WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

[Ho]

I skimmed the last page or so. I don't have time to read it all right now. But I had a couple of things that I noticed that I wanted to share. I apologize if MonMotha covered them and I missed it in my skim.

1) The spacers you have on the screws for the L brackets inside the arrows do not look correct. They should be metal and the ones in your picture look nylon. Also, they look too long. As was already noted, the L brackets should be "loose" and able to move freely up and down. However, they should not shift very much laterally. From your picture, it seems like the edge of the bracket is sitting in the middle of the sensor (lengthwise). The bracket should completely cover the sensor as it does in the picture you linked from DDR Freak (which happens to be my machine...I'm glad those pictures are still getting such good mileage ).

2) I had a full set of those green Channelbeat sensors. Anything odd that you've noticed from them...is probably real. Misfires, phantom steps, missed steps, and spontaneous "just stopped working" were all things that I noticed from them when I had them in my machine.

[BenMadsen]

Yes I started to realize near the end that something was wrong with most of the spacers and screws. I took the L brackets off and cleaned them and the screws, but had a nightmare of a time trying to get the bottom screw of the "triangle" back in place, so I didn't reattach any of those. The 8 sensors I got from my friend came in today, and I installed those in the worst spots. The pads are very sensitive now but still give me misfiring issues. Not sure if this is the fault of the scattered channelbeat sensors (at least 1 is in each arrow) or if it's because I removed that bottom screw. I'll be doing some tweaking trying to take care of that, but my main priority now is cleaning out the 2P side.

Played more today and got some more scores! Feels great to have a side work at 90%. My stamina is totally gone, haha.

[BenMadsen]

Any idea on a few brand new sensors I put in that worked flawlessly and then suddenly stopped working? There are 3 in total. I checked and they are plugged on fine. L bracket is loose like it should be...

[MonMotha]

If you have a multimeter, you can test them independently. Just use the continuity or Ohms setting. Should be open normally and closed (low Ohms) when you squeeze them.

It's entirely possible that they're basically defective. The Channelbeat green style sensors were notorious for working acceptably for a little while then just totally stopping after a short period. Depending on construction, there's no reason to suspect other styles may not have similar issues.

[BenMadsen]

Fixed the sensors and now experiencing a much bigger problem. In the middle of playing a song the entire pad stopped working. Neither side works. Took off the tube connector on the pad side and one of the connectors was disconnected. Plugged it back in and still nothing. Checked the jamma board and research it per someone's recommendation and no luck. Checked the tube connector on the cabinet side and they were connected fine. Unplugged and replugged just to be sure. Freaking out, any ideas?

[MonMotha]

Check that you have power to the stage IO boards. They will be underneath the two dead panels closest to the front-center.

[BenMadsen]

Alright. I'll check when I get home tonight. How do I know if they have power? Do they have a light that comes on? Will they illuminate if powered as soon as the machine boots?

What should I do if they do/do not work once I check?

[MonMotha]

There's a pretty obvious power connector running to each of them with orange and black wires. Orange is +12V, black is ground. Check with a multimeter on 20V setting. Make sure you don't short them.

If they don't have power, check the wiring or also for a possibly faulty power supply. If they do have power, you've got a fault somewhere else. It's unlikely they'd both die at the same time, and they're otherwise totally independent.