Are new pin connectors worth it?

I have cleaned many nes systems and most of the time I do boil and bake and remove lock-out. I have found the lock-out works well. However many years ago I did 10 nes systems as an experiment and boil and baked them all and was unhappy w/the results alone.

The only way I got results I was happy with was by using brasso on the board pins. I as well did multiple testings and first started only by cleaning the board pins w/rubbing alcohol but again was still unhappy w/the results.

The only testing that warranted the results I desired... very well working systems, was when I used brasso on the board pins. I read people are against that as it removes the original plating, which I understand but fact is if that plating is so bad from sitting the past 30 years one would think it is no longer useful when it inhibits game play.

I coated all my pins I brassod with deoxit gold in hopes it would act in place of the plating. I did not do much follow up testing on the longetivity of the board pins coated w/deoxit.

Going back to the boil and bake I was never happy w/the pins. It was said that the metal pins go back close to the original form better via this process. I can tell you mine did not. Not a single pin went tight again, the outer edges of the pins stayed apart just as they were.

Last year I picked up a nes off craigslist and the pin connector had been replaced by a local game store a year prior to me getting the system. Regardless of how much it was used, the system worked great. It had a death grip of course but it functioned well.

This leads me to believe if the cart grip is that tight then so is the board grip and takes me back to my brasso method of getting a better connection. I am under the impression the board connection is much more important that anything else.

I'm all for refurbing old connectors but they just lack the ability to bite the pins as they should. I am going to buy new pins this time as I think that is a better route than boil and bake based on my experiments and scenarios.

What do you guys think? What new pins are good?

These days, people like the Blinking Light Win kits, which give the frontloading NES a similar style connector to the toploader. Personally, my BLW v2 kit had a much tighter grip than the deathgrip on my Hyperkin after-market connector, or at least, it was harder to get cartridges out. Unfortunately, I broke the BLW while trying to loosen the pins, so I'm currently waiting on a replacement.

I bought a replacement pin connector once, and it frankly didn't work all that much better than the old one I had. I've heard some rumors that there are multiple sources for the replacement connectors, though, so YMMV.

Nowadays it's not a big problem for me anyways because I tend to just keep my PowerPak in the system always.

For cleaning, i've found petroleum ether to work good. Same stuff i use when prior to soldering a pcb so it doesn't have any oxide.

I've never replaced a connector and hope to never need to. I just make sure all games are 100% clean before i pop them in the first time.

Eventually, it might be worn by the bending action. A pretty tricky solution to avoid that would be to bypass the need to press carts down. Ben Heck made an (overelaborate) attempt on ben heck show @ youtube.

The new ones are garbage, no gold plating on the contact points, fail very quickly. It's amazing how well a nearly 30 year old one can work after having the pins re-bent, I've got a dental pick that works perfectly for all the pins. I try not to push the game down after that, it does help to do the cic mod cause that bastard always gets you.

As far as I'm concerned, the boiling only works to clean the pins by agitating the dirt on them. I don't think there's any magical metallurgy stuff happening like some people.

No gold plating on the new pins? I don't see any gold on the original connectors either? (Gold plated pins would probably help a bunch though.)

I recently got a blinking light win. And while tight (it's hard to get the games out) I don't think they have a "death" grip as much as that there's very little cart to grab onto to get the game out of the system.
For me it works really well. Pretty much all games boot up first try like they should. It's pretty much how the system should've been imo. (With maybe a bit more space to grip onto the cart so you can get it out.)

I have found too that the best way to treat the connector is to use contact cleaner spray and pin bending.
I have tried boiling and sandpapering, and the latter accelerated the corrosion. Boiling was not working at all.

I was frustrated with do-it-all-still-does'nt-work connectors, so i did my own: (sorry for advertising)
http://marsugames.com/uusi-korvaava-kas ... -nessille/

By the way, is it copying if i did'nt even know about the blw?

Not at all, the idea has been around for a long time. I mounted a disabled Game Genie to the interior of the metal shielding of one NES like so:





That was over a decade ago.

I use my NES in a live show environment, and it has to be able to withstand some bumps and nudges without the NES failing. Previously I had resorted to bending the pins on stock connectors to strengthen the grip, but even then it if the NES got knocked it would crash or reset. The Blinking Light Win has been wonderful. I can't speak to how well it holds up after regular use, though; I rarely have to pull out my powerpak.