New Life Games Tech Forums

Hi,

I picked up a slot machine on ebay which has both Aristocrat and IGT tags.
The Aristocrat tag says - Date of mfg is 9/23/82. IGT tag says model no. R45NBL.

Searching online for a manual turns up nothing yet.

Anyone have any suggestions or point me to where I can get a manual?

Any help is much appreciated!

thanks,
Doug

It's an Esprit, an Aristocrat model IGT imported when they didn't have their own reel machine. Several people here have one and there's a manual around, though unfortunately hard copy and not in electronic form. What's wrong with it, and what's that black thing on the panel next to the coin slot?

I haven't power it up yet. On the top of it there is writing, barely visible, says "No power up".

That black thing looks to be a button that lights up. Possibly to spin the reels??

I'm not sure everything is there but am only going by what the seller had said.

Ok, I powered it up and the bottom lights up and has a runaway hopper. No power to the circuit boards, reels, or top glass.

I'll check the fuse in a bit, gotta eat dinner.

At the bottom of the cabinet mounted to the back wall is a transformer thingy...power supply??

Ok, found the power supply. Pulled it out and will check things out.

From the looks of it, it has been worked on before and is kinda hacked up. Anyone know where to get a used working one or perhaps a NOS one??

It's Australian, it's a 220V machine. The transformer on the back wall is a step-up 110 to 220. Watch where you put your fingers! 220 hurts a great deal more than twice as much as 110. Lights, solenoids etc are all 24V AC and the logic is 5V DC. Get the logic package out, open it up and inspect it - no doubt the batteries have leaked all over the main PCB. Replace them with a couple of NiCd AAs. Look for burns and damage on the other (non-battery) board, that's where all the IO drivers are.

You should have a sinking feeling about now, full buyer's remorse will set in around the 4th week. It took me more than three months to get mine working.

I'm in absolutely no hurry in getting this done. I have a Bally 809 that's been sitting in the garage for over 2 years now waiting to be repaired.
I want to get this working and then decide what I want to do with it, keep it or sell it. Leaning towards keeping...I only paid $20 for it. :o)

Took apart the power supply and nothing seems to be burnt up but I still want/need to check the components out to see if anything is out of the ordinary.

The 24VAC fuse is blown but all others look and test fine.

Schematics and/or wiring diagram would really help if anyone has them. [crossing fingers]

No batteries present and there is no acid damage at all!

I didn't have a 7A fuse so I put in a 5A. Disconnected the hopper and powered it up.
Reel motor keeps running so I disconnect that.
Eventually the top lights up, after about 45secs.
I look up and a small amount of smoke is coming out of the circuit board cage.

Well I guess this would explain the runaway hopper and constantly running reel motor...bad component(s) on the circuit board.

Anyone repair these?

Do your boards look like these?

Yep, that's them.

Put the boards up on the bench today and removed them from their cage and didn't see anything burnt up from the smoke that I saw previously. I repair arcade boards so I have a jamma wiring set up. I popped in a blank jamma adapter and wired up +5v, -5v, +12v, & ground. I soldered those wires to the bottom side of the power board and turned it on. After running it for 5 mins or so nothing smoked. I jumped +5v to the other board and nothing happened there either.

Behind the front of the cage where all the connectors are there is a 7905 volt. reg. which has been changed out previously. It was soldered on the bottom side of the board which
is ok but they didn't check the top as 2 of the legs weren't in contact with the traces. In the picture below it's the 2 left legs that need to make contact.

I installed the cage and fired it up, without the reels and hopper connected. A very small amount of smoke, barely visible, came out of the cage but that was it. I let it run and while I was poking my head around near the inside of the cabinet...music started to play and it scared the crap outta me. Everything seemed to be working, the fan, all lights, and of course the music.
Reinstalled the reels and they just keep spinning. Reconnected the hopper and it just runs.

So I need to figure out if this is a board problem or something in the cabinet that is causing the reels and hopper to run continuously. Anyone have any pointers?

I'll take a guess that there was an old electrolytic capacitor shorted on the 5V line, and after a few minutes it dried up and burned out so that the 5V could come up. If so, you should be able to find it by inspection, as it will have popped its seal. There should be batteries on the CPU board to support the RAM. If someone removed them, as sounds likely, you need to install two AA NiCd cells in series. The RAMs are two 22 pin 5101s in the middle of the board. They were bad on my machines so you might want to have a couple of spares handy.

