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SEGA JVS Console I/O V2: Connect Brook Fighting Boards to your SEGA Cabinets! Now P-Ras Compatible!

Arthrimus

Arthrimus

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This project is the culmination of the concepts that I played with in this thread over in the ideas section for a SEGA equivalent to my Vewlix Console I/O. I've gone through 3 hardware revisions over the past several months, and I've finally landed on something that I'm happy with.

The SEGA JVS Console I/O
SEGA-Console-I-O_1.png
​
The SEGA JVS Console I/O is a hardware device that connects to the control panel wiring harness of your SEGA JVS equipped arcade cabinets (such as the NAOMI Universal, NET CITY, NEW NET CITY, Lindbergh, and from the looks of it the newer PRas 3 cabinets) to a pair of Brook style controller PCBs with no need to hack up any of your cabinet's stock wiring. This is a direct passthrough adapter to your stock JVS I/O and both are meant to be installed simultaneously so you can easily switch between JVS and Consoles/PC without having to physically swap I/O boards. This is super nice with SEGA cabinets since they tend not to be designed for ease of access to the I/O board. The Brook boards are connected using a pair of 20 Pin IDC cable and can be placed wherever is convenient inside of your cabinet using adhesive PCB feet. There is also a 1ft Touchpad button/R3/L3 cable included so those buttons will function when connected to a compatible Brook board.


The other features are identical to my Vewlix console I/O and are as follows:
  • Adapts the SEGA JVS control panel wiring harness to 2 20 pin headers for connecting Brook or other compatible arcade controller PCBs.
  • Home/Select/Touchpad/L3/R3 button emulation via button combinations.
  • Custom button mapping of the coin switch on the coin mechanism.
  • 6 pin JST XH auxiliary wiring harness connector for connecting home and select buttons to an external button panel.
  • 2X 4 pin JST PH connectors for wiring the touchpad emulation to your player 1 and 2 Brook fighting boards.
  • Passes inputs through to the stock JVS I/O so they can both be used at the same time.
  • Diodes on the power lines to isolate the 2 controller PCBs from one another.
  • Diodes on all control lines to prevent the console I/O from interfering with the stock SEGA JVS I/O.
Button Combos for Select/Home/Touchpad button emulation:
  • Select = B1 + B2 + Start
  • Home = B2 + B3 + Start
  • Touchpad Button = B1 + B2 + B3 + Start
  • L3 = B4 +B5 + Start
  • R3 = B5 + B6 + Start
Coin Mechanism Buttonmapping:
You can map the coin mechanism to trigger a button press by pressing and holding one of the following button combos while powering on your Console I/O.
  • Start = Start
  • Select = B1 + B2
  • Home = B2 + B3
  • Touchpad Button = B1 + B2 + B3
  • L3 = B4 + B5
  • R3 = B5 + B6
Other Functions:
Coin Counter control. The PCB is wired so that the coin counter will properly iterate any time the coin mechanism is triggered.
Home/Select/Touchpad/L3/R3 emulation enable/disable. You can toggle the button emulation function on or off by pressing and holding B1+B2+B3+Start while powering on the Console I/O

Purchasing:
These are available in small quantities from my shop right now. Priced at $44.99 for the complete kit with Console I/O and all necessary wiring.

SEGA-Console-I-O_3_1.png
 
This is awesome, @Arthrimus. Thanks for the effort required to make these available.

I believe that this would also work in conjunction with your Vewlix SEGA I/O Adapter Kit (which I hope may again be available soon) in order to easily connect my Sega I/O equipped Vewlix simultaneously to the Sega I/O and the Brook boards. Does that seem possible or is there some complication I'm overlooking. Apologies if it's not possible for some obvious reason I've not considered.

Regardless, thanks for yet another great project.
 
Bluetear said:
This is awesome, @Arthrimus. Thanks for the effort required to make these available.

I believe that this would also work in conjunction with your Vewlix SEGA I/O Adapter Kit (which I hope may again be available soon) in order to easily connect my Sega I/O equipped Vewlix simultaneously to the Sega I/O and the Brook boards. Does that seem possible or is there some complication I'm overlooking. Apologies if it's not possible for some obvious reason I've not considered.

Regardless, thanks for yet another great project.
Click to expand...
Yes, this would work with the SEGA I/O adapter. without issue. The SEGA I/O adapter will return soon. Probably after the next JAMMAizer round is shipped.
 
Snagged one just now along with a Vewlix to Sega I/O. Pumped to begin running this sweet setup. Thanks a ton, @Arthrimus!
 
It was recently brought to my attention by a couple of customers that my current SEGA Console I/O has issues with Sega P-ras cabinets due to the fact that those cabinets have an 8 button layout. When I originally designed the SEGA console I/O I was working based off of the type 1 SEGA JVS I/O which didn't even have connections for button 8 on the control panel harness. Since then SEGA not only added button 8 to the wiring harness for the new USB/JVS I/O in the P-ras cabinets, but they also changed the button layout, so my console I/O doesn't map the buttons correctly on the P-ras control panel.

