Big Shooter won't pay out

[Nekotoo]

I just bought my very first Pachinko machine, and was very excited. It quickly became a disappointment however, as we tried loading it but the balls just fall out the back.

The game came with a small metal wire for the "reward hopper release", intended to stick into this small hole on the top left of the front, which causes a white plastic part to move i the back. The generic manual says to push it in when feeding the reward balls, but nothing happens. No matter what I do, the balls just fall down the back.

I looked through the forums here, and in the general trouble shooting there are metal levers and so on, but I do not see that on this model at all. The whole reward system loading seems hidden behind a lot of black plastic and circuit boards and I can't even see it. All I can get to is that little white plastic part through the hole on the front.

Please help! I am getting depressed
that I have bought a large piece of crap, since a pachinko machine that doesn't pay out is very pointless.

Also on a side note, the picture of the machine in the museum shows a green background, whereas mine just looks black. Is there a lamp that has gone out? The machine does seem very dark.

[new in town]

What is the name of the Machine. As of right now the only one that could help you might be ZOLTAN.

There allot of knowledgeable People here and I am sure some one will chime in to help. AND . . .




TO PachiTalk ! ! !

[drcrippen324]

if you can put a couple of pics up we can probebly help you the reward hopper dump needs to be closed befor it will hold the payout balls the peaice of wire is to open teh ball dump usualy

[Nekotoo]

Sorry, I put it in the title, but should have put it in the text too, it is "Big Shooter" and is made by Heiwa.

I will see about posting some pictures, but we did manage to remove the piece of circuit board in front of the place where the white piece of plastic is, it released by pulling a black knob. Behind it I can see a roundish black plastic cover and a ball track leading into it. It has 10-20 balls in there, just sitting there.

[drcrippen324]

if its a tipicle hewia frame then on teh right hand side on the back at teh verry edge about a quater of the way down ther eis a white peace of lastic that is hinged on a pivet press it once and it should close trhe ball dump

[Nekotoo]

It probably is the typical frame, from the looks of it, mounted into some wood. I see the white plastic, and it is what moves when I stick the wire through the
hole, but this seems to do nothing. I have tried manipulating it from the back too. Doesn't seem to do anything. Posting the pictures. The first on is with the circuitboard in place, tou can see a sliver of the white plastic piece between the circuitboard and the wood. The second is with the circuit board removed, you can see the balls going into the black thing, and a better view of the white plastic thingie. Now I have tried pushing it from the front, and pulling it backwards from the back, and it does move, but nothing seems to happen. Am I supposed to do this with the machine on or off btw? Right now I am doing it with the machine off.

And also, sorry for not saying so earlier, thank you so much for the big welcome and the extreme helpfulness!

[drcrippen324]

if i remember right the plastic tag is to operate a micro switch to run the motor continuasly to dump the balls so it will need to be operated with the machine turned on

[Nekotoo]

When I push the button I don't hear a motor come on, so that may be another issue. Not sure how it relates to closing the ball dump, or if it is the same thing?

[daverob]

That's a Hewa Hotaru frame. You push the white lever (using the wire) to the rear of the frame to release the balls. If there's balls in the top hopper the weight of them causes the release mechanism to latch on, and from then on all balls will drop right through.

To unlatch the release mechanism all you need to do is push the white lever again, exactly the same way as you did to release the balls. If there's no balls in the hopper, there will be no weight on the release mechanism, and it will be unlatched and move back to the normal position.

If the white lever is not moving, then I'd be looking for a ball jam in that area. There's two seperate tracks to the payout motor, it could be that one of them is backed up with balls, while the other is dumping them straight out the back.

Just took another look at the photo, and the mechanism is latched in the release position, and there doesn't seem to be any ball jams.

[Nekotoo]

I have pushed the white button with balls in the hopper, and with no balls in the hopper, before running balls down the drain, while running balls down the drain, with the power on and without the power on, and all that ever happens is the balls going straight through. There are as you can see in the pictures a few balls in the pipe leading down to the black round case, those never move, they just sit there.

What is supposed to happen when I push the white button? Because nothing happens at all, except for the white plastic part moving slightly. There is no noise (no click of anything moving, no whirring of any motor). If it supposed to enable/disable a drain or empty out balls, I might expect some sort of noise? I guess the problem is I am completely clueless as for what to look for or what to expect...

[arbycoffee]

The white release level doesn't make any sounds, it just holds the balls in the top hopper.

if your balls are still falling out into the spent ball tray, than the trip lever to dump them is not rest. when rest their a shoe that comes up to keep the balls in the track

[Tulsa]

What if there was built up payouts in the machine and it's not the dump lever?

I think a reset might be the appropriate thing to try next.

[daverob]

Ok from your pictures, the ball dump gate is definitely open, so I wouldn't start investigating anything to do with the machine catching up on wins yet...

For reference, this is a photo of the ball dump mechanism in it's notmal (closed) state...

Hotaru_Ball_Dump_Normal.jpg

...and this one is of the ball dump mechanism where it's open (so will dump all balls in the hopper), note the black plastic piece showing where the dump mechanism is latched in front of the white plastic release lever...

Hotaru_Ball_Dump_Open.jpg

...when the ball dump lever is pushed (with a wire through the hole in the front of the case) when there's no balls being fed from the hopper, then the black plastic piece should be released and will fall out of the way by gravity alone. If it doesn't appear to move, then you can see if you can give it a little bit of help through the slot in the cover, but don't force it as you don't want it to break

If it seems to be jammed, then it's a good idea to clear the motor area of balls, just in case some balls are backed up and causing problems with the dump mechansim.

To do this you need to hinge away the cover under the motor area, firstly by unclipping the cover by pushing the release catch downwards...

Hotaru_Motor_Jam_Catch.jpg

...and then hinging the cover away to the right.

If you put your finger up into the motor area (make sure the power is off!)...

Horatu_Motor_Jam_Finger.jpg

...You can rotate the motor gear by hand and release all of the balls between the motor and the dump mechanism. You can rotate either way, and should get the same effect, but sometimes jammed balls make it easier to go one way rather than the other.

If after clearing these balls, there are still stuck balls visible through the covers, then shake or hit the side of the machine to see if you can release them, and then try resetting the ball dump mechanism again.

Hope this helps!

[arbycoffee]

THAN

Do the "pachinko roll"
turn upside down and bounce gently from end to end.

[luckydog]

The tech guy from Slotusa recommends Arby's idea when nothing else works

[Nekotoo]

Wow, you guys are awesome! With your help, I got it to work! Special thanks to Daverob, without whose pictures I would still be scrathing my head. Luckily I didn't have to resort to the "saltshaker" tactic ;-)

The little black plastic piece was indeed the issue, I managed to empty the motor, and nudge the white piece far enough that it finally dropped. I had poked the black part previously, but it seemed lodged, so i assumed it wasn't going to move.

I am in awe of the community you have built up here!

On side note, if anyone should know off the top of their heads, now I only have to figure out why the background isn't lighting up, but that is a relatively minor cosmetic blemish in comparison ;-)

[luckydog]

the cells themselves do not light up, only screens, reels or other lights on it do.

[arbycoffee]

Daverob is our hero

[Nekotoo]

the cells themselves do not light up, only screens, reels or other lights on it do.

The image in the museum shows a green background, whereas mine is black. I assumed that it was supposed to light up as the black looked like it might be see translucent, but now I realize it is probably a different version of the same pachinko.

[luckydog]

they made different pachinko cells for different payout models.

so, the same machine may have a lot of different designs or colors on the cell.