WBA 12/13 in Barcrest S+ Pinball No Longer Working

[CBRed]

Hello all,

My bill validator in my IGT S+ Pinball stopped working today. We had a power outage and turned off the machine and unplugged after. When plugged back in, the bill validator no longer lights up. It does cycle when the machine is turned on but does not work once door is closed. I removed the cash can to reseat but have that’s about all I’ve done so far. Just curious where to start troubleshooting.

Thanks

[shortrackskater]

Try (power off) pulling out the head and re-seating it. Inspect all the connectors to the BV and the power supply.
There could be an issue with your power supply as well. Another member will know the proper voltages to check.

[CBRed]

I’ve reseated the bill validator with no luck, continues to cycle when powered on but does not light up or accept bills.

[jay]

Can you confirm that its still accepting coins ?
If its not accepting coins it won't accept bills .....

Assuming you are accepting coins fine...
Typically If the bill validator its not lighting up. Then this would indicate that its not been activated from the S+ side.
When this occurs - a bill is often pulled in and then pushed back out just not accepted.
A SET chip is required to activate a bill validator in a S+

However since you have not gone through a game change there is no reason why a bill validator would just go offline...

When you power on the machine does it go through its initialization sequence (you here the grinding of the gears etc).
My best guess is that the power supply for the validator has failed.

Can you post the voltages your getting out of the validator power supply ..... One of the members should be able to tell you if they are correct.

[CBRed]

Yes, it does still accept coins and does go through the initialization sequence when it is powered on.  It does not accept bills at all (will not pull any in) and does not light up. I can check the voltage and see, could you tell me where I need to check that at specifically? Thanks in advance

[Jim]

If the BV unit cycles on start up and there are two red LEDS on above the 8 switches front forward. Then more than likely the unit is getting the 13 vdc from the power supply, small two pin connector.

For some reason, your BV unit is not enabled, you can check and be sure, however, since it is a Barcrest, I can’t remember the procedure to go through the menus and verify the 9-1 setting in the 5-0
menu, and the coin denom in the number 6 coins played window.

Consult the psr to answer those questions and see what set chip you would need to do it.

Hope this helps
Jim

[CBRed]

Is that the case even if it was working the day before?

[jay]

I have had S+s for years and have never had a bill validator randomly deactivate.
In the duration that this forum has existed, I don't recall this coming up as an issue.

Arthur Conan Doyle (aka Sherlock Homes) once said — 'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'

What we need to determine is if your slot thinks the validator is active (or not).
What is the Game Chip on your MPU  ?? This will allow us to get the correct PSR document.
PSR=Program Summary Report... and is basically the guide to get you to the right menu item so we can determine if the validator is active or not.
The menu locations and all the options differ from game chip to game chip, that is why we need to get the right PSR.

You can either pull the MPU (turn off power, remove hopper, lift and remove MPU by the black knob, and look for the numbers written on the gamechip label.
Alternatively you can review RICKS FAQs on the main page of this forum bottom right and it will step you through the sequence of button pushes to get the machine to display the game chip number on the Coin In/Winner Paid LEDs.

Not yet jumping to a conclusion - if you need to reactivate the bill validator - do you have a SET chip ?

[Stayouttadabunker]

I agree with the last 2 Replys.
You had a power outage.
During the power outage, the keeper battery was trying to maintain the internal accounting and settings until power was restored.
It's very possible your MPU battery was on the edge and lost just enough juice trying to maintain the settings and your bill acceptor reverted back to the default of disabled.
This happened to a lot of machines in casinos around the world after covid.
You should check the voltage of the MPU battery and replace if needed.

You need to go into the self-test pages and see if the bill acceptor is enabled as Jim suggested.
If the acceptor isn't enabled, then in order to get it going again, you have to use the proper SET chip for your SP chip, enable the acceptor and set the denomination.

[CBRed]

Thank you all for the input! I replaced the MPU battery ~7 months ago and have had the machine running constantly since then aside from turning off durning thunderstorms here and there. Haven’t had a chance to do much with it that others have suggest yet but I will look into it asap. Another thought I had, not sure if it’s a thing, but this is the first time it’s powered down when I had above 3000 credits loaded. I know there can be credit limits that disable the bill validator if it’s above a certain threshold. Could that possibly be the issue?  Working on getting it below but it won’t stop hitting when I don’t want it to lol.

[jay]

You have presented a solid theory.....

Fundamentally before you can change any settings using the Test button your machine has to be credit free.

Cash out. It will spit 300-400 coins There would be a hopper max...  and then the slot will go into a hand pay mode.... you turn the jackpot reset key and it clears the remaining down to zero.
The lady with the Giant Cheque should come by shortly after and give you the rest of your winnings. 

This will tell you if the max credits was the issue or not.