Merit slot machine

[craigv]

I got this old Merit slot machine the "Superstar 4000" that is not working. I can't find any information about these anywhere on the internet. I've done tons of searching, but nothing. It looks like its in pretty decent shape, i'd really like to get it working... It powers on, i hear a fan kick in, and for a second the monitor flickers when i turn it on, but i never see any image on the screen. Does anyone have any ideas or tips? I guess probably not too many people have these since there are no references to it on the internet...
thanks

http://img31.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=14426_slot3_122_590lo.jpg
   

[stayouttadabunker]

Flick the reset key switch once.
It's on the outside of the cabinet near the top on the right>>>
The video should pop on.
If not, power down and boot back up.

There are 7 dials and one sliding switch on top of the monitor.
The 1st four dials, the sliding switch, then 3 more white dials.
The 4th dial from the left-to-right (1st white dial) is the brightness dial...
turn it fully towards the right (it's brightest setting )
The black slider switch in the middle should be slid over towards the right as well.

Still no picture?
Are there chips in socket locations U46,U47,U48?
Also the two socket locations on the piggyback board at socket locations U1 and U2?
These 5 chips are for your video.
It also sounds like the crt CMOS Dallas chip at socket location U6 is missing?

At best they just need to be re-seated and the MPU re-inserted into the backplane board.
At worse, you're missing chips or the battery inside the CMOS Dallas chip is dead.

Click on photo below to enlarge!>>>

[stayouttadabunker]

There's a green and white harness of 2 wires hanging down under
the ceiling of the cabinet on the left near the door hinges.

Those wires with tabs are supposed to be hooked into a cherry switch -
to show the machine's computer,  that the door is closed.

You are going to need a cherry switch with a wall bracket.
The switch's plunger gets pushed in to signify the door is closed
against the fluorescent lighting bracket...which is also missing. 
You award glass has no lighting at all.
See that thicker black and white 2-wire harness hanging down from the top left hand-side?
That was for the power to the fluorescent ballast and lights.
The bill acceptor is also gone.
As well as the missing coin hopper.
I just realized something>>>This was a parts machine...everything was robbed from it...

[craigv]

I knew there had to be some stuff missing(like the light). The person I got this from also gave me another Merit slot machine door(which will not fit on this machine...) maybe i can steal some parts from that. I've attached some photos of that.

[craigv]

I've attached a couple of more photos. A photo of the board, not sure if that helps. Also a photo of the rest key, I didn't get any keys or anything with the machine. what you seen in the photos is everything i got with it.

[knagl]

Interesting - I never knew that they made slot machines (or in your case, based on the buttons on the door and the burn in the screen, video poker machines).

Is that thing in the bottom of the machine a ticket printer, or a funky hopper, or what?

Edit: I see, it must be a printer.  I didn't realize that Bunker had one of these at one point (thread here).

[stayouttadabunker]

Oh man! Can I buy that ".25 cents" belly door glass from you craig?
Please????  
Mine was cracked in half like ...forever!
The printer , by the way, uses a double thermal roll.
It spits out the total on the thermal ticket into the tray.
I am trying this upcoming week to figure out how to make
some sort of hopper to work that will spit out coins!

I think the fluorescent light will work on your machine from the spare door!
It will have the same 2-pin white Molex plug with the black & white wires.

I can make you video tutorial on how to get it to print and I'll make you a cherry switch
door sensor complete with the right harness and bracket!
Also, if there's no key, I think you can replace the whole key unit with a
regular IGT S+ key-switch unit which are readily available on fleabay.
How about I send you a working keyswitch with a key, and a cherry switch  
w/harness for the .25 cent belly glass?
Even trade?


In the picture I modified below, I think you must move the Dallas ram chip to the middle socket.
There's folded over transistors which are blocking my view of the socket location but I think you
can see what I mean with the green arrows I've pasted onto the photograph.
Click on photo to make larger! >>>

[craigv]

First of all, I definitely have no problem giving up that glass. I can understand you wanting to complete your game. I actually have the same problem with cracked glass...(photo attached, i'm hoping to find one too).

