Just Purchased a Bally E-1209

[Bally_Rookie]

 I just purchased a nearly complete Bally E-1209 and I'm very excited to dive into it.  I'm sure i will be posting many questions through out this project and I'm looking forward to any help or information on this machine.  Thanks in advance.

[litterbox99]

Well.... I opened her up and found the 3.6v battery missing and the ribbon cable to the LED display had a bent pin that was not going into the IC socket.  Tried straighting it and it broke off.   I switched another LED display off a different machine in place of the bad one and still no LED display.  Do I need the 3.6v battery installed in order to get the display to work? 

[Bally_Rookie]

Oops...  I was using my friends computer and was logged on with his user name on my last post, sorry about that.

[FOXSSLOTS1]

battery is not needed for the display - check your connections at the power supply - check the DC voltage at the power supply  (5, 7.5 and 10vdc) at the test points.

[Bally_Rookie]

 I regained power to the MPU and the LED display reads number 1 all the way to the right of display.  Its a one all by its self no zeros or decimal points. I'm not even getting a door open code. I checked the door switch and it clicks but no change in the display.  If I hit the reset button a few times really quick it seems to go through a series of tests. During the tests the tilt light blinks, the 1st coin and second coin light blinks up top and the handle coil opens and closes several time in a row. These tests don't happen every time i hit the reset button, just when i hit it three or four times in a row really fast and sometimes not at all.  The test button has no effect at all.

[stayouttadabunker]

Have you checked these pins and molex contacts for burns?
Dirty contacts will cause intermittent power problems in booting up.

[FOXSSLOTS1]

the 1 is usually a cmos problem - the ram board (the board without the battery) has 2 5101 cmos ICs - remove each and reseat.  Also try reseating the board itself - the edge connectors on that ram board also are a problem.

[Bally_Rookie]

I removed the RAM board and found a bad edge connector, thanks Foxsslots.  Now it seems that I'm having reader card errors.  I run test 1, coin up the machine, pull the handle and the 1st reel reads great, but the 2nd and 3rd reel sometimes read and somtimes they don't.  If the reader card was bad would it still read once in awhile?  I've tried adjusting the cards and it doesn't seem to help. Does the reel speed make any difference in reading reels?   

[FOXSSLOTS1]

check the connectors to each reader as well as the control board.   readers do malfunction.  make sure it is not a lubrication issue  - try running game in 8 mode.

[Bally_Rookie]

I did test 8 and the reels read everytime.

[FOXSSLOTS1]

while in 8 mode (81 000) lock and close the door - does the win meter change to a 50 000 or 71 000?

[Bally_Rookie]

I ran test 8 and as soon as the door switch made contact it showed a code 50

[FOXSSLOTS1]

when you ran it in 8 test - reels stop okay and it indicated winning combos okay?  if you are getting 42 or 43 errors then that reader has a problem.  when you get a 42 or 43 - do the 5 test and move the reel with the error one position at a time and see if you are getting a misread (orange - 1  plum - 2  bell - 3  cherry - o   - j/p - 4 and 7 - 5.   

[Bally_Rookie]

Yes, when i run a test 8 the reels stop every time and shows a win by lighting winners paid lite and showing amount of coins won.  In test 1 the first reel stops every time and the second reel stops more often then the third reel. I get flashing error 42 on second reel when it fails and 43 on third with an alternating 1 code.  Why will the reels stop every time on test 8 and not on test 1?  This machine has bars, 5bar, blanks and  7's.  In test 5 the readers seem to be reading right when i manually move the reels.  I believe the bars =1, 5bar =2, blanks = . and  7's =3  I did notice the reels have a slight wobble to them.

[FOXSSLOTS1]

there are speed controls on the reels that are active when the door is locked and closed - you have bad readers - usually a phototrans - if 50v - possible a bad bulb.

[Bally_Rookie]

It was a bad reel reader card, I swapped out the third card using a friends card and all works well.  Haven't had any trouble with the second card since. Thanks again Foxsslots1.