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Slot Tech Magazine is a monthly trade journal for the casino industry. We specialize in slot machine technology and slot machine repair.
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Page 1: January 09
Page 2: January 09

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2008 © 3M MicroTouch and ClearTek are trademarks of 3M Company.

Page 3: January 09
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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 4

Randy Fromm's

Slot Tech Magazine

EditorRandy Fromm

Technical WritersTed Befus, Kevin Noble,Herschel W. Peeler, PatPorath, Vic Fortenbach,

James Borg

International ContributorMartin Dempsey

Slot Tech Magazine is publishedmonthly bySlot Tech Magazine1944 Falmouth Dr.El Cajon, CA 92020-2827tel.619.593.6131 fax.619.593.6132e-mail [email protected] the website at slot-techs.com

SUBSCRIPTIONSDomestic (North America) 1 year - $60.002 years - $120.00International1 year - $120.002 years - $240.00

Copyright 2009 under the UniversalCopyright Convention. All rights re-served.

Slot Tech Maga-zine

January 2009

Inside Slot Tech Magazine

Page 4 - EditorialPage 6 - Logic FailurePage 10 - Slot Tech Training at The Inn of the Mountain GodsPage 12 - Machine Problems RepairedPage 16 - Quick and Simple Repairs #46Page 21 - DorisPage 26 - Subscriptions and Order Form

Slot Tech Magazine is anofficial publication of

Randy Fromm

Randy Fromm - Publisher

Dear Friends,

I spent a couple of weeks inDecember at the Inn of theMountain Gods in NewMexico. I worked with ateam of technical instruc-tors to present a two-weekcourse in slot machinerepair to a mixed group ofslot techs and gaming regu-lators.

Part of the class was ahands-on repair lab. Al-though most repairs areroutine, I was remindedagain that there are stillplenty of opportunities forwonderment and surpriseas a casino technician.What happens when theslot technician’s bestfriend, Swaptronics, failscompletely and, instead ofleading you to the cause ofthe problem, actuallypoints you away from thefault? That’s what hap-pened to us during thetraining. I just had to writeit up, not because it’s anunusual failure (it’s not. Infact, it’s really pretty com-mon. You’ll likely knowexactly what I’m talkingabout as soon as you beginreading the article) butbecause it points to a genu-

ine failure of a trustedtroubleshooting technique.If I hadn’t seen it myself, Iwouldn’t believe it to bepossible but I did and it is.Read about it starting onpage six.

Also in this month’s issue,both Pat Porath and KevinNoble are back with somemore items from their ownrepair logs. Included as wellis a report from Malta andJames Borg. James alwayshas an interesting slant onthings and I enjoy readinghis reports a great deal.Read about “Doris” startingon page 21.

Finally, TechFest 19 hasbeen planned for May 12-14 2009. As usual, it’s atMystic Lake Casino Hotel atPrior Lake, close to Minne-apolis, Minnesota. You cansave $100 on the tuitionwith an “Earlybird Dis-count” that is availableonline at slot-techs.com.

That’s all for this month.Happy new year. I’ll see youat the casino.

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Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 5

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 6

Slot Tech Feature Article

GoldStanda

Although most repairs areroutine, there are stillplenty of opportunities for

wonderment and surprise as acasino technician. I want to tellyou a little tale and, at the end ofit, if you want to stand and say"No way, Randy! You’re a dirtyrotten liar!" I will totally under-stand your point of view. If Ihadn’t witnessed it myself, Iwouldn’t have believed it. Here isthe story:

As you will read in this month’sissue, I spent a couple of weekson a training mission at the Innof the Mountain Gods inMescalero, New Mexico. It’s abeautiful property, nestled by theshore of a small lake, a mile anda half high in the mountains ofEastern New Mexico. We had ahalf-dozen machines in thetraining room that we were usingfor demonstration purposes aswell as for our "hands-on" train-ing sessions, during which wewould install various problems forthe students to locate and repair.

As luck would have it, one of theIGT S2000s developed a fault onits own. The error message wasdisplayed on the machine’s VFD.It read something like "Netplexerror to displays." I wish I hadgrabbed a snapshot of the displayas I am writing this some twoweeks after the event and I can’trecall the exact wording.

The machine wouldn’t get pastthe error and was totally inopera-tive. This was a great opportunityfor my first guest instructor, PatPorath, to dazzle us with histroubleshooting skills and showus how to diagnose the problem.

As he stood in front of the class,

he carefully explained that visualinspection was very importantand pointed to all the connectorsand sub-assemblies that neededto be checked. He cautionedagainst "hot plugging" anything.He re-seated anything that hadanything to do with anything butthat wasn’t the problem.

Then, out of the blue he an-nounced "It’s a power supplyproblem."

I asked him how he knew that,since he hadn’t whipped out ameter to check the output volt-age. He said he’d seen it before.His response didn’t surprise me.His 14 years of experience as aslot tech was the reason he wasthere to begin with!

