New Life Games Tech Forums

Can anyone out there please help?  I am going crazy trying to figure out why my draw poker machine
model 1070D all of a sudden decided to stop working.  MFD 6-87.  On the screen it shows call attendant,
coin in time out.  Over on the left hand side their is a S that I have never seen before until now.
I been browsing this website to try and see if their is any suggestions on what it could be.  Unable to locate
at this time.  I did find where it said to depress the white button inside the machine 3 to 4 times to reset
the machine.  Have tried and the only thing that happens is that it goes into test mode.  I have a second machine
and pulled out the hopper and swapped but no luck.  I also turned the reset key at the top of the machine
on the side, but I did find out, that won't help.  Has a electric coin mech in it.  I installed quarters and tokens.
Neither one made a difference.  I feel like i am butting my head against a wall.  any help may save some
sanity because right now most of it's gone.
thanks you very much for any advice to get this machine up and running again.

since you can get into the test mode you should use it to see what the status of your coin optics are. The coin-in time out error is pointing to something in the coin in optics.or ?  usually opening and closing the door will clear these tilt codes. but when you go to the test mode the first screen should be the machine inputs, it will have all the inputs listed with a 1 or a 0 across fom it. As you push a certain switch as listed it should change from a 0 to a 1  or vice-versa. you can test all the inputs, see what condition the coin in A,B,C, are, as well as the door , if you have optics on the door you should see it change when you close the door.

I would start here and see what results you get! you can test the optics by: removing the coin comparitor and making a cardboard test item. size of a popcycle stick. place this stick where the coin would normally pass and observe the screen and see if the 0 or 1  change.  press the white test button located on the optics board it too should produce a change, if all these work then your coin in optics are good and you have to look elsewhere.

Jim

In addition to Jim's great suggestions, make sure that the wire harness going to the coin optics is firmly seated and ensure there are no visible breaks in the wiring.  If the optics are disconnected, that would also result in a "Coin-In Timeout" error.

If all else fails, call the attendant to help.   :96-

Good luck -- keep us updated, and we'll do our best to get your machine back up and running.

well back at it again. pushed test button. first screen was input test. listed coin in b, coin in c. my problem is i do not know what that means or where b and c is. the next screen in says coin in meter. what is the meter? if it is the coin comparitor all it did was drop in door.  the next screen is hopper test and i was able to push draw button to run a hopper test. the motor started to turn and then stops. screen says hopper time out. next screen says out of order. the next screen goes back to the hand being shown on the coin in, time out. shut the door and says call attendent. can anyone give the number to call that attendent to fix it :). also noticed that the coin comparitor has a red lite that is not lit. the quarters inserted just fall back into the front of door. when the hopper did not spit out the 10 coin test i powered down and right back up and it tryed to spit out all 10 but hopper timed out again. it in one motion was able to spit out 7 before time out.

Okay, one thing at a time.

- The coin comparator won't have its LED on unless it is ready to accept a coin.  It will not be ready to accept a coin until the current coin-in timeout issue is resolved, and the door is closed.  Don't worry about the LED not being on right now -- that's normal.

- As far as the hopper test failing, I don't know what to tell you.  Did the hopper previously work?  The fact that you're also having a problem with the hopper, which is completely unrelated to the coin-in mechanics of the game, points towards a bigger issue (a possible problem with the MPU board that controls the game, rather than a specific problem with the hopper or the coin-in stuff).  Are there plenty of coins in the hopper (at least 30)?  Did the machine count up the number of coins dispensed (with a number on the screen) when it did dispense coins?

- The input test screen is where you want to be.  I have not worked on a PE machine (which yours appears to be, based on the graphics) -- only a PE+.  As such, I don't know for sure what differences there might be between the two, and my suggestions are going to be based on my experience with the PE+.

On the PE+, after the inserted coin is accepted by the comparator, it falls through the coin-in optics.  The optics are in a small black box and there are three of them in sequence -- A, B, and C.  A is the top one, B is the middle, and C is the bottom.  The coin falls through, momentarily blocking the A optic, then A and B as it continues its fall, then ABC, then BC, then just C, then none of them.  By having the three optics, the machine is able to determine that a coin has gone by, and that it is moving in the correct direction.  (If the machine detected a coin starting at the C optic and working its way up to the A optic, it would tilt with a "Reverse coin-in" message -- that is done to prevent someone from "stringing" a coin -- gluing a string to the edge of a coin and attempting to bounce the coin up and down in the acceptor to obtain multiple credits with one coin.)

On the self test input screen, there should be a 1 or a 0 next to the optic/coin-in A, B, and C.  The 1 or the 0 shows the status of the optic.

