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**Reel Slots** Gaming Machines => Universal Reel/Video Games => Topic started by: Mazzone on July 22, 2023, 09:50:19 PM

Title: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: Mazzone on July 22, 2023, 09:50:19 PM
Hi everyone , new to this forum as you can see, and have been reading through this forum and the archives. There is so much priceless information here.

Anyway , I "acquired" 2 Slot machines with unique stand cabinets for a few hundred. They have been in storage for at least a a decade or two.
The 1st one is a Universal "Crown Jewels" machine , the 2nd a Bally E series 1347 dated from 1984 , which I believe may be a military model.
I am here to get help from you guys on getting the Universal running again. I do not see a id plate on the side, only a hand etched number inside the bottom of the cabinet. I have not been able to identify what year it is from, other than on the front of the machine it does say copyrite 1992 the idea center. I did pull the codes by pressing the test button 9 times and got - 8933 0007 8986 0007 0650. I also pulled the board and inspected the battery, it appears to not be leaking at this time but is close to it. It is a 8116-a2 board with a 8116-sds3 sister board. The proms have hand written stickers , saying 8986-3B 0007-3 L90-0671 (one fell off when i was dusting it).  Please note I am completely new to this and probably way over my head (especially on the bally), but I was able to read through the forums and pull this info to hopefully help me identify what I have. I also see some plugs that are not used from the board, which if i read correctly are not used in a home application. I also see some wiring that was not plugged into anywhere, but look important. They are as follows,
2 Black wire, 1 white, 1 gray plug
a jumper harness with a blue and other colors
a black and white wire, long, coming from the first plug, with insulated spade terminals. I have no idea where these are supposed to go!
I hope I explained this well, again I am a complete rookie and have never even played one of these slots, they were way before my time.

I believe I have a red dot power supply if I read correctly.

The first thing I did was clean everything the best I can. Then I replaced the power cord. The noise filter looked to be ok so I kept it in. I ordered some new bulbs as well.
The unit powers on and all lights look to be working! The only codes i had were 50 and 12 - these went away after it was plugged in for a half hour and resetting the board with the small button.
Now, the machine is flashing insert coin, but the quarter goes right through the machine and back into the tray. I dug through the forum, and it looks like i dont have a cc16. What I have looks nothing like it! All I see is a small adjustment screw, but I dont even see a place to put a sample coin in. There is a red sticker on the left side of the assembly that says 41. I can see when the door is open , and i open and close the lock with the key, the led light (or laser?) turns on and off.

Can anyone help me identify what I have , and how to diagnose the quarter drop issue? I hope Uniman , you see this, as you have so much knowledge and I have learned alot from your posts.
Here are some pictures I took as well. 

Thank you!
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: Mazzone on July 22, 2023, 09:53:39 PM
And the stands, with backlights!
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: shortrackskater on July 23, 2023, 08:52:06 AM
 :NLG_WELCOME:

Great looking machines - someone took care of them, decades ago!
As nice as those stands are, they look too small for the machines and you don't want them to topple over.  I'd check around for the proper stands such as the one pictured.
They look more like the stands for antique machines, like Mills or Jennings.
Our resident pros should chime in soon and help you out with the Universal.
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: Mazzone on July 23, 2023, 09:08:48 AM
Thank you!
Yes, they did seem a little small for the machines. I assume the slots were from AC as I live in NJ, which is where these were. But I dont understand why the AC casinos aren't on the bases.

If I can get both running, My plan was to make a custom high top table for them with stools.
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: shortrackskater on July 23, 2023, 09:38:39 AM
Keep those stands in case you get interested in antique mechanicals, ... or if you sell them, state specifically they're for antique machines.
For your new stands, make sure you bolt the machines to the top. There should be some holes at the base of each machines in each corner area. You never know if a kid (or someone acting like one) will hang on the handle with too much weight. And, here in California - an earthquake can easily bring them down from the "double wobble" both at the stand and the machine.