Enter Swaptronics! The powersupply was pulled and taken outto the gaming floor where it wasswapped with an identical unit inan identical (working) slot ma-chine. The machine on the slotfloor came on perfectly. Naturally,the swapped power supply was leftin place in the working machine.If it’s working, there is no reasonto swap them back.

The power supply from theworking slot machine on theslot floor was installed intothe IGT S2000 in thetraining room. The errorremained as before.

OK, so logically thinking,what does that tell youabout the condition ofpower supply? Is the powersupply good or is it bad? I’llwait . . .

Logic tells you that whatever theproblem is with this slot ma-

chine, the power supply can’tpossibly be the problem. Weswapped power supplies but theproblem remained in the ma-chine and did not travel with thepower supply. I think a five yearold is capable of that sort ofdeductive reasoning.

So, Pat Porath, Mr. Big TimeExperienced Slot Tech, what doyou think is the problem now?

"It’s the power supply," Pat said.

Now, on one hand, I’m kind ofrelaxed because I know that it’snot my head on the choppingblock here. I am not the onestanding in front of a class of slottechs, troubleshooting a slotmachine. That’s why I asked Patto teach this part of the class. Heis the one with real floor experi-ence, not I.

On the other hand, I’m sort ofwondering if poor Mr. Porath hasbeen affected by the thin atmo-sphere at 7500 feet above sealevel because we just proved thatthe power supply couldn’t possiblybe the source of the problem,didn’t we?

Logic FailureSwaptronics fails to prove the source of the problemExperience wins out over all By Randy Fromm

Page 7: January 09

Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 7

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 8

"Is the S2000 on the floor stillworking properly?" I enquired. Ithad been cooking inside themachine on the slot floor forabout ten minutes at this point.Maybe the failure took a while toshow up (although it was aninstantaneous failure in theS2000 in the training room).

It was working properly. Scratchthe power supply as the cause.

I was starting to get a littlenervous. How’s it going to look ifone of Slot Tech Magazine’scrack team of technical instruc-tors fails to isolate and repair alive fault?

While I was paralyzed by premo-nitions of being run out of townfor failing to find and fix the fault,IOTMG’s Lead Tech Gary Smithwas galvanized into action byPat’s firm conviction that hisdiagnoses was correct and wentto obtain another power supply.This time, he returned with apower supply taken not from thefloor but from the parts room. Itwas a new power supply.

You know where this is going,don’t you? You guessed it. Withthe new power supply installed,the machine fired up perfectly.What the heck?

We opened the "working" powersupply (the one that had beentaken from the working machineon the floor) and sure enough,there was a slew of bad outputfilter capacitors (and others).They were the usual culprits,visibly bad with their swollentops.

This was not (thank goodness) amystery repair in that we couldsee what was really wrong withthe power supply. We weren’t leftwith some sort of weird specula-tion like "bad connector" or"poorly crimped wire" or otherhoodoo.

We were, however, left with thequestion "How is this possible?"Was the machine in the training

room somehow more "sensitive"to the ripple or other outputproblems caused by the badcapacitors than was the machineon the floor? Was the workingmachine on the slot floor somesort of Super S2000, imperviousto the dodgy power supply?

If you’re looking for an answer inthis column, you’re going to bedisappointed. I don’t have one. Ihave a pretty open mind when itcomes to what’s "possible" in thewacky world of slot machinerepair but this scenario wasn’t inthe playbook, not by a long shot.

IGT Power Supply - Common Failures40009003 / WP203F11C39 6800uF 16vC46 2200uF 35vC45 2200uF 35vC44 2200uF 35v

C37 6800uF 16vC38 6800uF 16vC47 2200uF 35vSmall cap between VR2 andVR3 330uF 25vAlso C25

I suppose there are a couple oflessons here. One is that whenyou see an error like "Netplexconnection to displays down" onthe VFD of an S2000, you mayhave bad capacitors in the powersupply. The second is thatSwaptronics can lead you down adark path from which you maynever return if you trust it 100%.

Oh yeah, I guess there’s a thirdlesson here as well: Always trustPat Porath.

- STM

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Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 9

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 10

Slot Tech Event

Slot Tech Training at:The Inn of the Mountain Gods

I am sometimes invited to some verynice properties for slot techtraining. In December 2008, I was

invited to spend a couple of weeks atthe Inn of the Mountain Gods in NewMexico. I worked with a team oftechnical instructors to present a two-week course in slot machine repair toa mixed group of novice slot techs(newly hired with no experience)experienced slot techs with a coupleof years under their belts and even asmall handful of gaming regulators.There was a lot to learn in two weeks,that’s for sure.

If you are interested in slot techtraining for your property, contactSlot Tech Magazine at 619.593.6131or visit the website at slot-techs.com. Hands-On! Pat Porath assists one of the class

teams with an Atronic e-motion during a hands-on repair lab.

Atronic’s Chris Sweeney held atwo-part class. Part one was heldin the classroom. After lunch, wereconvened on the gaming floorfor some actual e-motion repairs.

What a luxury! An entire day with JCM’s Jack Geller. Jack coveredboth WBA and UBA units.

Page 11: January 09

Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 11

David Oldham (Suzo-Happ) held aday of training on Futurelogicprinters and MEI bill validators.

Bruce Wright (Aristocrat) coveredthe machines themselves andOASIS.

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 12

Atronic CashlinePrinting Duplicate Tickets

I got a call to an AtronicCashline game that wasprinting duplicate

tickets. Checking the MEALbook I noticed that theprinter has been swappedwith another game so therehad to be a problem beforebut no explanation to whyit was swapped out. Thenext thing was to turn thereset key and go into theprint ticket option to seewhat the printer wasprinting. Once the printticket was selected and thebutton depressed, themonitor blanked out andthe game started to rebootitself. This was really oddand usually not the norm.Once the game was bootedup and ready, I attemptedto reprint another ticketand the same problemhappened again. The nextstep was to check if anywires were getting pinched

Slot Tech Feature Article

Machine Problems Repaired

behind the printer when Inoticed that a small chunkof the ribbon cable wasmissing. It looked like amouse had taken a bite outthe cable. About five or sixribs were missing withexposed wires. The ribboncable was replaced and theprinter was retested with noproblems. We have not hada problem with the gameprinting duplicate ticketsagain.

Bally Alpha ReelsNVRAM Error + BatteryLow Error

We started our shift firstthing in the morning whenI was handed a note thatone of the games had anNVRAM error. This was thefirst time that I had to dealwith one of the newer BallyAlpha reels with a batteryproblem. I checked theMEAL book and dating backabout a week, I noticed anNVRAM error being resetand, just recently, “LowBattery” entries into thelog. At first we thought thatwe could just replace thebatteries on the CPU andhope to get away withoutlosing any of the options.The game restarted fineuntil it reached a certainpoint. Then, the monitorwent blank and stayed

blank for a while. I alsonoticed that the progressivedisplay showed theprogressive figure thenwent into a C52 code. Ifigured that I had lost theprogressive option and hadto clear and reset thegame. I placed the clearflash card in and clearedthe game with no problem.I placed the OperatingSystem in the game, itbooted up and went backinto the blank screen andstayed there again. I didnot want to have AGCOremove all the seals off theCPU so I next tried the CPUpower supply. I swappedthe power supplies from aspare one in the shop,inserted the RAM flash andcleared the game again.Once completed, I placedthe Operating system backin the game; the gamewent through its set ofinstructions and allowedme to re-option the game.The machine was testedand eventually placed backin service.

TPE_RPT logCVT #20Fiber optic loop up / Fiberoptic loop down

This was a two parttroubleshooting challenge.We thought that this one

By Kevin Noble

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Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 13

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Page 14: January 09

January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 14

Aristocrat video machinewas causing all theproblems because it wasbeing reported as manualjackpots for some time. Itwouldn’t work and then itwould work for no reason.When I was first called tothis machine for jackpotsnot reporting, I checked thesoft and Mikohn metersand they did not match. Itried to reset the SPCIIboard to get the meters tomatch but it would not letme. I went back to the shopand grabbed another boardand inserted it into thegame, cleared it andchecked the meters andeverything was great forabout an hour. I got calledback to the game formanual jackpots again.

This time I changed thetransformer to the fiberboard and closed themachine up. About anotherhour had passed and thistime the entire bank wentdown. I went into the gameand checked the fiberboard and found that theboard was emitting a brightlaser beam out of the fiberboard out position. I had tochange both board andtransformer, checked mycommunication, closed upthe game and everythingwas good, or was it? Thenext day Gary Smith,another Senior Technicianexperienced the sameproblems. He noticed onthe TPE_RPT report thegame was repeating themessages “VGM isresponding – VGM notresponding.” He read in the

MEAL book what I haddone and startedtroubleshooting it a bitfurther. He decided to swapout the CPU board in thegame. He had AGCO comein and break the seals,replaced the board, andoptioned the game. Garychecked the log report andnoticed that the game wasresponding but also noticedthat the CVT was stilldisplaying fiber optic loopup and then fiber optic loopdown. All along we thoughtthat this game was initiallythe fault of this fiber opticloop problem on the CVT.

On this CVT were twobanks of machines. On thefirst bank were 12 IGTS2000s and on the secondbank were mixed Aristocratvideo and Bally AlphaVideo. The front half (tengames) were the Aristocratand the last half were theBally video. Because wethought that the Aristocratgames were causing theproblem, we looped outthose games and the errorswent away. Gary nextlooped out half of theAristocrats and that wasfine also. There were onlythree left looped out of thesystem but in about twohour’s time, the fiber opticloop went down. He startedfrom scratch again bylooping out all theAristocrat games and theloop continued to staydown. Gary then proceededto loop out both banks andthe loop came back up.That meant that the CVTwas not the problem and

the send and return linewere also good, butsomewhere out on the floorthere was a game behavingbadly and he wasdetermined to find outwhich one. Gary nextlooped in the 20 gamesAristocrat and Bally bankand it stayed on line. Somewhere on the IGT S2000bank lays the problem?One by one, Gary loopedout each game until theninth game in the bankwhere he found there wasno red light flickering fromthe super stepper Commboard. Once he replacedthe Comm board, theproblem went away.

