New Life Games Tech Forums

I have a game King and many S-2000 machines. About a year ago I was receiving a low battery warning from my game king and was unable to play it until I changed the battery. Once I changed the battery I had to re-program the entire machine. Very time consuming. Ever since then I do not turn my machines off. My questions are:

1. Is there a way to change the battery without loosing all the programming?
2. Does it matter if the machines are left on all the time, does this help preserve the battery life or should I just turn them off when not in use?
3. I noticed my electric bill is very high. How much wattage do these machine use?

I personally turn my machines (S2000's) on every couple days and leave them on for a few hours. -From one of those 'Kilowatt' power thingamabobs, it's in the 200-230 watt range for an S2000 without coin in/out stuff.

I have done some MacGyver type battery changes. Where you run 2 pieces of wire from a new battery to the +/- while the old battery is still on.. The only reason I did that was because I didn't have any clear/key chips at the time.. I don't recommend it, S2000 set up is pretty easy..

Harvs

You would think the manufacturers would make this process easier. I cant image a casino have to go through the whole key chip/program process for every battery change. Seems like they would be constantly changing battery's through the hundreds and hundreds of machines.

Casinos never turn them off..

The Batteries and accounting use more juice when credits present.  Not so much a issue in casinos, Home use,  Better for no credits then pwr. down Lasts longer that way from my years of observation and trials. I do not leave my games on,  Why bother,  I do not have a casino.  The debate and talks have been talked and documented here in the forums about preferance as to on/off.  

I turn mine on and off frequently. Assuming they are manufactured to be running a lot of the time I treat mine like a car, if it's not a daily driver it needs to be started and have a 'spin' around the block at least once a week.  :103-

I did leave mine on at one time but now I just turn it on and off to save some power. Last year I did lost a lamp driver board and it made a lot of smoke no fire but things can happen on my S2000
Dan

On about 6-8 hours a day.  Off overnight.

Jason

OFF 24/7s  I just keep them around for the weight, keeps the house from being lifted from the foundation by a tornado.

I have no emperical evidence that leaving a machine on or off changes the battery life.

I have 3 S+ machines that sat in storage for 11mths when I moved and all 3 came back to life without any errors The batteries appeared to be the orginals. Consider that the dates on the machine are in the 90's and I changed 2 of them out in 2013 - you are looking at a 20year life.

I turn my machines off when i am not in my game room. I use X10 controls to turn on 12 neon, a pin, 3 slots and various other bits all in one big arch'ing snap flash.

With regards to changing the battery as not to clear it. You would need to do that before the battery fails....