Welp, I bought a cabinet

[Merk]

I did buy a little yoga mat with the intention of rolling the pads over it to mitigate any damage to the floor. I'll check with Chad to see what he'd like to do.

The L brackets were definitely loose when I was working on replacing the sensors. I may just unplug the sensor with the frayed wires and tape the wires to see if that improves performance at all (I think it was the right sensor on the 1P right arrow so it's not a big deal for singles) but ideally I'd like to be able to replace it.

You are correct, it snapped on the stage side. Do you or MonMotha have any spares? I feel like if anyone had a spare it'd be you two.

[Ho]

The L brackets are supposed to be loose and move freely, but the screws that hold them should be all the way in. There are supposed to be little metal spacers on the screws that prevent the screws from going all the way in making the L bracket immobile. If those spacers are missing, the screws can be in too far and prevent that bracket from moving causing it to stick. If the screws are loose (with the spacers), the bracket can move too much or get at an angle where it sticks. Neither of these is good, obviously. Make sure all the screws and spacers are there and that the screws are all the way in against the spacers. But the L brackets should still be able to slide up and down a bit.

I don't have any spares of that connector. It's not a part I've ever needed.

[MonMotha]

I ganked a vice grip from work yesterday and brought the casters down on my pads to see if that would stop my pads from being a death trap even though I am without my precious front plate. It turns out that those casters really do stop the pads from moving around and I can play to my heart's content without worrying about surfing around and killing myself.

That is their intended function...

* The monitor stops spazzing out after a good 20 minutes. My first couple of rounds the screen would flicker and shake at the slightest disturbance (like a loud bass note) but after a round or two it stopped completely. I could still bop the side of the cabinet and make it shake but actual gameplay appears to stop causing the monitor to shake after the monitor has time to settle.... or whatever.

Definitely a bad solder joint. They usually crop up on the connectors for the remote board or, sometimes, the video input, but it could be basically anywhere on the deflection (chassis) board.

* The right arrow on my 1P side is sticky as shit to the point where it strongly impacts gameplay. Case in point, I failed Soul 6 on the third song (which is Secret Rendevous.... standard) because the right arrow wouldn't register. I replaced all the sensors in this arrow, what's the best remedy for a sticky arrow? Should I loosen some screws? Thankfully all the other arrows on the 1P side are fine.

Make sure it's clean and check that the L-brackets arent binding up. Specifically, make sure all 4 brackets have all 3 screws, and that the stackup (screw with washer and spacer) is correct on all 3 screws.

When I was replacing the sensors on the 1P right arrow I snapped one of the cable pairs from their connector that plugs into the actual sensor's connector. I shoved the frayed wires into the sensor's connector to see if I could salvage the situation and it appears to work just fine when I do an I/O test and I do not see any stickiness. Is it possible that I shouldn't have shoved the frayed wires into the sensor connector and that is what is causing the stickiness? Is there a way to attach a new connector to the frayed wires?

It's not likely to be the cause of your issues unless the wire is grounding out on (touching) the metal stage superstructure. Unfortunately, this isn't an easy thing to cleanly fix since you can't readily buy those connectors in the USA, though you can order them direct from JST in Japan; be prepared for a hefty shipping charge, but the parts themselves are reasonably priced. I think there's a way to back the contacts out of the housing, and at that point you could just solder the wire to the munged contact then re-install it. If you cant get the contact back out, then I guess just attempt to solder it back to the contact with the contact still in the housing. Some melty plastic is likely.

[Fluffyumpkins]

I did buy a little yoga mat with the intention of rolling the pads over it to mitigate any damage to the floor. I'll check with Chad to see what he'd like to do.

As long as you bought it, we might as well use it.

[Merk]

Let's say, hypothetically, I have a bunch of 573s laying around not being used. Is it possible to just take the CD-Rom drive and flash card out of my DDR Extreme and put it into a different 573 and have it work? I want to fix that STC-RAM error that is causing all high scores to be erased and necessitating that I put in the Extreme unlock all songs code every time I boot up the cabinet.

[MonMotha]

You'll have to re-install Extreme on the new unit if it wasn't installed before (and, even if it was, the various bootlegs are sometimes different). Of course, the final unit will also need to contain one of the "digital IO boards", but you can swap that over, too. Re-installing is usually pretty easy, but the process varies by bootleg. If you have a "two disc" bootleg and don't have the install disc, well, you won't be installing it. The "one disc" versions usually toggle install based on DIP4.

[Ho]

However, chances are that any 573 you swap into is also going to have a dead RTC-RAM battery. If it's not dead now, it probably will be soon. But, as Brandon already answered, the CD-ROM drives and flash cards are interchangeable between 573 units.

[Merk]

Thanks all, I'll do a swap and let you know how it goes!

[Merk]

Did a swap of my DDR 573 with my Drummania 573 and yuuuup still getting that RTC-RAM cleared message on boot-up.

If there is a God he does not want me to have fun with my DDR cabinet

Whose dick do I need to suck to get my little RTC-RAM replaced? How hard would it be for a dude like me with no electrical engineering experience to do?

[MonMotha]

It doesn't require any electronics or EE knowledge, just skill with a soldering iron. Konami were "nice" and made the pads on the thing super tiny, which makes it hard to get good heat transfer.

I've got the parts. I can try to get it out, but it's really tough. The last one I did I actually ended up wrecking the GX700 mainboard, but I was attempting it without access to my full array of soldering tools. You can just pay my hourly rate.

[Merk]

Welp, whenever you'd like to come on over we can make it happen. If my 573 gets bricked I won't be too heartbroken since I am drowning in spares with dead RTC-RAM batteries.

Should I make a check out to "MonMotha, Inc"?

[Merk]

Worked on my pads for a bit yesterday. The 1P side is nearly perfect albeit a bit schizophrenic, I ran into an issue where one sensor in the right arrow would all of a sudden stick after working perfectly for an entire set of songs. I opened it up and noticed that a good number of the spacers for the screws in my L-brackets are missing so I did some readjusting of the screws to loosen them up a bit. After a bit of trial and error I think I hit the sweet spot for where my screws should be and I was able to FC shit like Rhythm 'n' Police without a problem.

The 2P side is a disaster and I cannot for the life of me remove two adjacent corner brackets that are holding the down arrow in. The screws heads aren't stripped and the drill bit I am using has a good grip but I can't get enough torque to get the problem screws out - it feels like the screw has rusted and fused to the screw holes. Any ideas? Is there a giant screwdriver out there that I can use to get some more torque for these screws?

[Ho]

You're going to want to get those spacers. Those screws won't stay in the right place on their own otherwise.

I do have a big #3 screwdriver you could try. You might get some more torque out of it than a power drill--depending on the drill.

[MonMotha]

I have an impact driver and a #3 bit for it. That'll take it out or strip the head off the screw, whichever comes first, assuming you can get enough downforce on the thing to keep it from camming out.

As to the spacers, mine's missing a number of them too (and the screw, and washer). They're a somewhat unusual length, IIRC. As I recall, I couldn't find any that were correct. However, the stock is easy to come by. I can have a machine shop make a bunch up for us if you'd like to go in on an order.

[Merk]

Sure! Assuming they won't cost an assload of money I'll be happy to go in an on order.

Do you think it would be possible to bring the impact driver over, say, tomorrow? If a screw's head gets ripped then that's no big deal, I'm able to get at least one screw off each corner bracket so I will have one screw to hold the bracket in.