What's new
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Revenge from Mars LCD fit and how to make sync adapter

Looks really nice Kev. Does the removal of the CRT make it any less of a heavy lump to shift around?
 
I just took delivery of an RFM that had this conversion done already, to my surprise. The head section is an easy lift for 2 people.
 
thats almost a reason to do it - that back box was a killer to shift!
 
Maybe I'm a wuss, but I cannot imaging lifting the top section into place on my own, even with an LCD it would be difficult.
 
yep remember they are only CGA graphics anyway if I recall correctly
 
With a crt tube, it's the graphics are softened, lcd shows exactly how the graphics are really. It's like vinyl vs cd.

If you find you have to move the head on your own, fit a strap around the back and into the angled front section. This gives you a good secure handle to hold the oversized head with.
 
newdos said:
Hi all,
I have spent hours looking everywhere for the diagrams to make a sync adapter for my RFM so I can fit an LCD screen. I have finally done it and got it working, so thought I would share it here.

I bought a cheap cga to vga converter off ebay first - shown in the pic. You will then need a vga monitor cable and a 74ls02 chip to convert the H&V sync to a combined sync. I used a Dell 19" LCD computer monitor I had lying around.

First job cut off one end of the VGA cable and strip back the wires. You will need to find the red, green, blue, horizontal sync wire(usually grey) and the vertical sync wire(usually white). All the ground wires can be twisted together. sleeve each of the wires with heatshrink.

Next solder the red, green, blue and ground wires to the respective pins on connector P3 on the board.

Now for the 74ls02 chip. You only need pins 1,2,3,7 and 14. Solder the Horiz sync wire(grey) to pin 2 the vert sync wire(white) to pin 3. Pin 1 is the combined sync ouput and a wire from pin 1 goes to the pin marked 'S' on connector P3. Add a wire to pin 7 for ground and a wire to pin 14 for +5v. This power can be got from within the p2k PC case. Don't forget the board also needs +5v power so just tee together the power leads then off to the pc case for your supply

That's it!!! plug in your new lead to the p2k PC monitor socket and put another lead between the vga socket on the adapter (P4) and your monitor and off you go. Mine worked first time so good luck!!!


Will add more to this when I actually fit it into the RFM.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Kev
View attachment 4293 View attachment 4294
Click to expand...

what is the chip put into ? , can't really see what you are using to hold it.
 
I think he's using a floating socket. When I do it, I glue the chip upside down to the blue connector and then solder directly to the pins.
 
Mine came with a little section of varo board (if that's what it's called) soldered onto the pins. Quite a secure solution.
 
Is the first time I've worked on this machine , and as everyone knows it's not like no other pinball machine with the computer and everything else .
 
This is how it had been done on the machine that I took delivery of last week.

converter.JPG
 
  • Like
Reactions: BOP
Ordered the converter , and a power supply for it and was going to power the lad from the computer on top, if I do it the way . Do I still need the chip, and if so , I have to order that too.
 
You can pick up 5v supply from the power supply in the computer case. And spare black and red connector.
 
Mike, this is a really easy circuit. Trust me, if I understand it it must be. However, if you are at all unsure of what's going on, get some help from someone who knows what they are doing.
 
I have found that playing with the sharpness and saturation controls really helps smooth out the LCD vs CRT effect. The position controls on this board are also really helpful for fine tuning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom