Help with Aristocrat/IGT Nickel slot

[rityz4runner]

Hello, newbie to this site but need some help.  I acquired an Aristocrat/IGT nickle slot over the weekend and have no idea about it.  I found another post on this site which displayed a machine that looks almost excatly like it.  Op-Bell mentioned that is is called an 'Espirit'.  I tried to find out other information on it but all I can find on the unit is the machine model number which appears to be Model R45NB, manufactured in 1982.  I have tried to determine what may be the issue but I havbe not been able to find any manual for this unit, so I don't know quite where to start.  So far have been able to remove the coin unit in the base, and the wheel unit from the case.  I have checked all the fuses and found one of the ones located to the left in the area above the reels which is in the middle marked 24VDC1A was blown.  When the machine was turned on the flurescent lights and case fan energized.  I powered down the unit, replaced the blown fuse and turned it back on.  This time I got the lights for the upper cabinet to come on, the barber pole at the top came on, the motor for the reels came on and began to try to turn the reels but the cams in the rear kept moving and engaging the reel stops but then would keep turning, makes quite a bit of noise when it does that.  Also the coin slot made a chattering noise, like a solenoid was cycling.  I could not see anthing else going on so I turned the unit off.  When I turned it back on to verify some indications the upper unit was no longer lighting nor was the reel motor turning and the fuse was blown again.

I read in another post about this same machine about replacing the batteries?  For the life of me I can not figure out where the heck this battery compartment is located so I could even check to see if they needed repalcement.  If they are there they probably do as the guy I bought it from has had it for several years and was going to try to fix it but never really had the time.  So I do not have any experience with these but I do work with electronics and mechanical things as I was a missile technician in the Navy on submarines.  I repair grandfather clocks for a hobby and also help my son with computer rebuilding.  I have a basic understanding of electrical circuits and know how to use a multimeter.  If I can get some help in how to disassemble circuit trace and operation of this thing I know I can get it functioning.  Thanks

[jay]

Welcome to NLG.
I will first qualify myself by saying I know nothing about the Aristocrat platform.
Generally speaking however a fuse blows because you have a short or something like a motor is jammed.
From your description my first instinct is that your hopper is jammed. I would pull that out and pop in some fresh fuses.
On the IGT platform a common short occurs in the candle. Sometimes the wire gets frayed as the topbox cut out for the candle has sharp edges.
Given the legacy of the platform you may want to check this out.
If you are still blowing fuses you want to start examining other parts of your wiring harness and removing items like the bill validator.

The battery is likely soldered to the MPU board as it is on other platforms. There is no battery compartment like you would find on a childs toy.
Once we get your platform up we can start addressing specific error codes which then may or may not lead us down the path to a battery change.
The purpose of the battery is to hold system settings, credits etc when the machine is off. I had my slots in storage for 2 years when I moved and had to build out my basement and the batterys were just fine. 

[m79crew]

Welcome to NLG 4Runner

Take it from experience do not I repeat do not use the wrong size fuse just because you don't have one.  Just run to the store and get a couple of boxes, If not You stand a good chance of finding the short the easy way.





Mark

[Jim]

the batteries are located on the logic boards  inside the card cage,,its located next to the hopper on the left side you should see about four cables going into a metal box with small holes everywhere. if it not there then its located uo in the top box behind the award glass.


Jim

[rityz4runner]

Welcome to NLG.
I will first qualify myself by saying I know nothing about the Aristocrat platform.
Generally speaking however a fuse blows because you have a short or something like a motor is jammed.
From your description my first instinct is that your hopper is jammed. I would pull that out and pop in some fresh fuses.
On the IGT platform a common short occurs in the candle. Sometimes the wire gets frayed as the topbox cut out for the candle has sharp edges.
Given the legacy of the platform you may want to check this out.

Excellent suggestion, I do know that the hopper has many nickels in the the unit.  I have no real history of the unit until I brought it home.  I will attempt to empty the hopper of all coins and try to see if I can spin the hopper or check for anything causing it to jam.  I will pull the hopper and reel assemblies and replace the fuse.  Will I be able to activate the unit with these two items removed?  I would think it should be and this might help me to isolate where the issue is coming from that is causing the potential blowing of the fuse. 

If you are still blowing fuses you want to start examining other parts of your wiring harness and removing items like the bill validator.

I will attempt to verify the wiring harness in the different areas of the machine.  I purchased a japanese skill slot that had a few issues operating.  Once I got into it I found numerous wires severed so that will be one of the first things I will look at so as to ensure that the harness is intact.  As for a bill validator, this machine was built in 1982 so there is no bill validator on it that I can see.  It will only accept nickels.

