IGT Zappers??? Is it true

[Wildlos]

  Is it true that there are zappers that can be used on an IGT machine? I have heard rumors that people have to get in the bonus screen before it can be zapped. I have about 20 in various locations and people claim they are being zapped. The titles are I dream of Jeanie, Creature from black lagoon, Tabasco, and other but they are all the same type of games. If this is true how can you prevent it? I have had 3 boards go bad on me. Is this being caused by the machine being zapped? Please help..

[Brianzz]

No........

[stayouttadabunker]

What do these "zappers" look like?
Have you ever been able to confiscate one?
People will try magnets and all kinds of things but
basically all they will do is screw up things...
Just about any external electrical field introduced some how
into a machine will only screw up a machine.
The machine will definitely go into an error code....
what error codes are you getting from your 3 "bad" boards?

[jay]

I could see someone tazering a machine and frying boards, but it would not be selective:
- It would not be limited to what it fried - could be any electronic part, I would think that the touch screen would be the most sensitivie as the work on static
- It would not be limited to IGT

This is what someone calls vandelism and if this is occuring I would suspect a competitor more so than a patron.
I would recommend you get more cameras then of course conspirists would lead you to believe that its your camera sales person frying your machines.... 

[Belbtech]

Once upon a time...in Las Vegas...the early 90s...

IGT used to have a machine known as a FG301 (double screen keno) & if the metal coin tray was "zapped" by a stun-gun the hopper would empty it's contents, this was due to the doors not being grounded properly.

I know of no other problems with any machine manufactured after these machines were replaced...

Hope this helps put your mind at ease...

God bless,
Mike><>

[stayouttadabunker]

That one is puzzling to me...
Electronically, I have no idea how energizing the coin trays with a stun gun would have any effect on the hopper.
You're talking about one "zap" allowing a 115VAC motor to run continuously and
allowing coins to bypass the hopper switch or optics - sounds a little far-fetched to me.

I'm sure it was fiction born out of pure paranoid-ism rather than fact.
Because of the crazy A-- ways things were designed during the heydays of the late 70's and
early 80's technicians ( Just peruse a PSR for example, whoever wrote it up like that was on something...LOL)
I'm sure someone in the higher hierarchy of the IGT kingdom were out one night
trying to resolve the issues of machines being tampered with.
So without any real answers, plus being on some sort of narcotics and alcoholic beverages -
came up with a possibility that the machines were somehow being "zapped"...LOL
Has anyone tried applying a cattle prod to one of these machines to see if that was indeed fact or fiction?
Sounds like a job for >>>> "MYTH BUSTERS"!!!

[Belbtech]

Think what you want...

I know it happened, more than once at the casino I worked for!

Good luck finding a FG301 to test...

[stayouttadabunker]

What is interesting to me is how in the world could that possibly happen?
What is causing the motor to engage?

[Belbtech]

The best they figured out was that the metal hopper sat against the metal door on a metal plate, so when the metal coin tray was zapped it caused a short circuit in the hopper control board...due to the fact the door, hopper, plate, & tray weren't grounded properly.  As I remember, there was only one braided ground strap on the doors & it was attached to the top portion of the door...

You need to realize the FG301 was an absolute nightmare to repair from the three main boards (this doesn't include the slave board for the top monitor)to the glass tubes (used as fiber optics) in the light pens that broke regularly when customers beat the tips against the monitor...

[dpalmi]

Hello all!

I remeber seeing a tv show where they showed a slot machine being tested by the some technician and he was zapping the door with electricity.  I tried to find the video, but I could not.  I thought it was something like Modern Marvels - did anyone else see this?  It also had video of the inside of the IGT factory - I remember seeing slots moving along an assembly line half built...

Dan #2

[PWRSTROKE]

The best they figured out was that the metal hopper sat against the metal door on a metal plate, so when the metal coin tray was zapped it caused a short circuit in the hopper control board...due to the fact the door, hopper, plate, & tray weren't grounded properly.  As I remember, there was only one braided ground strap on the doors & it was attached to the top portion of the door...

