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Hi everyone,

I recently 'inherited' a Bally 831 3-line fruit slot machine that has a number of problems, many of which seem to be related to the top unit.  But I'm getting ahead of myself...here's some of the symptoms/problems I've identified so far:

Only the first coin inserted is actually registered. Additional coins (or manual trips of the coin switch) do not trigger the line step-up unit, speaking of which, it seems to have a missing tooth on the plastic step-up ratchet wheel so I will need to replace it if I can find one.  I had coin 2/3 line step-up working temporarily by pushing in on the top unit which lead me to checking the beau plugs.  The connector tension in the female terminals is all but non-existent, but the beau plugs don't seem to be serviceable so I guess I need a source for a couple of 18 pin female beau plugs. Foxslots has the 24 pin plugs NOS but only used 18's which I'm not sure will solve the problem.  None of the lights work in the top unit.  The 'Winner Paid' light is always on. None of the pays seem to work although I did see it pay on the melons once.

I'm new to the world of slot repair, but I do have an extensive background in low voltage DC circuitry and I love the circuit logic in this old EM machine. I've got the Bally '2400' manual already and the Mead book is on the way. Any troubleshooting help or parts sources would be appreciated

bh

I don't beans about Bally's but I might be able to help you find a beau plug?
Can you post up a good hi-res photo of this plug?
Look carefully on it too - there may be some numbers to help ID it.

The Bally parts catalog lists the 18-pin female beau plug as an 'E-574' but I'll post a pic and look for any numbers stamped on it...

Here's a couple of pics of the beau plugs I need. Nothing stamped on them other than 'BEAU' and the v/a ratings. I also need the 'Ratchet Wheel and Shaft' for the line step-up unit. Bally lists it as part number C-1050-2-35. Thanks for the help!

bh

Hmm...maybe these beau plugs ARE serviceable. The terminals are a bitch to extract from the connector body, but they can be removed.  Anyone got a source for new terminals? I'd rather have the entire connector but it looks like the replacement 18-pin female beau plugs are going to be hard to locate.

Maybe a stupid question...but can parts be purchased directly from Bally? Or a distributor that has craploads of Bally parts cataloged (or cross-referenced) by the Bally part numbers?

As a last resort I guess I could fabricate a harness with modern readily available connectors and do away with the top unit beau plugs entirely.  Don't know what that would do to the overall value of the machine, but if I keep the machine for personal use it probably doesn't matter a whole heck of a lot.

Eventually I'm going to need some help understanding the operation of the line step-up unit. The ratchet wheel has a missing tooth, but I don't get how the pins on the ratchet wheel (one appears to be brass and the other is plastic) interact with the switches that the pins contact.  It's entirely possible that the line step-up ratchet wheel is indexed incorrectly in relation to the pins and switches. I'm hoping the Mead book will shed some light on this.

bh

Would you be able to use the pins from foxxslots 24-pin beau plugs?

Good idea...except I haven't figured out how to properly remove the terminals without mangling them to some degree. Do you know if there is a terminal tool available that will work with the beau plug terminals? I've got several terminal removal tools for connectors in an automotive environment but they are all too big to fit into the tiny hole on each side of the beau terminal where you release the terminal from the connector. Or maybe there's a way to fabricate a homemade tool? If I had some way to measure that tiny little terminal release hole I'd get some piano wire with a diameter that matches (or slightly smaller) that opening and see if a simple "U" shaped wire would slide in and release the tangs holding the terminal in the connector. Too bad I don't have an extra beau connector lying around that I could experiment with. I don't want to get overly creative and end up breaking a terminal or the connector body itself. I'm hoping that someone on the board has already figured out the beau terminals and can share their experience and knowledge so I can take an intelligent approach to this. Looks like I have roughly four options going forward.
In preferential order:
1) Replace the entire female beau connectors (2 x 18-pin) but so far nobody has them.
2) Replace the existing beau plug female terminals with new terminals (not sure if these can be found.)
3) Eliminate the problematic beau connectors on the top unit and cabinet and replace them with a new soldered in harness and modern serviceable connectors.
4) Hmm, I know I had a fourth idea but now it's become another 'senior moment.'

bh

Those tangs on the pins are a beeyotch sometimes to flatten out enough to release freely from the housing.
Before I finally subdued and went out and bought some nice tools -
a new hardened steel sewing pin ( the kind with the little plastic ball at the tip) that the girls use
to hold cloth material together before they run it through a sewing machine is what I used.

