Vent Thread... why oh why....

Culcuhain

Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2009
Messages
613
Reaction score
19
Location
St Paul, Texas
do people solder the leads onto the joystick microswitches....

My Tecmo World Cup game started having issues with the P1 joystick not wanting to go right. No biggie. I ordered 2 new joysticks. I took the CP off and turned it upside down... every freaking wire going to the joysticks and buttons is SOLDERED to the microswitch/switch... OMG.... just venting... nothing else to see.... move along...
 
1) Because then you don't have to go back out every time a connector falls off or is pulled off because someone stuck their hand in the coin door and pulled on some wires.

2) It's easier, especially if you don't have connectors and want to play now...
 
do people solder the leads onto the joystick microswitches....

My Tecmo World Cup game started having issues with the P1 joystick not wanting to go right. No biggie. I ordered 2 new joysticks. I took the CP off and turned it upside down... every freaking wire going to the joysticks and buttons is SOLDERED to the microswitch/switch... OMG.... just venting... nothing else to see.... move along...

I like soldering them. I think I do a beautiful job of it as well. Wires tied tight, mounted close up to the bottom of the panel, everything the perfect length. Push-on connectors are flaky, especially what they sell at the local parts houses.

Now if the original connectors and harness are there, I leave it alone, but a scratch build, I solder.
 
run a peice of 30# gage wire thru the hole, and thru the connector, and give it a wrap, it will never fall off.
 
After messing with a JAMMA cab I got recently with a cheap harness installed - and after a good 30 minutes tracking down non-working switches that were just loose or fallen-off connectors - I'll probably be soldering then directly before I put this into the gameroom permanently...
 
+1 for soldering them too.

Just wrapping the wire through isn't the best idea too. You can get oxidation over time that will reduce the reliability of the connection.
 
Coming from my many years of auto experience, I prefer to solder the wires on the blade connectors and then just slide the connectors onto the micro-switches. If anything needs to get replaced I just unhooked. To me soldering the wires to the micro-switches is the same as welding the joystick to the CP.

I do understand everyone's position... just aggravating what should have been a 5 minute swap turned into a 45 minute swap...

anywho.... joysticks are installed.... wired up with blade connectors.... all is well...
 
45 minutes? Even if you unsoldered and resoldered 2 joysticks and 16 buttons, it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes extra work besides the time of removing and installing the joystick itself...
 
45 minutes... yup... I took my time...
solder connector... heat shrink it.... move cat from game...
let dogs out...
get back to soldering
solder connector... heat shrink it.... move cat from game....
let dogs back in...
repeat.... :-D
 
OK, I can almost see someone maybe doing this in a commercial environment but it seems like enormous overkill to me in a home environment.
 
I do sometimes

I've never seen anyone use heatshrink on microswitches, I really don't think it's necessary.

sometimes I do I don't like crimping the connectors they fall off and what not so if I have the option I pull the plastic of the crimp connectors solder them and shrink wrap where the plastic use to be. It works very well for me looks clean and last.
 
OK, I can almost see someone maybe doing this in a commercial environment but it seems like enormous overkill to me in a home environment.

Unless you have to keep opening up the cab because whoever wired it used the cheapest crappiest connector or harness they could find. So - I either cut off the old connectors and crimp on new ones, solder them directly, or install an entire new harness. Considering that this is my game and i don't plan to get rid of it, I might as well solder. I'm the only one who has to deal with it....
 
Unless you have to keep opening up the cab because whoever wired it used the cheapest crappiest connector or harness they could find. So - I either cut off the old connectors and crimp on new ones, solder them directly, or install an entire new harness. Considering that this is my game and i don't plan to get rid of it, I might as well solder. I'm the only one who has to deal with it....

I guess I could see that. I personally would cut off the QDs and re-crimp all new ones on to make it reliable but that's just me.
 
I guess I could see that. I personally would cut off the QDs and re-crimp all new ones on to make it reliable but that's just me.

That can and has been done, too. I also usually find tarnished connectors on the switches, so I need to buff those out first.

I usually find, though, that I'm doing this late at night and when I need 50 new crimp-on connectors (for 2 joysticks and 14 buttons), that I might only have 20-25 on hand and I don't want to wait to play my game properly...
 
Back
Top Bottom