Cannot Launch Balls

[joeytino]

After not using it for about a year I plugged it in and it will not launch any balls. When powered on all lights come up with the exception of the LEDs in the top left corner where it says prizewinning signature. I hear relays click and the ball catcher in the middle swivels left and right. Inside on the bottom right circuit board LEDs 2 & 5 are lit. I did check the switch inside the knob and it tested OK. I'm pretty handy with this kind of stuff I just don't know Japanese to know what the lights mean. As a matter of fact, what are the blue and red buttons on the front for as well as the 25 pin serial connection inside?

I do not have an owners manual or repair guide. Any ideas where I can pick one up, I would appreciate it.

Thanks for any help.
Joe

[monkeyboy]

The 25 pin connector should have a dongle fitted with a couple of resistors on it. This dongle puts the machine into free play.

If you don't have one do a search, you'll find a diagram to make your own.

[Moparformances]

Welcome to Pachitalk

if that doesn't fix your problem... hang tough and u will have tons of help shortly

lots of members hear have modern machines to lend a had

[revmondo]

even if you have a dongle, i would recommend getting a "daverob dongle" from the pachitalk auction site. it will give you more a of a parlour experience. well worth the cost imho.

[daverob]

Inside on the bottom right circuit board LEDs 2 & 5 are lit. I did check the switch inside the knob and it tested OK. I'm pretty handy with this kind of stuff I just don't know Japanese to know what the lights mean.

If you post a clear picture of the LEDs and the Japanese writing, I'm sure someone will be able to help you understand what they mean.

As a matter of fact, what are the blue and red buttons on the front for as well as the 25 pin serial connection inside?

They are all to do with the pre-paid card reader interface, this page on my website should give you all the information you need on it, including the most likely reason why your shooter handle isn't working to launch balls and what you need to fix it.

[joeytino]

UPDATE:

Thanks for the help. I did a little searching and found the plug. It had fallen off some time ago and it was in the "Don't know what this is but better hold on to it" drawer

It worked fine for the last few weeks, then any payout resulted in balls being dispened one at a time until it stopped alltogether and the game was essentially stuck as it seemed to be waitting for the payout to finish. I added a photo album - Apollo XIII LED indicators - with a close up of the LED indicator descriptions and hope someones can translate what they mean. Currently #2 is always lit, and #3 came on when I started having the problems. To get the picture of the captions I had to remove the entire board and scan the plastic case to get a clear image, and when I replaced it, it cleared the #3, and the game functions again, but I suspect the next payout will probably fault out. I'm suspecting the motor that paysout the balls might be going. The numbr E060697 is written on the motor body, but I suspect it might be a date code.

Any help on this would be appreciated, sorry for disappearing after my last post, but the new job sometimes gets in the way of the fun and games.

link to album
http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/memb...-pachinko.html

Thanks
Joe

[luckydog]

maybe the balls, ball paths and motor assembly need a good cleaning??

[daverob]

A quick Japanese translation of the error codes from memory (it's 2:30 am over here and I'm too tired to look it up).

1 - Normal Operation
2 - Case Rail out of balls
3 - Lower Tray full
4 - Payout Unit Error
5 - Card Unit not connected


When 3 is shown the motor will stop delivering prize balls until there is room in the front shooter tray (or the overflow tray below, if there is one). Try removing balls from the shooter tray by hand to see if this is the case.

Both 2 and 3 could be because the sensors (or wiring) are faulty or there could be some balls getting caught up in the area of the sensors. Usually a good cleaning of the ball tracks will fix this.

[hanabi]

Joe,

did you manage to get this problem sorted out??