The battery is likely soldered to the MPU board as it is on other platforms. There is no battery compartment like you would find on a childs toy.

Understand the battery setup, I just need to figure out how to get the cables off the card cage that holds the MPU and its boards  As mentioned in another response as to the location of the MPU, , I have located the MPU card cage on the left side of the unit next to the hopper, but I can not figure out how to get the cables off the card cage.  I can not seem to figure out how to remove the cables as there is not a clip or screws to remove/loosen that I can see.   As for removal of the card cage, once I remove the cables, is it just secured by a few nuts on posts ?  Once I get the MPU card cage out of the unit, I am sure I can find the batteries and find suitable replacements.

Once we get your platform up we can start addressing specific error codes which then may or may not lead us down the path to a battery change.

Have read some about these error codes but am a bit curious as to where they are shown.  Will these show up on the LED display or some other location?

The purpose of the battery is to hold system settings, credits etc when the machine is off. I had my slots in storage for 2 years when I moved and had to build out my basement and the batterys were just fine. 

Thanks for the insite and understanding of the purpse of the batteries.  Just learning about these machines and being a hybrid of sorts (mechanical/electronic) I did not understand why it needed batteries.  Interesting to note for myself is the fact that the unit really doesn't need the pull handle to operate like the old mechannical machines.  this seems to only have been done to help the gamer use a new machine/system that they were familiar with and would have the same feel. 

I'll update with results from pulling the reels and hopper, then replace the 24v fuse as well as begin checking the wiring harness for cuts and or breaks. Thanks to everyone.

[Jim]

the cables are secured by slide on clips permanently attached to the ends of the cables. slide them outward and it should release the cables.  the card cage is secured by two nuts on the top of the card cage. to the side wall. Two cards in the cage, the mpu board and the i/o board with the pia's .   I would take out the boards and clean the edge fingers with a pink eraser. then You can exercise the hopper by hand, find the motor and push and hold the brake assembly in, rotate the shelf wheel  and you will see the hopper operate like it does in the machine.  if it moves chances are its' ok and not binding. 

Have you checked all the fuses in the power supply??   That power supply does pull out.  This is a tough machine to start with mainly because  spare parts are hard to come by, and I am not aware of anyone that works on the boards

I did see a machine similiar to yours down at Samron Slots , in Louisville Ky.  maybe Ron would like to find a new home for it !!!!

[rityz4runner]

Here is an update:
Pulled both the hopper and the reels.  Removed all the nickels from the hopper and noticed one was wedged near the top of the wheel.  Seems it might have gotten stuck there but managed to back up the motor and remove the stuck coin. 

Pulled the reel unit and removed the 3 reels.  Cleaned the LED sensors with alcohol and dried them with q-tips.  Rotated the motor so as to move the cams clear of the reels stop pawls then lifted an outer metal bar which allowed the pawls to drop down to a free-wheel position, reinstalled the reels.

Pulled the fuses from the fuse panel located in the top (5 of them) verified all fuses were good.  Turned on main poser switch, fluorescent bulbs came on as did the case fan.  Turned main power off.  Installed the hopper and reel unit.  Turned power on with no change in turn on.  Did a quick cycle of the power switch and I got all sorts of sound, mostly a high-low tone, the barber pole at the top of the machine began flashing on and off (change/Jackpot).  The reels seemed to do a return to home as the motor seemed to turn the cam which in turn lifted the pawl to an upward position and clanked locking the wheels.

The change acceptor began to vibrate slightly and if I moved it slightly it would decrease but would not seem to fully go away.  Coins dropped into it still pass through.  I cycled power OFF and then after about 2 minutes turned power back on.  Same issue nothing happening, so I quickly cycled the power switch and the machine appeared to do the same thing, high low tone flashing barber pole at the top but still no accepting of coins.

[stayouttadabunker]

I really would like to see a picture of the front AND back of the coin acceptor....it almost sounds like you're describing the vibration is coming from either the "rake" or the coin divertor next to the coin mech.

[rityz4runner]

Not too sure how to get the coin receptor out of the door to try to give you pics of both sides.

Figured out how to remove the cables; The lock mechanism is a simple slide.  Press the bottom of the cable connector upward and that will "unlock" the hold down mechanism allowing you to remove the connector.  I did an inspection of the boards.  The batteries are toast!  Not sure how these things are actually assembled and then put on the board, but corrosion is extensive on the batteries themselves.  I will try to upload some pics in the next day or two.  I also inspected the boards and noted that TR17 shows signs of overheating of the PCB on the back side and some corrosion and some burn blowout on the component side.  This component should be replaced, I just need to find out what type of transistor this is so I can replace it.  Same for the batteries.