I have a question about changing out the key switch. I can get a wrench tomorrow and try to take that off of there. But, The wire coming from it feels really tight on there. How do i get the wire off? Maybe when i get it off it would be obvious, i dont know. Sorry, i'm a complete newbie to this, never worked on any games like this at all. Are those parts all i need? the cherry switch and key switch? You mentioned the coin hopper earlier, what about that? Do i need it. And is it a standard part? Where can i get one? I switched the dallas chip like you said, nothing changed, but maybe i need these other parts first. If there is anything else i need to know, please let me know! Also, PM me about that trade and we can exchange info.

thanks!

[stayouttadabunker]

Okay,
Take a good look at the Dallas chip.
There will be either a "notch" or an "indented circle" or a "line" that signifies which direction
the chip should be pointing in the socket.
Look at the markings on the printed board itself at the now empty socket.
You will see a little "U" shape at one end of the empty socket.
Put that chip you took out, back into the socket you took it from.
Check the other ones too - to see if there's any folded under pins and chip direction.
Concentrate only on the socketed eproms that are on the piggyback board...not the mainboard.

For now, let's not worry about the lights and concentrate on getting the video back on.
Are you hearing any sounds coming from the speaker at all when the machine is powered up?

The key-switch has two wires attached to "tabs".
The wires are crimped into blade terminals which grip the switch's tabs.
With a needle nosed pliers, gently grab the terminal and work it off the switch's tabs.
Do one at a time until you get them both off.
Then use a wrench and try to loosen the large nut surrounding the switch's body.
Once you have it loose, you should be able to remove the nut with your fingers.
If it's really tight, spray a touch of WD-40 onto the threads on the switch's body.
That will help the nut come off easier.

Once you remove the old key switch, run the two wires through the cabinet hole
and let them hang freely outside of the machine's cabinet.
You will be needing to touch the two wire terminals together to help boot the
computer once the door is closed via the cherry switch.
This will be fine until you get a new key switch w/ matching key.

For now you won't need the coin hopper.
I use my machine without one because I was never able to find the correct coin hopper.
Apparently it's going to be a very "narrow" hopper because normal hoppers are much wider
than the area that these machines have on the left-hand side of the printer.

If you are going to use this game for plain home use, I will try to figure out a way to re-route the
coins back into the tray instead of down into the drop hole.
For now, the coin tray is just a receptacle for printed tickets and bad coins.
I will figure out a modification so the machine needs only a few coins or tokens.
By the way, what kind of coin mechanism is installed on the door under the slot?
Can you take a photo of it for me?

Finally, the biggies...( or piggies...lol)
The piggyback board on your MPU is way larger than mine.
If you notice in the old thread of mine that Knagl posted a link to,
you will see that my piggyback board have way fewer sockets.
Your piggyback board is huge compared to mine.
I'm guessing that it's a newer machine model than mine and that
the video portion of eproms needed more room to work.
However, it seems that the main MPU is identical to mine!
Therefore, I'm going to recommend that you get a smaller piggyback board like mine
that only needs two eproms in order to get some  games up and running on your machine.
I don't know if we will ever be able to locate the possible eproms needed for those
empty piggyback board sockets anywhere on earth anytime soon!

Your piggyback board has quite a few empty sockets on the left hand side and
I'm believing that could be the main cause of your blank screen ( other than manual CRT video dial settings)
you haven't told us or I'ved overlooked your reply as to whether or not you were
able to adjust the 4th dial (brightness or gain adjustment dial) to see if the screen would brighten up?

Since no one in the past 2 or 3 years since I've posted here about my machine has a
Merit Superstar machine ( other than "techknight") -
I'm not going very far out the limb in saying that they ( these chips) don't exist.
At least, not that I know of.

Here's a couple of links I found>>>

http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/showimage.aspx?gid=136003&ppid=1122&image=65792206&images=65792206&formats=0&format=0

http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/showimage.aspx?gid=136003&ppid=1122&image=65757251&images=65757251&formats=0&format=0

http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/showimage.aspx?gid=136003&ppid=1122&image=65378470&images=65378470,65378510&formats=0,0&format=0

[craigv]

Are there chips in socket locations U46,U47,U48?
Also the two socket locations on the piggyback board at socket locations U1 and U2?
These 5 chips are for your video.
It also sounds like the crt CMOS Dallas chip at socket location U6 is missing?

