Bought 3 dotmations, starting from scratch...

[rokgpsman]

All I have in the P/M machine is the bottom glass and reels 1 and 2. It's a 3 coin game and I will try to post pictures. Seems like every time I try to put in pictures I get a "fatal error" message.

Looks like the Perfect Match machine may have been a parts donor to keep others running, the missing reel #3 probably went to a machine that had a reel basket break or a reel mounting base with its control board go bad but I wonder what happened to the Perfect Match reel strip that was on it? The strip probably wasn't needed on the other machine except unlikely event the other machine was another Perfect Match?? That may be what happened since the upper glass is also gone.

Anyway, it appears there is a bill validator, a hopper and a backplane board in the machine too, so you also got those parts at least.

[tollguy316]

   I would be interested in the 16" Winning Streak kit If it becomes available.  Thanks, Bill

Yeah I've got the manuals but the issue I'm having I can't find addressed anywhere in the manual 

Again I haven't gone through these WMS machine's yet but I might end up having a full game kit for a winning streak or x-factor tall square glass 3 quarter games if either of those will interest you?

Might be interested in a partial trade for your perfect match game parts?
Is your Perfect match game a tall glass? and how many coins?

[rokgpsman]

All useful info and you explained it just fine. I spend a lot of time on pinside for my "other" hobby and found a link to that page in Clay's guide. Interesting info there. This is all new to me, but not so much greek. Many similarities between these and solid state pins.

Just finishing up my power supply-ectomy. I connected all the +5, -12, and +12 from plug J-12 to an ATX power supply. I get an error message of "+5ac   open."  In an effort to cure that, I connected the upper ground wire(black w/white stripe) To one of the ATX PSU grounds but still no joy. Taking any and all suggestions...

How did you do the connections? When you connected the ATX power supply wiring to the original cable that plugged into the side of the machine's lower power supply (big gray box) did you disconnect the old power supply board on the inside of the lower power supply gray box? Keep in mind that the big gray box also has a circuit board in there that makes +18vdc and a special +5vi line that is separate from the normal +5vdc line. If you can explain in more detail how you did the ATX wiring and what modification you did to the original hookup maybe I can help with the problem you are having. Need photo or an explanation clear enough for my tired brain, I've been hauling and stacking firewood at Mom's today.

[Mk1Mod0]

Just got our power back. Bad thunder storms here tonight. So using Clay's instructions as a guide, I spliced in an ATX supply to the +5, +12 and -12 lines as well as the ground lines that were pointed out. Have checked and rechecked but I still get the error message "+5ac  open."

As for the lower power supply, it just suddenly starts blowing the 4A fuse. I would much rather just fix it if someone has any guidance. Is the regular fix just to re-cap it? My guess would be that the bridge rectifier has gone on it. Any advice is helpful and you guys are great! Thanks again!

[rokgpsman]

Just got our power back. Bad thunder storms here tonight. So using Clay's instructions as a guide, I spliced in an ATX supply to the +5, +12 and -12 lines as well as the ground lines that were pointed out. Have checked and rechecked but I still get the error message "+5ac  open."

As for the lower power supply, it just suddenly starts blowing the 4A fuse. I would much rather just fix it if someone has any guidance. Is the regular fix just to re-cap it? My guess would be that the bridge rectifier has gone on it. Any advice is helpful and you guys are great! Thanks again!

well, the first thing is probably to go over the wiring mod work and double-check stuff. Could the sudden blowing of the 4amp fuse be related to the wiring mod just done if the fuse was not blowing before? Did you remove the old power supply board or disconnect it from inside the lower power supply gray box? If not then you have it connected to new ATX power supply and it shouldn't be. The ATX power supply replaces the +12, -12 and 5vdc from the old power supply board, they can't both be connected together. But still need to leave the other board (power distribution board) in the gray box since it is what makes the 18vdc and the 5vi.

So if the old power supply board is still in the gray box either remove it or at least disconnect all cables and connectors from it. Also, on many ATX power supplies one of the wires needs to be grounded, it acts as a power-on enable and the ATX power supply will not operate without that signal wire getting grounded.

If you want to post a picture of what you have we might be able to see something. I'm not clear on where exactly you are seeing the error message "+5ac open".  I don't remember any 5vac voltage used in the dotmation machines.


EDIT- Ding! I think maybe you are actually seeing the error message "StAc oPEN" (and not "+5ac") which is a bill validator error, means the bill stacker is not present, not powered up or something else about it is wrong.  Could be one of the switches that senses things in the bill validator area. What's the situation with your bill validator, does it power up and cycle when the machine is turned on? Inside the cash compartment do you have a cash storage can that is removable? If not then look on the lower floor of the inside of the cash compartment for a switch lever slightly poking up thru a slot in the floor. This is the sense switch, just tape it down with some sturdy tape to make the machine think there is a cash can in there.

