Help in Machine Identification and not working

[rbarberis]

I have had this machine for about 8 years, worked perfectly before i put it in storage and now I took it out and its not working. I have attached a picture since I cannot determine what type of machine it is. After I power it on, a light on the top right of the pink frame of the machine blinks continuously. When I turn the shooter knob, it fires but I notices that the device inside the door that holds and releases each ball is not activating so no ball drops in the the solenoid. There are a row of Led lights in the back of which led #1 is on and all the others are off. Any ideas as to which machine this is and what troubleshooting steps I can take would be appreciated.

[mudfud]

ummm. did you put balls in the upper tray to fill it?

could be that the empty tray sensor is keeping you from shooting.

[compirate]

CR Otohime 4 (Younger Princess)

CR乙姫 4

Macy - 2001

Sounds like an "out of balls" situation.
Is the upper hopper in the back full of balls? If no, fill it with balls. Are they going all the way to the payout mechanism? If no, check for blockage. Sounds like an out of balls situation

[birdbrain]

it's a darn nice looking machine. work your way over every plug and insure one did not come loose during storage, open the glass and look in one of the bottom corners for the lever for the lower door release push it down and open the lower part that holds the shooter tray and check for blockage in the ball path from the tray to the shooter.

[daverob]

At a guess, it sounds like an out of balls error. But if you can get a clearer picture of the Japanese writing next to the lit LED on the back, then I'll be able to tell you what the error code LEDs actually mean for this machine.

[rbarberis]

Thanks for the replies.
I do have balls loaded in the hopper and I can see the switch that is closing when the balls are present. I also can see the balls going all the way down to the device that holds them ready for a payout. Besides that I dont see any additional switches and have checked to make sure all the wires are plugged in with the exception of the speaker which is sounding the alarm if i plug it in.
If anyone else has any other suggestions I would appreciate it.

Thanks...

[rbarberis]

Update... I went through the entire machine again looking to see what could possibly be the problem with no luck. I decided to hold the payout mech open with a screwdriver to let all of the balls from empty the hopper. I then reloaded the balls into the hopper. Well... dont ask me how or what but it must have been something with the payout mech that got corrected because all is working perfectly now. So for now I will never know exactly what fixed it but Im glad to have the machine operational again... Thanks to all of you again...

[rbarberis]

OK I guess the mysterious fix didnt last long. Turned it on tonight and same symptoms as originally described. I saw earlier there was offer to try to determine what led 1 which turns on is indicating. I have uploaded a picture with hopes that someone can interpret what it means. Once again any help is appreciated.

Thanks...

[daverob]

I have uploaded a picture with hopes that someone can interpret what it means.

I can make out the Japanese words for 'Ball' and it looks like the SW would refer to a switch, but it's too out of focus for me to make out the characters that I'm not already familiar with, and it would take too long to look up every possible character in a Japanese dictionary.

When taking photos of the words on these clear plastic cases, most digital cameras have great difficulty focussing on them. Usually the auto-focus will pick up on the circuit board behind and so will not be at the correct focus for the writing on the case.

The easiest way of tricking the camera into focussing on the right place is to hold a bit of printed paper right on the front of the clear plastic box, and half press the shutter release button on the camera to auto-focus/focus lock on the paper. Then while holding the shutter button half closed, remove the paper and fully press the button to take the picture.

If this isn't possible (ie when using a camera phone that doesn't have a shutter release button that will focus lock with a half-press), stick a post-it note (or any other bit of paper) immediately above the writing and centre the frame on that. Hopefully the camera will then focus on the paper which should also keep the writing on the clear plastic case in focus as well. The picture can then be cropped to remove the post-it note using your favourite photo editing application. (Or just write something entertaining on the post-it and pretend that you always intended it to be there. )

[rbarberis]

I have uploaded another pic hopefully clear enough to make it out. Please let me know if a better one is needed.

Thanks

[daverob]

Still not 100% clear, but I think it reads '近接ＳＷ断線及び球詰まり' which translates as 'Ball jam or failure of adjacent switch'

So make sure that the balls are free to move in the payout channels and that there are no blockages, and check the switches in the payout channels and the wiring leading to those switches.

[rbarberis]

Thanks for the translation. I cant figure out why it decided to work then quit again. I have gone through all of the wiring and taken apart the payout mech. Inside the payout mech there is an opto to determine if a ball is present (I'm familiar with these because of pinball machines). Perhaps maybe that opto is intermittent although thinking about it if the opto was not reporting closed (or a ball present) the game should think that there are balls present in the payout mech. In terms of the upper tray switch I clearly hear a click coming from the boards when it is closed so that gives me comfort that it works. Also, when the machine decided to work for a little while and the upper tray became empty a light on the front of the game would flash until I reloaded the upper tray so Im confident the upper tray switch is fine. There is a switch at the very bottom of the game that seems to count the balls that dont result in payouts and I cant imagine that would cause an out of balls condition. So since I cant see any other switches it leads me back to the payout mech so I will need to figure out how to determine what that mech is reporting back to the game. Does anyone know if parts are somewhat available for these machines? Or if someone has any other troubleshooting suggestions please let me know.

Thanks