, CF, netboot) you disconnect the power between the IO and motherboard, and use a separate PSU (Sun) for the NAOMI itself. The capcom IO still gets its power via the supergun.

At that point all your controls are on the supergun via the jamma edge on the capcom IO. Video and audio you can take directly from the NAOMI from the RCA and VGA ports. If you really want you can run the audio and video to the capcom IO instead and that will route A/V to the JAMMA edge where presumably your supergun would handle it.

If you use VGA direct leave dip1 off for 31khz. If you use it through the supergun, flip dip1 for 15khz video.

 

[max 330 megafartz]

my no cab netboot naomi setup.

 

[vinnyguy]

I've got two Naomi's set up in this small cart, both connected to a computer monitor that has 2 inputs... It's not a net city(maybe some day) but it plays the games like one.
Just wait till the naomi forums are back up... I learned enough to set my stuff up from reading there


Freezing my arse and playing video games

 

[max 330 megafartz]

very nice!

 

[Tyranix95]

That's cool.

All you need new is a buddy and a 2nd stick.

 

[sparksterz]

Yeah, it's been killing me that the naomi forum is still down. I've got a naomi + cart + capcom I/O now. Trying to figure out what to use to power it all and how I'd want to harness the controls in a relatively affordable fashion.

 

[skate323k137]

You have plenty of options, what I did was just grabbed a JAMMA harness. Power the IO with any normal JAMMA PSU, and if you're using a cart setup hopefully your IO came with the power cable that runs from the IO to the NAOMI. Otherwise you'll want one of those unless you have a Sun PSU too.

At that point you can wire your controls however you want; I used db15's neo-geo style.

Here's my cart setup when I was building it, might help you.

 

[sparksterz]

You have plenty of options, what I did was just grabbed a JAMMA harness. Power the IO with any normal JAMMA PSU, and if you're using a cart setup hopefully your IO came with the power cable that runs from the IO to the NAOMI. Otherwise you'll want one of those unless you have a Sun PSU too.

At that point you can wire your controls however you want; I used db15's neo-geo style.

Here's my cart setup when I was building it, might help you.

Yeah, I've been toying around with the idea of grabbing a net dimm as well to put in there. From what I can tell people recommend not powering a net dimm via the capcom I/O. This should still at least let me test it with my cart from the sounds of it.

 

[sparksterz]

So it would seem most people who are using SUN PSU's outside of a cabinet have not posted a lot of information on how to hook it up to a standard wall outlet. From what it looks like there's a 3 pin molex on the end of the PSU. I'm assuming I'd need something like this:
EDIT: Obviously with a 3 prong connection containing ground like on most modern PC power supplies

which would then take the power and pass it through once the switch is flipped. The only problem I'm having is the verbiage used to find such a part. Am I on the right track or did I dive way off into the woods?

 

[skate323k137]

If you want a power switch that would work. You ground to the case. Here was my setup before I moved the NAOMI into a cab:

If you do get a dimm, yes, you'd want to unhook the power cable from between the capcom IO and NAOMI and power the NAOMI with the Sun PSU. At that point you can either leave the jamma PSU powering the IO or you can grab 5v / 12v from the sun PSU and wire it to the jamma edge to power the IO from the sun PSU, eliminating the JAMMA one.

 

[sparksterz]

Yeah, it looks like that's the route I'm going to go. I'll let you guys know once I get a bit farther. I did bite the bullet and got a supergun so I'm a little more poor, but also a little more excited

 

[sparksterz]

Cool, the Sun PSU I have seems to be working, will need minor voltage tweaking but otherwise seems to be fine. I hooked it up the same way you did, but I used wire nuts for now. It made me a little sad to have to chop off the molex and crimped pins as I don't currently have a crimper.

Got another Naomi with a Net Dimm, so now I'm waiting on the supergun board. There sure are a lot of parts to piece together when you have none of it! I'll be looking forward to being able to test out other JAMMA boards easily though.

 

[Black IcE]

I just wanted to throw my two cents in and say thanks for posting this information that a Capcom IO can NOT power expansion boards. I was trying to test out a Capcom IO that I got from the Fox1 group buy but my board wasn't booting. The only game I have currently is Sports Jam. Everything worked great if I used the Sun PSU, but no luck with power from the IO Converter.. which now makes sense why.

 

[sparksterz]

Yeah, no problem! I have to pick up my supergun board tomorrow, and then just need the 8" PVM before I can test the setup. Figured it's be easier to document my process from start to finish for people. It's not as complicated as it seems, but it is a little different than your standard setup.

 

[Black IcE]

The only real problem I have been having with my naomi setup is that one of my cabs doesn't seem to like the sync signal coming out of the board. I can't keep the picture stationary for more then a minute or two to save my life. The monitor works fine with everything else including CPS1, CPS2, Neo, System 11 games, Street Fighter EX, and others. Sadly the monitor is only a low and medium res monitor and I don't have the cash to get another cab that has VGA... Ahh, the joys of doing an expensive hobby on a broke man's salary.

 

[sparksterz]

Alright, I finally got around to hooking everything up! It looks like I now have 2 working Naomi systems, 1 working game and a Net Dimm which I haven't managed to test yet other than within the system menu.

No small amount of cords either! I managed to get a hold of The Last Bandit and picked up a Supergun from him. He seemed to have the best feature to price ratio. I do feel a lot better knowing now that I at least have a ready to go set up to put in an arcade cabinet. Thanks for all the help guys. I'll update this once I manage to tie in a working Net boot game.

 

[skate323k137]

netbooting should be relatively easy now, assuming your dimm is 3.03 or greater.