UNIVERSAL HOPPERS - NEED SOME HELP

[StatFreak]

foxsslots1
« on: February 01, 2007, 09:38:43 AM »   

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Have a Universal which I finally got running - the hopper has problems - does not seem to be spitting out coins.  I am not familiar with this style hopper (see picture) - seems that the "knife" as I call it has a lever on it that looks like it should be spring loaded (see position of coin in picture). Also, should there be a rubber agitator similar to how ballys work? Looks like one is present but it is worn down flat to shelf wheel. Any help either parts diagram/parts/hopper would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

[StatFreak]

uniman
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2007, 10:17:36 AM »   

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Ah yes, the red high speed hopper! (Heard nothing good about these!)
I have one on a shelf, never had it apart.
Right now I'm late for appointment, I can take it apart and post a pic when I return if you want?


uniman
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2007, 01:34:18 PM »   

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Thank you for your QUICK reply - let me know what you want for it. thanks

I got this one when I bought out a guy's Universal stuff. Put it on a shelf in the basement and forgot about it.
I just took it apart and it has a lot of wear. I cleaned most of the casino "funk" out it, (real dirty) and put it in one of my machines. It jams everytime, coins piling on top of each other at discharge. Sounds like a bad garbage disposal!
I was going to post a pic of it so you could see if your's has parts missing. But mine is exactly like yours, no additional parts. Mine has more wear. What is yours doing?
If you really want it, I would be willing to part with it. But I don't think it's worth the shipping cost alone.
I would find a regular Universal hopper and swap that one out.


foxsslots1
« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2007, 01:41:10 PM »   

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thanks for the update - mine does not seem to want to cycle the coins out the chute - there is something missing/broken than guides the coins out past the optic. hopper runs then I get a 32? code (whatever the timeout code is).  As I said earlier the knife (?) has a lever on it that is freewheeling (looks like it should have had a spring). Will wait it out and see if I can find one or what I need for mine. Appreciate the help.


uniman
« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2007, 01:59:18 PM »   

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I got the same error 32. Found coins on top each other at discharge! I've always heard bad things about these hoppers, now I'm finding out why!
I would guess the motor has some sort of brake so extra coins would not spit out. It looks like there should be space for only one layer of coins.


uniman
« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2007, 02:34:12 PM »   

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I think I know how to fix that hopper! Got mine working!
I will post a pic in a few minutes
...
You have the red disk that mounts on the three little studs. That disk should have four screws in it attached to a metal plate underneath it.
You put a few coins flat in the hopper and I put one at the discharge. The three little studs each have a nut below and then above the red disk. You need to adjust the red disk so there is clearance for one coin only. In your case it was most likely too low not allowing the coins to get out, in my case it was too high allowing coins to pile up on each other. Try it and let me know what happens.

[StatFreak]

uniman
« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2007, 02:53:54 PM »   

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I also believe it needs plenty of coins to keep things moving. Mine stop spitting them out with about ten tokens left in it.


foxsslots1
« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2007, 02:59:41 PM »   

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I guess I should have been more explicit - the picture shows the hopper AFTER I removed the top part - the coins are NOT jamming - they are just not getting thru to the optic. the if you look to the left of the optic - you will see what I call a knife - attached to the top of the knive is an arm that pivots - that pivot looks like it is supposed to push coins to the right and engage a roller (rubber) that goes counter clockwise.  Again the hopper is NOT JAMMING - it just does not push to coins out.  Does the center of your hopper have a rasied rubber "AGITATOR"?


uniman
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2007, 03:40:01 PM »   

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I see your problem.
Underneath that "knife" is a little rubber barrel. Yours is missing. Shouldn't be hard to fabricate.
See my pic's below.

[StatFreak]

foxsslots1
« Reply #17 on: February 06, 2007, 08:54:11 AM »   

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Thank you all for your help so far - here is where I am at - after adding the daughter boards to my replacement mpu board - and cleaning the hopper and optic - the hopper starts and spits out coins FAST - HOWEVER - after spitting out 20 coins the hopper REVERSES DIRECTION!!! instead of counter clockwise (normal rotation) it stops and reverses - needless to say I get a 32 error...  This is the RED (HIGH SPEED HOPPER). anyone?


uniman
« Reply #18 on: February 06, 2007, 03:06:57 PM »   

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Not sure on this one? But, if you are using a tournament board with the 8-pack dips instead of the normal 4-dip board, that could be the problem.??

I believe you told me you had a tournament board.

I have tournament boards and I know they don't work without the daughter board. I have an extra daughter board on the way, when it get's here I'll try it on a tournament board and see what happens.

The tournament board looks identical to the normal board except for the dips.

Now, to muck it up even more, I bought a couple of 8-pack dip boards that are a little different then the tournament boards. Looks like the 8-pack dips were added later and the resistor pack?(I don't know what the h*** it's called) along side the dips is soldered in a different place. This board works without a daughter board, but only allows max credits to be 239 coins.
Anyone see this before???
I will post pic's IF anyone is interested.


foxsslots1
« Reply #19 on: February 06, 2007, 04:10:21 PM »   

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that is correct - the board I bought did have tournament proms - no daughter so I swapped all of my goodies - the is a 8 dip compared to my 4 - I changed the dips to all OFF (whatever my 4 read).  If all of the bits are off (5 thru 8) why would that differ from just a 4 with all off? I will check the resistor pack to see if there is a difference. Still do not understand the reveral of the hopper motor?


uniman
« Reply #20 on: February 06, 2007, 05:49:13 PM »   

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First of all, pardon my lack of electronic knowledge!!! 

Here are three pictures of three of my boards zooming in on the dips.

