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Slot Machine
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The project has been cancelled.

I'll be working over the next week or so to have the machine dismantled and removed from the space. Please pardon the large boxes on the table as the glass and door will need to be repacked for transport as fully assembled the machine weighs upwards of 200lbs.

It lives.

We did a test on Wednesday with some new bulbs and fuses (I still have some broken sockets to repair) and to my absolute disbelief the machine went ready and played a game.


https://twitter.com/CelGenStudios/status/1509410875165208576


This is friggin awesome because it means all the repairs I did to the power supplies, wiring, the CPU board and cleaning the EPROM legs worked.

I'll be in tonight to complete working on the broken bulb sockets and get a few more tests in, then the EPROMS come out and are beign sent to Ontario for duplication as my equipment seems to be refusing to dump them.

Alright so the last month was a mix of cleanup and reassembly. Thank you nick for the polishing tools you can have them back now/show me where in the space they are stored and if you need a new polishing cone I can get one.


-The glass was cleaned and retaped.

-The upper and lower door sections were aligned and bolted together.

-The door was reattached, shimmed and adjused to align squarely.

-The chrome sides have been reinstalled.

-The pay glass frames had completely lost their chrome and were stripped and repainted.

-The reel glass chrome has been reinstalled after a few adjustments.

-The coin plate has been reinstalled.

-The fluorescent lighting has all been relamped and reinstalled. Needed two new FS-2 starters.

-Initial power testing was performed.

-One fuse holder was missing. It has been replaced

-The coin lock-out arm has been made by copying the one in my other machine at home.

-The coin lock-out solenoid has been continuity tested, then reconnected.

-The coin head has been adjusted and installed. Quarters now fall into the correct paths.


Over the last long weekend because this machine has no wiring diagrams available I sat down and drew point-to-point wiring diagrams so I could figure out where all the wiring went.



Current status is:


-Needs new #55 bulbs. They are on order.

-Needs new #64 bulbs. They are on order.

-Needs new fuses. They are on order.

-Figure out why it blew its two low voltage fuses between an initial test and a later check. They are slow-blows that had non-eventuful failures like they overloaded.

-I'm missing a cam lock for the door. I believe it wants a 1 1/8" lock and on hand I only have 1/2" locks. Need to pull the lock from my other slot machine and ask Browns as The Home Depot also only sells 1/2" cam locks.

-I'm missing the coin tray still

-I need to purchase tokens. I think I need to purchase 0.900" tokens. I need to double check because I think the coin head will not accept 0.984 For reference, 1000 0.984's are $100 shipped

-I need to buy a token mech for whichever size token I select. These are about $30.

-There's still a bit of purple paint on the top chrome meter windows. Just need to unbolt and scrape it off.


And...

-The CPU still needs to be tested. Oh god this thing has been a nightmare.


So the CPU on this is very very simple. It's an MCS-48 Microcontroller developed in the 70's. It's a tiny amount of ram, two EPROMs, though I've seen slot machines only need one, an I/O expander and both optoisolators buffering the inputs from the machine and high current transistors working with even higher current transistors behind the display glass as darlington pairs. a battery keeps the tiny amount of static ram alive when the machine is turned off.


I ahve already cleaned up the board and replaced all the sockets as some of them were not looking great and now it is waiting on a 5mhz crystal which I had fall off. Once that is done the (bad kind of) fun starts.

Theose EPROMs are a mystery. While this is a Bally cabinet the CPU is something totally non-original and 40 years old. One EPROM has seemingly dumped okay and looks to contain valid data. The other I've been unable to dump. Either it's full of no data or scant bytes that don't make a lot of sense. This is either the EPROM failing, bitrot or my EPROM programmer is not holding up its part of the deal when it comes to reading back old chips. I do not have a source for EPROM images, especially for this machine or the game theme. This may very well hang up the entire project if I fail to get the CPU working. The nuclear option because this is so simple is to replace it with an Arduino, but I absolutely do not have the skills to develop that.


Also the empty boxes with handles are free for anyone. They are really nice boxes.

Left the buffing tools by your slot machine. 3 compounds from corse-black to meduim-white to fine-red.

Posting for personal reference.


I have some buffing tools. Will drop them off tonight.

So damn close now.


I had to take the door off again to adjust a few things but I have 97% of the wiring now sorted out and tested. Light work, the counter counts and the power supply is behaving.

