Lobstermania gets stuck initializing

[kmarrocco]

I recently picked up a lobstermania that seems to get stuck initializing.  The display seems to work but it gets hung up on the screen in the attachment.   Is there I can check or test to find out what is wrong?

[qbert]

Moved to Reel Touch
That would indicate that the top box appears to be working correctly.
What does the VFD say.
Problem may be in the lower mpu.

[kmarrocco]

It says "Display's NETPLEX link is down."

[qbert]

Definitely a problem on the bottom mpu.
Is it a 500 series or 1270 board?

[kmarrocco]

I am not sure which version the MPU is.  Here is a picture of it.

[qbert]

Ok you have a 500 series board.
What is the voltage reading of the coin battery?
Also when turned on are any of the LEDs lit on the lower mpu?  There also seems to be a lot of corrosion on the right side of the board.
Things to try:
Reseating the power supply behind the reels.
Carefully reseating the chips on the mpu.

[kmarrocco]

Thank you for the quick reply.  The battery on the MPU is a new one, it measures around 3.2V.  But there are no LEDs illuminated on the MPU when it is powered.  I can try reseating the power supply behind the reels and the MPU chips.

[kmarrocco]

I have reseated the power supply behind the reels and also the chips on the mpu.  There are still no lights on the MPU.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Maybe I can help you a little?
We need to determine if the power supply is working right or not.
Grab your multimeter, open the door and turn on the power switch.
Let's check for power to the backplane board.

Way on the bottom right-hand side of the backplane, you can see that there's a white Molex connector?
On the top two pins of it, there's a single black wire going into it.
Stick the red probe of your multimeter into that pin with the black wire and touch your black probe onto the metal floor of the cabinet.
Tell us what voltage you get.

[kmarrocco]

Thank you for your help.  If this is the right measurement point, I am getting 6.57V.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Yes...that's a good voltage for that pin on that power Molex connector...it's actually fairly strong!
I was expecting that you'd say more around 6.1 volts.
Those wires are coming directly from the PSU (Power Supply Unit) up behind the reel shelf on the back wall of the cabinet.

Can you take the red probe out of that one and stick probe onto the pin in the hole with the red wire...get that voltage and that then do the orange wired pin.
The black probe should always get the ground from the metal floor of the cabinet.

May I ask, do you have your multimeter set for AC or DC voltage?

Check and make the ribbon cables are firmly seated into their respective sockets.
There's one by that power Molex you were just checking, and one on the door for the VFD display.
Sometimes if they're not seated right, you get the Netplex Down message.

Lastly but NOT any less importantly, try NOT to push in, or remove any plugs, or circuit boards in your machine with the power switch ON.
It just takes a second to switch OFF the power.... believe me, you'll save yourself a LOT of headaches and your wallet will thank you.... lol

[kmarrocco]

The red wire is 13.14V and the orange wire is 25.17V.

The meter is set to DC.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Okay good...your voltages are checked out ok.... Hmm

Turn OFF the power to the machine.
Earlier Qbert  pointed out the corrosion to the MPU board.
I'm concerned about that as well.
That machine at some point in its lifetime, was horribly neglected/stored in a VERY damp place.
We need to try to determine if we can solve the Netplex down message before sending out the MPU for repairs.
Member Lookes is very good at repairing MPU's that have acid damage from leaking Varta batteries.... that big green one that used to be on the board...someone removed it at some point.

A little bit of history...did you see this MPU working before?
When did the Netplex messages start popping up?

FYI Netplex devices are the printer, progressive displays, topbox LCD computers, and bill acceptors (BV or BA)
One can disconnect them one at a time to find out what's causing the error, but you also get messages that they're not connected, and you have to be able to disable/enable the Netplex device, so you don't get that error.
That's harder for you to do right now.
Let's try simpler things.... with the power OFF, slide out the I/O card on the door panel for the button deck.
It's located just behind the top of the panel looking at it with the door opened.
If you look at it, it's in there on an angle.
I just want you to tug on the metal handle...pull it up about an inch, then slide it back down firm re-seating it onto the pins.
The Molex plug that's connected to it in the handle hole is rather difficult to get off....you don't need to remove it as you're only pulling up on the I/O card one inch so you can re-seat it back down.

You might have another I/O card on the side of the MPU enclosure.
Go ahead and slide that out an inch towards you and firmly re-seat it back into the socket.
I don't want you take them out all the way...you don't need to.
All we're doing is re-seating them....why? Because sometimes a pin or two gets oxidized...sort of like a car battery terminal from the 80's.
The oxidization creates a film of non-conductive junk....so pulling the circuit card off and pushing it back on kind of rubs the oxidization off of the pins and promotes better electrical contact.

I need to point out that a machine "getting stuck initializing" could also be software having bent chip legs folded underneath its own chip body.
When that happens, it's hard to see whether or not the chip is actually fully inserted all the way down into the socket holes.
The only way to check those is to carefully, slowly remove each chip one at a time out of the sockets and re-insert them back in making sure each leg goes all the way down into the socket holes.

It's too bad you may not have another backplane or MPU to swap out.... sometimes those main boards cause these errors as well.

[kmarrocco]

I have not ever seen this MPU working.  I recently got this machine and have been trying to get it up and running.  For what it's worth, I did try another MPU that I have in a S2000 5 reel double diamond machine (no reel touch on this machine) and I also see the NetPlex error message.

I should point out that this machine does not currently have a bill validator installed in it.  I can try the one from the double diamond machine along with the MPU and see what happens.  I think when I tried the double diamond MPU previously, I did not have a bill validator installed. 

I will also try reseating the I/O cards with the power off, as you suggested.

[kmarrocco]

I tried the double diamond MPU....this time with the bill validator and cash can installed and was able to get the reels to spin.  It seems there is a problem with my original MPU.  I will have to reach out to member Lookes to see if repairing my MPU is an option.  Thanks for the advice, this is progress.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Yes...that's why it's good to have spare boards so you can swap stuff around to find out what's good and no good.
That's a good idea to send it out to Lookes...I hope he has some time to look at it.
To save some money on shipping, I'd remove the MPU from the heavy metal tray it's screwed onto.
All he needs is the circuit board itself, and the chips.
I'm only guessing when I say he probably tests the chips, and makes sure they're seated correctly too.

[lookes]

Yes...that's why it's good to have spare boards so you can swap stuff around to find out what's good and no good.
That's a good idea to send it out to Lookes...I hope he has some time to look at it.
To save some money on shipping, I'd remove the MPU from the heavy metal tray it's screwed onto.
All he needs is the circuit board itself, and the chips.
I'm only guessing when I say he probably tests the chips, and makes sure they're seated correctly too.

I do check that the board is going to boot with the customer's chips if they provide them. I don't actually need them to repair the board tho.
For a single board, if it is sent USPS priority mail medium box, the shipping cost is the same with, or without the tray. For multiple boards, take them off the tray to save shipping cost both ways.