Aristocrat Esprit rebuild project

[Drakepeter]

Greetings all - my first post here - I have been over a couple of years 'restoring' a 5 reel machine.
I would like to share some of my experience with other owners of similar machines.
In coming weeks, I will add faults and repairs I performed.
May be able to help others with similar machines by answering sensible questions
Coin Carousel.
Occasional balling of mechanism caused by broken/missing spring on coin eject mechanism - fabricated a replacement from spring wire.
Photo shows gear concerned
Cheers Peter B

[CustomWebProgrammer]

Nice, Drakepeter!
Other photos? Op-Bell clued me in that my Aristocrat is likely also an Esprit, 1981 (photo).  3-reels though.

[Drakepeter]

Hi -thanks for you interest in my project - your machine looks cosmetically a lot better than the one I have been working on.
Had I thought a bit more before taking this project on, I may not have started, but it has been interesting if nothing else.
Intermittent faults continue to plague me, but most of the problems now seem to be originating in the I/O board as per the photo.
cheers
Peter B

[Drakepeter]

Here are a couple of pictures. The original 'CPU' board, and my 'reverse engineered' replacement.
Hindsight is wonderful, and If I was to do a board again, I would have got rid of the daughter board, and likely updated some other IC's - but who knows.
Also - Intermittent operation of coin hopper solenoid traced to dry joint at R4 (I/O board) pic attached

[CustomWebProgrammer]

Thanks, Drakepeter!
So, "if I was to do a board again..."  - how about it? Would mine be the same, or is a 5-reel machine not a subset of a 3-reel machine?  I am waiting on delivery of replacement memory chips, but I don't think it's likely to succeed!

[Drakepeter]

Hello again - There are likely others here that will have a lot more experience than I have with these machines.
However, having said that, I expect you will find the CPU and I/O boards would be the same.
The whole 'game' format is in the 3/4 eproms - no of reels, payout combinations, etc.
Also on my I/O board there are a number of options (outputs) that are not used on my machine.
Apart from the obvious 'mechanical faults, the corrosion, and some overheated high resistance pins in the D connectors, the main problems were dead 5101's and dodgy I/O chips.
Strangely, the eprom data appeared to be ok but was copied onto new chips as a precaution.
I do have some 'reverse engineered' schematics that may be of help to you ( E and OE of course) - I could em to you if you think they may be of help.
Good luck....
Peter