Arcade Cabs & Wire Gauges
When wiring up an arcade cab, it helps to know what wire gauge you should use. Sometimes, as is the case with Sega and Namco's internal connectors, different gauge wire requires different pins, and if you try to use a 16 awg wire with a 22 awg pin, you're gonna have a bad time.
These numbers are based on either official documentation or observation.
| Use | Sega | Namco | SNK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground | 18 | 16 | 16 |
| AC Power | 18* | 18 | 16 |
| Degauss | 20 | 18 | ? |
| JAMMA Power | 22 | N/A | 16 |
| The Rest | 22 | 24 | 22 |
Note that Sega uses 18 AWG between the isolation transformer and the wall, but 20 AWG for internal AC wiring after the transformer.
AWG to MM
In case you need to convert AWG to millimetres, here's your guide:
| AWG | MM (dia.) |
|---|---|
| 16 | 1.3 |
| 18 | 1.02 |
| 20 | 0.8 |
| 22 | 0.64 |
| 24 | 0.51 |
Sources
Sega and Namco specify the appropriate gauge in their manuals. SNK does not (at least, not in the Super Neo 29 Candy manual). The SNK data was taken from a Super Neo 29 Candy cab. Not all wires were labeled (degauss).