TPE_RPTCVT #15No machine ID/assetnumber reported frommachine

That was message beingdisplayed on every game onCVT 15 after a servicereport was issued to twomachines on this bank.After playing the twogames, it was noticed thatany tickets being printedfrom these two machineswould not cross validate. Noother machine on theentire gaming floor wouldaccept tickets from thesetwo machines. When thelog was checked for errors,there was a machine #5displaying VGM notresponding. When thegame was opened and thetop glass removed, theSPCII board had fallen offits perch and wasgrounding out on the metal

Page 15: January 09

Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 15

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frame that housed theSMIB board in the top box.Once reseated, the entirebank came alive and wewere back in service.

The afternoon shift thenplaced them all out ofservice. The next morningthis was passed on to usand we started looping outbanks of games to see whatwas causing the CVT loopdown error. We eliminatedthe ten, Atronic e-motionmachines and the eightWMS games. We were leftwith the original sevenAristocrats from the otherday that were still notlooped back in. We wantedto verify that everything wasworking fine before wecontinued on with loopingindividual games to find theproblem. Aftertroubleshooting the bankand isolating the problemto machine #2 we read inthe MEAL book that thatnight, a Slot Attendantwent into the game toreplenish the paper whichknocked out all threebanks on CVT #15. I startedby replacing the SPCIIboard, then the fiber boardand the SMIB but that didnot solve the problem. Eachtime, I had to run back tothe shop to check if theloop came back up, which ithad not.

I tried removing the CPUand I/O board with thesame results. I triedremoving the printer fromthe game anddisconnecting it from themotherboard but the

problem remained. I postedthis problem on the OLGslot Tech forum and waitedfor an answer. I passed thisproblem on to Andrewwhich suggested that hewould try the game’s powersupply (that did not work)and lastly opened a ticketto have out Central sitelook into problems on theirend. The next morning itwas suggested that we swapout the CVT for another. Weworked eagerly in themorning to get thisswapped out before the9:00 am opening. At thesame time, Richard Haddowfrom another site suggestedthat we swap the fiberboard transformer. So inthe morning we swappedout the CVT, swapped outthe transformer and fiberboard completely with aknown good one fromanother CVT and bank. Wewere examining theTPE_RPT log on thecomputer in the shop and

noticed that at 9:49 am theerrors completely stopped.The CVT was changedabout 9:30 am, the fiberboard and transformer wassoon after. The errors didnot follow the transformerand fiber board and theCVT did display errormessages after it waschanged, but at 9:48 theydisappeared.

Atonics CashlinePrinting Duplicate TicketsPart II

We were called to thismachine for printingduplicate tickets when wenoticed that when youtapped on the monitor, thegame would cut out. Wechecked the ribbon cablethat connects into theprinter in the top box but itwas fine. We did thisbecause we hadexperienced a bad ribboncable causing the sameproblem earlier in another

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 16

machine. We replaced itwith another game to ruleout that it was the problem.We checked all theconnections in the gamebut again if you tap on themonitor the game wentblank. We swapped themonitor with another gameto eliminate the possibilitythat the monitor was theproblem, which it was not.Gary once again faced withanother tough decisiondecided to swap out thepower supply and theproblem went away. Butbecause of an unfortunateslip Chris hit the monitorwith his knee and the gamewent out again. This wasthe second power supplynow that was placed in thegame and the problemcontinued. Next the CPUand motherboard wasreplaced but the problemstill existed. Gary decidedto swap out another powersupply from the shop andthe problem went away.Just to make sure themonitor was tested andbeaten to verify that thiswould not happen again.The duplicate ticketproblem went away.

CVTLoop up/Loop Down

That is what the reportstated every two secondswhen we looked at the logfirst thing in the morning.At first we came up with agame plan of eliminatingone bank at a time to seewhere our problem was.The first bank was a bankof Bally Alpha that we

looped out and the errorscontinued. The secondbank was a bank of IGTS2000 that was removedfrom the loop and theproblems still continued.We then pulled anotherbank of Bally Alphas untilwe pinpointed it to a groupof ten Aristocrats. Loopingout the back side made fivegames the cause of ourproblems. We started toloop out two games at atime when we discoveredthat two fiber boardtransformers and one SCPII board were causing all

the damage. The SPC IIboard had fallen off itsmount in the top box andhad grounded out on theSMIB board. Once removed,that machine came backonline. The other twogames that were looped outwere placed back in theloop which made othergames on the line startchirping. One at a time wereplaced the transformersuntil all messages andchirping went away.