Because I'm trying to not think about how the hell to clean up those metal pieces I focused on the CPU board. I didn't bring in any tools but was able to poke around enough with a logic probe to determine the thing wasn't stone dead. I could make it chirp and blink the TILT light but not a lot else. Before I could investigate the crystal fell off and now I need to find another 5mhz crystal. Loosely fit the glass panels in for a test and it looks pretty darn good.


The makerspace doesn't have any tools for buffing. Sure I can try by hand but oh man, there is a lot of prep work that has to be done first.

Well after a pretty major setback around midnight on Saturday where I forgot to install two brackets and thus the machine would have to be pulled apart again, late last night I got most of the machine reassembled after another ten hours of work. The big pieces are together but there's still a lot of little bits and pieces that now need to be cleaned, repaired or replaced. It appears the coin slot and the coin tray are missing as well as the door lock.



So the last hold-up are those poor condition pieces of chrome. At this point I've determined they aren't worth getting replated as that would cost hundreds more but if the rough spots could be cleaned up and the remaining chrome polished I think it would still be in acceptable enough condition to use it as-is.

Thing is the space doesn't have polishing tools for large items. Anyone up for a challenge?

Images for reference purposes only. Please otherwise disregard.


[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10967.JPG[/img]

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10970.JPG[/img]

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10971.JPG[/img]

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10972.JPG[/img]

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10969.JPG[/img]

[img]https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a166/ballsandy/CGS_10968.JPG[/img]

After way too many months hunting down the appropriate material for the reclad Nick was able to help me on Wednesday get it cut, glued and trimmed so that's done and the machine is finally ready to see some reassembly. I'll be in this afternoon and possibly into the night working on it.

That slot machine is still a work in progress.


I ended up having to completely strip the cabinet to prep it for the new Arborite. The cabinet is upstairs right now int he wood shop. All the other parts are still downstairs packed in those large Bally branded boxes.


Arborite is ready to go on. The material has been selected for months and all the supplies other than a weighted roller are purchased and here. I just nee help transporting the sheet down to the space from Windsor Plywood.


Once that is done the door is ready to go off to chrome plating....which is on the coast so it might be a while before that happens due to the wash-outs.

I have always run arborite long and cut it with a router with a fluch cut bit. You can cut it close before you glue it on with a circular saw (it will chip out a bit) then trim it with the flush cut.

So Windsor Plywood can sell me Arborite (W-249-VL) that's a pretty close match by the sheet. They can't however cut it and recommended Kami Countertops down the street.

Unfortunately they and all the other countertop places in town are weekday only, 8 to 4...which is the same as my working hours. x_x

Well I mean they need a little bit of weight or they'll get stuck but yeah, the bracket for the acceptor is a standard size in the arcade and entertainment world, so replacements are cheap.


https://na.suzohapp.com/products/coin_doors/42-3063-100


It's even better if you can get a used source of tokens. You can bulk buy new tokens from the likes of SuzoHapp and such but they expect you to buy thousands at a time, which is not practical and only buying the minimum is not economical when 1 token is roughly 26 cents each, MOQ of 1000.

is that easy to do? ... That sounds kinda fun. MAybe some lazer cut tokens could work?

Heh, Nice thought. :)

Unfortunately there's a bunch of rules regarding gambling machines in public and semi-private establishments. If it wants to be run at the space it will need to be converted to something non-currency.

i am sensing a new income source for the makerspace ;)

You might of noticed in the Hack Room that I've started on a new project. ;)


This thing dates to the mid-80's and went from living in a casino somewhere to a biker bar to in a shed to me. It needs a pretty extensive cleanup. So far I've cleaned and relubricated the mechanics in the cabinet so now the hopper and slot reels work. The laminate exterior was ruined and I've removed whatever remained of it. Electrically it needed a small amount of maintenance but it now all seems to be in order. Right now it accepts quarters but the coin mech is interchangeable with a token accepter so you don't need to run it with actual money.

I'm on two major sticking points right now:


-I Need new fake wood laminate.

I have a sample of the original stuff but I need a few opinions on where I can go for replacement material, or if they can cut the pieces and then I just need to glue the new pieces back on. Any of the countertop shops in town? I guess you could put a vinyl wrap on it but it will get beat up pretty fast.


-Parts need to be replated.

Who in town does chrome electroplating? Central Interior Rebuilders comes up on google but they mainly do industrial plating for tooling and bearing journals, not stuff like bumpers and cabinet trim. Would Kamloops Powder Coat also do replating?





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