IGT S+ Red White & Blue Coin Issues

[David B Fowler]

My first post .... yea, really enjoy this site.
Now to the problem, I have removed the comparitor and coin reader board and tried in a friends game. It works fine in his but in mine, it sends the coin thru to the hopper without giving a credit. The bill DBV works and when the cash/credit button is pressed, the hopper does what it is supposed to. Have I turned off a feature of coins in or disabled it? It sends the coin into the hopper so I am confused and really dont want to start tracing wires for continuity unless I have to. I dont have a wiring diagram either so I wont know which wires to trace.
Help .... please .... driving me nuts trying to figure this one out . I sure its something simple.

[David B Fowler]

Dont know what to do except that I am having a similar problem except my coins go into the hopper and give no credit. The comparitor passes the small white button test and the led lights with the pull handle test. The DBV works and the hopper pays .... dont really know except had done a reset with both chips when i got it and it worked but had an issue with the comparitor and got it fixed. Checked it in another friends machine. .... Lost
Maybe a fix will come our way. What is  enabled "coinless mode" setting mode and how do I check this? Thats probably what happened with me.
Dave

[CVslots]

I seen your post in the S+ forum and you may have more luck there. None the less, you may want to include which game chip (SP chip) you are using in your game.  Welcome to NLG and I'm sure someone will help you out if you cannot find your answer somewhere in a prior post. Keep searching!! 

-Roslyn

[stayouttadabunker]

Sounds like it's eating coins...  
When the coin is dropped and goes through the coin mech and into the hopper -
does it get registered as "1" credit or no?

If not, I'd say you'd need a new set of Coin-In optic boards.
They are located under the coin comparator.
Basically they have a set of optical eyes that read the coin as it falls between them  
and breaks the electrical beam.
When that happens correctly - a single credit signal is sent back to the MPU
and registered on your credit display panel.

Check and see if anything  (paper, dust,etc) is blocking the holes where the optical beams
come through the black plastic sandwich coin insert encoder guide.

[Buzz]

Bunker  Go back and read the first post, he said he put the CC and coin reader card, which I assume is the coin optics in another machine and it checked out OK.

[stayouttadabunker]

Bunker  Go back and read the first post, he said he put the CC and coin reader card, which I assume is the coin optics in another machine and it checked out OK.

Ah...good catch Buzz! 

Well, let me ask a question....>>>

Fatman,
Does your friend's coin comparator and Coin-In optics "coin reader card" work in your  cabinet?

[knagl]

I've split your post into a new topic since it's a different machine with different symptoms compared to the post you replied to (here, for reference for anyone interested).

If your machine is accepting coins but is not giving credit for them (and is not throwing an error code, either, since you didn't mention one), I'm going to guess that there's a problem with your coin-in optics.

I'm not sure what you mean by saying "the led lights with the pull handle test".  Have you used the coin-in optic tests in the self-test menu to determine if the three coin-in optics are working properly?

Keep in mind that the comparator is pretty dumb -- it allows coins that match the sample coin to keep falling down through the coin-in optics and then to the hopper (or the drop box, if the hopper is reported as full).  It rejects coins that don't match the sample coin into the coin tray.  That's all it does -- it doesn't have any control over whether or not the machine actually registers a credit or not (that's the job of the coin-in optics).  If your comparator is allowing good coins to fall through to the hopper, and is rejecting bad coins to the tray, it's doing its job properly and the comparator isn't your issue.

As far as a "coinless mode", there really isn't one for the S+ -- sorry that you got led astray by the conversation in the other thread.  With the correct chips it's possible to set a S+ so that it will never attempt to pay out of the hopper (making all cash-outs handpays), but there is not an S+ setting that will cause it to reject all coins.  Your issue is not with settings -- it's something related to your coin-in optics either not seeing coins as they go past, or a problem with the path your coins are taking that they're not tripping the coin-in optics.

[stayouttadabunker]

It could be very well possible that you have a dollar sized encoder guide sandwiched between the coin-in optic boards too.
The coin that you're using must match the optics encoder guides for the machine.
You need to pull the coin mechanism apart and see what's in there or
flip up the coin comparator and drop an dollar coin through the coin-in optics and see if it fits through -
if so, then your encoder guide is too big.

It's not that clear but the encoder on the left doesn't have the rounded piece of plastic...
I think it was shaved off to allow a larger token fall through.
This happened to a lot of S+'s as they were nearing the end of their casino floor lives
and the casinos made them into $1 token machines.

On the button deck, does a larger .50 cent piece fit into the slot?
If so, then your machine was one of those converted at some time to be a larger denomination machine
or made to fit large casino tokens...>>>

[stayouttadabunker]

Okay,
I received a PM from the fatman about his machine
and basically he didn't really want to ask if his buddies' coin comparator and coin-in optics boards ( Let's call these coin components the "coin mech" in the future for ease of typewriting everything all out...HAHA!) if they would would work in his problem machine.
The problem is...the two machines are really too far away from each other for an easy troubleshooting swapping of parts.


Soooo....It's time to try a few things...

1). Open the door...(no power on) flip up the coin comparator.
It's held in by four plastic grasping tabs that grab the 4 nibs on the metal frame of the coin comparator.
Release the grip from the bottom two tabs by gently pulling the coin comparator towards you at the bottom.
The coin comp should easily "flip" up if the top two tabs didn't release the whole coin comp.
If so, remove the harness connector from the coin comparator socket and place aside for now.