- Kevin [email protected]

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Page 17: January 09

Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 17

Slot Tech Feature Article

IGT S2000 VFD problem

On an IGT S2000, have you everseen a VFD with only dots on it? Iwas called over to the game and

was told that it had a display problem, andobviously it did. I thought maybe one ofthe I/O cards may have come loose. Thegame was turned off and I made sure thecards were snug and the main processorwas snug in place. They both were. Next, Ichecked the connections on the VFD andthey all looked good. This was the firsttime that I had seen a VFD that had onlydots on it. Why not try a replacement?

The shop was nearby so I grabbed a spareand installed it. As soon as the game wasturned on, the VFD was operating per-fectly. It showed “PLEASE WAIT...TESTINGMEMORY.” I could have swapped theoriginal with the game next to it (good ol’swaptronics) but since the shop wasnearby, I just grabbed a spare.

JCM UBA Hardware Enhancements

Recently released by JCM for the UBA, is a“waterproof shield” that can be installed onthe bill acceptor to prevent damage on bartop games when a drink is spilled on it.The JCM part number for it is 900-200205RA. JCM also has a “dust protec-tion kit” available. The part number is701-100083RA. They are covers that goover the upper and lower sensor boards to

Quick & Simple Repairs #46By Pat Porath

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 18

prevent dust from entering.If dust makes its way overor even partially over asensor, then there is a goodchance that it won’t work.

IGT S2000 reel 4 notworking

We had a game down be-cause reel number 4 wasn’tworking properly and wedidn’t happen to have aspare on hand for it. The

first thing I did was to takethe main processor board tothe shop and test the di-odes. On some IGTS2000s, when there arereel errors and the problemis in the game (not the reel)a diode is bad. Replace the

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Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 19

bad diode and no more reeltilts. This time while on thebench ALL of the diodes inthe reel area circuitrytested good! I didn’t believeit, so I checked them allagain only with the sameresult, they all tested good.Next, I checked the connec-tions on the mother boardand they all appeared to bein place. Next, the number4 reel was removed fromthe game. When I began tocheck it out, the problemwas very obvious. One ofthe wires that go to the reelstepper motor was broken.The reel assembly wasbrought to the shop andthe wire was repaired. Iremoved the old pin thatwas in the connector,crimped the wire in thenew pin, and inserted itinto the connector. It wasnow time to see if it worked.The reel assembly was putback in the game and thepower was turned on.When IGT stepper games“boot up,” the reels willspin to the position thatthey were last at. The gamespun without an error butis it really fixed? Next, Ientered the “auto paytabletest” so the game wouldspin the reels and continueto spin until I stopped it oruntil it had an error. I let itspin for a few minutes justto make sure that it didwork properly and it did nothave any reel tilts. I waswrong with the initial diag-nosis. I had thought that adiode was bad on the mainprocessor. When they ALLtested good, I wasn’t surewhere to go next. Then I

remembered a phrasethat a co-worker told mesome time ago. “Some-times the problem is rightin front of you if you onlyLOOK.” In a short periodof time the broken wirewas found, repaired andthe game was backonline.

WBA Not Taking $5.00Bills

I received a complaintthat a WMS stepper gamewouldn’t accept $5.00bills. The bill acceptorthat happened to beinstalled in it was a WBA.One of my first thoughtswas that the bill acceptersoftware may have missedthe last software upgradeand therefore wouldn’taccept NEW $5.00 bills. Igave it a quick inspection,checking the optics andthe rollers. The unitappeared to be relativelyclean, so that shouldn’tbe the problem. Whenthe unit was reseated, itdidn’t cycle the way itshould so the unit wasremoved from the gameand re-examined. Whilegiving it another inspec-tion, I found the problem.Someone had turned onDIP switches 1, 2, and 3but hadn’t turned themoff. It appeared that itwas put into test modeand not taken out. A verysimple repair on this one.The DIPS were set to allOFF like they are sup-posed to be on that spe-cific model of bill acceptorand game, and now it was

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 20

fine. When the unit wasput back into the game itcycled perfectly.

IGT S2000 With Bad Step-per Motor

Have you ever had a gamethat had a lot of reel tiltsand the problem was a bittricky to find? Well, one ofthe first things that I wouldlook for is to see that themain door lock assemblyand main door optics arewhere they are supposed tobe. Simply grab the “lock-ing knob” on the exterior ofthe game with the lock inthe locked position to see ifa “door open M” appears.The knob should move upand down very little. If a“door open M” doesn’t ap-pear, that part of the gameshould be ok.

Another item to check isthe belly door switch, whichis located in the upper lefthad corner of the bellydoor. If it looks like it isslightly bent inward, gentlypull it toward you so theswitch makes better contactwhen the door is closed.The stacker door switch canalso be checked. Open thebelly door and gently pullon the stacker door (whenit is in the locked position)to see if a “door open B”appears. If it doesn’t, thatpart of the game should beOK too.

