New Life Games Tech Forums

Hello all.  I am trying to convert to a 5 reel game and since I dont have any others to compare to I am having to do this trial and error.  I keep getting reels disconnected error.  I have some pictures.  Can someone please point me in the right direction.

I have attached some pics

2 more pics

If anyone can help me with this I will take the time to create a nice PDF showing the procedures for any future members request.

Did you change the reel board

Are we talking the reel board on the back of the machine or the I/O board?

Wouldn't matter, those plugs have to do with reel back lighting. Only plug that really matters to make them spin is the big black one that goes to the motherboard. Look at the bundle of wires behind and just to the left of the hopper. If you find a black and a white w/red stripe wire jumpered together, turn machine off, remove that jumper and try starting machine again

Cowboy, thanks for the reply.  I will try that as soon as I get to the machine.  The big black connector is definitely seated firmly also.  Something is telling me that I recall seeing a bundle of wires with a jumper in that area.  I will report back.

PDF would help a lot of users. I will also be doing this conversion in the near future. I will post assistance if I can. :3-

This, of course, is meant to satisfy your reels disconnected error. All the plugs shown above in your pics are reel lighting plugs and wouldn't cause the error you're getting. The cable you showed with the same plug on each end is the one that goes from the back light control board to the cabinet IO board mounted to the side of the MPU housing. The short black plug should have a socket on the back light control board. Are your reels LED back lit?

Cowboy, your right. My first concern is getting the reels to spin and then I would address the backlit issue. I didn't know if the backlight controller had something to do with the reel disconnected. The reels are not LED. Just standard incandescent. I can't seem to find where the black connector off the harness reel goes since the connector is double row and the backlight controller only has a single row.

Your reel harness appears to be of the type used for LED backlit reels. Standard harness generally just has one white/opaque plug going to the back light control board. Is that the control board that came with the kit?

Yes, It was the one that I received but not necessarily the one that goes with it.  This is in a kit I got from a member on here that has been listing a good amount of them.  He has been posting a bunch of kits so it is very possible this got mixed up.  There was a little confusion as to the payline glass I received along with the VFD display so it is very possible i have a mis matched set.  This harness has 2 white plugs along with the 16 pin black.

With that being said, would that have a effect on the "reels disconnected" issue or would that just give me a problem with the backlighting?

No, lighting has nothing to do with whether the reels spin or not

Kinda what I thought.  So I will check the harness with jumper you mentioned and report back.

This is the kit

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=22690.msg179976#msg179976 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=22690.msg179976#msg179976)

After doing a little research on that harness it does look to go to a LED controller. 

I am beginning to think I may have gotten a couple of left shoes and no rights to make a complete set.

I imagine this was a simple mistake as glenn looked to have a bunch of these kits he was selling.

This is my 5 reel LED board in my RT. It is different than the standard bulb board.  I was told the voltages for the lighting are what is different.
The wiring in the top left plug on yours appears different than mine??  :103-  Hope this helps.
(http://)

Magic, thanks for your input.  I think we can reasonably say now that I DO have a LED harness with a NON LED board. 

You probably don't want to hear about how there's different boards for 3 and 5 reel machines :8-

Just for reference,  here is my 5 reel standard bulb board...(http://)

Ohhhhhhh great, so now I have two left shoes and the peanut butter without the jelly?  :37-

Trust me, once you go to the LED reels...you are ruined for life!!  :208-
The only reason I kept the other, is that some of my games have the narrow reel strips and I cant use them on my wider led reel baskets  :37-

Odds are you have a standard, five reel control board and your best bet is to get a standard reel harness

Thats what I am thinking.  I will have some short lived excitement just to get the reels turning then I will tear in to the backlight problem.

Well now that throws my theory off.  The board you have allows the 16 pin black connector that I can not find a place for.  So maybe it doesn't necessarily mean I have a harness for LED, maybe I just have the wrong backlight controller.

Backlight controller doesn't have anything to do with spinning of reels or errors.  Just backlighting.  So if you have an error, it doesn't matter what connection you have or don't have to the backlight controller.

