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On my Twilight Zone the color DMD was having glitchy Behavior and a Pinsider was telling me that he usually replaces the ribbon cables when he goes on house calls if the game is 15 years old or so... as in regular maintenance for the game. He is sending me new ribbon cables.
Do you replace your Ribbon cables only if something is not working or as a regular maintenance type of thing?
Quoted from pinballplusMN:I usually always replace on 20+year old games. So much that I make my own now. I've seen them cause stuck on flash lamps,coils, display glitches and sound issues. Some of my customers have had previous repair people reseat their connectors to solve an issue only to have it reappear later. These games are getting old and replacing original ribbons is good insurance to prevent a failure. JR
I'm with pinballplusMN on this. Replacing ribbon cables will save you a lot of hassle chasing many issues when several times it's a bad cable.
A little off topic - When I watch Todd Tuckey's (TNT Amusement) YouTube videos often times he replaces the 2 big capacitors. I'm familiar with replacing them in a old tube radio for getting rid of the hum & to control voltage but what does replacing the capacitors in a pinball machine do.... or what are the symptoms of bad capacitors?
Ok... thanks for the replies. I like that pinballplusMN is making the cables for my TZ. They are just $34 shipped..... that's cheap for probably saving a lot of time trying to fix some issues.
He is out repairing many games & sees probably every type of problem. I have heard he (JR) is very good..... I just wish he was closer. Not a plug. I don't know him personally. I'm glad there are guys on here (Pinside) that are good at what they do.
Quoted from barakandl:The female part is only half the connection. The male pins tarnish too. If there was a corrosion issue that made the female plug compromised, the male pins are also likely compromised as well.
If you look closely at male pins, you can see ones going bad. They will look dull like the finish has come off.
Ohhhhh nooooooo.... is it ever going to end?? jk... this is part of the fun. So... how does someone go about getting the male pins good to go?
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