A few "Metal Army" LCD sequences don't have audio. Normal?
Hey all,
First off, I want to say that this seems like a GREAT resource for all things Pachinko - and I look forward to talking and learning...
So, I am new to all of this - and the other day a friend brought their "Metal Army" Pachinko machine to me (made by Nishijin) to fix. Here's some data on the machine: HERE. They purchased it for $35 US at a swap meet - and I would say it's in 95% perfect condition - what a DEAL!
Their complaints were:
a) "The balls don't come from the top, they are stuck..."
b) "There is no sound when the girl is talking on the screen..."
So, I took the machine, and picked it apart to become familiar with the paths, mechanisms, sensors, etc... I believe I am pretty familiar with how the machine works, over all. I also cleaned it up a bit.
Now, after playing with it (and what I knew from past knowledge) the balls from the top are only released as "pay outs." I have confirmed that the balls are properly dropped from the top hopper whenever any of the 'special' sensors are activated - so that problem is solved... The friend must has thought that the balls were supposed to be constantly dropping to keep play alive.
As far as the sound goes - the machine lights up properly, and plays the proper sounds whenever the appropriate sensors are activated. Also, when the slot machine spins on the LCD screen, there is audio that plays - so I know that it is working...
However, if you are familiar with this machine, there is a girl's face that pops up with some Japanese text and her mouth is moving. There's also a robot walking around with the heading of "Level 4," "Level 7," etc... Now with the "talking" face, and the robot - there is no attached audio that plays. That lack of audio seems odd - but since the other stuff on the LCD has audio, I don't think it's a hardware issue.
Does anyone know if there is even supposed to be audio on these parts?
Now the two questions that came up when I was looking around were:
a) How exactly do the two sensitivity knobs work? (picture attached). They seems to affect how the knob releases the balls.
b) Is there a master reset for the software (not just the counter)? I noticed that the screen keeps the last image in memory when it's unplugged - so it's storing it the entire time.
I also noticed that the parlor display and 2 buttons next to it are non-functional - but I expected that since there's no dongle...
Anything else cool about this machine that I should about?
Thanks a TON in advance, and I hope I provided enough info...
Matt!
