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I bought a Project Diva Arcade Future Tone Cabinet!

Discussion in 'Project DIVA Arcade & Arcade Future Tone' started by N10248, Apr 22, 2020.

  1. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    #1 N10248, Apr 22, 2020
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
    Since last August I've been playing the Future Tone arcade rip using this adapted arcade control panel on my PC, which has been great, with perfect touch slider and Sanwa buttons...

    [​IMG]

    The only downside is that I've been using it on my main PC which can be a bit inconvenient as it's huge and makes it impossible to use the pc for other things when not playing without moving it all out of the way, in turn making me play the game less or just being lazy and using an Xbox controller. I considered setting up a dedicated PC on a small table elsewhere, but really wanted to see if I could get the whole cabinet. A big dream, but nothing to loose by looking.

    Initially I thought finding an empty chassis or even one of the other games that uses the same main body (Border Break, Shining Force Cross etc) and putting my control panel on it and making some artwork. I sent an email to a local Sega arcade repair guy (Andy at AGS / Sega Shed) and he gave me the details of a guy in the Netherlands who imports cabinets from Japan: Ronnie at RKLOK.

    On september the 27th, this is the reply I got: "I can get you a full Diva cabinet , no problem".
    It took him a while to find one, but at the end of November he managed to source one.

    It arrived last week (17th of April)...

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    It took 2 hours of stripping it down to get it small and light enough to lift into my house, and I've been cleaning it out and rebuilding it over the weekend.

    It's a complete cabinet with Sega Nu hardware and full Future Tone artwork, the only thing I don't have is the Key Chip, which was expected as Sega demand that back when the cabinet is no longer used.

    Today I've ordered a suitable 100v Step-down converter so I can finally power it on and see what it does, hopefully It'll get delivered by next week.

    My plan is to try to get it to work without a key chip. In theory many of the tricks that are used to make the arcade rip work on a regular PC could make it start the game without one, same goes for the All.net connection. Bur there a lot of hurdles involed with this hardware.

    Plan B would be putting my own PC inside instead and wiring up the control panel the same way my standalone controller is. I would loose some of the cabinets features such as the flashing side lights and buttons but the speakers and static lights should all still work as before.

    I'm not sure but this could be the only one of these is the UK!

    I'll keep this thread updated with my progress.
     
  2. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    #2 N10248, Apr 22, 2020
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
    Picture taken while putting it all back together...

    After 2 hours of dismantling outside my house, Miku appears shocked...

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Had a lot of use of it's life...

    [​IMG]

    Screen bezel with touch layer...

    [​IMG]

    Main cables behind control panel area.

    [​IMG]

    The Nu motherboard with Yamaha network switch, sound board for top speakers, Aime card reader and touch screen controller board...

    [​IMG]

    top pcb back in upper area...

    [​IMG]

    main speakers and Aime RFID reader...

    [​IMG]

    10W front speakers

    [​IMG]

    Main power boards, JVS IO, audio board and display PSU...

    [​IMG]

    the plastic sides are both identical plastic pieces with metal parts to reinforce them, the white metal bit acts as a cover for the side LEDs...

    [​IMG]

    some fading but not too bad, I swaped them over as the ends that were near the top of the cabinet were less faded...

    [​IMG]

    Elo systems touch panel cotroller...

    [​IMG]

    Rear cabinet 120mm fan, all metal, 100v and very heavy...

    [​IMG]

    Rear of the 21.5" display...

    [​IMG]

    Control Panel tray reattached...

    [​IMG]

    Display back in chassis...

    [​IMG]

    Upper art and side panels back on...

    [​IMG]

    Sega Nu motherboard mounted back in lower left of cabinet...

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Doctopus

    Doctopus Project Alpaca "BDFL"

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    You can actually remove the AMEx board from the original mobo and plug it into a regular PC. This effectively turns the PC into a Nu just without the keychip connector. After that just use some hooks to bypass the keychip detection plus a server emulator for ALL.net stuff and it'll work with all features including cabinet lighting.

    As for cracking the Nu itself, the process is a bit involved and requires special equipments and some hardware modifications (at least for the method I know).

    DM me for details.
     
  4. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    I did wonder what puting the PCI card in a regular pc would do, i'd have thought it would need drivers etc, or does the game just know how to use it?

    As for getting the game to ignore the mssing keychip and network, I think simply hex editing the diva.exe with the same changes that are used in PD-loader should work.

    The good thing is there are plenty of options.
     
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  5. Doctopus

    Doctopus Project Alpaca "BDFL"

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    #5 Doctopus, Apr 22, 2020
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2020
    Yes you do need drivers dumped from the Nu board, but I think somebody already dumped it and it should be available somewhere on the Interwebs :P.