The error messages are displayed using the machines 7 segment displays so sometimes they are a little cryptic to read. For example, the word "rom" will appear as "ronn" because that is a close as they can get, the double "nn" is supposed to be an "m'. You gotta think like a Klingon to read them sometimes!

[Mk1Mod0]

Ugh. Ding indeed! The bill box has been out for awhile but never had a message for it before. And having had just worked on wiring, I read it as 5+ac, not Stac. I bat you're right!

Yeah,  it was blowing the fuse before the PSU trick and is the reason why I did it. And yes, I disconnected the board inside the PDU.

[rokgpsman]

Ugh. Ding indeed! The bill box has been out for awhile but never had a message for it before. And having had just worked on wiring, I read it as 5+ac, not Stac. I bat you're right!

Yeah,  it was blowing the fuse before the PSU trick and is the reason why I did it. And yes, I disconnected the board inside the PDU.

Ok, when I read your other message I thought the 4amp fuse just suddenly started blowing after you had done the ATX ps mod. If the 4amp has been blowing all along and the old power supply board inside there is totally disconnected or removed then like you said maybe one of the filter caps or the bridge rectifier is the problem. Is there anything else connected to one of the three 115vac convenience outlets on the lower PSU that could be pulling too much current and popping the 4amp fuse? You can unplug all the 115vac cables that connect to the several 6 position molex connectors that are on the bottom row of connectors on the side of the lower PSU, they just go to the various fluorescent lights and to power the dotmation box in upper part of cabinet. None of this is needed right now to find out why the 4amp fuse is blowing. It is not likely, but any of these 115vac cables could be blowing the 4amp fuse. If after unplugging all the 115vac cables the 4amp fuse doesn't blow then you'll need to track down which 115vac cable is causing it to blow. Could be a bad ballast or starter on one of the fluorescents, or a bad upper power supply board inside the dotmation box.

If I remember right you have the older style lower PSU. On the older one the bridge rectifier is soldered to the power distribution board and you'd have to desolder it to take it out of circuit. (in the newer style lower PSU the bridge rectifier is located off the circuit board and mounted to the gray box chassis, has 4 wires running to it).

If none of this helps you can check the various caps on the power distribution board for one that could be shorted, plus the other bridge rectifier (made up of 4 individual diodes) on the power distribution board that makes the 5vi voltage.

[dale]

Sounds like it might have been so much easier and quicker to not modify your power supplies. The Artesyn supplies hold up relatively well as opposed to the International and Condors. Just saying......

[Mk1Mod0]

Up and running fine on the combo of the PDU and the PC ATX power supply giving it the +5, -12 and +12.  Pulling the plug from under the bill holder solved that problem. Now I'll go ahead and T/S the upper part of the PDU and see what I can find.

[rokgpsman]

Up and running fine on the combo of the PDU and the PC ATX power supply giving it the +5, -12 and +12.  Pulling the plug from under the bill holder solved that problem. Now I'll go ahead and T/S the upper part of the PDU and see what I can find.

Sounds good, remind me again which of the dotmation machines this one is that you are currently working on? Is this the Perfect Match with reel #3 missing or one of the others?

[Mk1Mod0]

This is the Jackpot Party. Complete except for coin hopper tray. 

The Stampede Deluxe is missing I/O board, CPU, software, coin hopper tray and upper 12vdc supply.

Perfect Match is missing PDU, all boards and software, one reel and hopper assy. (Has a DMD, need to test it and the one from the Stampede to see if they work.)

[rokgpsman]

This is the Jackpot Party. Complete except for coin hopper tray. 

The Stampede Deluxe is missing I/O board, CPU, software, coin hopper tray and upper 12vdc supply.

Perfect Match is missing PDU, all boards and software, one reel and hopper assy. (Has a DMD, need to test it and the one from the Stampede to see if they work.)

Up and running fine on the combo of the PDU and the PC ATX power supply giving it the +5, -12 and +12.  Pulling the plug from under the bill holder solved that problem. Now I'll go ahead and T/S the upper part of the PDU and see what I can find.

Good to see the progress you've been making on them. When it gets down to your last machine perhaps between your parts and what mustangjeep has one of you can get another machine completed & running.


