jammaboards.com - questionable quality

[invzim]

Ok, had some issues with my supergun today - starting to believe my pcb's were cursed as I have had some issues lately. Long story short (it involved oscilloscope, schematics, voltmeter etc), it was actually as simple as 4.2volt at the edge of my board, WTF, that only happen to noobs

Now on to investigate WHY..

The jamma harness I'm using is from jammaboards.com, I purchased 3 of them Jan 16 2008, haven't had a use for them until now.

This harness uses a single thick wire for each current, i.e 4 cables for 5v,12v,-5V and GND, however on closer inspection - they are 22 AWG, same wire gauge used for buttons!?!?!



22 AWG is totally unacceptable for power cabling, even at a low 25W (5A@5V) power usage and 3 feet length of wire, you get a 0.5V voltage drop, increase the length to 6ft, or 2meters and you get a whole volt less at your edge than at your PSU. UNACCEPTABLE!

Now, jammaboards.com state that they use 18AWG for power, I didn't check this when I got them 3 years ago, so hopefully they have changed - buyer be aware..

Anyone know where to get a quality harness for a reasonable price?

[cools]

Bob Roberts I believe is the only place to get a harness made to a decent standard. Other than that you're building it yourself - everywhere else I've seen sells the cost cutting Chinese ones.

[davewellington]

Have you talked with Jammaboards? I've found they're very nice people who reply to emails promptly.

[grantspain]

i would say less of a scam and more like just being ****-it's cheap chinese crap,they use that gauge wire on jamma harness'

[invzim]

A SINGLE 22 AWG wire for 5V to a PCB, masqueraded as a bigger gauge by having thicker insulation than the other 22 AWG wires in a harness is incompetence at best.

[penrhos]

I suspect they just bought them in bulk from China as they look the same as the ones i got from http://www.welink.cc" they have the same thick insulation but same gauge as the thinner ones.

Fortunatley I spotted it and swapped it for a better gauge, still beats making them from scratch.

As for JAMMABOARDS - i've never had any issues with service or delivery.

[Chi]

Cheap? Yes.
Shoddy? Yes.
Incompetent? Very possibly.

Scam? Well, I'll have to disagree with you there. The wires clearly say 22AWG, for one.

[davewellington]

They do seems to care about quality though, they recently stopped stocking arcademvs.com's adapters and have started making their own of higher quality. The JB-3's are awesome too.

[invzim]

I'm just **** off because I have to redo a lot of this http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=15722, I'm sure they're not evil, but maybe a bit misguided

[davewellington]

Have you talked with Jammaboards? I've found they're very nice people who reply to emails promptly.

[NASguy]

Another thumbs up for jammaboards.com, they might not have the best prices on PCBs, but they are totally professional and you'll never buy shoddy merchandise.

[kazuo]

I bought a JAMMA extension harness from Jammaboards previously... all of the pins weren't wired up, so some of my PCBs would flat-out not work at all. Ugh. May have also been due to the extremely thin-gauge wire on the power/ground wires as you noticed on your harness... this was years ago, so I can't remember if the extension harness has the same issue.

Their service is great, however; any time I have had a problem, I shoot them an e-mail, and I get a reply within a day or two offering a replacement or a full refund.

I've also bought other bits here and there (kick harnesses, batteries, etc.) and not had any issues.

Good that you've pointed this out... perhaps they will pick up on it and make changes! I'd shoot them an e-mail.

[Chi]

you'll never buy shoddy merchandise.

Er, the point of this topic is that he had. Of course, since this was back in 2008 it might not reflect what they are like now.

[masterturk]

no complaints from jammaboards.com at all

[NASguy]

you'll never buy shoddy merchandise.

Er, the point of this topic is that he had. Of course, since this was back in 2008 it might not reflect what they are like now.

How is the merchandise shoddy when the wire gauges are clearly marked as the OP said? He never said the harness didn't work. One could try asking questions before you buy something, especially since all wiring jobs are not created equal.

People on the internet are too fast to jump on people's good names these days.

Again, Jammaboards is a quality company.

[invzim]

The "average user" is not well versed in voltage drops, ohms law etc, and can barely use a multimeter. 22 AWG is asking for trouble, it doesn't matter how good your customer support is if the products you sell are crap and cause grief and problems for your customers, it's like selling a bicycle without breaks to 7 year olds.

Example, 5ft of 22 AWG wiring:

board draws 60 watts, that is a voltage drop for TWO volts, so the user being a technical person adjusts his PSU to compensate after asking on this forum why his board doesn't work (3volt at edge).

The PSU is now outputting 7+ volts.

Then said user switches to a board that only draws 20 watts, that equals a power-drop of 0.64 volts. His board may now be fried, or roasting slowly, because it's being fed 6.4+ volts, maybe more because of myth that 5.2 volt is ideal.

Being a bit of an advanced user myself, it didn't occur to me for a second to check if the thick wires were mostly made out of plastic until I had a problem.

[Chi]

How is the merchandise shoddy when the wire gauges are clearly marked as the OP said?

Because it's a) a terribly poor design choice (a single wire for 4 individual solder points? Let alone a wire gauge more fit for signalling than power) and b) almost certainly wasn't clearly marked as such on the original sales page - and the thick insulation is misleading unless deliberately pointed out.

You can say what you like about Jammaboards being a quality company (I'm not disagreeing there - I've bought from them before and had no issues or complaints), the product that invzim has described is trash.

[PrincessPrinPrin]

Yup, a single 22AWG wire (6 feet long??) for ground and 5V (12V and -5V are less problematic) is unheard of. Such a piece of crap shouldn't be for sale period. People that buy those pre-made harnesses usually think jamma connectors are all the same and a wire is a wire. They have no clue about wire gauges, insulation types and the difference between a cheap Chinese Jamma connector and a good Japanese one.

[system11]

There's an old saying here.

If you want something doing properly....

[kazuo]

I don't think anyone is saying that their customer service being better-than-average excuses carrying a sub-standard product. I think what people are saying is that perhaps you should raise the issue with them so that they can take measures to correct it.

I'm sure if you pointed it out to them, not only would they offer a refund, but they'd likely find a new source for higher-quality harnesses (or just have a run done for themselves).