New Life Games LLC
**Video Poker, Keno, Slots, 21** Gaming machines => CEI and Cal Omega Video Poker Games => Topic started by: 63mini on November 30, 2017, 04:59:14 PM
-
I have a CEI poker game that the diverter is staying energized during game play causing all coins to go to the drop. The diverter will work in test mode.
When, I purchased this game it had a two pin plug for the hopper probe and this was plugged into the "serial" header on the back board. I have attached a photo showing where it was plugged.
What I would like to know. Is this the proper location for the plug before I start look elsewhere.
-
Is this a "911" motherboard or one of the other various motherboards they made? The part number should be written on it somewhere. That will help identify it and find out the J311 Serial connector pin definitions. Did the coin diverter change how it acts after you removed the 2-pin connector you refer to?
Also, since the diverter works ok when you test it that would indicate that it is wired correctly. Have you examined the hopper probe and its wiring, make sure it isn't what's telling the machine to activate the diverter? Look for a probe on the side of the hopper and a wire connected to it. The probe should be insulated from the metal hopper, then when there are enough coins in the hopper to touch the probe it is connected to ground and the coin diverter activates.
I don't have a CEI machine so this is just an idea.....
-
Is this a "911" motherboard or one of the other various motherboards they made? The part number should be written on it somewhere. That will help identify it and find out the J311 Serial connector pin definitions. Did the coin diverter change how it acts after you removed the 2-pin connector you refer to?
Yes, it's a 911 motherboard. The game acts the same whether the 2 pin connector is plugged in or not. The one odd thing is when doing the test it will energize or, de-energize when the button is depressed. When I leave it de-energized and leave the test mode and exit out. It will play one game then energize to go to the drop.
I hopping to get conformation as to the plug location before wasting time looking into other things.
-
I guess I should mention that this game has a Hopper Probe Board.
-
There isn't a lot of good information on the wiring of these CEI machines. So it may take someone familiar with your particular machine to answer your questions accurately. Unfortunately there are not a lot of CEI owners here on NLG.
With more information and photos of what you have it might be possible to figure this out. From what I saw in your photo the 2-pin connector you removed was connected to J311 pins 9 and 10. An old marked up drawing for the 911 motherboards says those pins on J311 have 115 volts ac on them. You can check that with a meter. Just to be clear, did the 2 pin connector's cable run down to the hopper probe, or is it connected somewhere else, maybe it powers something related to the hopper? If this 2 wire cable ran directly to the hopper probe then this information I just mentioned is suspect, I don't think they would put a voltage like that on the hopper probe, wouldn't be safe.
Some of the CEI machines controlled the way the diverter works in the Test/Setup menus. You can select the diverter to be controlled by a hopper probe, a hopper weight switch or by keeping track of how many coins are in the hopper. With this last method the machine counts the inserted coins and subtracts coins that are paid out. When the computed number of accumulated coins in the hopper reached a certain count then the diverter activates because the machine knows the hopper is full. Some of this varies based on what hopper you have in the machine, plus whatever game software eproms are installed since the Test/Setup software is builtin to the game software. There were many versions of poker software for the CEI machines, they usually have a number associated with the software, like "poker 26.0" for example.
But if your machine has a hopper with a probe sticking into the side of the hopper you should be able to disconnect it to see if that is what's causing the diverter to switch over to the drop bucket position. If the diverter still does this after you have made sure the hopper probe isn't causing it, and if your hopper does not have a hopper weight switch that could also be causing this, then that may mean that your machine is using the computed method of activating the diverter. When you go into the Test/Setup menus do you see any setting/options for the diverter or hopper?
If you aren't able to find out completely what is going on you can simply defeat the coin diverter, make it stay in the position to send coins to the hopper always. Most home users don't allow the hopper to have so many coins that it would overflow. If it takes a voltage to activate the diverter to the overflow (drop bucket) position then you can just snip the wire going to the diverter solenoid. Or if the opposite is true you can disconnect the solenoid and force the diverter to stay in the position to send coins to the hopper by using something like a piece of cardboard wedged in there, or a plastic tie keeping the diverter in position.
-
I guess I should mention that this game has a Hopper Probe Board.
yes, that is very useful to know.
Does the other end of that 2-pin connector cable that was plugged into the J311 (Serial) connector connect to this Hopper Probe Board? If so then that might be how this probe board gets its power. The 115 volts ac would go to the transformer on this board, get stepped down to a lower voltage that the circuitry on this board uses. Does the actual hopper probe also connect to this board? That U1 ic (4N35) is a switching ic, it is used to turn something on or off and it also isolates the control signal from the output signal in a safe way. I can't read the numbers on the top of that other ic called BR1, can you make out what it says? Its construction with just 4 legs makes me think it may be a dc bridge rectifier ic, changes the transformer output of low level ac voltage to a dc voltage, but that's just a guess.
If your hopper probe and its wiring is ok then your problem may be due to a defect on this hopper probe board.
-
Got It!! It was software. :cool_thumb_up: The "diverter" option needed to be change from "normal" to "reversed". I'm flying kinda blind with no documentation on this one.... :yes:
Thanks for your time and input rokgsman! :thank_you:
-
Glad you got it going. Did you plug that 2 wire cable back into the J311 connector?
-
Yes, after you mentioned those two pins were 115vac I checked the specs on the transformer pictured on the hopper level probe board and saw it was 115v. I then felt confident that the 2 pin plug was in the right spot on J311.