Thanks to @300wins who let me borrow a USB I/O from a P-ras cabinet, I have completely reworked the design of the SEGA Console I/O so it is now fully compatible with all SEGA JVS cabinets from the Naomi Universal all the way to the P-ras 3.

SEGA Console I/O V2
PXL_20240704_230119653.jpg


The V2 design packs a significant punch compared to the V1. Let me explain the new features and advantages compared to the V1

  1. Fully Buffered Inputs: The V1 SEGA Console I/O employed a series of diodes on the input pins to prevent the controller PCBs from backfeeding errant inputs to the JVS I/O when they are not actively powered. This worked, but some users reported issues with missed inputs due to the extra resistance that the diodes added to the input lines. The Console I/O V2 avoids this issue by replacing the diodes with a set of logic buffers, and a microcontroller to handle all of the input pins. This fully buffered setup isolates the console controller pcbs from the JVS I/O without adding any resistance to the lines, and regenerates the input signals using the logic buffers and MCU so the controller PCBs receive completely clean high/low signals.
  2. Full Button Remapping and Auto Fire Support: With the new larger microcontroller on the V2 compared to the V1 I now have enough gpio pins to implement full button remapping and auto fire support for buttons 1-8 in addition to the Home/Select/L3/R3/TP button emulation. The button remapping support is critical for P-ras compatibility because you can now map the buttons correctly to match SEGA's new control panel layout without having to change the mappings on each individual game you are trying to play. The V1 design did not have this capability, so you would have had to rely on the game supporting button remapping to use the console I/O on a P-ras.
  3. Test and Service button support: On the V1 design the Test and Service buttons were unused on the Console I/O, but now with the extra gpio pins on the V2 you can use the Test and Service buttons to emulate Home, Select and Touchpad buttons for player 1. They are also used for configuring the behavior of the coin switch, and for enabling/disabling Home/Select/TP/L3/R3 emulation entirely.
  4. Console On Detection: Because of the fact that the V2 Console I/O now has button remapping, the possibility exists that you might have multiple devices connected to your cabinet with button remapping capabilities, such as my forthcoming Universal JAMMA Kit. This could create a conflict where you may be trying to change the button mapping on your JAMMA kit, and inadvertently also change the mapping on your Console I/O as well. The V2 Console I/O now has an enable pin that turns on the button remapping when it detects that a controller PCB is connected and powered on. It does this using a NOR gate connected to the 5V pins of the Player 1 and Player 2 20 pin headers respectively. When the console is powered on, the 5V pin on either player's 20 pin harness will be energized, which will drive the input of the NOR gate high, outputting a low signal to the enable pin on the microcontroller. If neither player's controller PCB is powered on then the NOR gate will output a high signal disabling button remapping so it can't be changed when a console is not connected.
  5. Auxiliary Harness 2: Much like the Vewlix Console I/O V3 and earlier the original V1 SEGA Console I/O did not have header for wiring buttons 7 and 8 directly to the Console I/O for those with custom 8 button control panels, but like the Vewlix Console I/O V3.1 I've added a second Auxiliary harness to the SEGA Console I/O V2 that allows you to wire up button 7 and 8.
I hope this will be my definitive SEGA Console I/O design. I really tried to solve every problem I could think of with this one and it is now a truly universal solution for all SEGA JVS cabinets. I don't have them up for sale yet because I'm waiting for some parts to arrive to finish the first batch, but I've assembled a couple of them and have been doing extensive testing over the past few days.

The cost of components has increased for this iteration, so the sale price of the SEGA Console I/O will need to increase accordingly. I'm targeting a price of $59 for the SEGA Console I/O V2, It's a fair bit higher than the V1, but given all of the benefits I think it should be worth it to most users. I'll be updating this thread as I get closer to launching these.
 
I had issues with my V1 so I think I’ll give this a try!
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Edit: Just purchased
 
Last edited:
Arthrimus said:
Hey guys, just wanted to post a quick update on this. I finally was able to get these in stock. I had some trouble getting the correct touchpad/L3/R3 cables made for it so it got delayed for a while. But now I have everything ready and they are in stock and ready for purchase here https://arthrimus.com/product/sega-jvs-console-i-o/
Click to expand...
I had the v1 but i couldn't get player 2 buttons working and had lots of weird issues. Installed the v2 yesterday and everything appears to be working! thanks for your hard work on these. My NNC will really shine now.
 
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Sp33dFr34k said:
Any chance this will be getting restocked again @Arthrimus?
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Unfortunately they probably won't be restocked. Honestly most of my arcade related projects are unlikely to be restocked again due to tariffs. Because they are very low volume items they are pretty expensive to manufacture and the US tariffs against China make them more than twice as expensive as before, so unless that changes they won't be economically viable to make anymore.
 
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