First, a standard 4-pack dip board, won't work unless I have daughter board, get error 21 "coin jam"

Second pic, the tournament 8-pack dip board. This board will not work stand alone, have not tried with daughter board.

Third pic, 8-pack dip board bought from Ebay lat summer. This board does work stand-alone, but has credit limit of 239 coins and handle does not energize. Looks like 8-pack dip was an add-on.

I have studied these three boards for the past hour and I don't see any difference between the two 8-pack boards other than how the 10-pin resistor was soldered. But after looking on the backside, they look like they are the same circuitry, just soldered a little different. Don't know why the light blue 8-pack works and the black (tournament) 8-pack doesn't?
Don't see why the tournament board would be any different than the 4-pack dip board?

[StatFreak]

uniman
« Reply #21 on: February 24, 2007, 01:41:30 PM »   

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Posted a couple of weeks ago that I couldn't get my Universal Tournament Boards to work with game chips.
Foxslots appeared to have similar problems.

I have three different "types" of the 8116-A2 board;
   1. Standard 4-pack dip switch at location 7D, (black in color) as described in Universal manual.

   2. 8-pack dip switch at location 7D, light blue in color and wires 5-8 obviously added as they are different than first four.see second pic. (Note: on one board cage was sticker stating "converted to tournmt." and a date)

   3. 8-pack dip switch at location 7D, black in color and all eight wires look to be "factory" installed. Pic in previous post.

Never could get the black 8-pack dip board to work right, with or without daughter board.
Last night I found the problem. Four traces on the back of the board have been purposely cut! 
Not easy to see, (see pic) but it's there and I have five of these boards and every one is the same!
I soldered jumpers on two of them and soldered the two close one's together and it now works fine! 
I'm posting this so anyone else who has "factory tournament boards" can fix this......SABOTAGE! 

Note: Look for these cuts on backside under locations 6B and 7B.

[StatFreak]

CaptainHappy
« Reply #22 on: February 24, 2007, 03:27:38 PM »   

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Uniman,

GOOD FIND! What a pin in the A I am sure that many will appreciate it, thanks for posting the result! So many times people never follow through with their post when there was a problem that was solved and it leaves people hanging!

Captainhappy


foxsslots1
« Reply #23 on: February 24, 2007, 04:07:50 PM »   

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My 2 boards were sent off to Vegas for repair - the tournement board had a bad socket - my original board has acid damage to a trace - both boards are fixed and I should have them back this week - will check to see if my tourn. board had the same cuttings.  For those who need board work - KLAR (Larry Weber) in Vegas does excellent work (not cheap) but GOOD.


uniman
« Reply #24 on: February 25, 2007, 04:41:33 AM »   

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Quote from: foxsslots1 on February 24, 2007, 04:07:50 PM
My 2 boards were sent off to Vegas for repair - the tournament board had a bad socket - my original board has acid damage to a trace - both boards are fixed and I should have them back this week - will check to see if my tourn. board had the same cuttings.  For those who need board work - KLAR (Larry Weber) in Vegas does excellent work (not cheap) but GOOD.
Does your tournament board look like an "original factory tournament board" or a conversion. "Original factory tournament board" should have all eight wires next to the 8-pack dip the same color and size.(green)
I've seen several boards that have been converted to the 8-pack dip, but no traces cut.

Universal states in their manual that the Tourney Board is a "specially prepared board." 
The only thing that should be different is an 8-pack dip instead of a 4-pack.
Now I'm wondering, did Universal cut those traces or did the casino that had these boards do the cuts? Is this what Universal meant by "specially prepared"???


foxsslots1
« Reply #25 on: March 01, 2007, 01:31:09 PM »   

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I got my 2 universal boards back from being repaired by KLAR (Larry Weber) in Vegas - my original board (which was dead) was repaired and when put back in my game ALL IS WELL - INCLUDING THE HOPPER PROBLEMS!!!!
As for the Tournament board - it did NOT have the trace cuts as reported by others - it did have some board issues such as a bad bit switch among several repairs.  I have no idea why my board did not have the trace cuts - so this mystery continues.  Bottom line - I have my customers machine fixed - and he will be extremely happy. Have an extra board in case anyone is interested.

[uniman]

Universal used at least four different hoppers. The most common is the "Standard" hopper. They also used Asahi-Seiko hoppers. Then there are the almost all plastic "high-speed" hoppers. And finally in the 90's they used a "Holey" hopper.
Each hopper used a slightly different device to count coin output. So Universal utilized dip switch settings for the hopper being used on the 8-dip switch located on the daughter board 8116-SDS3 or 8116-SW1(B-D).
Each version of the machine chip had it's own settings on this 8-dip switch.
Here are pic's of the hoppers.
First is the Standard
Second is the Asahi-Seiko

[uniman]

Here is a Holey hopper. This one is in an Ultra Series machine. Some older model Holey hoppers have a black top instead of silver seen here.
The high speed hopper can be seen at the beginning of this thread.

[StatFreak]

Uniman, thanks for adding more information to the thread.

[stayouttadabunker]

Yes Uniman,
Your posts are very interesting as I've never learned
so much about these old Universals before! 

[uniman]

Someone has emailed me with a Uni hopper problem so I added these updates.
Hope it helps.

[uniman]

As requested by a Uni owner, here is a pic of the Standard hopper kicker solenoid spring. (See red circle)
When this hopper is energized the hopper wheel rotates and the kicker solenoid energizes drawing the kicker back allowing coins to be dispensed. When the count matches the win or cashout the mpu shuts off the hopper motor and kicker solenoid. The motor quickly coasts to a stop and the kicker springs back to deflect back into the hopper any extra coins that may fall out. I find most overpays on machines just aquired are more likely to be caused by dip switch settings and maybe lack of a daughter board.
But this spring worn or broken can cause overpays too.