 

[rokgpsman]

If you find out what you need just let me know.
I'll be parting out at least 3 of the games to get some of mine running, everything I don't need can be sold of pretty reasonably.

mustangjeep, if you are definitely going to be parting a machine out will you have a 25 cent coin head available? I could use one on my current project machine. And maybe some other misc pieces, I got a machine that was formerly setup for nickels and it also has some other parts missing, like the chrome frame piece that goes around the outside of the lower glass. Thanks for any help!

The coin head in the picture below is actually a tarnished nickel one, I could use a quarter one.

[rokgpsman]

This is the Jackpot Party. Complete except for coin hopper tray. 

The Stampede Deluxe is missing I/O board, CPU, software, coin hopper tray and upper 12vdc supply.

Perfect Match is missing PDU, all boards and software, one reel and hopper assy. (Has a DMD, need to test it and the one from the Stampede to see if they work.)

Here are a couple of special order models where the casino or someone requested the chrome to be done in gold tone. Oddly enough, everything is gold tone, even the BV bezel, except the coin heads are not, makes me think the machines were converted from nickel to quarter denomination and the original gold colored coin heads removed.  (EDIT- these are likely the original coin heads, gold toned machines still had a chrome colored coin head per another user here on NLG. Thanks mustangjeep.)

This is also a good shot of the Perfect Match game, not seen as often as some of the other games. Most of the dotmation games had a single payline but a few had a 5 paylines feature such as the Jackpot games (JP Limbo, JP Party, JP Beach and JP Country) and Money To Burn.

[mustangjeep]

rokgpsman, I've been working on the 8 WMS games most of the day and so far I've gotten almost all of them running! I have 2 left to work on, 1 on those is missing the upper glass so I may end up parting that one out, It is a $.25 game.
Funny thing you mention the gold plating because all 8 of my current purchased WMS's are gold plated. They were all from the Venetian.
I'm glad all of these games are coming together nicely, but at the same time kinda bummed that I won't be able to get all the parts to the guys I was expecting to.
I can't really part out good working games when there worth a lot more all together.

[rokgpsman]

rokgpsman, I've been working on the 8 WMS games most of the day and so far I've gotten almost all of them running! I have 2 left to work on, 1 on those is missing the upper glass so I may end up parting that one out, It is a $.25 game.
Funny thing you mention the gold plating because all 8 of my current purchased WMS's are gold plated. They were all from the Venetian.
I'm glad all of these games are coming together nicely, but at the same time kinda bummed that I won't be able to get all the parts to the guys I was expecting to.
I can't really part out good working games when there worth a lot more all together.

I absolutely agree - don't tear down something that is working. Don't let that bother you, you probably initially thought that you'd only get about half of them working. It sounds like a fun project working on so many machines and having the joy of seeing them back running again.

If you don't need or want a machine that is working then you can sell it to recoup some of your cost and let someone else enjoy having one. If you do end up with one that you sell parts from and have any pieces I can use let me know. Which game is missing the upper glass (X-Factor?), what style & size of glass does it need? (16" sq top, 9" sq top, roundtop)

I'm not surprised that you are having good luck getting them running. Other than the power supplies they are pretty reliable so not too difficult to get back into working order. Maybe when they are done you can show a picture of how they look?

The Venetian makes sense, it has an opulent look when walking thru the main casino area and they are wealthy & stylish enough to want to order their machines with a look that enhances that. Just curious, on your machines that are gold tone is the coin head done in gold or the normal silver color like the photo in my earlier post?






 

[rokgpsman]

Sounds like it might have been so much easier and quicker to not modify your power supplies. The Artesyn supplies hold up relatively well as opposed to the International and Condors. Just saying......

Dale,

Where are these Artesyn power supplies sold? I tried searching for them but came up empty. Do they make a replacement for the WMS upper power supply (inside dot matrix box) and also for the lower power supply? I like to be aware of all the choices out there. Thanks!

[dale]

Ebay. I was fortunate to get 8 brand new uppers and 9 brand new lower Artesyns power supplies at a very reasonable price. I have had only one failure with an Artesyn and that was my fault when I pulled a board with the power on. Had more then a couple 'Dot Fails' with the International and Condors.

[rokgpsman]

Thanks! How are they listed on eBay, like by name (WMS power supply?) or part number or description? When I checked on the Artesyn website to take a look at the power supply I couldn't find it, but their website wasn't the easiest to search thru.

[mustangjeep]

rokgpsman - The coin piece on all of my gold machines is chrome in finish. So I would say that all of the gold machines still came with the chrome finish on them while the rest of the machine is the gold finish.
The glass that's broken is on an X-Factor and it's a 16" top, all of the machines are 16" tops.

If anyone has a Perfect Match 16" square top game kit (upper, lower, payline glass, number of coins taken glass, reel strips and eproms) or any of the parts for the game I would like to know.