The +12V and -5V were needed for the 3-supply 2708 EPROMs originally fitted in the CPU board. If yours has a mezzanine board with 2716 EPROMs, like mine (top picture, previous page), chances are you don't need the -5 any more and the 7905 is irrelevant. +12V is needed in other places in the cabinet but I don't think anything else needs -5V.

The IO board has 6, 6821 PIAs handling both input and output. The inputs go directly to the PIA pins, making them a bit vulnerable to damage from cabinet shorts. Most if not all of the outputs are triacs, not power transistors, as the cabinet power including lamps is all 24VAC. The triacs that turn on the hopper and reel motors are up on the power supply board, not in the cage. Again these are switching 24VAC. There's a relay board on the hopper that turns on with 24VAC and switches 110VAC (I said 220, but I was wrong) to the hopper motor. The reel motor is directly 24VAC.

I don't understand when you say the "reels keep spinning". On the Esprit, they should be free spinning. Spring loaded hooks snap down when released by solenoids and set them spinning, and they're stopped in sequence by cams on the motor shaft. Does your motor drive the reels directly? Or do you mean the cam motor keeps cycling?

I have a circuit diagram for the power supply board. I'll scan it and post it tomorrow.

I did replace one cap on the power board that was slightly under value and didn't find any others like that. Everything looked good on both circuit boards. The two 5101 ram chips looked to be new and I tested them in a Centipede board and they're good to go. I'll have to install a lithuim battery with blocking diode after I get the machine running. I'm geussing that if I got music playing that everything else with the circuit boards are good and I should be looking elsewhere for my problems.

This IO board has four 68A21's and two 6821's. The 6821's look to have been a replacement at one time as they don't match with the other 68A21's. I'm not sure if 68A21's are needed all around or if the two 6821's will do.
 
The reels are going through the sequence as if you had pulled the handle to play a game and this repeats over and over.


Thank you for your help.

Sorry to labor this, I'm trying to decide which hardware issue it is. Do the solenoids snap and spin the reels and the motor runs to stop them, and this cycle repeats over and over, or is it just the motor cycling without spinning the reels?

As part of the power-up sequence the CPU cycles the motor in the reel mech, but it shouldn't release the spin solenoids. Sometimes they go off on their own on power up but that should only happen once. If the motor cycles and doesn't stop, it's probably the home microswitch

The 6821's will be the same as the 68A21 PIA's you have on the PCB, see pin out of both IC's (attached) I would also say home micro switch is OOO.


cheers


Ozzy

This is exactly what is happening.

I'll take a look at that switch. When I had the reels out my eye caught that switch and I thought about it for a few seconds but I went back to doing whatever I was doing.

In front of the coin counters there are 4 fuse holders and the fuses are missing. Can you let me know what values go in each holder please?

Thanks for the pinouts Ozzy. From what I have read the 6821 is 1mhz and the 68A21 is 1.5mhz, IIRC.

Those are not fuse holders, they're lamp holders for 24V festoon lamps. The operator can turn on the lights to view the meters through the top glass. The switch for these is a keyswitch on the left of the belly (anticipating your next question; now you know what it's for). It's been disconnected (wires cut) on all the machines I've seen.

The real fuse holders are on the left side top and are (in order left to right) 7A (24VAC), 1.5A (+12VDC), 1A (+24VDC), 1.5A (-12VDC), 7A (+5VDC). Note, although I listed the DC outputs affected, the fuses are all on the AC input side. Also, while you're poking about with a meter, the 24VAC supply is commoned with unregulated +12V, not ground. So it swings around +15V, not 0V.

In that case I think you have a software problem. What should happen is this:
1. On power-up, the reel motor powers up and runs to home. One or more reels may spin due to startup transients, but it's not intentional.
2. The reel motor may power up a second time and run to home, but the reels will not spin.
3. The game goes into idle mode, or tilt if there's a problem.

It should most definitely not keep spinning and stopping. That sounds to me like one of your EPROMs is misinserted or maybe they're in the wrong sockets. On the bright side, it does sound like most of the machine is in working order. Perhaps you can tell me if it goes through the initial step (just homing the motor) before it starts spinning the reels - also, does the coin lockout operate, and at what point in the cycle, and does it click in and out as the reels spin?


 

I just checked the microswitch on the reel housing and it tests good.

There is a thick gray wire running throughout the machine. At the bottom of the cabinet it has been cut off and is frayed, not connected to anything. Any idea what it is?

