Dragon Dice - swapping out the mechanism

[flyboy577]

I decided to see how easy or hard it is to make the swap from the original Dragon Dice to one of the ones that a number of us bought as spares awhile back. As you know the mounts are different. As it turns out, it doesn't make a difference.
Here's what you do,
1) Remove two of the screws from the side of the dice mechanism enclosure to allow the frame to flex slightly during removal of the dice mechanism (picture 1).
2) Remove the two screws from the dice bracket (picture 1).
3) Remove the connector from the dice mechanism by pulling it straight out, being careful not to bend any pins.
4) Carefully ease the mechanism out of the machine, flexing the enclosure slightly if necessary. (picture 2 both dice removed).
5) Remove 4 screws from the mounting bracket of the original dice mechanism and remove it.
6)The bracket can now be mounted on the replacement unit as follows.
Although the bottom two of the screw holes are completely missing from the replacement frame, about half of the upper 2 screw holes (closest to the stepper motor) are there. Attach the two upper screws but do not tighten them (leave them out about 1/8 inch. Take a 4 inch length of insulated wire (I used 24 guage) and insert one end in one of the back screw holes and twist it several times to secure it. Insert the other end through the remaining screw hole. Pull it taut and twist it to secure the other side. (picture 3). This will keep the aluminum bracket from widening when you tighten the front two screws which you can now do. Enough of the flange exists on the replacement frame so that the attachment is now secure.
(picures 4 and 5 show the back and front views both the original and the replacement).
7) Reinstall the completed mechanism in the machine by reversing the steps. (picture 6).

It works like a charm, and appears to be quite sturdy. It took me about 20 minutes to do the swap. Of course, if you wanted to get fancy with this rather than using the twisted wire, you could have a machine shop make a metal bar with threaded ends and bolt it in place, but that might get expensive.

I also took a look and what can and can't be swapped if a dice mechanism malfunctions by disassembling a broken mechanism.
The red pin connector, geared sensor shaft, and the sensor itself are all easily swapped out but that's about it.

Removing the stepper motor requires being able to remove the C-clip that secures it to the dice cup and that can only be accomplished by removing the die from the cup. You can free one side of the die by flexing the cup and popping out the red plastic shaft from it's hole but the other (gear containing side) is not removable. I snapped it off intentionally because my intent was to disassemble the unit. Once the die is out you have access to the C-clip. Hopefully this is helpful to any DD owners in pachiland.