Defender wiring harness mini review

TheShanMan

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Donor 2011, 2024
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Recently installed the main and AC harnesses I bought from Dokert because my Defender was a major basket case when I bought it. The boards themselves needed major work (retroactive did an awesome job fixing them) but even when they were fixed, I had trouble keeping Defender happy. Every time I did anything as little as moving the cab, I'd get rom errors on power up and I'd have to jiggle the wires to get the problem to go away. In fact, when I pulled the cab in order to do the harness install, sure as the sun rising I got a rom error on power up.

I was extremely impressed with how nice the harnesses looked, and how easy it was to install. They were as plug-n-play as you could possibly hope. The connectors are a huge improvement over my originals. Ever since I have had zero occurrences of rom errors even with moving the cab around a handful of times since then.

I appreciate a beautiful interior almost as much as a beautiful exterior, so the new wiring is also much appreciated from an aesthetic standpoint.

So in summary, it's a quality product that installed trouble-free and was well worth the money. I couldn't be happier with the results. So if you've been thinking of ordering harnesses from Dokert, get off the fence and do it!!!
 

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I agree with this post a million%. I installed a very special williams harness tonight, that Dokert made for one of machines. It was a special order. It is totally awesome. Quality is incredible, im going to make a seperate post on it because it is something thats so special it needs its own post. Camera batteries charging now.

Thanks Dave WOW!!!! :D:D:D:D
 
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By the way, here are the pics of the harnesses prior to installing.
 

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I may actually make a 2nd run of these in a couple of months for those still in need of them.

Currently I am trying to get caught up on other Williams harness stuff. Also getting ready to proto something new and special for the Nintendo guys out there.
 
I may actually make a 2nd run of these in a couple of months for those still in need of them.

Currently I am trying to get caught up on other Williams harness stuff. Also getting ready to proto something new and special for the Nintendo guys out there.

A switcher to play a DK and DK Jr board in one cab ?
 
That is a very professional looking harness. I might be mildly concerned about the original Williams power supply. I had a converted Make Trax that still had the original power supply. Something on it died and the +5V went up too high. It completely fried the Time Soldiers board that was in it. Not such a big deal but I might be worried about a Defender set, especially since you already poured some cash into it. Unless, of course, the power supply has been rebuilt too. At any rate, the harness looks great.
 
It actually had a switcher in it when I bought it. I bought the linear on ebay and installed a rebuild kit.
 
I believe that others in the community are already working on the switcher.

I will let it be known when the proto is done and tested.

Mmmm interesting ........well my second guess is a device like a flux capacitor to turn an ordinary Nintendo cab into a time machine that takes you back to 1980 .
 
That is a very professional looking harness. I might be mildly concerned about the original Williams power supply. I had a converted Make Trax that still had the original power supply. Something on it died and the +5V went up too high. It completely fried the Time Soldiers board that was in it. Not such a big deal but I might be worried about a Defender set, especially since you already poured some cash into it. Unless, of course, the power supply has been rebuilt too. At any rate, the harness looks great.

The regulator at IC1 (IIRC) in your Make Trax is what failed, and yes it can send up to +26vdc down the +5vdc line. If you had rebuilt that power supply, most likely you would never have had that problem. If you had the O.V.P. board that came with Make Trax, you would not have had that problem either.

Mmmm interesting ........well my second guess is a device like a flux capacitor to turn an ordinary Nintendo cab into a time machine that takes you back to 1980 .

Could be.
 
Just thought about something that I saw in one of the pics. Why have you not changed out the connectors at 3P2 & 3P3? I am positive that I included them for all of the first run Defender's.

 
Just checked my bag and they are in there (along with the candy) - I just overlooked them. Are those the interface connectors for the CP (orange wires)?
 
They are indeed.

I wonder if Retroactive missed them too?


Hell no! I received them... thank you very much!

I've yet to put my whole setup back together.... I used to run a Robotron board set w/ Clay Multigame and had it wired as a JAMMA. I'm putting the original boards back in with JROKs Multigame... I've also got a brand spanking new dedicated Defender control panel ready to be terminated with those pins and housings you sent!

Thanks again!
 
Just thought about something that I saw in one of the pics. Why have you not changed out the connectors at 3P2 & 3P3? I am positive that I included them for all of the first run Defender's.

Better? :D
 

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