Newbie Restorer needs help with an S+ SIerra Silver

[ginostef]

Hi - I'm new to this board but find it immensely helpful. I run a small restoration shop for vintage electronics and a customer brought in a Sierra Silver S+ machine. He already had disconnected the plugs from the motherboard and unseated the CPU. When I tore into it, the infamous power plug problem had been compounded by a leaking battery. Net - I replaced the torched MBoard, power supply harness to it, and got a tested 10MHX CPU board to replace the burnt one. I transferred the game chips (2) and did the best I could to estimate the plug in of the little black plugs to the MBoard. Two of them can go in either of two places. Does anyone have a wiring color code that can I use?

I powered it up slowly and got the reels to spin, validator to set and the 61 code I expected. Cleared that and now I get a constant 21 code, no matter what I do. The green light on the comparator does not light up. It's a CC160-4B? Or something like that -my eyes are awful. I have a quarter in the comparator, (tried several), and every coin I put in just drops through. Tried all the resetting that everyone talks about on here.

I am a EE so I do know how to run down circuits etc, but I have never toyed with one of these. Thanks so much for nursing a newbie along. This is one of two I have to solve. The other is a Bally 777. Groan......I hate to see these old ones bite the dust if I can save them!

Gene
Odyssey Restoration

[Buzz]

Gene   
 
If the two plugs were switched on the mother board you would not get any display so you have then correct.  The light on the comparator will not light up with the main door open ( one of IGTs better ideas ) CC 16D 24 volt is what you should have.  The 21 error should clear by closing the main door, check the door optics and make sure they are good.
 
A question, have you ever seen a chrome door Odyssey??  I saw one last weekend, durn thing looked brand new.
 
 

[ginostef]

Thanks Buzz!
I still can't get it to take a coin - just drops into the tray below. I'm not sure where the door optics are - help! It does recognize the door closure I think - that's how I cleared the 61/61-1 error code, but I'm no expert.

It's a three reel machine, originally I got a 3 tilt on it - but found the reel tape had skipped off the track. Fixed that and it cleared that error.

Where are the optics? Also - I need a set chip to reinitialize the bill validator - right?

Thanks Buzz - I'm liking working on these. Have not seen an Odyssey machine for a long time. Had one in here to rechrome is all - never had to do any electronics on it. I will keep an eye out for you.

Gene

[Buzz]

Gene A comparator on a S   is no more than a coin chute. It reads the coin and if it's a good coin it goes through the coin optics and to the hopper. Bad coin, coin goes to the tray. Bad comparator coin goes to tray.
 
This 21 error has to be from the coin optics located right below the comparator, maybe just dirty or a piece of paper stuck in front of the optics. A Q Tip, compressed air, or take them apart and clean them. You might want to give the pseudo coin button a try, it's located on the front of the coin optic board, it's a real small white button. With the main door open press the coin button a few times, you should hear it adding credits, and with the main door still open press the spin button.

[ginostef]

Buzz - I shimmed out the comparator and the coins fall right through to the hopper. That said, no credits get applied. I tried the white switch trick and no credits get added up - dead.

Maybe I should try to clear and set this unit as I am not at all certain what was done before I got it. I thought replacing the CPU would accomplish that, going through the 61/61-1 was fine - no loop. But - I'm baffled. Maybe it is the optics board? How can I test that?

I really appreciate your help - I'm learning a lot about how it's supposed to work.

Gene

[Buzz]

Gene There is a test for the optic board using a popcycle stick but sad I don't remember how to do it. I'm sure Kevin will be on here afterwhile and he will know how. Also User name Jim posted a few years back that there is a part he cuts off the coin optic board to make them work again. If Jim doesn't read this send him a PM.

[Ron (r273)]

Look at these posts, hope it may help.

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=14199.msg121730#msg121730

[ginostef]

Thanks Ron, I'll give it a try this afternoon. Since I get the 21 only after a brief reel nudge at startup, and before I even try a coin, I suspect something is really dead. Hopefully this will let me home in on it.

Stay tuned!

Gene

[ginostef]

OKAY - well, I did Jim's check for the optics board. I pulled the comparator and left the optics plugged in. I got it to 10 and came up with 10-0, not 10-1 and no response to the popsicle stick. I moved it to 11 and it came up 11-0, not 11-1, again no response. Lastly, moved it to the C optic , 12 and it came up 12-0, not 12-1 and no change with the popsicle stick floating by the optics.

So even though they did not start in the right state, can I assume the optics photodiode board is kaputz? If so - who has one of these? The ones I have found so far don't look like the one I have in the machine, with a little white square button in the lower left corner and a one inch orange connector coming in the side from the wiring harness.

Please - anyone with any ideas - much appreciated!

Gene

[ginostef]

One more thing - after doing some more probing around. I dropped the belly door and hung the comparator (not the optics) down so I could see the green LED and it never comes on. Not sure if the belly door being open will keep it from coming on or not.

[Jim]

glad you were able to do the tests.  the fix for a problem where the first optic would not change was to remove a surface transistor that typically shorts putting a constant ground on that optic.  but usually  test 11 and 12 will work when this occurs.  also test 11 will test the small push button .  the way the circuit works: there are three infra red emitters in series, there is a voltage applied to the top of the first emitter (+Vb 10vdc)  this voltage turns on the emitters,  they generate a infra red beam that is detected by their detectors.  as the coin travels through the coin block (black part with the three holes) it breaks the beam and establishes a credit.  +Vb is made from the fused 8vac , 


you can remove the suspect transistor with no side affects to the operation of the optics what so ever.  there were two versions of this board, on one version the transistor was labeled  Q-2,  and on the second version  it was labeled  Q-4, its a three legged surface mount transistor. Like I said, with this removed everything will operate as it should. I have done this on hundreds of optic boards. 


As far as the coin comparitor goes: its whole purpose in life is to compare coins or metal discs.As the incoming coin sets up a electronic signature it compares it to the one made up by the sample coin, if the two are the same, then a pulse will open the coil on the back of the unit, and allow the coin to pass into the optics to establish a credit.


However, the two do interact,  the wires going to the cc-16: black=ground, yellow= 24vac, purple is the active line, it turns the cc-16 on/off. green lite on , no lite off.


Hope this helps
       
Jim     


 

[ginostef]

Thanks Jim,

I'll do the voltage checks next to be sure the optics are getting power. I did order a complete comparitor and optic board online for about $40, so that's my backup plan! I can also check the photodiodes to see if they are still working. However they tend to age and get dysfunctional even though they still look like a diode.

I did see a video about clipping out the resistor in the middle of the optics and I did that. Did not know about the transistor trick - will try it and post the results. I'm not sure what it's labeled on the optics board I have - have to check to see what I can do to identify.

Thanks again - getting there slowly!

Gene
Odyssey Restoration.