Dan #2

know you have a lot of help on this thread already, but maybe I can interject something here.
First off in the second picture you show a black plug that is 16 pin 8 X 2 and asked where it goes? YES, it plugs into the LED controller on the right hand side where you have nothing plugged into.
The big question that needs to answered is two fold.
a) Do you have and enhanced backplane (motherboard) and CPU? or is the CPU the 502, 504 older style?
b) the other end of the reel harness has a 40 pin connector (20 X 2) and needs to be plugged into the motherboard at the connector REELS 1-5

Post some pictures of the motherboard and connections there. If that plug is not connected you will get the reels disconnected error.

Here are a few pictures to help.

More

More

The black connector is a 8x2, the receptacle on the backlight controller is a 9x1.  No possible way for mating.
The 20x2 is connected.
The board is a 502 rev. A.
Although I do appreciate the pictures I am not too sure what significance the door has for the reels

Sorry Neon, the other pictures came in as I was typing.  Those are very helpful. Thank you.

Cowboy, there was a jumper exactly as you said and I did remove it.  No change.

Well the next question is and I don't know the answer is...

Will a 502 board support a 5 reel configuration?  :103-
All of my 5 reel machines are enhanced.

And as you will figure out the door pictures are to show the new wire harness needed for the new button deck and the addition of the third I/O board.

Have you by chance run a clear chip on the machine yet?

All of those pictures have been extremely helpful.  Would you mind if when this is all done I use those and create something of a guide?  I believe in giving back for the next person that walks in my shoes.

Key 17 and Key 31

Clear 97 or 224? You're not just changing the theme, you're changing the whole format. I usually install all new components, then clear the machine to give it a fresh start

Neon, all my 5 reel machines, including the reel touch games are currently running on 502 and 504 boards

I am going to try a 97 (which I need to DIG around to find it) but I have a suspicion there is something wrong between the 40 pin connector and the motherboard.

I learned a long time ago to turn off the power when disconnecting and reconnecting which I have done up to this point but for some reason I didnt turn the power off when I went to plug that jumper back in.  Coincidentally the reel harness was right there and I bumped it.  When I did that I noticed the reels 2-3-4 jog.  

I am going to remove the m-board and see if maybe I need to re-flow some solder joints or I may just move it to another machine.  Unfortunately I have to step away for a few.

Cowboy,
Thanks for the clarification on the 502 504 boards.
I didn't know if that was something they were capable of since all of mine are enhanced versions.

No problem. I actually have three new 1270/motherboard sets I bought from Glenn that I'll be swapping into 3 of my "keepers" one of these days when I get over the flu and make the time :89-

Not trying to hijack this thread since I need all of this information for my conversions
I may have some parts to trade slots to get us both going.
can you guys tell me from these pictures if my backlight board and harness is for led or regular bulbs?
(http://)

Regular, the opaque plugs have to may wires for LED and you don't have the dual row black socket on the control board

I was afraid of that my reels are led.
Slotman if you want to trade harness and backlight boards PM me

Cowboy, so for clarification, if there is a dual row black connector would you say that is typically for LED reels?

Qbert, unfortunately I have the LED harness but the standard backlight board.  That I know now thanks to everyones help.

Yes, if it has the proper plug for your harness then it's an LED back light control board. Haven't seen it work otherwise anyway. What I'm not sure of is if the LED boards are backward compatible to the standard bulb reels. Can't see why not as they have the proper sockets, but haven't tried it

How about the harness?

the controller boards that support LED are backward compatible with standard backlit reels(non led)

So does anyone know what the single black connector is for on the "non led" controller is for just out of curiosity?

Neon, would you mind posting a picture of a reel installed? I think I am on to something. I think the reel shelf is completely different and not just the harness.

Not sure that it was ever used for anything. Kind of like the unused memory expansion slots on the 500 series MPU boards. They put them there for a reason, but they've never been shown to be used for anything

i see a difference in the backlit vs non backlit shelf , but my regalar backlit and led backlit shelf appears the same

Take a look at this.  I think not only is there a difference in a LED reel harness there is also a difference in the reel shelf itself.  Unfortunately I didnt have anything to compare to but take a look at the pic.  The reels dont seem right.

Only difference in 5 reel shelves you'll see is for 2" vs 2 1/4" reels. Backlit vs non-backlit is simply a different wiring harness just like LED vs regular

have to disagree

my 5 reel non backlit narrow reels slide in similar to the 3 wheel reels
my 5 reel backlit narrow reels have the 2 nubs with the slots like pictured above
i do not have a 2.25 width reel set yet been looking

If it helps, Here is a pic of a narrow reel, back lit shelf.
I am working on converting to a 5 reel as well....
The posts that the reels slide on are about 1/4 closer together than the wide back lit shelf.
Jim.

