New Life Games Tech Forums

Some background first. I bought 20 slots from a guy and
unfortunately there's not enough hoppers. So i had to
come up with some more hoppers. These are not so easy
to find, as it turns out.

In my desperate search I found a "hopper simulator"
on Ebay for $25.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120359174483 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120359174483)

The idea is this: put a bucket in the bottom of the game
to collect quarters. Then if someone hits "cash out" on the
front door, the hopper simulator pretents it's a hopper, and
tricks the game into thinking the hopper is paying out. That is,
if this simulator was not there, the game would give a HPrE
(hopper empty) or HPjE (hopper jam) error.

Not the perfect solution for no hopper, but one i could
probably live with if I have nothing else. (Anyone have some
model 40x hoppers for sale?)

Description.
The board plugs into the hopper receptor plug. The board is about
2.25" x 1.75", and I would say has less than $1 worth of parts.
Like a 74LS04 chip, 555 timer chip, a few caps and resistors,
a  L78L05 voltage regular, a BS270 n-channel enhanced field
effect transistor, two LEDs, and some plug pins (which go into
the hopper plug).  It's a pretty simple board really.

Does it work?
In a word, yes. But there are some compromises. First,
unlike the Bally hopper simulator, the game gives no feedback
that the hopper is "working" (other than the credit display
and mechanical counter clicking down).

There are two LEDs. The green one signifies that the hopper
board is connected and "on", and should be lit if the board
is plugged into the hopper plug correctly (assuming the game
is on). The red LED lights when the game thinks a coin has
gone past the hopper coin-out optic (which is of course is missing
since there's no hopper).  That's about it as far as operation.

Does it plug in easily?
In a word, no, not really. I mean you can't screw it up amazingly,
but the first couple times you plug it in it's a bitch to get aligned.
Luckily the board is sized correctly so it fits between the left and
right "guides" on the hopper plug. That really helps.

Is it a Quality Product?
In a word, no, not really. Me and a friend bought 4 of them. And i
had to fix 2 of the simulators. On one of the boards three of the caps were
damaged (not in shipping either, the seller must have had them stored
improperely.) Also one of the transistors had broken legs. On the second
unit, a bad solder job on one of the transistors prevented it from working.
I had to run a jumper wire to get it working.

Work I buy it Again?
Sure, but only because I have no choice!  If you don't have a hopper,
what can you do? The $25 price is really steep for what you get too.
It should be $10 or $15 frankly.

Could it be improved?
YES. If this board made sound (either through the game or
standalone) that would make it A LOT better. For example the
Bally hopper eliminator has sound of a coin hitting the coin
tray as the hopper simulator fools the game into paying out
a virtual coin. If the Williams slot simulator had that (or ANY
sound), it would be a big improvement.

(http://www.pinrepair.com/slots/wms/hopkill1.jpg)

(http://www.pinrepair.com/slots/wms/hopkill2.jpg)

(http://www.pinrepair.com/slots/wms/hopkill3.jpg)

(http://www.pinrepair.com/slots/wms/hopkill4.jpg)

Thanks for the review -- I saw those on eBay and was curious about them.


Now that you've seen one, can't you build one yourself?  I'm no electronics genius, but from what I've seen, you are!  ...and you could add a beeper to it to make a sound every time a coin is "paid out", no?

You could wire in a bell but that could get annoying.

Yea sure, but you have to think, "is the juice worth the squeeze?"
The short answer for me is, "no".  I would rather spend the $25
than spend time re-inventing this wheel. Or better yet, just find
some hoppers to buy!  But since this guy made the board and went
to all that trouble, i would have thought he would at least put a
pezo buzzer on the board to give a tone when a coin is spit out.
The guy that did the bally hopper simulator actually digitized the
sound of a coin hitting the coin tray. I'm not really looking for that
much work (though that would be nice!)

Would this work in my 550 upright that doesn't have a hopper ?

Probably not. It's advertised as a model 40x hopper simulator.
The hopper plug is different on model 550 games (i think).
On model 40x games, the hopper plug is "horizontal". On 550
games i *think* the hopper plug is "vertical".

Ok, thanks....

I had just emailed that guy 2 days ago about that hopper; so your review was perfect timing.

Brad

I have one of these. Works great on my 401.

Can you post a pic of the hopper simulator for the Bally S6000?
Eric