Mine does have U46, US47, US48, U1 and U2. U5, U6 and U7  have no chips.

I found this on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/Dallas-Semi-DS1212-Nonvolatile-Controller-x-16-Chip-/220616281533?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item335dc14dbd#ht_1914wt_905

Could this be the chip i need?

[stayouttadabunker]

yes...in the future perhaps and it won't hurt to have extra anyways.
I had changed these ones...They're huge really>>>

http://cgi.ebay.com/DS1225Y-200-DS1225Y-64k-Nonvolatile-SRAM-28-pin-DIP-/150491479128?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2309fdbc58

expensive really...these ones are cheaper but there's no pic>>

http://cgi.ebay.com/DS1225Y-200-Dallas-IC-RAM-64K-NVSRAM-DS1225Y-1pc-/150479666914?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2309497ee2

here's one with a picture and it's one of the cheapest ones I've found>>>
http://cgi.ebay.com/DALLAS-DS1225Y-200-DS1225-SRAM-IC-BOX-37B-/400152702138?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d2af5acba

[craigv]

Do you think anything needs to go in U5 and U7? Those are empty

[stayouttadabunker]

I'm more concerned what goes into U8, U9, U10, U11 and the one on top of U11.
I don't know what is supposed to go in those sockets if any.
Also, I have no idea, according to your picture, where U5 and U7 are...
The small brownish/orange transistors are folded over - covering the socket location board markings/etching.

You might explain better by opening your board photo and photo shopping some bright neon green "Uxx"
numbers over the photo, instead of bending up 30 year old transistors - the wires on the transistors may break.

[craigv]

Here are some more board photos with the missing chips labeled.

[ROCKET]

 
Bunker nobody asked if anbody has those games you mentioned in the past 3 yrs that I now of ??

 I have them all --MERIT SUPERSTAR --MERIT PIT BOSS -MERIT  RIVIEARA full size upright  --MERT TRIVIA QUIZ - & many more casno styled multi games & more dont have DODGE CITY

plus all the original pace u.s. gaming  countertops

I have about 60 MERIT BOARDS IN VARIOUS STAGES --SUPER-STAR --PIT-BOSS --TRIVA QUIZ ETC ETC
IF YOU NEED CERTAIN PICS GIVE ME THE BOARD NUMBER TO SEARCH THROUGH THE PILE ..

QUOTE FROM -----BUNKER
Since no one in the past 2 or 3 years since I've posted here about my machine has a
Merit Superstar machine ( other than "techknight") -
I'm not going very far out the limb in saying that they ( these chips) don't exist.
At least, not that I know of.

[stayouttadabunker]

Hey Rocket!
Do you know if Craigv needs those sockets occupied?
Also, do you by any chance have any listing of the chip numbers at all?
I will post my chip numbers tomorrow morning from work.
I think Craigv is missing some chips in order to get his video to come up.

[ROCKET]

Hey Rocket!
Do you know if Craigv needs those sockets occupied?
Also, do you by any chance have any listing of the chip numbers at all?
I will post my chip numbers tomorrow morning from work.
I think Craigv is missing some chips in order to get his video to come up.

give me 24 hrs to dig the game out of the row of machines and see what chips are in what places and numbers on chips etc
and to look at various boards to see what is occupied for chips --

many of those boards >>>EPROM SOCKETS<<were not used for BUTTON ONLY GAMES  -VS TOUCH SCREEN GAMES ...going by memory

I dont have a listing for the early MERIT chips .. did you try KLOV ??
 

[craigv]

I have about 60 MERIT BOARDS IN VARIOUS STAGES --SUPER-STAR --PIT-BOSS --TRIVA QUIZ ETC ETC
IF YOU NEED CERTAIN PICS GIVE ME THE BOARD NUMBER TO SEARCH THROUGH THE PILE ..

Mine is a CRT-350 Rev. B, Do you have that one?

[stayouttadabunker]

Mine is a CRT-300 I believe.
Explains why I have the smaller piggyback boards.
The bigger ones must be a newer revision for Touchscreens perhaps.
It certainly does make sense...it would need more eproms to work.