Op-Bell, The pictures you posted of your(?) boards...The small daughter board, there is a chip next to the far left eprom (IC1) and 2 chips up from the ribbon cable. What chip is that? I don't have one there. Is it TTL or a prom?

 

It's an unconnected socket, a place to put the TTL prom that used to be in the socket on the main board where the ribbon cable is now plugged in. Your EPROMs are in the right sockets.

Do you have a way to read them and send me the files? I've disassembled and commented the program in mine and I'd like to compare them - I believe the entire game personality is in the A800-AFFF chip and the others are common to the whole series of games.

Yes, give me a few minutes and I'll email them.

Ok, I pulled the circuit boards and replaced all of the 6821's and touched up some cold solder joints. Without any real means to power up the boards on the bench I replaced any TTL that I could which was most of them. There isn't that many so it wasn't a problem doing it.

Installed the boards and on power up no more spinning reels or runaway hopper.  :3-
I'll test the pulled 6821's later.

But there is no power to the LED board. And looking on the back side there seems to be 3 fuses missing on the right hand side. What value though?
The fuse on the left hand side says 24v 3w.

Also, inserting a coin does nothing. It doesn't register, drops to the tray. Not sure if the LED being out has anything to do with this.

But it seems I'm getting close to having this running!

All the "fuses" on circuit boards are lamps, 24V 3W as you noted. On the LED board some of these shine through the fiberglass of the board, which presumably acts as a diffuser. The only fuses in the game are the row of five in the black holder, top left.

I measured the 24v on one of the lamp sockets and it's only at 21v.

That's ok for a lamp. Some of them have resistors and you lose a volt or two in the triac switch.

On the front of the cage that houses the boards there is a label that says "3 coin multi-fruit" and the machine has bars and sevens and is a 5 coin.
I wonder if I have the right set of boards and/or game roms?

Hi, I have a couple of these machines of which I can only get 1 to operate but lately it has been in a tilt condition and I have not been able to reset. You should be able to find a sticker on the back of the machine which will tell you the game combination or name, and the program number, this number should be the number on the game roms. I did manage to find a manual for this machine on ebay which then got lost in transit. Does anyone know were I can locate 5101 ram , I do remember on the old site that someone posted a schematic for upgrading these 5101 chips, would anyone have a copy of this and an idea of the fault codes for this machine. Cheers

Well I don't have a sticker on the back of the machine and any other stickers don't match anything on the eproms so I'm SOL there.

You can get 5101's here - http://www.coinopchips.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=37

I think you're talking about the 5101 to 6116 upgrade? I really see no reason to do this as 5101's are still plentiful.

I ran your game ROMs through the magic lantern and can confirm they're for a 5 coin, 3 reel, 1-2-3 bars and 7s. According to the ROM, the strips are:

0 3 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 7
0 2 0 1 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 0 1 0 0 1 7
0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 7

0=blank, 1=1 bar, 2=2 bar, 3=3 bar, 7=seven - The double blanks indicate this is a five-line.

Payouts are 777 - 200, 333 - 100, 222 - 50, 111 - 20, mixed bars - 10

Per cycle (10648 bet), 777 once, 333 8 times, 222 24 times, 111 45 times, any bar 571 times. Payout percentage is 82.74%, hit frequency 6.1%

I'm the member who posted the RAM upgrade, because 5101s weren't plentiful in Vegas at midnight on that Saturday when I just worked out that the RAM was bad and I wouldn't be able to sleep until I fixed the damn thing. I used a 6264 because it needs a RAM with both positive and negative chip enables. I would repost it for reference, but I had a disk crash of my own last month and it seems to be gone.

Awesome! You're proficient in assembly language?
BTW, what is "the magic lantern"?

Some people like to do crosswords, some people like to do that game with squares of numbers, and some people like to do reverse engineering  :89-  (it's a lost art, but still in demand). With disassembled code it's more a case of deciphering it than actually reading it, since you have no idea what any piece of code actually does until you trace it all the way through. It's a nice intellectual challenge.

The Magic Lantern? I have a suite of disassemblers. In this case, though, I just opened the binary file in WinHex. I've fully disassembled my own game ROMs and know where the game personality is stored, so I can go straight to it.

That's awesome! One of the things I've always wanted to do was programming and I can do some simple stuff in VB but assembly is where I'd like to be proficient. One day I'll sit down and tackle it but I've been saying that for the last 10 years.

Back to repairs...

