Arcade PCB Modifications/Repair (Hardware or Software) thread

[CoolFox]

I noticed Konami put vents on the PCB under a number of chips—the vents can be seen from the solder side. Figured I’d add some passive cooling to my Simpsons board by way of copper heatsinks I had laying around.

Awesome. I do know the 053247 and 053246 go bad on those.

 

[kikaso]

Awesome. I do know the 053247 and 053246 go bad on those.

Yeah I figured less heat can’t hurt. Plus I use these in a cab which gets pretty warm inside.

I’m currently working on a project to install a couple of exhaust fans in the cabinet. Will post the project in the appropriate forum when I’m done

 

[Funny_Dyzieks]

Sorry to necrobump. But i have a mod that i want to share
i have a sega model 3 step 2.0. And since the video board tends to die. I decided that adding heatsinks to the main chips wouldn't hurt

I used 7 30x30x7mm and 2 25x25x5mm aluminum heatsinks. Bought them from aliexpress
While it can definitely fit taller ones, i didn't want any risks, so i used smaller ones. Tho i would recommend getting copper ones instead
Now im planing of installing arctic p8 max 80 fans. Since the old ones are on their lasts legs. plus i had great experiences with arctic

 

[ShootTheCore]

I'm all for installing passive heatsinks on custom chips that run hot and/or are known to fail often. For instance, I install a passive heatsink on the large DL-2929 custom on Capcom CPS3 and on the CPS-A-01 custom on CPS1 boards.

 

[nem]

Are you guys not worried that the heatsink will come off and short something? How much do you trust some no brand adhesive? I guess if the board is vertical and a single stack, it's probably not an issue. It will just drop to the cab floor. What if it has a fan on it though? And any double stacked board is kind of scary too.

Some of the stuff you're putting heatsinks on are stuff I have and operate. Some of them are enclosed (like Model stuff and CPS2), so I can't say one way or another if a single chip is running hot, but I did just finger test the CPS3 board that I've had running for 12 hours straight and that thing is barely warm. I've easily put 5000 hours on it since I've owned it.

Going from a home user to an operator (8 years and counting) has really opened my eyes how much abuse everything in the arcade space is supposed to take. Like monitor burn isn't a thing you will ever have to worry about, ever.

 

[Arthrimus]

Are you guys not worried that the heatsink will come off and short something? How much do you trust some no brand adhesive? I guess if the board is vertical and a single stack, it's probably not an issue. It will just drop to the cab floor. What if it has a fan on it though? And any double stacked board is kind of scary too.

Some of the stuff you're putting heatsinks on are stuff I have and operate. Some of them are enclosed (like Model stuff and CPS2), so I can't say one way or another if a single chip is running hot, but I did just finger test the CPS3 board that I've had running for 12 hours straight and that thing is barely warm. I've easily put 5000 hours on it since I've owned it.

Going from a home user to an operator (8 years and counting) has really opened my eyes how much abuse everything in the arcade space is supposed to take. Like monitor burn isn't a thing you will ever have to worry about, ever.

I share this concern. Heat is probably not the reason that most of these old custom ICs fail. It's usually some sort of manufacturing defect like internal corrosion that slowly kills the chips, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

 

[Funny_Dyzieks]

I share this concern. Heat is probably not the reason that most of these old custom ICs fail. It's usually some sort of manufacturing defect like internal corrosion that slowly kills the chips, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

true. Its more probably just placebo.
but the heatsinks were cheap, so i decided to try