New Life Games LLC
**Reel Slots** Gaming Machines => SIGMA Reel Games => Topic started by: seadevil on June 14, 2016, 09:41:16 AM
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Hi, I'm new to the forum. I found it from the older http://newlifegames.net/ (http://newlifegames.net/) which seems to be in archive read-only mode. I think I have found some relevant posts there that mention manuals and schematics, but I am unable to get them without logging in which I can't do since new accounts are disabled. I thought maybe they files section of that site was migrated here but I have been unable to find it. I couldn't find any 32b mentions here?
thanks in advance for any advice or pointers.
I'll post any status and progress I make on the machine here.
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Welcome to NLG, glad to see you here!
The manuals and other documents are here in this area:
http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?action=downloads (http://newlifegames.com/nlg/index.php?action=downloads)
When you are on the NLG website you should be able to see several large blue buttons across your computer screen for website menu choices. There is one labeled "NLG File System", that is where you click to get to the download area. I think to get access to the download area the website requests that you become what is called a "contributing member", even a smaller donation is fine. That status also gets you some other goodies as well, like capability to post for-sale ads in the Classifieds forum and free pastries from Cinnabon (ok, that last one is still being worked on). :garfield:
The old NLG site you referred to is kept for archive reasons, it has lots of good info in the various discussion threads. You are right, it is now read-only, no new comments are allowed anymore. This is the new version of the same site. The download area here does have a few Sigma manuals, I think there is only one for the SG-32 and don't know how detailed it is or if it is what you are looking for. We have a few Sigma enthusiasts here on NLG, they could probably help or get you started with any questions you have, feel free to make a comment/post. Below is a screenshot of the Sigma file area.
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Forgot to say, all of us here love photos of the old machines, so if you can put a few of them up that'd be great. And the photos help to spark interest in your machine and questions you may have, so I always tell people that photos help you to get more responses. It's easy to post photos, when entering a comment/post just look right below the comment box where it says in green "Attachments and other options". Click on that and some choices will appear. Click on the "Choose File" button and select the photo on your computer that you want to attach. You can attach several photos to the same comment/posting, within the size limits of the website. After selecting your photos just click on the "Post" button at the bottom like you normally do to post a comment and the photos should upload and appear with your comment post.
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- Update 6/21/16
* I discovered that the machine is a 50b not a 32b as stated on the "owners manual" that came with the machine.
* I did a first order clean up, inspecting all boards and cables and some basic cleaning. I noticed one trace on the power distribution board that looked fried. I don't think it is used. It goes to a 24v probe point and i suspect someone shorted it while making a measurement. I cut away the peeling trace to be sure it didn't touch something it shoudln't but didn't bother to rebuild it.
* Machine powers up (slowly). previous owner said it needed to "warm up". I suspect a power supply problem (switchers don't need to warm up) The power cycles at about 5Hz for 15 minutes over which time it slows to around 1Hz, finally remainig on. At this point I can cycle the power switch and the machine seems to come up cleanly. I'll pull the power supply later and clean/test/repair to try and fix the "warm up" issue.
* I was able to enter test mode and I got through most of the tests in the test menu with a few minor things to look at, but nothing major that should keep the machine from working.
* The machine has around 200 credits and will spin the reels and play correctly. (yah!)
* I have not tested the bill acceptor.
* The coin acceptor gives a "missing pulse" error. (I'll detail this below)
- I removed/clean the optical sensors (there are two of these, and the coin was making it past the first sensor so i assumed this was the problem. WRONG! In cleaning and replacing the 2 optical sensors I created a two new problems. Apparently I did something to the second sensor? which I fixed but then I got a reverse path error (coin moving backwards) I'm not sure why I got this error, but I couldn't get it to clear with a power cycle. I finally realized this requires a "reset" from the reset key on the right side of the machine. After reset I was back to the first "no pulse" problem.
I pulled the coin comparitor (type CC-16D 12V). There was a small cable assemble (130193) that went from a 2x2 connector to a 1x6. It looked like the "JST" style end had been previously repaired, but still needed work. I was able to pull each pin, clean it, cut/strip/tin the wires then recrimp the insulation crimps and solder just above the old wire crimps. The 4 wires are: (gnd, 12v, pulse, inhibit). 12v and gnd are obvious, but I had to dig a little to find the purpose of pulse and inhibit.
Inhibit seems to be an input to the comparitor. It goes to a solenoid that must be energized to allow the coins to follow the "good" path. I made a test cable with inhibit tied to a 100-Ohm resistor and was able to energize the relay by pulling inhibit either high or low (I for get which). I do not believe this has any effect on the comparitor other than mechanically enableing the "good" coin path.
pulse seems to be an open collector output from the comparitor. I put an led in series with a 680-Ohm resistor to pull the pulse pin high. I powered the unit and the led glowed indicating that the pulse (open collector) was being pulled low by the comparitor. As I dropped coins I saw the led briefly pulse off. By adjusting the pot I could change it so that the led was alwas on (never pulsed), and at the other extreme would always pulse. (I found the manual on how to tune the comparitor, but I'll leave it one the generous tuning for now. (Maybe a future test harness would put the led in parallel with the inhibit pin so that it blinks when a coin is detected instead of the reverse).