The first time around when replacing some TTL I had installed a 7493 backwards.  :25- This next round of replacement parts I installed, I corrected it.

On power up the hopper runs continuously and it sounds like the reel motor engages and then stops. I still don't have LED display though and the LED's check out ok.
I have checked the harness for continuity between the LED board and the PL4 connector (to the board cage) and all is good there.
One part(s) I haven't replaced are the triacs (L201E5) on the driver board and looking up on how to test them with a DMM I'm not sure exectly what reading I should be getting for a good part. The readings between parts are off quite a bit on some of them. i.e. 293, 323, 383. (diode setting, measuring m1 to gate and gate to m1)

It's more likely you need to replace one or more of the 6821s than the triacs. It's easier too, providing you can get some, as they're in sockets. Try swapping them around and see if the trouble moves. The motor on the reels always makes one or two cycles when the game powers up, by design. After it cycles and stops, the coin lockout should pull in, or the Tilt light will come on (one of the "fuses" on the display board). The triac for turning on the hopper is on the power supply board at the top. It may be running because it's broken, or because it thinks it's in the middle of a payout. Try powering up while holding in the memory reset button (inside above the reels). If you have spare 5101s try swapping them out, as the game won't come up if it can't clear the RAM.

Thanks for the info on were to locate 5101 ram, is it possible for these machines to be in a tilt condition because of a faulty reel optic. Cheers

I installed all brand new 68B21's and a new 6802 cpu. I also tried powering up with the memory button held in but nothing changed.

I'm getting 28VAC, sound ok?
 

As an aside to the repair discussion that is ongoing, could you, with that knowledge, change the payout of your machine (ie. make it stop more frequently on the "7" than it originally was designed to do)?

I couldn't make it stop on particular symbols more frequently with this particular machine, as the reels are free-spinning mechanical. However, the physical reel stop positions are just read back as numbers 1..22 and there's a lookup table in the EPROM to say what symbol is at what number, so I could change that to add a few more 7s - it would then be necessary to paste extra 7s on the reel strips to match. I could change the amount paid out for a particular winner, or add "mystery pays".

With something like an S-Plus there's no mechanical lookup to worry about. I could just change the virtual reel strips in EPROM and make it do anything I want.

I think that's been looked at on an S+ machine before and either the prom couldn't be read/altered or the machine would kick it as an eprom error. If you've been able to do it before this could generate some interest to make your own payout chips for home games. Personally I wouldn't mind having a 400 or 500% chip without having to set it to tournament mode especially in those games that don't have a tournament version.

It didn't click in my brain that the Aristocrat was a mechanical stop with an electronic payout.

As far as the S-Plus, I think you could, provided you could figure out how it calculates the checksum.  Have you ever talked to Stolistic?

As it happens I've never examined S-Plus code, but as for calculating the checksum, why bother? Just find the call to the routine that checks it, invariably one of the first things that the code does, and patch it out.

No, I don't know Stolistic.

Ok after a long delay on working on this machine it's time to get back to it.

I tried switching around the plugs that connect to the main board cage with various results which I expected. The labels on the plugs themselves are not very intuitive on where they should connect so I snapped a picture
and was hoping someone could decipher on where they go. Two results had the reels and hopper continously running, a third left the machine doing nothing.

Referencing the picture above, from left to right, I connected the plugs to the following spots. PL4, PL2, PL3.

Reels do not spin on start up, hopper runs, and the number 88 is visible on the display. Not sure what the 88 means since I can't find any error codes or that it's programmed to display any kind of error code.

No more questions! Come back 1 year!   :208-

 :208-






btw, I didn't ask any questions!  :96-

Would anyone really be offended if I chucked this thing out in the street and ran it over a few time?

It's kind of a POS anyways. And would rather spend my time on my Bally 809 Circus Circus.

I know how you feel. It took me way more time than it was worth to get mine going - I only persevered with it out of stubbornness. But it is a nice game if you can get it going.

Check the wire colors against this list to identify the plugs.

Ok, I do have the plugs in the correct spot. Thanks for that Op-Bell.

I pulled the boards and I shifted the 6821's one spot over to try to eliminate the possibility of having a bad one. No change, hopper still runs.
Last night I did install a Nicad battery. Only had the kind used on Cherry Master boards so I had to remove one of the three button batteries to get 2.4v.
Also swapped the 5101's out with different ones.