    For patches there is a better PD-Loader alternative, which supports just patching out the keychip and some mobo ID stuff. So you would get an almost-vanilla setup with support for all IOs and arcade-specific hardware. IMO this is better than just PD-Loader given that you have access to a Nu system and the AMEx board on it.

    Also if it's not obvious enough: Whatever you do, DO NOT plug the JVS IO board into a USB port. That may instantly kill it!
     
  6. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    #6 N10248, Apr 24, 2020
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
    Ha, known that since the Naomi days.

    The step-down arrived and it all powers up.

    We won't talk about this though, but it's now been rectified...

    [​IMG]

    I connected my PC to it to test the screen and sound. The speakers are really good, especialialy the top ones. and both top and bottom have seperate volume dials.

    The Nu boots to the Nu logo with error 0001 no keychip so hopefully that means it didn't find any other errors apart from that.
     
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  7. nofutur

    nofutur IYA IYA!!

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    Great and sexy pictures of the Nu system. I came here because I see Doctopus talking about Naomi <3 it reminds me, my true arcade origins.
     
  8. correllroy

    correllroy Newbie Player

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    Such beauty! O_O
     
  9. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    I've put my own small PC (HP Prodesk, 4th gen i3 with 750ti) in it for now, it can run the game fairly well as it's higher spec than the Nu, but i'm using a plugin to get the sound to work which causes a bit of slowdown on some parts. But it will do for now.

    Here's a quick video of it running...
     
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  10. ゴジラ

    ゴジラ Big Debut

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    Great aquisition man, have fun !
     
  11. Doctopus

    Doctopus Project Alpaca "BDFL"

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    No I didn't :P.

    Actually I just remembered that there is another route that's safer and requires way less hardware modifications. So now you have 2 options: one is potentially cheaper if you got access to a whole set of soldering equipments and you know how to do microsoldering decently. The other would be more expensive but safer and involves less technical skills (given that you have some experience working with PCs which I believe most tech-savvy people have anyway).
     
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  12. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    I think the safest plan for now is the use the PCI card in another pc - or put a regular motherboard in the nu case allowing me to use its own psu and conveinent 12v output connector with existing cabling

    Then I can also use it for other things than just diva.

    I tried to pm you about those drivers etc but you have it disabled on your account I think?
     
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  13. Doctopus

    Doctopus Project Alpaca "BDFL"

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    LOL I didn't even remember I did something like that. I probably just turned it off as a precaution. Anyway now it should be fine.
     
  14. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    #14 N10248, May 2, 2020
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
    Yesterday I took the Nu apart to clean it out as it was very dirty inside...

    Empty case
    [​IMG]

    Motherboard, based on an Advantech AIMB-582...
    [​IMG]

    Really loud intake fan...
    [​IMG]

    The 250w PSU, universal input voltage but custom connector, this also has the external facing connector. that powers many of the cabinets parts like the control panel and side lights...
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The air intake cover which lines up with vents at the rear of the cabinet...
    [​IMG]

    Hard Disk bracket with 64GB SSD and 500GB HGST drive...
    [​IMG]

    nVIdia GT 650 Ti...
    [​IMG]

    The AMEX PCI-E card that gives the board it's JVS interface...
    [​IMG]
     
  15. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    #15 N10248, May 8, 2020
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
    I replaced the super locked down Nu motherboard and drives with a Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H, installed my i3 4130, 750Ti and Intel SSD and now have a near fully working set up...

    I no longer need to use a performace slowing audio plug in as the boardrhas a Realtek chip the same as the original meaning native sound support and no more slowdowns. Next I may upgrade the CPU to the i3 4170 which is 300mhz faster and the same wattage giving a bit more available performance.

    The regular PC backplate fits perfectly
    [​IMG]

    My graphics card is smaller and doesn't need the extra 6-pin power connector
    [​IMG]

    A few less cables than the original board as I won't need to power the Aime reader, network switch or coin mech
    [​IMG]

    The flashing buttons and side lights now work...
    [​IMG]

    The only feature not yet sorted is the touch screen, but that can wait for now.
     
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  16. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    #16 N10248, May 17, 2020
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
    The touch screen is now working and this is how it's set up in my living room now...
    I have a long HDMI cable going from the cabinet to my TV for mirroring the gameplay too.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  17. ifun985

    ifun985 Welcome to DIVA!

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    wow! cool!
    p.s i just noticed plush miku in the ghost module, cute!
     
  18. David Perales

    David Perales fevernight123

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    This is so awesome! Thank you so much for posting images of this beast! love to see the internals of stuff we were never meant to see lol
    I was wondering if you could get a clear picture of the "how to play" instructions or if you could get a scan of it? I am making my own homemade arcade at home and can't seem to get a perfect image of it.
     
  19. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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    I'll scan the artwork tommorow, I thought about doing that a while ago but havn't got around to it yet,
     
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  20. N10248

    N10248 Advanced Player

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