New Life Games LLC
**Video Poker, Keno, Slots, 21** Gaming machines => SIGMA Video Games => Topic started by: cjt4ever on November 22, 2016, 01:49:34 AM
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I am new to slot machines. We recently acquired a Sigma Slant Top PT-2B that keeps saying the hopper is empty please see attendant. I added .25 to it but it still continues to do it. I am at a loss on what to do. The coin acceptor light is red also. When I hit the reset key and close it. The piece that moves the coin to disburse it moves but nothing happens. If there is anyone out there that can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. We purchased this machine for my father in law that has lung cancer because he loved going to the casino's but now cannot. Come to find out the guy that sold it to us lied about it working or got damaged during the move. Now we are stuck with a heavy as can be machine or should I say machines since both that we bought don't work. We also have a IGT slot machine that doesn't work but that one seems to be harder then this one. This Sigma at least moves. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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The hopper has to have a LOT of coins in it. If it doesn't sense a coin out in a very brief amount of time it will time out and report the hopper is empty.
The coin copmparator does have a red light on it, that is normal and only indicates that the comparator has power.
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I put more coins in the hopper and that didn't work. Now I found out that the knife had a jam in it. The knife sits perfectly on the spin wheel. I fixed it and now all I hear is a buzzing sound with no rotation. Thanks for the help!
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You might want to remove the hopper and inspect it for something else causing it to be jammed. What do you have for a IGT machine? I bet it's not as bad as you might think.. Parts for the IGT should be easier to find if needed. Picture are always helpful too. Where are you and the machines located? One of our member might live close by?
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I am new to slot machines. We recently acquired a Sigma Slant Top PT-2B that keeps saying the hopper is empty please see attendant. I added .25 to it but it still continues to do it. I am at a loss on what to do. The coin acceptor light is red also. When I hit the reset key and close it. The piece that moves the coin to disburse it moves but nothing happens. If there is anyone out there that can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. We purchased this machine for my father in law that has lung cancer because he loved going to the casino's but now cannot. Come to find out the guy that sold it to us lied about it working. Now we are stuck with a non heavy as can be machine or should I say machines since both that we bought don't work. We also have a IGT slot machine that doesn't work but that one seems to be harder then this one. This Sigma at least moves. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Welcome to NLG!
Take some photos of both machines, showing the complete outside front of the machine and the nameplate on the side (usually not far from the pull handle). Post the Sigma photos in this thread, post the IGT photos in a new thread in the IGT area. Don't worry, if you get the IGT post in the wrong area someone will get it straightened out.
It is usually best to see the machine working at the seller's place before you buy it. It is easy to plug a machine into a power outlet and show that it works, if a seller doesn't want to do that I'd be suspicious. People don't buy a car without taking it for a test drive, right? Same idea with something like this.
Have you tried contacting the seller, they may not realize the machines don't work after you got them home and would do something for you? Often a machine will act up after a move, especially if it has been laid on its side, been dropped and bumped around. Slot machines have a lot of mechanical and electrical parts, they do need repairs now and then, you will need to get familiar with your machines as time goes by in order to keep them working, the advice here can help you learn how to do that. Or maybe you can find someone in your area that works on arcade games, they may be able to help.
The coin hopper is the large heavy part in the bottom of the machine, it has a bowl for holding a bunch of coins and a motor that turns a coin wheel to cause the coins to move out of the hopper coin bowl and they drop into the coin tray on the front of the machine. The coin wheel is tilted back a little, so as the motor turns the coin wheel coins will ride on the coin wheel upward and over to where they go out of the machine. A metal part called a knife lays on the wheel surface and causes the coins to be picked off the wheel and from there the coins slide out of the machine. As Amechanic said, you can remove the coin hopper from the machine, they just slide out, but will be medium heavy so be prepared. With the hopper out of the machine you can carefully look it over, turn the motor shaft by hand and see how things work.
Take photos of anything you aren't sure about and post them here with questions, that is the best way for us to understand what you have.
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If you have the tools, once you remove the hopper, remove the two screws that hold the hopper knife in place. The knife would be the metal or plastic piece whose tip rests on the wheel the coins ride up on.
When the coins reach the knife they are raised up and out of the hopper. Usually there is a dime or some other foreign object behind the knife that causes the coin wheel (called a pinwheel) to jam.
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Pictures...I machines are in canyon lake CA
It is a Sigma machine
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I didn't see any other jams. The only thing I fixed was the knife as it wasn't sitting on the spin wheel. A quarter was caught jammed. Now all it's doing is not moving and just making a buzzing sound.
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Is the buzzing sound coming from the hopper motor? With the machine unplugged for safety, you should be able to rotate the motor shaft by hand and make the pinwheel (coin wheel) turn freely. This may be easier if the hopper is removed from the machine. You can also sniff around the hopper motor to see if there is an elec burnt smell. And check the fuses in the machine, the coin jam may have stalled the hopper motor and caused a fuse to blow.
Looks like Canyon Lake is not far from Palm Springs and Los Angeles. Maybe someone here lives nearby that possibly could be of help.
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90% of the time removing one coin does not clear a hopper coin jam.
It just means that the coin you found is the last of the coins that jammed.
Remove the knife completely and you usually find more coins stacked up and blocking the pin wheel from moving.
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you can take a small screwdriver and place in behind one of the quarters in the escalator and push the coins out through the top, this will see if there are any bent coins stuck in the escalator. then you can use you hand to hold in the brake assembly on the motor, this will allow you to rotate the star agitator CCW to move coins onto the knife and feed them into the escalator to be driven upward and out of the machine.
if both of these tests work, then you have a problem elsewhere.
hope this helps
Jim
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I am going to try all this out. I will repost once I do it. Now, if it were to be a fuse. Where would I find the fuse on the machine? I don't have the last game key and the meter key for this machine. Is it necessary at any point in time during the ownership of this machine?
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If it was a fuse your hopper would not try to run.
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Ok... so I am happy to report I found the issue. The issue was a tensioner that the pin wheel moves the money up to. Turns out the tensioner was too loose thus the quarters as they were going up they would like out enough to jam up with other quarters! Thank you guys for your help. I will definitely be donating to this site. I appreciate your help!