You need to realize the FG301 was an absolute nightmare to repair from the three main boards (this doesn't include the slave board for the top monitor)to the glass tubes (used as fiber optics) in the light pens that broke regularly when customers beat the tips against the monitor...

  K+ ---B.

[stayouttadabunker]

That is indeed a freak occurrence in electronics...!
"Zapping" it caused a short in the control board to fuse a link perhaps
in traces or maybe even a solenoid to engage, which in turn allowed
115VAC to run straight to the hopper motor.
Sounded like a real bad board design that's for sure...
Proves my point that board designers at that time were on some sort of narcotics...

Thank you so much Belbtech for allowing us to look at that event differently.
You could not have given us a better, more plausible explanation as to how this could of happened.
Kudos + to ya!

[Brianzz]

Hello all!

I remeber seeing a tv show where they showed a slot machine being tested by the some technician and he was zapping the door with electricity.  I tried to find the video, but I could not.  I thought it was something like Modern Marvels - did anyone else see this?  It also had video of the inside of the IGT factory - I remember seeing slots moving along an assembly line half built...

Dan #2

I saw the same show/video. Not only were they zapping with electricity they were electrocuting the machine with lightning bolts and it continued to function as normal. Most of the jackpotters type zappers you pay hundreds for are nothing more than a circuit board with an LED and a battery and when you buy one and report back that it didn't work they'd come up with some lame excuse that either you were using it improperly or it didn't work on the machine you tried it on.

[StatFreak]

You can stack those on top of the books that you buy that tell you how to beat the slots.

A couple of years back there was some a-hole on ebay selling his BS "system" for $7.77. One of our members decided to shell out the money to see what this bozo was telling people and share it on NLG for laughs. I think that I have a copy buried somewhere. It was something ridiculous like: put in x coins, count to y, push the max bet button. now bet z credits using the bet one, count some more, and spin using the handle. Jump up and down like a monkey, spin around twice and press the bet max button while singing the Star Spangled Banner.  Blah blah blah.

Of course, if enough people play, some of them are going to hit good payouts no matter how they play, so naturally, this guy had "testimonials" from "winning" players.

[Brianzz]

Yep they did, I did too.. even made a webpage out of it so everyone can giggle


http://www.tunicaplayers.com/beattheslots.html

[Slotmaster]

Hello all!

I remeber seeing a tv show where they showed a slot machine being tested by the some technician and he was zapping the door with electricity.  I tried to find the video, but I could not.  I thought it was something like Modern Marvels - did anyone else see this?  It also had video of the inside of the IGT factory - I remember seeing slots moving along an assembly line half built...

Dan #2

I saw the same show/video. Not only were they zapping with electricity they were electrocuting the machine with lightning bolts and it continued to function as normal. Most of the jackpotters type zappers you pay hundreds for are nothing more than a circuit board with an LED and a battery and when you buy one and report back that it didn't work they'd come up with some lame excuse that either you were using it improperly or it didn't work on the machine you tried it on.

I think that video was on "How it's made"  or one of those shows,  It might have been the WMS video they had on their site not too long ago (the start of a build process / test was the theme)  I forget.   I am sure it's on youtube

Just to add to the post, all current machines are fully grounded and tested for what we are talking about here.   WMS on their BB reels takes it even one step further and added a clear plastic ground sheild behind the reel glass.  So there are two layers (glass with a special clear plastic sheild behind it).  I think they show this on the how's it made video if I remember correctly.  

[stayouttadabunker]

These guys remind me of me when I was a kid...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZLdUxr5j8T0&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ZLdUxr5j8T0&rel=0</a>

[reho33]

Looks like Bam Mcgarra's "Jackass"

[StatFreak]

These guys remind me of me when I was a kid...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLdUxr5j8T0

You know, it would never  have occurred to me that you would ever do something like that, Stout!!  
Besides, cfh is grown, and he still blows up slots, and with much more pizzazz than these guys.     
I think cfh should repost his pachislo videos --  it's been way too long since we've seen them! 

[jdkmunch]

Listen - I took out a camera once and had more security guards on me in SECONDS - I was so embarrassed.    I could just imagine if I pulled out a zapper.