Well, now what? What if allof the door switches andoptics are OK and reel tiltsstill happen on the game?In this case it may be a bad

stepper motor. How canyou tell? The power to thegame needs to be on so themotor has power applied toit. Gently spin the reel thathas been having a lot oferrors; gently spin it byhand. If the suspected reelmakes somewhat of a“grinding noise” and doesnot move smoothly, thenyou probably have a badstepper motor. You will beable to tell the differencewhen you manually spin areel that IS working prop-erly. The movement will bevery smooth. If the reel

does not spin very wellmanually, then it looks likethe stepper motor needs tobe replaced. If it is re-placed, a “paytable test”should be preformed on thegame not only to make surethat the reel assembly isinstalled properly, but italso tests it to make surethat there won’t be any reeltilts. If the “paytable test”is OK, the game should beOK and ready for a cus-tomer to play.

- Pat [email protected]

Gently spin the reel that has been having a lot of errors;gently spin it by hand. If the suspected reel makes somewhatof a “grinding noise” and does not move smoothly, then youprobably have a bad stepper motor.

Page 21: January 09

Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 21

Slot Tech Feature Article

Doris came round to theoffice while I was stilltrying to get organized

since I had just started my shiftand said that her favoritemachine had stopped working.She was looking a bit down andflustered.

“Don’t panic dear,” I told her.“Just give me a few momentsand I’ll be right with you.”

Doris is a nice, elderly lady. Shehas white hair and wearsglasses and isn’t either fat orthin. She usually plays on twospecific Atronic machines. Thatevening, one of her favoritemachines was being used so shewent over to play on her otherone. It’s an Atronic slant topwhich is right in the corner withnobody really close by to botherher as she’s the type of lady thatkeeps herself to herself. Sheseems to have only one realclose friend who she spends a lotof time close to but that day, herfriend wasn’t to be seen. Her onlycompanion for that evening washer machine and that wasn’tproving to be such a goodcompanion since it had pulled afast one on her. Not very luckyindeed.

I quickly finished what I wasdoing in the office and went overto her machine. From a distanceI could see that it was still on.The reels on the monitor lookedfine. I couldn’t see any of the

buttons being lit from where Iwas but I could see that she stillhad some credits in themachine. That was not a goodsign.

“Look,” said Doris. “What iswrong with it? I was playing awayat it then it suddenly stopped.”she added.

I touched the screen and pressedthe buttons to see if somethingshifts in the game. Nothingshifted. Even the INFO buttonwasn’t lit. I’ve seen this before.For some reason, the machinedecides to call it a day and stopsworking. I told her that I wasgoing to turn it off and then backon again. She looked a bit sad asher machine might not comealive again. A picture of distresswas all over her face.

“Don’t worry as it’ll be fine,” I toldher while I kept my fingerscrossed and trying not to look at

her too much for her to noticethat my nose had started thegrowing process. I had no idea ifthe machine was going to workmyself for that matter.

Opening up the machine, Iplaced my hand just behind thehopper to where the power supplyunit was to see if its fan wasworking. It was. The four LEDson the front were all glowingnicely. All the supply rails werepresent. It’s not the first timethat the power supply unitoverheats due to its fan ceasingup and upsetting the machine.However, this wasn’t the issuehere so I was hoping that asimple switch OFF and back ONagain will sort it out. I’ve done itmany times on many differentmachines before so I didn’t reallyforesee that this would be anydifferent.

Flicking the red power buttononce, the machine died. I left it

Doris By James Borg

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 22

off for a few moments as it’s nothealthy to switch it back onagain immediately. The secondsslowly passed by and looking atDoris, she was perspiring withworry while looking all blank atthe dead machine. A thoughtsuddenly struck me which mademe shiver like somebody walkedover my grave. I wondered if Iwas going to be the next personperspiring if the machine didn’twork properly.

Flicking the red button again,the machine started coming tolife. The four LEDs came on, themonitor’s high tension could beheard (nice sound that), theflorescent lights came on andATRONIC in blue showed on thescreen. The bill validator couldbe heard cycling. All systemsgreen and looking good. For whatseemed like for ever and a day,the machine eventually decidedto come on showing the game,the credits and at the exactscreen where it had left off priorto going FUBAR. Doris seemedreally happy and asked if she canplay on it whilst inching forwardher hand to start hitting the betbuttons once more even before Imove aside. To my “yes, ofcourse”, a smile from ear to earappeared.

I still stayed close by to see if allremains well. I felt an ill windblowing that evening, andneeded nourishment, in theform of a hot chocolate, to haveenough oomph to tackleanything that’s thrown at me. Mybig toe was signaling troubleahoy though. Nine times out often, the signaling would becorrect.

Only about an hour or so in,Doris caught up with me tellingme that her machine wasn’tworking well again but this timeit had a black screen with somewriting on it. Hmmm… thatdoesn’t sound too good at all as itseems like it has reset. Goingover to the machine, I confirmedmy fears. I waited for a while tillthe game started again, but it

didn’t. Once it reached a certainstage, it was like some invisiblehand had turned off the machineand then back on again, and thewhole process started all overagain. I had to break the badnews to her that I’d have nooption but to turn her machineoff. Panic showed on the poorthing’s face. I explained to herthat I needed to let it cool downfor a while. She was thencontent to go on her othermachine since this was vacated.

Left alone with the machine, Idecided to have a look at it in itspresent state as that might beeasier to locate the problem. So Idashed over to my workshop andgot my multi meter and flashpen. Having a look inside andmonitoring the supply LEDswhile the machine reset didn’tshow anything at all. All four ofthem were emitting the samebrightness during the faultsequence. The supply voltageswere all correct too once checkedwith my multi meter. I wonder.Shall I replace the supply justthe same? The symptomsseemed related to a faulty powerline somewhere so I figured thatchanging the whole unit was agood move.

With that positive train ofthoughts, I brought a spare fromthe workshop. Getting access tothe supply on these slant topmachines involves pulling outthe hopper. Space is quiterestricted but with some shovinghere and shoving there, myfingers eventually found whatthey were looking for and thesupply was pulled out andreplaced. I slid the hopper backin before turning on themachine and hoping that thefault would be cleared. Was Iaiming too high I wonder?

The ATRONIC in blue came onagain and I held my breath andkept my fingers crossed yetagain that all would be well. Ismiled when the game came up.All was looking good. It actuallyseemed like the supply could

have been the culprit. With that,I called the client over and shecame back and started playingon the machine one more timeafter thanking me and giving meher most radiant smile. She alsoasked if it was going to pay outnow . . . to which I coughedpolitely.

That’s another job well done Ithought to myself. Not bad, notbad at all even if I say so myself.Little did I know that it wasn’tanother ‘job well done’ at all andthat I was going to be perspiringlike crazy on this machine soon.

As luck would have it, a certainperson appeared again (Shock!Horror! Not to mention PanicStations!). She didn’t need toopen her mouth as it was all overher face. A clear picture of doomand gloom was written all over it.My face spoke as well, but notthe same language as hers. Isighed, looked at her and told herto give me some time on thisone as it’s not going to be a cupof tea after all that I had doneand seen so far. I apologized toher but machines are machinesand when they want to stopworking, they just do. They don’tcare about letting people downand upsetting techies like myself in the process. This wasgoing to be a showdown betweenthe machine and myself. A do-or-die job. A job that needed doing. Ajob which I couldn’t not do formany reasons, mainly because Icouldn’t let the machine get thebetter of me. So far none have asI always had the last laugh, buthaving said that, there’s alwaysa first time for everything.

Taking a deep breath, I opened itup. It was looking at me and Iwas looking back at it. The placewas crawling with people but asfar as I was concerned, therewasn’t anybody around. Theplace was noisy. Shouting andlaughing and machines hittingjackpots and all the usual noisesone would expect in a casino, butas far as I was concerned, itcould have been an empty

Page 23: January 09

Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 23

casino. I needed to focus totallyon this one. This type of faultneeded a logical approach if I wasgoing to locate it. It was going tobe a game of cat and mouseapparently and the reason for itresetting could be virtuallycaused by anything. A good startafter replacing the power supplywas to pull out all the boards,that is to say, the CPU, theCOMM, the GRAPHICS and theSOUND boards and clean theirconnections to the backplaneand push in any chips in theirsockets just in case they hadbecome loose or developed anoxide. A quick squirt of contactcleaner wouldn’t go amiss. This Idid to each and every board andthe machine was turned back onagain. After a few moments, theresetting process started oncemore. Ouch!!! Oh no!! So it’s nota question of a duffy connectionalong the line. Right, ACTIONSTATIONS!! It was a time to getserious. No more Mr. Nice guyhere. I replaced each and everycard individually and paused inbetween. Resetting actions wereseen again after each card wasreplaced. Bigger OUCH!!! Deepbreathing and more logicalthoughts started hitting me fromall corners. What could it be?What could be causing thisproblem? Surely it can’t be thevalidator. No good thinking aboutit at this stage so that wasreplaced as well. Same thinghappened. That’s brilliant, justbrilliant not to mention fabulous.I felt that my doors were beingclosed quickly and not much elsecan be done pretty soon, apartfrom pressing the red button andstart pulling my hair out.

I thought I’d time-out for a whileas all this was getting to bebeyond a joke. I had a ciggie asthat usually helps my thinkingprocess. All sorts of ideas cameto mind. I was lost inthought…what was causing thissymptom? It has to be somethingdaft, but daft as it might be, I stilldidn’t crack it and it certainlywon’t crack me even though theimmediate future seemed bleak.

There is usually a good answer,a good explanation foreverything. Problem is finding itthough. By the looks of things Iwas still miles away.

Time-out time was over, and sowas my ciggie. A black cloudloomed overhead and followed meall the way back to the machine.I was totally lost and confused.It’s not a pleasant feeling.Looking at the machine I washoping to hear a little voicecoming from it telling me wherethe problem is. No such luck. Itssecret was well and truly kept. Athought struck me. What if thehopper was upsetting themachine? It wasn’t, and themachine reset again. Then,another thought struck me likea ton of bricks. I hadn’t evenlooked at the button boardlocated behind the monitor. Thisis a pain to replace so I justeliminated it by unplugging allthe connections to it.

