AMP 583859-3 edge connector contacts.

JuanUp

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Hey, folks. Posted this in WTB but got lost. Thought I'd try here. Anyone buy contacts for Atari Centipede / Pole Position edge connectors know where to get them?

Thanks,
Juan
 
Long obsolete and they are impossible to find. The only solution is to change to a molex housing. The molex housings are now obsolete but you can still find them for now. Molex does however still sell the pins, I have a couple 5k spools of them.
 
I dont think I was clear, Amp pins and/or housings are not available.
Molex housings are obsolete but they still sell the pins. The molex pins will not work in the amp housing.
 
Long obsolete and they are impossible to find. The only solution is to change to a molex housing. The molex housings are now obsolete but you can still find them for now. Molex does however still sell the pins, I have a couple 5k spools of them.

As of this past week, Molex now says the contacts for these have now gone obsolete. Was only a matter of time -- why continue to make contacts when they no longer make the plugs.

Ed
 
Damn, glad I got a decent suppy of them. Were eventually going to be stuck using solder eyelet connectors on everything.
 
I dont think I was clear, Amp pins and/or housings are not available.

Oh, now.....Tyco will still fire up the machines and run you a batch of Amp pins.

All you have to do is meet their minimum.....What was it....15K.....25K piece?:)

Edward
 
As of this past week, Molex now says the contacts for these have now gone obsolete. Was only a matter of time -- why continue to make contacts when they no longer make the plugs.

Ed

Which housings and which pins/plugs? The .093, .100, .156?
 
Oh, now.....Tyco will still fire up the machines and run you a batch of Amp pins.

All you have to do is meet their minimum.....What was it....15K.....25K piece?:)

Edward

Yeah but it would be a $1000-$1500 investment. Lets go in halfs.
 
Oh, now.....Tyco will still fire up the machines and run you a batch of Amp pins.

All you have to do is meet their minimum.....What was it....15K.....25K piece?:)

Edward

I wish! I buy 15K or more at a time and am still considered a 'small fish'. I'm willing to bet they won't make more unless you are in the millions range.

Ed
 
Yep, probably takes them a day to set up all the machines and minutes to run off a few thousand pins.
Time to find a chineese manufactuer to repop some molex housings and pins.
 
I wish! I buy 15K or more at a time and am still considered a 'small fish'. I'm willing to bet they won't make more unless you are in the millions range.

Ed

Yeah, it's been a few years.......I remember looking into it once for shits-N-giggles.......I don't remember what the piece count was, but IIRC the dollar amount was something in the $12,000 range!!!

Edward
 
What you are paying for there is the "set up fee."

You need to ask them what their minimum run is, and what the setup fee would really be.

I had the same issue with a heat exchanger manufacturer, when I wanted new tubes made. I got a price for 2 tubes, and it was $8000. Someone took that and multiplied it by 14, and said it would cost $112,000 to re-tube a heat exchanger. I called the manufacturer back, and found I could get up to 100 tubes for that price, which dropped the price back down to $8000 plus labor.

Don't be afraid to negotiate with them, and you can also call up Mouser and Digikey to see if they'd be interested in stocking some of these, or maybe one of the arcade repair parts places. Knowing that someone like Marco Specialty or ArcadeAmusements (examples, not contacted) would be interested in these will help the manufacturer see a clear reason to gear up his production.
 
You need to ask them what their minimum run is, and what the setup fee would really be.
Don't be afraid to negotiate with them, and you can also call up (the 'other guys') to see if they'd be interested in stocking some of these, or maybe one of the arcade repair parts places....

Been there, did that. Special run -- $50K NRE plus cost of parts. Seems that once they discontinue a part, they instantly destroy the tooling (WTF?). They want you to pay for new tooling in addition to setup.

Ed
 
What you are paying for there is the "set up fee."

No... this IS typical of what they want for a minimum per line item on the order when buying direct. But one line item does not equal one part... it equals one part number... a whole heck of a lot of one part number. If it is a current product, then there is no NRE (your set up fee). Otherwise, ba zing! NRE up the wazzoo!

You cannot buy direct from Molex or AMP/Tyco/whatevertheyarecalledtoday (for most items) and end users must buy from a master distributor (large min buys)... or the lower mid-level distributors (eg Mouser)... or the little guppies like me.

Ed
 
As of this past week, Molex now says the contacts for these have now gone obsolete. Was only a matter of time -- why continue to make contacts when they no longer make the plugs.

Ed

Thanks for the heads-up.

Just ordered 1000 of them... Hopefully that'll last me until I'm sick of pinball & arcade machines. Otherwise, I'll miss 'em when they're gone.
 
Hey, folks. Posted this in WTB but got lost. Thought I'd try here. Anyone buy contacts for Atari Centipede / Pole Position edge connectors know where to get them?

Thanks,
Juan

Well you could used old connectors, or you could use another amp edge connector as a donor for pins.

Or you could go to a ham swap meet and ask the vendors who sell there.

As these old machine keep needing parts we have to become more creative in finding these parts or making these parts.

I have in the past made silicon molds for some obsolete connectors. The arcade connectors should not be so hard to make.
 
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