[jay]

Generally speaking when a coin is inserted to a Slot it passes through either a coin mech or coin comparitor.
This is a comparison of size/weight and/or metal content. If it is rejected it is diverted to the coin tray.
The divertor rake is usually a solinoid that is either extended or retracted.

It has been my experience that the solinoid is only engaged when it rejects the coin. The hi-low tone is obviously an error code and I am sure there is a way to clear this. When a machine is in error mode it would lock out all coins. Given that the process t lock out the coins means the solinoid is extended I suspect your vibration would be coming from this area. It will likely go away when the machine is not erroring....for the time being I would call this a symptom and not a problem.

At least It sounds like your past the blowing fuses stage and the likely cause was a hopper jam. Good Job in getting this behind you.

Again feining any specific knowledge of this platform you might try turning the reset key and see if it clears the error. Is there a self test or reset button on the inside. On the S+ we would hold the self-test button in for 3seconds, the machine would ding and then we would close the door.

If you can post some pics I am sure it will help.... from here on out I will defer to those who have some experience on this platform.

Keep the updates coming

Jay

[Op-Bell]

All of the large TO-220 transistors (the ones with metal tabs) are triacs - AC switches. Everything in the machine except the hopper motor runs off 24VAC. I don't understand the "24VDC" fuse, there is no 24V direct current, only AC. Note, a short on the 24V lines can blow the 12VDC fuse, as they are connected. Most of the triacs control 24V AC lights, there are only a few solenoids. If TR17 is cooked it probably means there's a short somewhere, maybe a solenoid burned out, or someone mistook one of the festoon lamp holders for a fuse holder and "repaired" it with a bent nail.

The triac controlling the motor in the reels is up top on the power supply board, not down in the CPU box. It's a very hungry motor and running it continuously is probably not good for the fuse. How it normally works is on power-up, that motor cycles once and stops. In some cases it cycles a second time and stops. If it doesn't stop, the machine sees that as a fault and locks up with lights and alarms. What stops it is a microswitch on the cam. Make sure that switch is working, that it clicks when the cam turns - check with a meter if possible. If the switch is off the cam and doesn't change over the motor will run for a while, then it should stop. If it never stops, its triac might have failed shorted. Power supply board up top, TR1.

The batteries are two simple NiCd AA cells in series. You may be able to find a portable phone replacement battery the right size at Radio Shack etc. but any size 2-cell NiCd will do. It's not like it has to work hard. If you can only find a 3-cell, cut the plastic sleeve off and remove one of the cells. Don't use Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), they will be destroyed by the trickle charge. Simple cheap NiCd, 600mA-Hr.

This model has a mechanical coin acceptor, not an electronic comparator. There is a lockout coil behind it which pulls in to allow coins to be accepted - it's common for them to buzz when they get older. Remove the coin mech by lifting the flat metal spring on the lower left outside, then pull the bottom of the mech out towards you and the top will slide down out of its holding slots. You'll find the buzzing lockout solenoid behind it in the middle.

[rityz4runner]

Trying to upload some pics I took but having a few issues with photobucket.

UPDATE:
Was able to remove the battery pack and clean up the boards.  Used my DMM and did a few cursory checks and seems the transistors and the resistors on the board seem to be reading the same as other components so I don't think I have a real issue there at least not yet.  Picked up a AA battery pack from Radio Shack and then soldered two wires to connect the + & - terminals of the pack to the corresponding points on the PCB and then used small nylon tywraps to hold the pack on the PCM.  Cleaned the contacts on the two PCB and installed them back in the card cage and installed the card cage in the machine. 

Powered up the slot and I get a repeating 3 note sounding from the machine 2 hi then one low in rapid succession.  It will continue for about 2 minutes then stops.  the first time I turned it on I seemed to have movement from the reels so the motor was turning initially, the left wheel spun then engaged (stopped) then the right reel did the same but the middle never did seem to find its spot.  After about 5 minutes I got a very loud buzzing noise from the solenoid that controls the center reel.  I turned of the unit and waited about 30 secons then applied power again witht he same results.  The good news is the coin slot is not vibrating anymore, but the coins still drop right through.

Any more things for me to look at? 

Here are some pics:
Pictures of the machine one with the lights on

Showing the corrosion of the battery ends

Main fuse panel

PCB1 and PCB2

coin receiver