Having done that, I turned on themachine again and it didn’treset!! Did I hit the nail on thehead? Did I find the fault at last?Was this the culprit that hadtaken me on a merry-go-round?Was the defendant guilty ascharged? Was it time to open thechampagne? I thought it wouldbe best to wait a while before Istarted crying victory. So Iwaited, and waited and waited.Game was still on. This was thefirst time it stopped resetting. Itjust could be the case that thebutton board was faulty after all.No reason why it shouldn’t be.When you think about it, it’s fullof chips which can go funny andupset the circuitry.

Things seemed to look up at last.Even the black cloud hoveringover my head had vanished, andthat’s a good omen. I wonder if itwill come back again. Anything’spossible. All still looked good forthe next two hours and that’ssaying something. I think it was

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 24

time this board wasreplaced. Trust my luck asthe last board seemed to bethe problem after all, butthat’s Sod’s Law. That wouldalso be the story of my life.

A went to my workshop andlooked around the spareboards. Found one! Well,surely it had to be it. It justhad to. Nothing else was leftto replace actually so if itwasn’t this board thenheaven help me as I wouldbe well and truly lost.Getting quite excited about itall, I went back to themachine and pulled theoriginal board out andreplaced it. Fingers crossedall the time while switchingon the machine. All I have todo now is to wait, and hopeand pray.

All looked fine as themachine fired into life.Game came up and all waspromising. For how longnobody knows. I really hopeI’d cracked it as I would bewith my back to the wall if Ididn’t. Being shot at dawnisn’t something to lookforward to. The only thing assuch left would be theprogram chips themselves,but that’s a long shot. I didn’thave another set to replacethem with anyway so Istopped thinking about them.

I stood by the machinelooking at it and trying tofeel good about it since I wasreally hoping that it’s fixednow. There was somethingnot quite right though. I hadthis gut feeling that my ‘feelgood’ experience would beshort lived. I didn’t have towonder for very long as rightin front of my very eyes,barely fifteen minutes hadpassed when the machinereset itself. It did it again!!!OH NO!!! OH HELP!!! OHCALAMITY!!! The feeling ofdisaster and disappointment

totally engulfed me. I’mafraid I have no choice but tothrow in the towel. I’mstuck. Well and truly stuck.No way out. I’ve finally met achallenge I couldn’t conquer.Was this my Waterloo? I wasdoomed to live in shame forthe rest of my life. No bandsthis time, no jumping up anddown for joy and certainly noAli Shuffle, no reason at allto celebrate. What am I goingto tell Doris? She’ll stopsmiling at me that’s for sure.She’ll probably end up hatingme now for not fixing hermachine. I think all thiscalls for another time-out toreflect on the situation.Back to the drawing board.Back under my rock. Woundlicking time. This is awful. Ican’t believe it. I just can’tbelieve that changing next toeverything and the fault’sstill there. Something reallyfishy is at work here BUTWHAT?

Even though I practicallychanged the whole of themachine, I still wasconvinced that it wassomehow a fault related tothe power supply section. Ichecked the 5v and the 12vrails on the supply’s cablesdirectly and showed 5.02vand 12.15v which were fine.I had checked thesepreviously anyway. Just forargument’s sake, I decidedto check these two rails onthe backplane itself. Iassumed I was wasting mytime as these are practicallythe same point as theconnections on the supply’scables themselves. What Ifound made my heart stop.The 12v was still very closeto specifications, but the 5vrail had somehow dropped to4.75v and that’s a no-no. Infact, it was a big no-no. WasI on to something here?? Acontinuity test between the5v rail directly from thesupply to the 5v on the

backplane showed anamount of resistance whichwasn’t all that low. Mythoughts raced like FormulaOne cars. What if? What if Iwas to jumper the 5v linedirectly to the backplane?It’s practically the samepoint so I shouldn’t see anysparks flying past my facesurely. So back to theworkshop to get a couple ofwires and I jumpered boththe 5v line and a 0v linedirectly on the backplane.The reading on the multimeter shot up from 4.75 to5v!

Aaaaarrrggggghhhhh! I don’tbelieve it. I just don’t believeit. Of course the machinewould reset if the supply tothe logic circuits would golow. Of course the faultwould be intermittent. Ofcourse changing all theboards and the supply itselfalong with the validatorwould have no effect at allon the fault. The problemwas always on the backplaneitself. It must have aresistive track which wasdropping just enough voltageto upset the logic circuits. Iwasn’t quite sure if I wassupposed to be glad or upset.The problem was solved so Ishould have been happy, butthat kind of fault hadannoyed me to kingdomcome and it had left me withmixed feelings.

Turning round I saw Doriscoming over running back toher game. At least there wasone delighted person there.Oh well, that’s the way thecookie crumbles. After all,it’s all about keeping peoplelike Doris pleased.

- James [email protected]

Page 25: January 09

Slot Tech MagazineJanuary 2009 Page 25

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January 2009Slot Tech MagazinePage 28

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