Drop Door

[jgadbois]

It's me again...My S+ is giving me what appears to be a fast flash on the bottom lamp of the candle while the top lamp is off.  Now the book says that this is the drop door open and the machine is idle.

But I don't have a drop door that I can find.  I have a hole next to the hopper with a plastic scoop leading to the drop door but no door and no bucket and no switch.  I have the schematics but I can't find that darn drop door circuit anywhere!

And aside from the fact that the coin mech doesn't work nor the bill acceptor....well that is for another day.

Anybody have a clue for me?

[stayouttadabunker]

The drop door is really a cash door switch under the machine in the stand.
It is an option actually.
Look down on the right side of the cabinet for 2 wires not connected together...
those will be the optional wires for the cash box switch....wire them together
and the error will go away after the completion of one game.

[knagl]

What's showing in the coins played display?

I think what you're seeing has nothing to do with the drop door switch, but rather based on the SP chip in the machine, it's indicating that the main door was recently open and then closed, and a paid game hasn't been played yet (a fairly normal condition).  Once you play one game the candle will stop flashing.  If you open and close the door again, the bottom light will blink rapidly until you complete another paid game.

What isn't working about your coin mech?  Is there a sample coin in the coin comparator?  Was your machine ever working for you, or are you trying to bring a machine to life?

Does your machine have a cherry switch on the belly glass?  If so, is that closing all the way when the glass is closed?

Is your bill acceptor cash can door closed and latched to make sure that the cherry switch in there is registering that the cash can door is closed?  Did your bill acceptor ever work?

[jgadbois]

I'll check on all that.  I just found out that the ABC optics are bad.  I'm trying to bring this one bad from the dead.  Can't speak for the comparator yet.  Bill acceptor isn't working but I haven't even worked on that yet either.  There are some wires missing from the switches (there's a switch in the back of the cash can without any wires attached to it) and two door switches with wires missing.  Two greens are taped together and two reds but the reds are cut in the back.

I think that damn light is getting me looney.  Oh, well, one problem at a time.

[jgadbois]

Well, finally found out that the lower light on the candle was flashing medium with the top light off.  buti for the life of me I can't get it to extinguish.  I've gone over and over the schematics with no results.   And if the door is open it might mean that the bill acceptor and coin mech won't work either.  But I'm gonna keep on plugging.

Been on this weks now.

[jgadbois]

Oh, by the way, I see no cherry siwtch on the belly glass (took it all apart).  But I have cut wires on the bill acceptor.  Two greens and two reds.  The greens I can follow but the reds end inside the machine and are cut there too.

[knagl]

Most S+ machines do not have a cherry switch on the belly glass -- I threw that out there as a possibility, though, as it could cause 'door open' issues if it exists.

When you say you have 'cut wires on the bill acceptor', are you saying that there are chopped wires near the stacker box ("cash can"), or on the bill acceptor itself?  If there are wires that don't go anywhere (cut at both ends), they're likely (but I can't promise for sure without seeing them) something the casino added in and later removed, and are not necessary to get your game working. 

[blueridgeslots]

Push Self Test Button until 2-1 (or 2-0) and turn Jackpot Reset key to 7-1 (or 7-0) should be set to 0, push Spin Reel to change, if set to 1 it is looking for the drop door, then exit out of menu by pressing self test until clear

[jgadbois]

Yep, thanks for that help.  That's how I found out that it wasn't the drop door.  I set it for the "monitor drop door" option and the bottom lamp started really flashing fast.  Before that I couldn't tell what the books meant by a medium flash and a fast flash until I did that.

[blueridgeslots]

Do same thing to number 11 as well, SAS option, should be 0

[jgadbois]

Well....It wasn't the drop door, belly door or bill validator door (even though there were cut wires-scary).  It was the main door.  After I found out that I had two plugs reversed (p6 and p3) on the motherboard which had to do with signals to the bill validator I still couldn't get it working.  The main door photo transistor would check out when I shined a light on it and got on U5 pin 4.  It would transition from high to low.  And while troubleshooting the problem, I would short out the photo transistor leads which gave me a constant low signal.  I ASSUMED that this meant that the main door would be seen as closed.

But alas, in the wonderful world of electronics, that's not the case.  I finally connected everything back up and mechanically closed the door while monitoring U5 pin 4 and low and behold it starts pulsing!!!!  The display when blank, the reels spun, and the bill validator light came on.  I still had the bottom candle light flashing but as soon as I put a coin in (which was accepted) and played a game (like knagl suggested-thanks for that BTW) the light stopped flashing!

Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, in any documentation does it say anything about this behavior.  The signals are about +9vdc and about 20ms wide.  that means that they are pulsing the sender LED at this rate.  I can't imagine why they would do this except to make sure that somehow the door photo transistor doesn't get shorted (like I did) and give a false door closed when it was really open.

Now all I have to do is get the hopper working, tear it all down to clean, fix the laminate on the outside and then....man do I have a lot of work to do yet!

Thanks for everyone's help.  Right now I feel like an expert but I know the next kick in the head is just around the corner.

[StatFreak]

I'm glad to hear that you've gotten it running! 

I'm not certain, but I believe that the reason they pulsed the optics was for added security against someone fooling the machine into thinking that the door was closed when it wasn't.

[knagl]

I'm not certain, but I believe that the reason they pulsed the optics was for added security against someone fooling the machine into thinking that the door was closed when it wasn't.

That's my understanding as well.

Right now I feel like an expert but I know the next kick in the head is just around the corner.

You're right on both counts!     We've all felt the highs and lows of fixing/breaking our machines.  The good news is that the folks here are generally able to help fix whatever is broken, so you're in good hands.  Congrats on getting your current issue solved.