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Repinning Molex connectors

Nedreud said:
That's for pushing wires into an IDC connector, which is what most folks want to get rid of and replace with the better, longer lasting Trifurcon pin Molex connectors.
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not sure about 'most folks'. back in the day these machines were left on for 12 hours or more, and played heavily non stop. nowadays they live in pinhead gamesrooms and maybe get a few hours' love a week if they're lucky. has anyone on here ever had an IDC that they put in, go wrong?
 
cooldan said:
not sure about 'most folks'. back in the day these machines were left on for 12 hours or more, and played heavily non stop. nowadays they live in pinhead gamesrooms and maybe get a few hours' love a week if they're lucky. has anyone on here ever had an IDC that they put in, go wrong?
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Oops :oops: Bit of a sweeping statement. Fitted properly an IDC will be just fine for home use. I'd still go for Trifurcon over IDC given the choice. The problem with IDC is the area of contact. Some pins end up handling a fair amount of current and sometimes the IDC doesn't give a good enough area of contact. Fine for data signals but could be a problem for higher voltage/current connections. Actually I despair at the use of Molex connectors in and out of the old Bally power supplies because they're really not ideal for the job delivering 20-30A at 6V.

And @cooldan your avatar is by far and away the most distracting but pleasant on pinballinfo :D
 
Having a search around and landed on thsi thread.

I too dont like the style of idc molex where you have to press in the wire using an isertion tool. They don't look like the get great contact really either?

A post touched upon replacing with a Trifurcon? style connector. Is this a common and accepted 'improvement'? I was looking at buying the insertion tool but at £9 to do a job I feel isn't going to be as good as other options is it worth it?

What other ways do people get rid of the above type?
 
What other ways do people get rid of the above type?
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I apply the age old rule of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" :) If I need to replace a connector then I will use trifurcon molex but I don't replace IDC ones just to have molex...if that makes sense.

Is this a common and accepted 'improvement'?
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Yes, definitely :thumbs:
 
Thanks Ron,

I have just replaced my GI connector on Hook with the trifurcon type. I wouldn't do them all for the sake of it either, Looks like alot of faffing to me for little gain. :eek:

I did solder the pins to the wires before insertion, This may bite me later but I will worry about ti then :hmm:

:thumbs:
 
IDC are sh*te. Okay, maybe that's a rash over-opinionated statement but nah... they're cack ;)

+1 soldering the Trifurcons. My choice too. Yes, they can be crimped, but like the IDC, I'm sure this is a weak point on connections carrying too much current. Bally did some numpty things with connectors and definitely put some connections under severe strain particularly as they were using the standard single-sided Molex pins (non-Trifurcon).
 
Sorry for dragging this one up... :)

However thanks to a £10 off £20+ ebay spend that dropped in my inbox earlier in the week, have picked up a crimp tool as above.

However just wondering if these are suitable for standard Molex blocks???

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170842580781

Whilst the originals on the machine i am working on are originally are already crimped, some have been done so badly that they insulation is out of the connector and they are touching in some places, so need re-crimping... :(

Cheers
Paul
 
Paul said:
Sorry for dragging this one up... :)

However thanks to a £10 off £20+ ebay spend that dropped in my inbox earlier in the week, have picked up a crimp tool as above.

However just wondering if these are suitable for standard Molex blocks???

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170842580781

Whilst the originals on the machine i am working on are originally are already crimped, some have been done so badly that they insulation is out of the connector and they are touching in some places, so need re-crimping... :(

Cheers
Paul
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I have a feeling this came up before and Andy @pinballmania (?? I think) stated that those weren't suitable for some reason or other. I could be wrong ...but I think I'm right :D
 
Mokex pin crinp is around £20 on Ebay - Drop Andy at pinballmania a mail to see how much they are from him... probably around the same :)
 
I just soldered mine as I’m too tight/skint to buy a crimping tool.

I still crimped but just used some round nose pliers holding the clip at 45 degrees with the wire in place, then folded the tabs around and soldered.

If you do this, you need to hold the pin upside down so that the solder can’t run down onto the metal spring that keeps the pin inside the plastic connector or it will block it up and stop it working.

I think this is probably as good as crimping and didn’t take more than a minute or so per pin. If I was gonna do this more regularly in future a crimp would probably be worth it.

Plus, if like me you have a ‘pass through’ wire on an IDC you’ll then need to try stuffing two cables into a single crimp, which is doable but means the wider top part of the crimp needs to go around the actual strands as there’s no room for two sets of insulation too... see 2x green cables going to same pin.

uploads.tapatalk_cdn.com_20171116_7647201b61089888dc805a478df36054.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
nibsy said:
Just doing my first molex crimping, replacing the burnt out idc on my lw3 gi. I found this short video maybe useful to newbs like me.
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That is a great little video.

Probably the best I have seen. Shows the technique so clearly. You couldn't go wrong after watching this.

I love crimping. Its a very satisfying little job.[emoji16]



Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk
 
Where is the best place to by molex connectors and pins? I'm looking to add an in-line connector between the power switch and the transformer on a BOP (ie, to power something else of the power switch). I think it's a 9 block molex from memory - any idea on the size of pins on this?
 
I have same crimper as above, + connectors from Pinball Mania. They can be bit fiddly to do properly, have to make sure connector is in crimper correctly. As said, watch video above, makes it very clear.
 
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