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Stern opto board swap help

C

chris platt

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10 Years
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Jan 21, 2014
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north west
Looking at my met trough opto boards and can’t fathom how to swap them out .. I presumed there would be a three pin choc which simply slid on and off but there seems to be three wires going to each pin instead of, do they slide off or do I have to solder them on ? Am I missing something ? ….not sure if the snake kick out micro switch is the same black wrapped wires
Help please
 
Just traced to three wires to a huge choc block … doesn’t look like that part on mine
Anyone with old Metallica got any advise as well
 
Maybe it needs old fashioned solder? Wire attaches to pins and has a black coating , not sure if it’s a push fit for each wire or a coating over solder
 
Three wires straight onto the pins .. looks like a choc block but the white is a hood attached to the board not a block
 

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U think I could get the correct block and installation displacement tool to terminate into block for an easier job in future ? If so not sure what to search for or the tool required
 
Looks like someone soldered the wires straight to the male connector on the board. That isn't right. Looks like a Molex KK, all components available at RS. The correct crimp tool is expensive sadly, there is a prototype version which works and is palatable.
 
drhex said:
Looks like someone soldered the wires straight to the male connector on the board. That isn't right. Looks like a Molex KK, all components available at RS. The correct crimp tool is expensive sadly, there is a prototype version which works and is palatable.
Click to expand...
Molex KK looks right so thanks …. Can I get a 3 pin or 4 and terminate accordingly ? Does the KK open up and I do installation displacement with tool? What’s the crimp tool called and who are rs ?

Thanks for advise
 
RS components is one of the larger electronic part sellers. There are crimp and IDC variants of the plug, I prefer crimp as that lasts better. For that you buy housings and contacts separately, the contacts need to be crimped to the cable which requires the according tool. If you have an IDC tool you may want to buy an IDC connector. Measure the pitch on yours, think there are 3.96 mm and 2.5 mm ones, you probably have the latter. For crimp you can buy the long housings and cut them to size. Get Trifurcon crimp pins for better contact.
RS: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/?searchTerm=Molex+kk
Crimp tool: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp-tools/7106499?gb=s
Make sure you remove all tin from the male side if you want to reuse the board or solder a new header.
I can pop you a housing and pins in a letter but you will need the crimp tool anyway, so no real point.
 
Thank u all … makes sense and gonna have to have a go but …
Just a final point
Seems very fiddly…. Looking at the rast type installation displacement block which would be less fiddley , the block seems odd looking but May all just click together to form female block …. Is this the same thing or not ?
 
I'm very surprised that you need to swap these particular boards out, they very rarely go wrong.

The z block before it however always causes problems and is best being removed by soldering the wires directly to each other. If I recall correctly the z block feed both this and the trough. Unless that's been removed already?

For the previous owner to hardwire directly to the pins I would say that they experienced trough problems and did this for peace of mind, so swapping these out and reverting back to connector blocks is unlikely to any trough issues.
 
Moonraker said:
I'm very surprised that you need to swap these particular boards out, they very rarely go wrong.

The z block before it however always causes problems and is best being removed by soldering the wires directly to each other. If I recall correctly the z block feed both this and the trough. Unless that's been removed already?

For the previous owner to hardwire directly to the pins I would say that they experienced trough problems and did this for peace of mind, so swapping these out and reverting back to connector blocks is unlikely to any trough issues.
Click to expand...
You’re probably right , trough issues I have could be magnetised balls which are on order which may sort issue out easily .
My last Metallica had issues and was traced to opto board which I was told was a common problem due to being next to kick out … as I’ve just got it and need to start getting my hands dirty and having trough issues I thought for the sake of it easily replace the two boards to start with and new balls to future proof game …I need to replace snake micro switch kick out which has the same directly soldered wiring (looks a great job but harder to simply swap out) …all above advise has made me realise what’s happened and is relevant to a few things ..
Scares me to even attempt all this so thanks for all advise guys
 
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