nesdev.org

Has anybody ever ordered "new" 72 pin replacement connectors online?

As seen on Ebay: http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?rt=nc&_nkw=7 ... m283&gbr=1

And I've seen them at the Nintendo Repair Shop. http://www.nintendorepairshop.com/produ ... pair-Part/

Are they reliable?

I've tried everything with the one on my NES. Re-bending the pins, cleaning, light sanding, etc and I'm still only getting games to work half the time and only with a lot of fiddling. (And I clean my game connectors as well.)

I purchased one and was completely unimpressed. The connector is extremely stiff, even after bending the pins back a bit. And the motherboard-side connector was very finicky for me. In the end it was no better than the one I already had on there in terms of reliability.

I have hear other folks say these work well for the though. Let's see what others say.

qbradq wrote:I purchased one and was completely unimpressed.

Where did you buy it from?

I have no idea. It was the first site that came up when I Goggled for "NES cartridge connector replacement". But this was like three years ago. I've since given up on the deck loaders and now use a Yobo.

I'm pretty sure my NES has one. I bought it off ebay, and the description might have said something to that effect. (NEW CONNECTOR L00K!)

Retrousb products work without any trouble. 0% fail rate.
Official games work nearly 100% of the time, with my "method". Push games all the way in, then pull them out slightly. Works for me. I'm pretty sure every NES has its own secret code to get official games working >_>

Don't push new connectors down.

I think it depends. I've got great ones that were nice and tight and ones that were just okay only needed slight force and work after a good blow or two.

Unfortunately there's no real good way to tell from an auction. I would contact the seller and check out their feedback with that specific item. If you contact them beforehand you'll have better luck resolving any issues from what I've found.

3gengames wrote:Don't push new connectors down.

I do the same thing. Mine was also pretty tight when it was new, but after a few years it has loosened quite a bit. I make sure my games are clean before I put them in the console, and I haven't had a problem since I replaced my 72-pin and snipped the lockout.

shawnleblanc wrote:Has anybody ever ordered "new" 72 pin replacement connectors online?

You can read my experience with such connectors. My opinion at this point mimics that of qbradq; they're shite. I realise that doesn't help you in your quest to obtain decent ones, but it's worth knowing anyway.

The "don't push down" advice doesn't really apply universally, by the way. The thread link I provided has evidence of that (read: many of the games ONLY work if you push down on them; "don't push down" equates to "don't play any NES games").

3gengames, if you want me to mail you my front-loading NES in the case you don't believe me, I'd be more than happy to. I'd take a video showing the problem except that's a little difficult to do with only 2 hands and a small digital camera :-). I do understand the advice you're giving -- it makes sense logically (you don't want to apply excessive stress to the connector), but in my case, it's the only way to get the pins to reliably connect to the cartridge edge connector. YMMV.

Part of me keeps wondering if these new connectors are actually using some sort of shoddy metal (maybe doesn't conduct as well as whatever was used in the 80s?). It's too bad nobody makes gold-plated ones.

I know the answer is probably yes, but the games are nice and clean, correct? And I find that the replacement connectors we have work with everything and get damaged when pushed down pretty much at all. I believe we have the MCM connectors. I've had one in my toaster since like 07. I think it's close to possibly needing changed, but it still works pretty well.

Wiemans is the only way to get games truely clean, if they're not cleaned with Wiemans, then I'd be the alcohol still left a layer that is causing interference with the contacts.


I've been think though, and the best option next to buying an expensive toploader is to just take a game genie connector and solder it to the NES motherboards connector. GG connectors are great. I may just do that, the more I think about it.

If the conductivity is a problem, there are chemical solutions for that (no pun intended). I don't know how it works exactly, but stuff like DeoxIt is supposed to increase conductivity (as well as remove the oxidation). I've been using it, but since I use a toploader mostly, it was already working fairly decently before.

koitsu wrote: It's too bad nobody makes gold-plated ones.

So I was thinking about this today. These edge connectors aren't anything special other than being double ended and at a slight angle. Next order I make from digikey I think I'll pick up a couple of these they happen to be gold but I'm not sure will make a difference: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... 7932878148

And make my own 72 pin connector I'll post it up when I do.

Part not found

infiniteneslives wrote:

koitsu wrote: It's too bad nobody makes gold-plated ones.

So I was thinking about this today. These edge connectors aren't anything special other than being double ended and at a slight angle. Next order I make from digikey I think I'll pick up a couple of these they happen to be gold but I'm not sure will make a difference: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... 7932878148

And make my own 72 pin connector I'll post it up when I do.

shawnleblanc wrote:Part not found

infiniteneslives wrote:

koitsu wrote: It's too bad nobody makes gold-plated ones.

So I was thinking about this today. These edge connectors aren't anything special other than being double ended and at a slight angle. Next order I make from digikey I think I'll pick up a couple of these they happen to be gold but I'm not sure will make a difference: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... 7932878148

And make my own 72 pin connector I'll post it up when I do.

The link works for me...

Here's the digikey part number: A31721-ND

I got the same error. Thanks for the part number.

What modifications do you need to do to this?