Edit: Okay, I just read the manual for the PE machine (which you can and should download here (http://www.newlifegames.net/uploads/up/PEPokerManual.pdf)).  It looks like on the PE, the self test input screen only shows things that currently are reporting as actuated.  For example, if you press the first "Hold" button while that screen is active, you should see "Hold 1" appear on the screen.

The status should change when the optic is blocked (like with a popsicle stick, as Jim suggested).  If the status does not change when the optic is blocked, that indicates a problem with the optics and/or the wiring between the optics and the MPU board and/or a problem with the MPU board.  Again, the fact that you're now having unrelated hopper problems as well could point to an MPU problem.

Also, you said that the self-test screen only showed a coin-in A and B.  I guess it's possible that the PE only used two optics instead of three, but again that's out of the realm of my knowledge.  The same test procedure should still work, however.

Another edit: The PE manual shows a three-optic assembly.  See if you can verify that you do in fact have three optics -- perhaps either optic C will appear on the self-test input screen, or A and B will vanish when you wave a popsicle stick through the optic assembly.


Finally, you can also test the hopper optic in the self test screen.  There should be a 1 or a 0 for coin-out or hopper or something on that screen.  The hopper optic is a little horseshoe-shaped assembly that will be mounted on the front-top of the hopper, right where the coins come out.  Coins are brought up by the pinwheel, rest on the shelf wheel, and then pass through the optic assembly before coming out of the hopper.  Use a stick or a screwdriver to block the optics on the hopper and see if its status changes in the self test screen.

Morning again. The hopper did work just fine before this crazy malfuction. The reason I said something about the
 lite on the coin mech is I do own about 33 Slugbuster II electronic mechs and I know that if they do not
 have power the coins will be diverted to the return slot. In the test mode input the coins are not going down
to the two sensors below the mech. They are diverted back to the tray. I unpluged the mech and noticed there
was an additional letter a on screen. I held the diverter open and tryed a quarter. It fell thru to the hopper. Have
 about $150.00 of quarters in hopper. When putting in quarters the screen does not change like it knew the coins
were being inserted. I am going to pick up a mechanical mech this morning and unplug the electronis mech and see
if that will make a differance. ie: the screen show a change. The plate on the machine does show it to be a PE
poker machine.

I do have a manual that came with the machine and in the book it does show that you open and reclose door to fix
coin in, time out. Well that was not true in this case. There looks as if there are 2 optic boards below the mech. On
 the hopper you have a lever that coints the coins dispenced.  In the test of hopper the coins that it did spit out
 were counted. During the self test I did get a few responces by depressing the buttons on fromt of door. Hold 4,
start hopper test, bet 1, max bet. That is about all that showed up on screen. I did insert a piece of card board
between the coin reader. The coins did drop in the hopper but no change on screen.  There is a company located
about 35 miles from me, one way that sells slots and gameroom equipment. I believe they work on slots, but will call
 first to see. What would be a fair price to diagnois the problem.  I know the machine is so old that most people do
not want machines that do not have bill acceptors. This machine is 23 years old. Don't want to spend money that
will not be recouped on resale. What would it be worth in this condition now?  Did buy a monitor of  it in 2001 for
$411.00. it has no more than a couple of hours on screen, no burn in on screen. I also replaced the battery about
1 year ago. Total money I have spent on this machine since purchase is about $1,600.00. I figure that the machine
 will keep breaking down even worse. I better stop writing as this is starting to look like a book. Thanks
 

As the 'A' came on screen after you unplugged the mech, I would assume (never a good idea!) that when it is plugged in and B & C show on screen that those are the ones causing a problem.

With the mech out of the machine, take a look at the bottom of it and you should be able to see the three optics, probably looks like three holes on either side of the mech as you look up into it from the bottom, they may be offset not in a straight line, but with corresponding holes on both sides.

When you know where the optics are, plug the mech back in and try to insert a lolly stick or small item in to block the path of the top optic, this should be the 'A' one. if you break the path of the optic then the letter 'A' should come up on screen.

If this happens then B &C are the problem, but it could be the wires between the mech and the PCB tray, it was when mine went bad.

I know this thread is a little old.  However, I'm trying to get the manual for the Sigma B9 Poker Game and I See it in the post here, but when I click on it, the site asks me to log in again to download the .pdf.  Can anyone advise me on how to get that download to work, or any where I can download the manual from for that matter?  Thank you!!

Mike

The dead link in that old post linked to an IGT manual, not a Sigma manual.

There are a few Sigma manuals available from the following site:

http://rudysdeals.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=54&page=2 (http://rudysdeals.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=54&page=2)

I don't know if any of those manuals cover the particular machine you have. Your best bet would be to post any questions you have about your machine in the Sigma section, here:

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?board=53.0 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?board=53.0)