How should I cleaning female JAMMA connector?

sleepyhed

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I've searched and read ways to clean the edge connectors but how should I go about cleaning the female end of my cabinet's JAMMA harness? I'm hunting down a voltage drop issue and believe it's happening at that connection to an extension harness (based on checking voltage at multiple points along the circuit).

I'm guessing the spring-loaded contacts inside are dirty because the extension harness edge was perfectly clean but after being inserted into the connector it shows some marks/dirt(?). How do I get in there and clean them without damaging?

Thanks for any help and sorry if I failed to find the answer via search!

Cj
 
emery cloth?

I would use this stuff glued to a popsicle stick or just doubled over and jabbed in and out of the sockets.

If you want some send me a PM and I'll mail you a length.

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Andy
 

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guessing the spring-loaded contacts inside are dirty because

that Velcro stuff may work but one would think that it would act against the spring loaded tension built into the pins

brass brush on a dremel tool with the pins removed would work but then again how much would that work against the spring loaded tension too

on some of those pacman harnesses and some Atari wiring harnesses don't have the wiring part of the harness installed very well and over time the weight of the harness torques on the connector which in turn flattens the spring loaded tension of the pins to grip the finger edge tight enough to allow proper amount of electron flow

replacing the pins with new is a permanent solution

removing pins and cleaning with brass brush on dremel tool and using small tool to expand the flattened spring loaded tension could work but again, new pins is probably the best solution good luck
 
New power pins.

Remove and replace the power pins for the connector, then get a can of Deoxit and spray liberally inside the connector and work it on/off the jamma edge connector.

Good as new.

And for good measure, you can get some Deoxit Gold and repeat the cleaning above and you'll be good for a long time.

Get some of the Molex JAMMA split pins that are obsolete and hard (but not impossible) to find; they're dramatically better than the cheap Chinese knockoffs that go bad quickly.
 
PM sent for that paper. Thanks!

Regarding replacing:
How do remove the pins from the housing? Pull them out the back by tugging on the wire?
Do I need special pins to match my housing or any jamma pins properly fit?

For all the work of re-pinning the harness should I consider just hacking the connector off and wiring a new female jamma connector on the end? By this I mean splicing in new connector that's already wired so I avoid messing with any pins at all and just have to deal with the wires. If the pins need any special tools, I'd rather just work with wires.

What do you think?

Edit: Thanks demogo. Saw this after our simul-posts. Still a few questions above needing answers though. :)
 
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Scratch pen and deoxit ordered. Will try cleaning before replacing. Thanks all!

If it's oxidation that's the problem then cleaning as above will fix it. But these pins also have the tendency to lose their springiness with time and then they don't get good solid connections and you get voltage drops among other things.

Then you replace them.

I personally would just replace the pins used to carry power and then spray it down with deoxit and deoxit gold. But I have all the material and tools here to do that easily. It's certainly valid to try just cleaning it and seeing what happens.
 
I remember there used to be these plastic wands that nintendo made to clean the female side of NES console pin connector. It was just a piece of plastic that was the same thickness as the circuit board, but it was wrapped in like a pvc/nylon cloth that would make enough friction to clean the gold pins on the edge connector. If you could find a piece of plastic the same thickness I would try wrapping it with pvc wrap. I have seen the pvc textured wrap in like the cards and wrapping paper/party sections of walmart type stores. It's that picnic table disposable plastic cloth stuff. I think it was just a rubbing alcohol solution that was used.
 

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I remember there used to be these plastic wands that nintendo made to clean the female side of NES console pin connector. It was just a piece of plastic that was the same thickness as the circuit board, but it was wrapped in like a pvc/nylon cloth that would make enough friction to clean the gold pins on the edge connector. If you could find a piece of plastic the same thickness I would try wrapping it with pvc wrap. I have seen the pvc textured wrap in like the cards and wrapping paper/party sections of walmart type stores. It's that picnic table disposable plastic cloth stuff. I think it was just a rubbing alcohol solution that was used.

I totally had this kit back in the day! Thanks for the suggestion. I'll add it to the list of options. Or I could cough, blow, huff and puff into the connector like we used to to get NES games to work. :)
 
My bet would be that the power wires are too thin on the extension harness, especially if it was a modern pre-built one and not something you made yourself.
 
Those Molex JAMMA pins are available here on KLOV right now. Not easy to find but the seller has a stash of them.
 
My bet would be that the power wires are too thin on the extension harness, especially if it was a modern pre-built one and not something you made yourself.



Extension harnesses are from Bob Roberts so I'm confident the thicker power wires aren't just insulation. :)

My deoxit order arrived so I'm looking forward to cleaning and conditioning the connector/pins tonight and seeing how that goes. May order new pins if that's a bust. Thanks all
 
I've got some leaf switches that are in contact with a wiper board.
Will this DeOxit fix this type of issue?


Pull the pins and clean them with a fiberglass brush. Sandpaper is overkill, too harsh, IMO.

Clean the fingers on the PCB as well, then treat both with DeOxit, and you'll be good for another 10+ years.

DeOxit:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272528188162
 
PM sent for that paper. Thanks!

Regarding replacing:
How do remove the pins from the housing? Pull them out the back by tugging on the wire?
Do I need special pins to match my housing or any jamma pins properly fit?

For all the work of re-pinning the harness should I consider just hacking the connector off and wiring a new female jamma connector on the end? By this I mean splicing in new connector that's already wired so I avoid messing with any pins at all and just have to deal with the wires. If the pins need any special tools, I'd rather just work with wires.

What do you think?

Edit: Thanks demogo. Saw this after our simul-posts. Still a few questions above needing answers though. :)


I didn't see an answer to your question about how to remove the pin from the connector, so if it's been answered my apologies.
There's a special tool for it but I've been able to get by with cutting the glue ball off the end of a bobby pin and sticking it in the slot in the front of the connector. There's a little barb on the pin that keeps it snapped in. The bobby pin flattens that down so you can pull it.
 
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