My conclusion. The comparitor expects the machine to pull the pulse pin high (with a resistor or similar) and will open-collector drive the signal low all the time only allowing the pin to go high as each coin passes the comparitor. this pulse should come before the first optical path interrupt, and that is why I get "missing pulse" error. My machine sees the 1st optical signal without first seeing the pulse.
My machine is not pulling the pulse pin high. (not sure of the voltage level here I expect maybe 5v) I traced the pulse wire back to the distribution board where it is not high. I traced it on the distribution board to the 50-pin (CN21) cable connector and it is still connected to the comparitor, but is not getting pulled high. My next step is to trace it onto the MPU board but I never found a schematic for that board (340023 REV A1).
I'm pretty comfortable with this diagnosis of the open collector pulse pin not being pulled up, but waiting to find time and or a schematic before my next attack.
I found a great repository of simga documentation, but it dosen't have the older MPU's. (I'd post bu am unsure of the forum rules on such cross-posting) If anyone can help me find the 340023 REV A1 schematic I'd appreciate it.
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(unhappy, typed 1/2 page reply, didn't post. this reply will be shorter)
6/30/16 update
* tired to use 680Ohm R in series with RED LED to pull coin sigan to 12v at door on distribution board. (FAIL)
* machine now gets "OPT 3 WRONG" error which I believe is a bad signal from the coin-in comparitor?
* used scanner and gimp to trace bottom of MPU board# 340023 (hint, still looking for schematic)
* traced coin-in signal to TP621 optocoupler.
* tested photodiode pins with ohm-meter, open, no LED detected. (12v even at 1.5mA was enough to blow it. ordered 2 replacemenst on ebay)
Will attach image in next post in case that is what killed the prior post?
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(the attachment was killing the post)
3 attemts later... file.jpg size=8558K doesn't post? If someone wants to see the image, email me and I'll send it to you while I have it.
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I received your photo thru email, resized it, hopefully that didn't reduce the quality too much on the detail you want to show with it. I thought the max attachment size here was about 10mb, your photo was about 8.5mb, not sure why it wouldn't attach. For future attachments you may need to change your camera setting to a somewhat lower resolution to make the file smaller.
I'm not a Sigma guru but from what I've read the power supplies in the machine do sometimes cause problems similar to what you are describing. Not surprising, since they are something like 40 years old and filter capacitors dry out & change value drastically over the decades. If you can find a replacement power supply I'd recommend you replace it. Or figure a way to connect a new power supply that gives the needed voltages (12v, 5v, etc). Until you know for sure the power supply is working well and has no ripple or dropouts the troubleshooting and re-engineering efforts you are doing may be a frustrating waste of your time.
If you believe the power supplies in the machine are ok then I'd say replace the coin acceptor/comparitor, they don't cost that much and even at min wage you've probably spent more of your time than one would cost. Hopefully your mpu board (main logic board) isn't bad, I've seen them for sale sometimes but not so much lately. It never hurts on these old machines to have spare parts, so even if you replace something and that doesn't fix the problem you will have a spare part for down the road.
just my opinion...
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thanks,
power supply has issues, but is workable. A transistor on the high voltage side of the switcher is unstable until it warms up (~15 min) but after that the voltages are stable.
[size=78%]At the moment I'm running the machine with a similar format supply.[/size]
I have reason to believe the prior owner created a problem when he replaced the coin comparitor. (I have both) I have tested both of them on the bench stand-alone and they work fine (as far as I understand them) the important output is reported to be open collector meaning it closes a switch to ground, or leaves the pin floating (thus the need for some pull up). I have measured that pin with/without the comparitor and every way I can think but never seen it above ground. (I believe the comparitor holds it low "NC" until a coin is detected where it is released for ~10-50ms and the pull-up pulls it high, but in my case it never goes high. The MPU sees the optical path without ever seeing a "coin-in" ...
I have tested the opto-coupler and am sure it is bad either by my hand or the previous owner. No big deal they cost $.99 on ebay... I suspect the prior owner tried probing or soldering and created a short (the burned trace I saw) and possibly pop'd some pins on chips. The opto-coupler at a minimum.
The fun is in debugging and trying to fix things!
the PCB image didn't come from a camera, it is a trick I use. Use a photocopier as a scanner, then use image editing software (gimp) to highlight the traces. (my gimp version has several gamma corrected layers allowing me to easily trace, then drop a highlight layer on top. I export jpg and that is what I posted. the resolution is 600dpi (best the scanner has) so i can use gausian blur to remove noise making the signal trace easier.