Good MCR ribbons

7146aaron

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I need to find out if there is a better source for MCR ribbon cables other than Bob Roberts. I like Bob and I have great luck with everything I get fom him except these cables. The ones from Bob usually have to be ground down on one side to fit and the have 2 female plugs on each end and you never know what one to use without metering them because they are all different for some reason. I have checked with a manufacture about reproducing these exactly but I am not sure how much yet or how many I would have to buy. If anyone knows of a better source, please let me know. If anyone is interested in some exact repros, let me know as well. As soon as I hear back from them I will post a price and the quanity needed to make this happen.
 
Bob also has the crimp your own option on his site. Would be a lot of work I suppose but they would like the factory replacements that were offered I believe.
 
Even the crimp your own would have the same issues, they just cost less. I'm struggling with my set of "repros" that were made awhile back...they are the right length but suffer from the same issues you mentioned. I would support the effort with a preorder if necessary. There are a LOT of MCR games that could benefit from some new cables.
 
Even the crimp your own would have the same issues, they just cost less. I'm struggling with my set of "repros" that were made awhile back...they are the right length but suffer from the same issues you mentioned. I would support the effort with a preorder if necessary. There are a LOT of MCR games that could benefit from some new cables.


Actually they are more expensive. Not sure how they would have the same issue. They appear to be like the original "correction" cables? They are not crimp your own scsi cables...

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Ah, my mistake. When you said crimp your own I immediately thought scsi not pins and housings.
 
the have 2 female plugs on each end and you never know what one to use without metering them because they are all different for some reason.

What do you mean by this?? You mean one of the rows of 25 holes on each end are not used??? :confused:
 
I would be interested in a ready made alternative to Bob's cables, they work but can be a pain.
 
Pins

What do you mean by this?? You mean one of the rows of 25 holes on each end are not used??? :confused:

On Bobs there is 2 rows in stead of 1. Some times the top row will be the one that is connected to the top row on the other end and sometimes the bottom row will be connected to the top row on the other end. There is no rhyme or reason for this.
 
I bought Bob's crimp your own about 7 years ago and actually spent the time making them up, and about 3/4 of the way to having them all done I found myself wondering why I ever started it. After you realize how many cuts, stripping, and crimping you have to do, at half way you almost want to give up.
The up side is those cables have been on my Tron game and have worked flawlessly every since.
If you are thinking of doing a repro, what are you planning on making the ribbon wire out of? Hopefully not the same as the originals, we all know what happens to that material. If I had a choice, I would use something like the black and grey ribbon cables on the Fluke 9010a pods. It's thicker so if you tugged on it a little it wouldn't feel like its going to tear.

Luke
 
On Bobs there is 2 rows in stead of 1. Some times the top row will be the one that is connected to the top row on the other end and sometimes the bottom row will be connected to the top row on the other end. There is no rhyme or reason for this.


No shit, I have a bunch of Bob's cables and never encountered that although now that I think about it the last time I used a set on my SpyHunter boards I had problems. :confused:
 
The other problem is the size as mentioned above, it is almost impossible to get them on there without modification, almost.
 
Its impossible on tapper pcbs unless you flex the heck out of the pcb and that can't be good for long.
 
Actually they are more expensive. Not sure how they would have the same issue. They appear to be like the original "correction" cables? They are not crimp your own scsi cables...

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This is exactly what I do. No "fit" issues....and I personally find them to be more reliable than those SCSI's (for this application). I've had several new SCSI set up just not "bite" the headers reliably, leaving me with intermittent issues. A work of warning...if you don't have a good set of crimpers....you might want to go the SCSI route.

Edward
 
Has anyone ever tried the cables from an IREM Moon Patrol board? A few years ago I had those and thought they might be a good sub for the cables on a Tron I was working on, but never tried it.
 
FWIW, I use Bob's SCSI and I've had not problems with them. They fit my boards just fine (had to rotate the spacers juuuuuust right, and the slip right on). And I actually like the fact that there are 2 rows... built in back-ups. lol

IF there where repro's identical to the original though... I would've probably picked those up instead. ... But, if a frog had wings...

I worked on a boardset for a guy that had some original cables and one of the "crimp your own" cables on it... old as dirt (how long has Bob been selling those things?!?!) and the "crimp your own" cable was the only bad one! The originals were all still good... granted, I think that speaks more about the person that did the crimping than it does about the cable in general... but I just wanted to type more to make this post seem longer. :p
 
I'm not too sure about this.
After you make the U-turn curve and the connectors are side-by-side, the top row on one connector lines up with the top row on the other connector.
The bottom rows match up too.

Use whichever row (and shift the unused hole) in the way needed to stay out of the way of neighboring connectors and board standoffs.

I don't think I've had to trim any of them.

K

On Bobs there is 2 rows in stead of 1. Some times the top row will be the one that is connected to the top row on the other end and sometimes the bottom row will be connected to the top row on the other end. There is no rhyme or reason for this.
 
I am interested as well. Wouldn't these also work for a Berzerk boardset? I need to replace all of my interconnects in that set! I think they would work there too.
 
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