I'll PM another member and see if he can give you a hand with your Universal.  :yes:
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: UNIMAN on July 23, 2023, 04:24:31 PM
Hmmmmm, that comparitor sure is something special. Maybe you could take it out and show a pic of the backside. Should just pop out by releasing the top two pins.


Below the comparitor are two grey optics. They look like the wrong optics, too small. Door optics are that size and the coin optics should be bigger. Check out this pic;
 https://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=38103.0;attach=118187;image   The coin optics much longer.

Who ever rigged those optics may have gotten them to work with dollar tokens, but quarters? Not gonna work.

Assume you have a hopper?????

Universal wires are color coded, grey, white, and black should be 110v ac, used for flouresent lighting mainly. Those other wires not so sure what they are for??

Here is the first step I would do. See if those rigged coin optics work;
Remove the comparitor. Unplug it too.
With machine on, door open, put a piece of electrical tape in the door optic. Optics little red led should come on. Then pull out on the white switch at top right of machine where top right of door closes. If there are two switches pull them both out ( only one actually used) The switches lock when pulled out and this is same as pushed in. Now the mpu should be fooled into thinking the door is closed and locked. --Incert coin light should be flashing-- Now drop a coin above those optics, let it drop through and you should see both optics blink their leds as the coin passes. Be careful, you must drop the coin and not slow it down, this will create an error. The coin must freefall through both optics. If a quarter doesn't work you may need to find a dollar sized coin or token.
If the optics work (machine will register a coin incerted) then you need to figure out that rigged comparitor or get a CC-16d. By the way, that wiring harness to your comparitor does not fit a CC16d so you may need to rig that.
And one more thing. Your comparitor and the holder it sits in looks wide. Universal did make wide comparitor holders for big $5 tokens on up. I could be wrong, maybe those small optics make it look wide. Not sure.
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: UNIMAN on July 23, 2023, 04:30:19 PM
If you like, PM me with a email address and I will send you the Universal manual in pdf.
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: Mazzone on August 14, 2023, 01:39:32 PM
Skater and Uniman, thank you so much for your help. Also, sorry for the delay as I haven't had time to work on it.
So I went back to the machine and started looking at what you had mentioned. I saw that the wiring went up into the door, into the main door harness, and into a molex plug. To me, it looked either factory , or someone had changed it out and went the extra mile to make sure it looked 100%.
Then I looked again and found out that I am a  BIG DUMMY - this is a 1$ machine.

    So next I ordered a bunch of 1$ tokens and they came in. Machine accepted the tokens and the reels spun! bar bar double bar (or similar) on first spin. The handle felt good and the reels looked to be operating properly. The bell went off, and  Afterwards the tilt light was flashing and the hopper empty code came up. I used the jackpot reset key on the cabinet side, but didn't allow me to spin again. I then reset the cpu again and filled the hopper. Still not letting me spin (insert coin light not flashing).
I will mess with it some more and read through the manual and try to troubleshoot myself. I don't want to waster your time before I try to go though the basics.

I did notice that there was no spin music, I am assuming there is supposed to be on this unit? The volume is up and you can here white noise coming through the speaker. There is also a tone or sound that happens when reseting the unit. I assume that this means hopefully the sound board or amp is working.

Another question that I had is before I try to do some basic troubleshooting, I sent more pictures of the unknown wiring. To me it looks like there was some kind of adaptor harness that was installed that connects to the 1$ hopper. The black and white wires that you mentioned may be for some lighting, however, it appears that all of the tubes are lighting up properly. The blue wire coming out of that harness connect to a small jumper harness with plugs on each end. Inside that jumper I have Orange,blue,green,yellow.

Thank you again for your help and I will post back with an update!
Title: Re: First Slot Machines Owned - Universal "Crown Jewels" and bringing back to life!
Post by: UNIMAN on August 17, 2023, 11:11:45 AM
Have no idea what the extra wiring is for.
You should have sound when a coin is accepted. Some older versions do not have spin sound. You should have error sound too like when door is open.
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