Using a needle-nosed pliers, I put in about a 40 degree bend on the pin at about an 1/8" from the tip.
This allowed me to slide the needle between the housing walls and the pin to get at the the pin tab.
Sometimes I grasped the sewing ping with a pliers and made small turns with the sewing pin.
After a few gadzillion tries - I usually managed to flatten out the tab enough to slide out the pin intact!
Then, after getting them out, I use the tip of a sharp Exacto knife, I reach ito the tab
and work it back out - to save it for another insertion later on.

By any chance....have you tried Mouser, Jameco, and/or Newark for new pins and housings?

If not - I really like your 3rd idea!  :89-
I don't know what your 4th idea might be either!  :72-

Nice. I can probably move forward and try to remove, "re-form," and reinstall those terminals to see if I can get a few more years out of them.

But wait. I'm new to the slot repair arena AND this board. Is there a list of parts sources somewhere that I've overlooked? I have no idea who Mouser, Jameco, or Newark are...

Thanks again for the terminal service tips. It's bound to come in handy!

bh

I would try contacting Barry directly at Foxsslot and ask him if he might have a couple of good used female 18 pin beau plugs. That's what used on the E-Series hoppers too.. If he has parted out any cabinets he might have the wiring from them. The reason I know this is I parted out 2 machines last summer and kept the wiring. I just check and mine was an 18 count female plug for the hopper, but I've only have these 2 for spares and don't want to parts with them... Now if it were male 18 pin Beau plugs you wanted I have those from Hoppers I've parted out..

Just a quick note to let anyone interested know how I resolved the Beau plug issues once and for all.  This worked for me on the top unit Beau plug of my Bally 831.  It may or may not be a viable solution for other models and/or reel/hopper units.

In my situation, I had an 18-pin female Beau plug for the top unit that was completely wrecked. My 831 had no real guide rails in the cabinet for the top unit, only a couple of metal strips that the unit sat on top of. I think this lack of a rigid guide rail system (like the reel and hopper units use) is a major contributing factor to the Beau plug failure.

Anyway, the fix that I used involves four 9-pin molex connectors (2 male, 2 female.) Using 18 guage wire I created four 9-wire harnesses twelve inches in length. One end I simply stripped and tinned. The other end was crimped and soldered with molex terminals. Since the molex connector bodies were non-gender specific (in terms of the terminals that is) I mixed a few male/female terminals on each connector so as to prevent any chance of an accidental cross connection. Once I had the harnesses fabricated it was a fairly simple matter to solder the tinned ends of the wires to the back side of the Beau connector terminals. I removed the connector brackets from the back of the cabinet to allow some additional clearance for the new connectors and harnesses.  The existing cabinet harness was long enough to allow the original female Beau plugs to reach and be manually attached to the male Beau plugs on the top unit. I taped the backside of the female Beau plugs so the soldered terminals wouldn't be exposed and possibly short to each other or another component.

The molex connectors should be available at most any store that sells electronic components. Radio shack has them for about three dollars a piece. I chose molex because I already have the tools to work with the terminals and they're easy to repair if a problem occurs in the future. Other types of connectors would probably work just as well. You're essentially creating a redundant circuit for the connections that are in the Beau plug. You may need to modify this entire procedure if the space between the back of the unit and/or the length of the original cabinet harness is shorter. However, the same concepts should apply.

I'll try to add some pictures soon.

Nice job and thanks for the tip. Did all this work pay off by fixing the machines problems??

Excellent fix butthedd!  :3-
I'm glad you were able to find a solution for now.   :89-