Help with a Bally E-1000 Reel Reader partially working

[danatlvc]

Howdy All,
I have a reel reader on a 3 reel machine in the 3rd position that lights up as it should when coined it. After the first & second reels stop all of the reader lights go out & it tilts. About one in maybe 10 times the lights stay on for the 3rd & it will lock up. I moved this reader to position 1 & 2 & it does the same thing, so it's the reader. When I do test 5 it reads the reel. Also the traces all look good. Could the brown resistor on the reel reader pictured possiby be causing this? It looks to have been replaced before by the look of the solder joints. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
 

[dhellis]

The 470 ohm resistor is used as a voltage drop and is needed because the supply voltage is 50 volts
and the 5 lamps are 5 volts, wired in series. The only way for the resistor to cause the problem is if
it were arcing internally. That resistor also gets pretty hot, it is rated at 2 watts and ohms law will show
that the circuit draws 1.6 watts. The bulbs are #680 and if one burns out they all go out.


I wrote a procedure for testing these boards without the need for a 50 volt supply and placed that
on another members website, it is located here.

http://www.coinslots.com/tips/bally-e-series/

One thing that is mentioned in the article is to make sure that the lamps and the photo transistors
are clean. I use a Q-Tip soaked in alcohol, press hard in the small hole for the photo transistors and
twist the Q-Tip and then just swap the lamps.

I mention this because you say that the reel reader works sometimes and this would indicate that the
voltage on one of the collectors of one photo transistor is reduced enough to give a false reading.

[danatlvc]

All the lamps work & I fully cleaned the reader & lamps, so it's not a dirty lamp unfortunately. That's why I'm stumped because one it 10 or 12 spins it works? Strange? Thanks

[danatlvc]

Update - One of the lamps is out. What type of lamp would I need & would you possibly know where I could purchase them? Thanks?

[dhellis]

The bulbs, as mentioned in my previous post is a #680. finding just one will be
difficult because they come in a box of 10. The same eBay vendor (foxslots) also
has these for sale.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BALLY-SLOT-MACHINE-Eseries-50V-READER-680-BULBS-/150497745353?hash=item230a5d59c9:m:menxIkdONJGbUAxAKI383fA

[danatlvc]

Thanks so much for all your help on this machine  I didn't take notice of the #680 mentioned in previos post & was searching 5 volt bulbs with no luck   

[dhellis]

Not a problem, let us know how this turns out for you..

[danatlvc]

I changed the bulb that was out & they all light up now with no change? The other 2 reel readers work as they should, but when it gets to this one nomatter it's position all 3 board bulbs go out with a machine tilt like before. Once in 12 or so spins it will complete a stop???

[dhellis]

Have you tried swapping say, reel reader 1 with reel reader 3 and see if the error which
I presume to be a 43, changes to a 41?

If it does not change then I would have strong suspicions of the wiring harness for the
3rd reel reader. If it does change then look for breaks of the traces on the board near
the connectors as well as the the photo-transistors.

I don not own a machine, only the tester/simulator and my cards are all 5 volt using IR emitters
so can not see if the lights go out or not

[danatlvc]

It does the same thing no matter in position 1 2 or 3, so it's in the board for sure, not the wire harness or plug etc. The traces all look good & why I'm puzzled. It stange though that once in a blue moon it will stay lit when it is it's turn & complete the stop. When it does finally complete it's stop tilting due to the door is open it takes many times to Reset & usually I have to go back & forth with the Test button to get it to Reset which is odd?

[Neonkiss]

Next to check would be the reel reader board. It's located inside the front of the reel assembly. Most likely the board is bad if swapping the readers results in the same tilt code.

[danatlvc]

I tried that with the same results. Thanks

[ramegoom]

It's possible that the bad reel is moving too slowly or not consistently. If it doesn't rotate at the same speed as the others, the CPU will sense it and set a tilt code. Also, if the stop solenoid is sluggish and the reel doesn't stop where it's expected to stop, a tilt will result.

Remember, where the symbols actually stop is pre-determined by the programming, BEFORE they stop, when the initial pull takes place.

Try swapping the stop solenoids with another one from another reel. Or, take a good look at how they operate and observe if there is any sluggish operation. Clean and oil all moving parts, but be sure the solenoid plunger is dry and clean.

[GOS]

this is an E-series - not a stepper slot - reels stop is mechanical

[danatlvc]

This reader does the same thing weater installed in reel position 1,2 or 3 so it's in the reader itself somewhere. All traces look good, all 5 lamps are working? Could it possibly be one of the phototrasmitters? I visually checked the 5 of them & they all look good?

[GOS]

Using a multimeter on continuity test and a flash light - seperate the board - hold the section with the photo trans over a lit flashlight and test both legs of each phototrans - if you get 0000 the trans is shorted.

[Amechanic]

The phototransistor will not look bad, they are not like a fuse. The only way to tell if one is bad is to test as GOS said or if you had a tester for one built by dehills here. I own one and they work great for testing and repairing bad reel readers, both 5V & 50V ones. Takes any guess work out of that repair.

[GOS]

this test works for the 50v - and will sometimes work on the 5v as well!