Now that I have the plugs inserted into their correct spot I need to sit down and look through the manual.

can anyone ppppppppppppllllleeeeeeeaaaaasssssseeee(please) help me with some igt aristrocrat esprit papermork  cwkarfs@cox.net  thx thx thx thx

Hello to all, I'm brand new to the site,.I'm not schooled in slot machine technology, but I AM a rather seasoned slot PLAYER since the 1970's....I'm looking for a variety of different machines to add to my collection. The machine pictured on this page is one of them; the ARISOCRAT/IGT REEL SLOT, vintage 1982-1985. These machines used to be ALL OVER in Nevada back in the mid-1980's, but had all but vanished from casino floors by 1990. They came in three-coin, four-coin, and five-coin versions, and some paid on the center-line only, while others paid on three lines, and still others paid on five lines. These machines provide fond memories for me. I want one!! Can anyone point me in the right direction to actually finding one for sale that is in good shape, as I'm not a slot mechanic? (And on that note--where can I also find a qualified slot mechanic who makes house calls?) How does one go about finding hard-to-find slot machines from the past?.....................

Welcome to the site, gamer131!

:238-


The classifieds section (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?board=5.0) of the site would be the best place to post a "Want To Buy" ad for one of those "Aristocrat/IGT" branded machines (which are actually Aristocrat Esprit machines that IGT refurbished and stuck their nameplate on, even though IGT didn't make them).

Be warned, however, that they're (as you know) very old and parts are difficult or impossible to find for them.  While I understand your fondness for those particular machines, I don't think they're a really good fit for a homeowner, especially one who is new to the hobby and does not have a lot of technical knowledge when it comes to slot machine repair.




For starters, you may want to fill out some information in your profile (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?action=profile;sa=forumProfile) so that others know where you're located.  I might know a good slot tech in Minneapolis, but that won't help you if you're located in Dallas.  :71-

I could use some help ,I'm looking for a repair manual for a 1983 aristocrat igt slot machine any help where to find?

Is it one of these? Link (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=527.0)

Im not trying to be a pain, Im trying to find the1983 aristocrat repair manual, there was a post to me saying its been posted where to get, but I'm not sure how to search it or what area to even look in again please help me with this Thank You

Hi,
Are you "Tonster"? This is "Gamer131". Your question to me shows a picture of a female. So, are you a woman? Just curious. (I'm a guy.)
So, you're looking for a 1983 Aristocrat repair manual. huh? Well, I don't have one, and I don't know where to begin looking for one. I don't have an Aristocrat from that vintage--but I'd like to find one in good working condition for sale. I'm not a slot mechanic, I'm just a private party who happens to be a slot machine enthusiast. I used to play the Aristocrats all the time back in the '80's, and would love to find a few of these machines and put together a game room with some of the Aristocrats, as well as some other slot machines. Do you happen to know where I can buy one? From what I can tell, they seem to be pretty hard to come by--but I'm sure there are still a few lurking around out there somewhere. There used to be tons of them in Nevada's casinos back in the day. The early '80's Aristocrats (I've been told that they are called the Aristocrat "Esprit") have a bad reputation as being of inferior quality, prone to breakdowns, and hard to find parts for. I've been discouraged by others on this site not to try to own one. However, I'm still looking for them for sentimental reasons. If you know where I can find one in decent working condition, please get back to me. Meanwhile, if I ever find one of these machines and can track down the owner's manual, I'll let you know. I'm sure somebody somewhere must have one. Good luck in your search. By the way, do you mind if I ask you: What's wrong with your machine? (I'm assuming you want a repair manual so that you can affect repairs.)

Hi Everybody,

I am getting ready to purchase an IGT Aristocrat 5 cent machine here in Cherry Valley, IL. The great thing about this machine is that it comes with the manual (a thick paperback book) which includes wiring diagrams and everything else you'd want to know about the machine. The book is dated 1982 and the machine a little later in 1983. Let me know if you need some scans.

-D

I know it's asking a lot, but if you could scan that manual and post it, a lot of people here would love you for it!

I scanned the entire manual to PDF years ago, but I don't have anywhere to post it for download. I'll attach it here. Part 3 (drawings) in the next post. Some good samaritan, please pick these up and put them in a public place for downloading.

The forum is refusing part 3. It's a PDF, 2530k.

Hi Op Bell,

Am trying to get a Aristocrat Elan 2-UP machine working. Any chance of you sending me the Part 3 manual?

2-UP must be an Australian only machine (am in Australia) but appears to be the same electronically as the
other Elan or Esprit games.

Thanks,
Peter