2). Drop a .50 cent piece through the coin-in optic boards.
If it doesn't fall through and gets jammed....then you know your coin optics black plastic encoder guide is the right size for quarters.
I assume you have a quarter as a Sample coin in the coin comparator right?
You really haven't told us.
If the .50 Cent piece gets jammed...no problem.
Just remove the two screws that hold the coin mech bracket to the door and flip it upside down.


Are you good with tools?
Can you take apart a coin mech easily
and reassemble it?
How about using a multimeter to check for continuity?

If so, now we gotta check some wires for continuity or
you're going to have to learn how to do all kinds of tests - which are complicated as hell to try.


Remember, the more you can tell us - the better we can help you!

[David B Fowler]

I hope I am doing this righrt .... I will try the test you told me. I can test for continuity with a meter as well ..... but no diagram to follow from the comparitor unit and the mother board. Anyway, coins worked fine when I tested the whole unit in the other machine so I feel the sizeing issue isnt a problem ... but ... I am not going to take anything for granted and will test it. If I dont, ... that will be the problem. Thanks to Mr Murphy. I ran a amusement route in Atlanta and did many repairs on my solid state pinballs, so I can read diagrams and feel ok with it. I just hate tracing wires but this might be my next step.
 Thanks for helping and any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.



Fixed a broken quote box -knagl

[stayouttadabunker]

I hope I am doing this righrt .... I will try the test you told me. I can test for continuity with a meter as well ..... but no diagram to follow from the comparitor unit and the mother board. Anyway, coins worked fine when I tested the whole unit in the other machine so I feel the sizeing issue isnt a problem ... but ... I am not going to take anything for granted and will test it. If I dont, ... that will be the problem. Thanks to Mr Murphy. I ran a amusement route in Atlanta and did many repairs on my solid state pinballs, so I can read diagrams and feel ok with it. I just hate tracing wires but this might be my next step.
 Thanks for helping and any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Okay good!
That means your coin mech is good!
For some reason, each time you drop a coin through this coin mech while it's in THIS cabinet -
it doesn't register a credit.
Sooooo....something else is wrong and it's somewhere between the coin mech and the MPU.
Only problem...there's a lot in between!  


Let's try something else then for now before getting into tracing wires...I hate that part anyways! HAHA!
For starters...let's see if the coin-in optics board can send a signal back to the MPU...

Open the door, turn on the juice and look for a little button on the coin-in optics board
that's located directly under the coin comparator.

Press this button a few times until you've reached the MAX bet.
I don't know if your machine's game is a 2 coin, 3 coin, or 5 coin game.

Push the button the same number of times as if you've dropped coins to reach the MAX bet.
You should hear a "Ding" sound each time you press the button.

This button by the the way, is called the "Service Coin" button.
It's for putting credits onto the machine while the door is open to test machine components.

[David B Fowler]

I have pushed it and it gives credit and plays .... of course with open door. Maybe if I can reach it thru the belly glass door with the door closed might answer if it is a harness issue.
Thanks

[stayouttadabunker]

Hmm?  
At least the coin-in optics are sending a signal back to the MPU...that's good...  but
I'm wondering why it doesn't register a coin?

When you drop a coin through with the door closed & machine powered up...does the coin fall...>>>

1). Back into the coin tray.
2). The hopper.
3). Or down into the dropbox hole under the machine?


Does your coin match the Sample coin in the coin comparator holder?
What are you using?

[David B Fowler]

It falls into the hopper. I have a quarter in the comparitor. Is there a way that the coin feature could have been disabled? I did a reset a while ago and also used the denomination  chip as well. Could have hit buttons on the front trying to get it to reset. I have a simpler time with EM machines. But I am now determined to find out why it is not registering coins.
Dave

[knagl]

I think the next step would be to do the self test input optics test to test the ABC coin-in optics.

Fatman, can you tell us what SP chip is in your machine?  Instructions on how to determine your SP chip can be found here:

http://www.newlifegames.net/spset/SPSS.htm

[Neonkiss]

I think the next step would be to do the self test input optics test to test the ABC coin-in optics.

Fatman, can you tell us what SP chip is in your machine?  Instructions on how to determine your SP chip can be found here:

http://www.newlifegames.net/spset/SPSS.htm

Or post up some pictures of a high quality.
Maybe there is somethine we can see from the pictures.

[stayouttadabunker]

I agree with both guys above.
I'm wondering if YOUR particular SP chip might have a setting that we can change?

[knagl]

I'm wondering if YOUR particular SP chip might have a setting that we can change?

I'm not aware of a setting that would allow a machine to accept a coin but not give credit for it. 

[TZtech]

There is an option to enable coinless mode on some SP's. However if this is enabled the machine should not switch on power to comparator.
It could be that the gate on the comparator has been fiddled with - If You drop a coin into the machines with power off where does it go?

[knagl]

If You drop a coin into the machines with power off where does it go?

A good question to ask. 

[Jim]

need a little more information as to what you replaced in your friends machine, the cc I understand, did you just remove the optic boards or did you replace the whole bracket assembly that would include the wiring harness???

if you replaced the whole assembly, that would  eliminate the wiring harness, if not then the wiring harness or a pushed out pin or something like that could be possible.

do the ABC test as Knagl suggested, that will give some indication as to as what is going on.   also what SP chip you have, this will assist in how to navigate through the menus

Jim