New Life Games Tech Forums

My buddy just scored a EM 831.  It's VERY clean inside, but doesn't work.

We looked at all areas and no visible shorts or burnt coils. No evidence
of repair or hacks.  The reel mech needs cleaned and lubed but that's
not our issue.

It has no GI and immediately blows the left most fuse. When I coin
it up, I can hear the feature unit click.  The solenoid, to allow arm pull,
doesn't engage but I can fool it to get a pull.  The hopper was jammed
up solid, but it's free now.  I have yet to DL the manual, but one of the
voltage taps, I'll call it the "blue"  wire that feeds the center of all GI bulbs
must be shorted somewhere. 

This is my first EM, but have fixed many E1000/2000 with great success.

Like I told my friend, "it has no silicon junctions .... how am I to fix it?" ;-)

Congrats on your new machine.  What is "GI"? spell it out please.  Please post a picture if you can.  As for the short, I am no list expert however my friend had a similar condition.  Old school as I am i created a completely dark situation and had him plug in the machine a few time.  I looked inside the case.  The short created a slight spark and I was able to locate and correct the problem at the expense of 2 or 3 fuses.  Not a very high tech approach but I hope that this helps.

Ra

GI = general illumination, the incandescent bulbs(#44's & 63's) used in
the feature unit and reel glass.

Ok.  I got it now.

If your "GI" is the problem, I would check the bulb sockets for shorts to the cabinet

Make sure the machine is warm.  Cold grease sticking can keep switches from closing as they should.
Work all your relays and latches to make sure they don't stick.  If so a couple of drops of light oil should fix them.
The machine does not use case as ground, so you can check shorts with your VOM to ohm out any connections to ground.  You should have none.
You can pull all the subunits, replace the bad fuse, and then one by one plug them back in until the fuse blows.
You should have 3 fuses, one for 120V, one for 50V (your coils and solenoids), and one for 6V for your 6v lights.
AFA the transformer, the yellow wire is your common, the solid orange is 50V, and the solid blue is 6V.  The yellow is the return wire, if you will, for both of those circuits.
You might want to read the section on shorts -- http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=17559.0 for some hints on that.
Also you can use jumpers from your transformer to test your coils and solenoids. Clip one onto orange, and then run that to the orange side of your coil.  Clip the other jumper onto the yellow and touch it briefly to the other side of your coil to see if it fires.  Same thing with your lights, blue to blue side of bulb, and yellow to the other side.
Makes sure none of your switches are touching to case, or any metal part of the machine.  A lot of this work is just eyeballing it.
Sounds like a fun project, and I'm sure folks will chime in with help, as will I.
And yes, there are no silicon junctions in the machine, although you may find a diode in them once in awhile.

Well I spent most the day looking over everything very close.  I cleaned all
the switch stacks and had to lube the stepper feature unit.  It wasn't returning
home on reset, a similar unit I had to repair in one of my EM pin's.

The reel mech needs to be lubed, but is more forgiving than my E2000's
Upon closer examination, I found some blue wires fused to the yellow wires
in the coin door, near the hinge.  A good six inches of melted wire.  This
has been bypassed and for now and the slot works for the most part.

Now I have to chase a few gremlins.

The hopper star is goo and the knife it bent, but for now those parts have
been removed from the hopper. The hopper can spin, but there won't be
a coin count when it pays.  For testing purposes, can I let the hopper
overrun, time out and then rest it to continue testing ?

Thanks for all the input guys !

Feel the hopper motor and if it's getting too hot give it a long rest.
Often hopper motors will have a thermocouple on the windings that will pop when it gets too hot.  You can feel the bump in the outer windings.
Make sure you don't have any coins in the hopper with the knife out, otherwise something will crunch.
Good work!!!

Is your hopper electrical or mechanical count for coin payout? You can move the arm by hand when the hopper turns which should advance the wiper. That way you can test the counting of the hopper unit With the hopper out, you can manually advance the wiper by either pressing directly on the coil or with a mechanical counter lever, just by pressing it down. If it advances correctly and is lined up for the correct count, you should be able to test it while it is in the machine on a correct payout. An electrical counter has switches that will activate the coil, those switches need to be adjusted correctly.
Now I am pretty new to this myself and am sure I dont have all the correct words for things, but you can depend on the advice you get from OldReno and the others here. They all, sure do know their stuff.

Good luck and now your hooked...like me.

 :3-

I did force the reels for a payout several times.  When I did 7-7-7, I was able to
test the feature unit for flashing the feature unit and candle.  Everything worked
as it should.  Hopper ran out when the timer kicked in or until I coined it up.  I did try
to manually advance the coin counter, but I got the timing wrong or it's not
working correctly.  Not an issue. I can rebuild the hopper. 

Just playing for now

Thats where all the fun is.... discovering the solution.
Take care