The single Neotek PS3 power supply that came with it has got pretty hot.
There's a few black hot spots on the PCB so I figure it was struggling.
As I said the two power input connectors had been removed and the dual feeds inside the console had been cut, spliced and taped together as a single power input.
Regarding the Molex issue, Neotek changed over to ribbon cables for the Elites and Elan due to the connectivity issues with the motherboard designs of the earlier Series 1 and Series 2 consoles.
However I think a lot of the connection issues with the Series 1 and Series 2 boards is also caused by the wooden frames getting out of alignment and/or sagging over time which in turn results in less than perfect mating of the Molexes.
This is less of an issue with the Elites and Elans with their use of flexible ribbon cables. (although ribbons have their own annoyances!)
My 1988 Elite has a hybrid wooden/aluminium frame and when it arrived it was pretty loose and wobbly.
The centre of the console had sagged in the middle almost 2cm but the armrest is now reinforced by a 3 metre length of 75mm x 50mm x 6mm aluminium angle bolted to the wooden side cheeks.
Loose misaligned frames aren't so much of an issue for the channel modules which are connected by ribbons but the Elite's four master section modules plug directly into their own motherboard Molexes (somewhat like the older boards - no ribbons) and this also results in dodgy Molex connections over time as the motherboard just literally hangs off the Molex connectors.
A common fix is to make up short ribbons to connect the master modules to the motherboard.
This is what I have done but I have also now squared up and heavily reinforced the entire console frame to make it rock solid.
The second generation Elite II's and Elan II's went to an all aluminium frame which is more rigid than the wooden/aluminium frames and less likely to work loose.
The bottom of my Elite had some pretty ratty thin plywood that was split and falling to pieces allowing a fair bit of the wiring to hang down.
I've since replaced the old ply with 9mm marine ply and screwed it all back in solidly.
As for the switches, well I'm bracing myself for those!
Anyway happy days!
berkfinger wrote:i'm not certain as I think this console was supposed to have two power supplies but only arrived with one.
Well if it was made for 2 then I guess it needs two! My point is that my Neotek is stock but recapped in every way and has really tremendous headroom and noise floor, so I don't believe you need to pimp beyond what Neotek designed, as long as it is intact and functioning properly. I guess the Series 2 is less power hungry and therefore needs only 1 supply as it has less routing options than you do.
I did replace a lot of C & K switches, but you probably already know they are cheap at Digikey.
Also with the Molex stuff, I have followed the Neotek google group and talked a lot with the guys at Electrical about their desks and the common belief is that the Molexes are a weak point (they replaced all the Molexes with gold connectors at great cost and effort and I believe they still have trouble!) . I had a lot of issues originally and when a genius German tech checked my board he discovered a design flaw that simply doesn't allow the Molex to make a solid connection on the motherboard. We took my board apart and carefully trimmed all my PCBs about 2mm and now they connect fantastically and fully. I have all original molex connectors (I did reflow all of the male and female solder connections as well) and I have ZERO seating issues, 18 months on. Before that I would have to reseat modules every day... if you have seating issues, I would have a good look under the hood. I think the Molexes get damaged from people pushing on the channels trying to get them to connect, when really the Neotek guys messed up and didn't allow enough depth in the console construction to ensure the connectors have a really good chance to fully click in... so maybe don't blame the Molex! But of course that is just my experience.
Last edited by rowmat on Thu Sep 14, 2017 9:43 am, edited 13 times in total.