True, narrow reels are set closer together than wide ones and use a different shelf. One of my first dealing with wide reels was converting them to narrow and retaining the led lighting, worked out great!  :89-

Thats what I would like to do. Which shelf did you use?
Did you just switch the narrow baskets to the LED reels?
Thanks!

I wish it had been that simple :72- Because of the motor standoffs on wide reels I had to use narrow reel brackets and modify all five wide reels down to narrow width. I wrote a "how to" topic on it and will try to dig it up and post the link

Here it is

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=11159.0 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=11159.0)

Thinking back, I had to shave the LED light housings just a tad also as they would rub against the reels as they spun. Used a dremel tool and sanding wheel for that...

Kind of a pain in the butt, but they don't make the narrow reels in LED and it looked beautiful when done. Besides that, LED's turn off completely whereas the regular reels keep the lights on at a very low voltage generating heat constantly

So is it common to see the reels flush with the face of the shelf as depicted in my last pic?

Yours look right, as long as they make the plug connection at the back and the reels don't touch the reel glass at the front when the door is closed, you're good to go

Well damn, I guess I am back to square 1.

If you're gonna go back to square one, then walk us through, step by step, what you had as far as a game setup before you started this change-over and everything you've done to this point. Include origional machine setup and ALL parts you changed out. Also include what origional software the game was using and what's in it now, meaning SB, Sg and version chips

okay so after re-looking at all my 5 reel machines there are so far at least 3 differerent 5 reel shelfs

non backlit. reels and shelf are similar to 3 reel machines
led backlit reels and shelf seem to be the wider and there is a bit more spacing
regular bulb reels and shelf similar to above but spacing is a bit smaller

are the any other variations

I've never seen the non-backlit setup so that one kinda surprises me. The other two are as expected. The non-backlit don't lock in like the backlit?

You haven't even mentioned reel glass....

Is the reel glass differant from the narrow to wide reel setup?  :118-

Ok, after 3 boards. 502 and 504's. Two game types 363 and 352 two SB types SB100949 and 100497 in addition to clearing with a IVC97 in between everything including me pulling the varta battery to make sure there is no trace damage not to mention me pulling the whole MBoard to reflow the 40 pin connector I am still at the same place I started.
I just pulled the shelf reel to check that.
This is starting to piss me off something fierce.  :58-

slotman give me a call

Which reels does your kit have? Are they LED or Standard? What's the seperation distance from the center of one reel to the support bracket of the one next to it?

Is the harness bad?
Thought you said you had more than one kit. Have you tried the other harness?

Reels are standard reels.

Problem has to be in the harness. I relocated the shelf and reels to another machine and I am still getting reels disconnected error

and that is a led backlit shelf

Zarobhr, do you need a LED backlit shelf? I know where you can find one.

I got 3 of my narrow reels converted to LED so far.
I also had to file down the light housings, I put small spacers behind the motor
to make a little more room for the reel baskets.  They work great!
Just wanted to share.
Thanks for the link cowboygames  :89-

Sweet! Congratulations! :244- :259-

Problem has to be in the 40 pin connector. I moved shelf to another machine and got the same error. Time to pull out and inspect approx 38 wires

Did you ever get around to checking or replacing the harness?
Or has it got you to the point where you don't want to look at it.

I laid on the floor with the tray and harness in front of me.  I took every pin out of the 40 pin connector and physically checked them under a magnifying glass.  Everything looked good.  I reassembled it and put it back in the machine.  Same problem.  I put another 5 reel tray with harness in the machine.  Works perfectly fine.  I can not find anything physically wrong (that I can see).  I even swapped the reels to see if there was a problem in any of the reels.  All 10 reels work fine.  At that point I put it to the side in disgust.

Your thread on this subject has been of real or should I say reel
value to me. I was able to avoid pitfalls that I didn't even know existed during my conversion.  :259-
 

Ok, I think I have the answer. Originally I had noticed that the locks on the reels didn't line up. This is in one of my original pics. Well I decided to check again. Take a look at the two different trays. The guides on one of trays sits further back not allowing full contact of the reel connector.